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CUPID'S LORE

Chapter 1: "I'm Clearly Losing It"

In the beginning, Jenny was a quiet soul. She had always been a bit of a hopeless romantic. She adored watching love bloom in those around her- in couples holding hands at sunset, in artists painting their muse, in long-distance lovers hugging as the first greeting when seeing each other after years apart. Love, to her, was art. But… when she searched for it herself, she only found hurt. Time after time, she was used, betrayed, and left feeling hollow. The word love had begun to taste like ash, and soon, she convinced herself it had never even existed at all.Once full of warm laughter, and bright, starry eyes, she had become a ghost of that- monotone, pessimistic, tired of everything… Her once shiny black hair had become dull, limp, lifeless. The bangs she had cut, fiercely determined to style them every day, now lay flat over her eyes- casting a shadow that only darkened the under eye bags that permanently bruised the undersides of her eyes from sleepless night after sleepless night.One ordinary night, Jenny trudged home and collapsed into her bed- staring emptily at her ceiling without any expectation of sleep. However, darkness quickly consumed her senses. She blinked- or… thought she did at least- and when her eyes opened, she was floating on her back in an infinite void. There was no floor, no air, no walls- just black.
A flicker of light appeared in the distance. It shimmered faintly, growing brighter- as if closer, like a train escaping a tunnel. The shimmer burst into a ball of sunlight that swallowed the darkness whole- blinding Jenny. She squinted, shielding her eyes, and radiating from within the light she felt something- a warmth, a presence that was not hers.“Jenny…” a soothing voice whispered. She couldn’t make out the direction it came from- it was almost omnipresent, all around her like a hug. “Take my hand.” It commanded gently. “I offer you a second chance- a purpose greater than pain.”
The dark-haired girl’s lips trembled. “Why me?” she asked in a quiet, bitter voice. “You want me to spread something I don’t even know? Love is a lie. You picked the wrong person.”The voice tittered with a soft laugh, like chimes in the wind. “I do not make mistakes. You are exactly who I choose.”Before she could protest, something inside of her cracked- a tiny, forgotten part of her that wanted to believe.
Her fingers trembled and she reached hesitantly toward the light.A flash.
A blinding surge of warmth.
Then-
Jenny woke up in her bed.Her hair was pink. Not faint, not pastel- bright candy-colored pink and flowing down below her knees. Not only that- but her eyes, once dark pools of smoke, now shone cerulean like the ocean. Her skin shimmered faintly in the mirror. “What the…” she shook her head, rubbed her eyes incase she had somehow started hallucinating. Still pink. Still shimmering. “Stress.” She muttered, “I’m clearly losing it.”
The dream was fading fast, leaving behind only a vague feeling of unease. Days passed, and she couldn’t recall even the slightest details. Her life suddenly felt like she was walking the pages of an unwritten book.On her morning walks, she would stop by a café to people-watch, a common past time for her. On this day, she noticed two strangers sitting separately- their glances occasionally flitting towards each other awkwardly. She bit her lower lip, a smile ghosting the edges of her lips at the obvious tensions. A strange tug pulled at her chest- warmth pushing out of her and flowing towards them. She could only stare with bated breath as the man stood, walked over, and confessed something too quietly to hear. Before she could blink, they were on each other, mouths connected like they were tragic lovers who had spent decades apart.Jenny gagged. “Ew. That could've waited.” She tossed her empty cup and walked away, trying with all her might to put that image out of her mind and pretend nothing had ever happened.But… it kept happening. Every time she saw two people who she even vaguely thought could make a cute couple, that strange energy would surge from her, and they would fall all over each other, confess love, propose at first sight.Then came the ringing.
The flashbacks.
The voice.Jenny dropped to her knees in her apartment, her mind spinning and breath catching in her throat. “That… dream… was real?” she choked out. “I’m… some kind of love catalyst?”She tasted something acrid in her mouth- her throat burning- and sprinted to the toilet. Her lunch was not nearly as good coming up as it was going down. She broke out into a sweat, and her limbs trembled from exhaustion as she heaved herself up and stumbled to the bed- collapsing once more into darkness.
The voice returned to her dreams once more.“You already know what to do, what you were chosen for,” it said softly. “Guide love where it is lost. Reignite the fire that has faded. Remind the world that love conquers all.”
Jenny sighed, blowing a stubborn piece of pink hair out of her face. “Of course. I get the worst magical girl assignment ever.”After a week of lazing around her apartment- stuck in a pit of existential dread, Jenny decided that if she was going to do this whole “love thing”, she might as well make a buck.“Love Consultant” was quickly scribbled onto a piece of posterboard she had nabbed from the local dollar store. She smacked it onto the window of a tiny, rented office. “Guidance for your heart, guaranteed or…well, no refunds.” She added in smaller print just below the title.Business was… slow. Her cramped space smelled faintly of stale coffee and lavender candles. Valentine’s week brought a rush of desperate lovers- but the rest of the year? Dead quiet. No one believes in love when there’s not a commercial holiday associated with it. Bills piled on the floor behind her crooked desk, leaning in an almost gravity defying manner.One night, exhausted, Jenny stared at her laptop in dread while doomscrolling the internet for promotional ideas. One misclick landed her on a random livestream- a bubbly girl chatting about this or that while thousands of chat messages poured in.
Her eyes lit up. “Wait… what if they come to me… online?”.That night, she dragged her office setup home and into an empty corner of her apartment. She ran to the store minutes before closing to grab a few cute pink heart LED signs and posters, threw them up on the wall behind her, and hit “Start Streaming”.
“Hi everyone…” she greeted, half-heartedly waving. “I guess I’m your new Love Consultant. Let’s talk about relationships, heartbreak, and maybe… I don’t know, destiny?”And thus, the once hopeless romantic- reborn with pink hair and a cosmic mission- began to spread love across the world, one yappy livestream at a time.
Maybe that voice had been onto something after all…

Chapter 2: The Death of Love

To be continued...

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