[ WP ] Every night you must wind up your heart with a key on a necklace . After a one night stand , you wake to find the key missing and a note by your bed .

There once was a girl, and her name was Angela. 
 
 There was a girl, in a simpler time. A time when I was alive and well, and when my heart had n't yet, quite more 
 than a little literally, turned to stone. 
 
 A time before I was sick, there was a girl name Angela. And we were happy and young and, through heavy 
 breathing nights in sweat and warmth, that I would never love another girl I swore to her, in whispered hushes 
 time and time again. Between our bodies and our minds we were one, I told her, and one we would always be, until 
 the end of time. 
 
 There was a girl named Angela, and she lived inside my heart, and forever she would, I promised her. 
 
 But then I was sick, and the doctors took my heart from me -- replaced it with bronze and copper. A machine with 
 gears for veins; clockwork rhythmic beatings that needed daily winding from a little golden key. My real heart got 
 away from me, sick, thrown on a medical dumpster somewhere. Gone. 
 
 And, with it, gone too was my love for Angela, and all other things I once held dear. 
 
 It got me away from the world, my disease. I do n't know what, exactly, but something about the new heart. Maybe 
 it was the sickness itself, I sometimes wondered. The doctors had said that, even with the artificial heart, I would 
 live but ten years, at most. 
 
 What happiness can a man find in life, when he's given an expiration date? 
 
 Maybe it was something else. Who knows? Who can tell? 
 
 The fact is – I changed. 
 
 My will to live was lost; my love for life and all things beautiful. Trapped at home, the beard uncut, clothes torn, I 
 told Angela I was but a shadow of the man I used to be. 
 
 I told her we were not to be together anymore. 
 
 I told, and I left her by the door, tears in her eyes. 
 
 But I said to her, before she left, that never would I break my promise. 
 
 *Once I told you*, I whispered, from between her sobs and sniffs, *on a night like this, that I would never love again the way I loved you. * 
 
 And I told her I would keep that promise, no matter what. 
 
 And she left. 
 
 And the years passed. 
 
 And, as they passed, I got better. 
 
 The doctors brought me news from scientific advances, upgrades I could afford, and I was no longer bound to my 
 ten year old life spam ( though it's true I still had to wind my heart everyday ). 
 
 Little by little, as the years went by, I started finding again the beauty in the world I thought was lost. 
 
 I became myself again at a winter masquerade. 
 
 That's when it happened. When it all happened. 
 
 Five minutes. 
 
 The girl was beautiful the way I remembered Angela, all those years ago, when we first met. Behind a panther eye 
 mask she smiled, and I felt that which I thought was lost growing back inside of me. 
 
 The girl in the panther mask. She walked to me. We danced, like I had n't danced in years. 
 
 And I remembered what love felt like, once again. 
 
 My promise to Angela, as I danced the girl across the room, never crossed my mind. 
 
 *That I shall not love another one, ever again. * 
 
 *That my love was for Angela, and for Angela alone. * 
 
 There was once a girl. Her name was Angela. 
 
 Three minutes. 
 
 When the music died, and when the decoration and glitter turned to dust on the ballroom floor, we went back to 
 my home. 
 
 For as long as the night lasted, she never took the mask off. Even when it was over, and we fell asleep on each 
 other's arms like old lovers on a marital bed, she was still just The Girl in the Panther Mask to me. 
 
 I never noticed the tear stains on her side of the pillow; not until the morning came. 
 
 Two minutes. 
 
 The note by the bed, it said, “ You promised ”. 
 
 My heart key; gone. 
 
 One minute. 
 
 The girl in the panther mask. Angela. 
 
 I broke my promise, and I deserve it, the note said. 
 
 Thirty seconds. 
 
 You loved another woman, the note said. 
 
 Angela. My other woman. My girl in the panther mask. Calling my bet, after all those years later. She remembered. 
 
 And I had forgotten. 
 
 Fifteen seconds. 
 
 I went to her place; she moved. I called her; new number. I went to all the places we used to go together; nothing. 
 
 Much like I left her, back when I lost my real heart, she disappeared. 
 
 Ten. 
 
 So this is it, for me. This. Right now. 
 
 I think, *this is the end*. And the doorbell rings. 
 
 Nine. Eight. 
 
 I open the door. 
 
 Seven. Six. 
 
 And it's Angela, and she's still wearing the mask. 
 
 My girl in the panther mask. My Angela. 
 
 My one true love, that I loved twice. 
 
 And she has my key. 
 
 Five. Four. 
 
 “ For as long as I live ”, she says, dangling the golden metal piece in front of my eyes. “ I will never love another 
 woman again. ” 
 
 Three. 
 
 “ Once you told me that ”, she says, and a smile creeps in between her tears. `` Do you remember?'' 
 
 Two. 
 
 I reach for the key, but already I'm tripping on my own legs, my chest pounding hard with the sound of failing 
 engines. 
 
 “ You promised ”, she says, from under her blue and red eyes, and she turns around. From the floor, I watch her 
 walk away. 
 
 `` You promised...'' 
 
 And, suddenly, everything is blackness, and the sound inside my chest dies away. 
 
 One. 
 
 There once was a girl, and her name was Angela. 

