The rain fell in rhythmic whispers against the cobbled streets, a lullaby to the sleeping city. Neon signs flickered above dim alleyways, their soft glow casting broken shadows where secrets festered. In a world where feelings had become a commodity, traded like gold, silence had become the rarest emotion of all.
No one remembered the last time someone cried out of genuine sorrow. Or laughed because joy bubbled up unbidden. Emotions, real emotions, had been extracted, packaged, and sold to those who could afford them. And for those who couldn't? They were left numb, hollow, seeking illicit ways to feel again.
The Emotion Merchants thrived in these shadows, operating beneath the watchful eye of the Bureau of Emotional Regulation. Smuggling true emotions—untainted and raw—into the hearts of the broken had become their silent rebellion. At the heart of it all was Mara, a woman who had once been numb, now driven by the burning desire to reignite the world.
Mara moved through the crowd with the precision of a ghost, her face hidden beneath a dark hood. She scanned the crowd, looking for her contact. It was a night like any other, but the tension in the air felt different—heavier. The whispering winds carried a rumor, one that Mara couldn’t ignore. The Bureau had gotten closer to uncovering the Merchants, and betrayal was looming like a storm on the horizon.
As she ducked into an abandoned warehouse, she found Elias waiting. He was young, too young to have felt real emotion, but there was an eagerness in his eyes that Mara trusted.
"They're cracking down," Elias said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I heard they’ve developed a way to detect smuggled emotions. We need to stop."
Mara shook her head. "We stop, they win. The numb stay numb. We need to push harder, not retreat."
Elias swallowed hard. “They’re saying we’ve got a mole.”
Mara’s heart clenched. She had suspected it for weeks. Someone within their tight circle had been feeding the Bureau information. The risks had escalated, and with every drop, so did the cost of failure.
Days later, Mara found herself in the belly of the city's black market, clutching a vial of something precious—genuine happiness, stolen from a child who had laughed for the first time. It was the purest, most potent emotion she'd ever smuggled. But something felt wrong. The alley was too quiet, too empty. Her instincts screamed at her to run, but before she could move, figures emerged from the shadows, blocking her escape.
Bureau agents. Trained, emotionless, and deadly efficient.
A man stepped forward. His face was familiar—painfully so. It was Jude, the man who had recruited her into the Merchants years ago. Now, he wore the Bureau’s uniform.
“Jude,” Mara whispered, the betrayal sinking in like a blade.
He smiled, but it was a smile devoid of warmth. “You always knew I’d be the one to turn on you, Mara. It was only a matter of time. The Bureau has always been the real power. We just… helped you make it more interesting.”
Rage boiled within Mara. Jude wasn’t just a mole; he had orchestrated everything, pulling strings from both sides. The Bureau hadn’t been hunting them. They had been shaping them, letting the Merchants grow and feed the desperate need for emotions—because in the end, it was all a game.
“We let you win just enough, Mara,” Jude said, stepping closer. “But now? The world’s numbness is complete. No one can feel anything unless we say so.”
Mara backed away, her heart pounding, the vial of stolen happiness still clutched in her hand. "You won't win," she hissed, even as she realized the depth of his control.
"Oh, but we already have."
Jude moved fast, reaching for her, but Mara was faster. She smashed the vial onto the ground, the liquid splattering against her boots. For a second, she thought it was over—her last hope shattered. But then something unexpected happened. The emotion didn’t fade into the air as it normally would.
It spread.
The feeling of genuine happiness pulsed from the broken vial like a wave, crashing into Mara first, then rippling out to the agents, and even Jude himself. For the first time in years, Mara felt—laughter bubbling up from her chest, uncontrollable and wild.
And then, just as quickly as it had come, the happiness twisted.
What Mara had unleashed wasn’t just joy—it was every emotion. Pain, love, fear, rage, sorrow, all swirling together in a chaotic storm, too powerful to be contained. The Bureau had never accounted for this. They had regulated emotions like individual coins, never imagining they could be combined.
Jude’s face twisted in terror as he was overwhelmed. Agents fell to their knees, clutching their hearts as if the sudden flood of feelings was too much. But Mara? She stood, arms wide open, tears streaming down her face, as the world around her changed.
Because now, everyone could feel again. Every emotion, in its purest and most terrifying form.
The world did not return to normal after that night. People were free to feel, but they also felt the weight of every suppressed emotion that had been held back for years. Society shifted, splintered, and rebuilt itself, no longer governed by sterile regulations. It was messy, beautiful, and terrifying all at once.
As for Mara, she disappeared into the shadows once more—her mission complete but the world still needed her whispers.
After all, now that emotions were free, there would always be those who sought to control them again. And the Merchants would be ready.
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Srinidhi Ranganathan 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭
