Sweat was beading down her face and trickling along her spine beneath the pressing weight of her backpack. The camera bag she had slung across her shoulder rested in her lap. The nylon tickled her arm until she dropped her hand along her side. She was trying to stay alert but the heat was getting to her.

Drowsiness overtook her and as the M-line drove into a tunnel her eyes fell shut of their own accord. She awoke with a start at the announcer’s voice. The doors were sliding shut. Quickly she brushed her dark curls aside and looked out the window to see which station they were passing. The sign read Köttbusser Tor. With a sigh of relief she sat up straight.

She twisted in her seat to get a drink from her backpack, her movements unhindered. She was reaching out to the water bottle in the side pocket when a black nylon strap slid off her shoulder and fell to the ground. She froze in horror as she slowly realized what had happened.

There had been a young man sitting beside her. She hadn’t paid much attention to him. Now she rather wished she had. She could not recall his face and she felt stupid.

She fished her phone out of the tight pocket on her thigh, grateful he hadn’t taken that as well, and made the call she had dreaded. ‘Aleesha, why are you calling us?’, Michaël said. Aleesha swallowed hard to clear the lump in her throat, ‘I lost it…’ There was silence on the other end of the line.

A wave of heat rolled from her neck up to her forehead. ‘Tell me when and how.’, Michaël said. Aleesha let out a breath before responding: ‘Just now on the M-line. I had disguised it in a camera bag. I’d been so worried about them finding it, I hadn’t thought about pickpockets.’ She kept her voice as steady as she could.

She had humiliated herself enough to last a lifetime, no need to make it worse by letting Michaël hear her crying. ‘Are you sure it was just a thief?’, he said. ‘Yes, I checked for demons when I got on.’, Aleesha chocked back a sob. ‘You have to stay in Berlin. I’ll book you a new train ticket. Find yourself a place to stay. If a hostel’s the only place you can afford then make sure you get a private room.’

‘Okay, but what do I do?! How can I get it back?’, Aleesha said. ‘It will come to you when it’s done.’, Michaël said. ‘What? You mean that thing is going to find me?!’, she covered her mouth and spoke in a whisper. ‘It’s a cursed object Aleesha. You have the kind of power it’s drawn to. It will remember your initial touch. But things that were created to cause trouble will find a way to do so. It’s going to kill that thief and when it’s done, it’ll be back in your possession.’

‘Just, just like that?’, Aleesha said. ‘Just like that. I’m sorry. Try to think of a better disguise. One that is less appealing?’ ‘I will.’, she said. ‘Good.’, he replied and hung up.

Aleesha stared at the blank screen of her phone for a while. That young man whose name she didn’t know, whose face she couldn’t remember, he was about to die because she had dozed off for a few minutes. He shouldn’t have been stealing but still, death seemed an extreme punishment for such a petty crime.