Undeniable Fate - Book No. 1 [l.h.]

No. 6

Consciousness is constantly slipping away from me. I hear panicked voices, calm voices. I see blurs of faces that I should recognize, but don't. My focus lays on the pain and it's tiring me out. There's something heavy and painful on my arm. It feels cold against my burning skin.

At last, my eyes finally stay open long enough for me to focus on my surroundings; I'm inside a house. Sitting in a big, white lounge chair. The walls are broken white and from the ceiling hangs a silver chandelier. The furniture is pale pink and the paintings all look like Biblical events that were made by Michael Angelo. There are some bookshelves with titles I can't pronounce.

With me in the room are Miss Lovato, Halsey, Louis and Luke. Halsey looks like she's encouraging me to go through the pain. She sitting next to me, holding the hand that's attached to the arm that isn't putting me through Hell. Louis is looking something up in an old book with furrowed brows. Miss Lovato just shoots me a warm, proud smile. Even now, she seems so calm and peaceful. And Luke. Oh my... The poor guy looks like he's about to fall apart.

"Before you say anything, just know that you're safe. You're through most of the pain. It will only sting from now on," Halsey softly whispers.

"What do you mean?" I ask with a weak voice.

"The keyhole. The lock to your heart, sweetheart," Miss Lovato begins, "Yours has come."

Panick shoots through me. "What!? No no no no, that can't be true. It's not supposed to show up until at least another week. Not until I turn 17."

"We know," Louis groans, "it's why it doesn't make any sense."

Another shot of pain runs through my body. I sink back into the chair. My grip on Halsey's hand becomes tighter. All she does is just hold my head close to hers and whisper little encouragements to me. When the pain dies down, I see the small little key around her neck and the keyhole in her right arm.

"Why are you wearing one of those soulmate keys?"

She sighs, which is followed by a smile.

"About 4 years ago, when I was close to turning 18, I went to a music festival. Can't remember which one, but what I do remember was seeing the most beautiful creature that had ever walked the earth. It suddenly made sense why my mother gave me a key on my 17th birthday, right after my lock appeared. I saw that she also had her lock already and she also had a key hanging around her neck. That's when I knew that his soulmate thing was also made for other sexualities. Lucky me, because penises seem like a weird thing to play with."

"What happend to her?" Miss Lovato asks.

"She died last year in a car crash. The bastard was drunk. But he will never be able to drink again."

"Why? Is he in jail?" I ask.

"Something like that."

Moments of silence fall. The only thing we hear is the flicking of the pages Louis is going through. That's when I realise that I don't even know where I am.

"You're at my place. Again, Lucas came to your rescue," Miss Lovato says. What did she do? Read my mind?

"She was the only one I thought could help," Luke says barely above a whisper.

"I made sure Halsey came immediately to take proper care of your pain. And Louis is here to find out why this is happening so early."

"Thank you, Miss Lovato."

"Please. Outside the walls of college you can call me Demi."

I nod because the pain coming back makes it hard to open my mouth without screaming. As it subsides, I finally take the first look at the cause of my suffering.

And it is breathtaking. The opening itself is narrow. It's surrounded by feathers, big and small ones. At the top is a small halo and below is a small crown, just like the ones on my ring. The lines are pure silver, as the rest is colored in the purest white. It seems to glow. A familiar kind of glow, but I don't know where from. It doesn't look like the ones other people have.

"Why does mine look so different?"

"We just don't know," Louis says, still nose deep in that old book.

Luke just starts pacing around. His hands are up in his hair and he keeps muttering to himself.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!"

To say that desperation is coming over him would be an understatement. What wasn't supposed to have happend? These past 3 days have been nothing but confusing and painful. And now that damn soulmate thing, which I didn't even wanted in the first place, is coming way too early, looks too fancy for me and people are freaking out about it? People I've known for 3 days.

"I can't figure out what's happening," Louis begins and finally looking up from his book, "But I think I know who can. Until then, you'll just have to rely on Demi guiding you through this. If your keyhole appears two weeks too early, Heaven knows what will happen if you don't make the right decision on time."

"What desicion?"

"Just rest, sweetheart."

Demi hands me a blanket. I take it and lay it on me. Halsey takes me painful arm and rubs some kind of herbs around the torn apart skin. Within seconds I don't feel any ripping anymore and just numbness. I focus on her to ask her what's she's putting on.

"Before you say anything, let's just settle on the knowledge that I know some magic that may come in handy at times."

Her small smile eases some of the confusion going on in my head. The effects of the herbs seem to spread through the rest of my body. I can feel sleep taking over. I close my eyes to prepare myself for the sweet bliss of dreaming to take me away. Before my my mind shuts itself too, I hear Demi say the same line the one my mother used to tell me.

"Tu es qui defendat nos."