Free(PanxOC)

Chapter 7 Star Crossed Love

Despite the fact that my brain was screaming at me in the loudest, most pulsing way possible to turn and run and never look back, my body had other ideas. The darkness was enveloping and it was all I could see, and that scared me, but there was one thing happening that scared me even more.

I knew that touching Pan would only feed into the idea that I found comfort in him, this mysterious boy that was labeled so harshly in my village, but I couldn't stop myself from clinging to him suddenly, and that terrified me.

Both of my hands curled around his upper arm, one set of fingers sliding down to catch his hand, gripping on for dear life. I felt his fingers attempting to pry mine off of him, succeeding eventually, but the cold feeling that occurred from lack of contact lasted only a split second before he completely surprised me.

His arm wrapped itself around my shoulder and tugged me into him just as a deep growl sounded from somewhere behind me. I gasped loudly, eagerly accepting his embrace as I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest.

A few more sounds rang out, growling and the sound of nails on the cave walls, growing louder the deeper we went as if whatever the sounds belonged to was following us until the sight of light came into view.

I sighed in relief as we approached it rapidly, bursting through the odd curtain seemingly made from animal hide sewed together, and entering a large, circular room.

Lanterns lined the walls around the entire room, and a few half coconuts that held small candles sat perched on a wooden desk in the very center, being the only piece of furniture aside from the large shelves that also lined the walls, filled with colorful liquids enclosed in jars of all shapes and sizes.

Behind the desk sat a blonde girl, just shorter than Tinkerbell. From what I could see she wore a plain pink dress that fell to her knees with a dipped neck line and long pink lace sleeves. Her hair fell straight down over her shoulders and a bit in her face, but not so much so that I couldn't see her thin neutral colored lips and big blue eyes with natural blush covered cheeks underneath.

She let out an excited gasp, clapping her hands together twice as she jumped from her chair upon seeing us, hurrying over and stopping just before me. "I knew you'd be here soon!"

Her accent resembling Pans filled my ears, the cheery tone that laced her words fading quickly as she turned her gaze to Pan and eyed him closely, sighing as though dreading the conversation that was coming.

She motioned for us to take a seat in the two stools that hadn't been there moments ago as she sat back down behind the desk. Once we were all seated she folded her hands and smiled tightly. "What can I do for you?"

Pan smirked at the stiff tone and lifted my wrist, gently placing it facing upwards on the desk so she could see the birthmark. Her eyes grew wide as she muttered something inaudible and reached forward to trace it, only to be stopped by Pan smacking his own hand down over the mark, pulling away a split second later and gazing down at his hand as though he had just surprised himself.

She shook it off, clearing her throat. "Please tell me you haven't found her match yet."

"Try again." Pan responded, showing her the mark on his wrist as well.

"Will someone tell me what's going on? Who are you?"

She smiled at me. "My name is Amereta, and you're here because finding people's destines are my gift."

I frowned. "So you're a seer?"

"Not quite." She smiled, jutting her shoulders back and shaking them forward, causing two tiny white wings to pop out. "I'm a fairy, but my father, he was a seer. I just happened to inherit a few things from him."

"Okay." I nodding, tearing my gaze from her wings back to her face in time to see her wink at me. " You think there's something to these marks too then?"

She nodded, lightly asking to see both of our wrists and then telling us to put them up against each other with our marks showing. We did so slowly, and the moment our skin touched I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through my veins causing me to suck in air through my teeth.

I glanced at Pan, meeting his eyes momentarily before glancing back down and staring in shock as I realized that, if put together, the marks would form a perfect star. I stared with wide eyes at Amereta, feeling my mouth open and close a few times wordlessly.

"It means you two are star crossed love. You're soul mates." I sat in silence for a few moments, jumping a bit as she cleared her throat suddenly. "Pan, could you give us a minute?"

"Sure." He replied, rising to his feet. "I'll just go bond with the monster out here. Tell me, does he normally make a meal of people on the first visit?"

She shooed him out and turned back to me, reaching for my hand. "Are you okay?" I nodded, still in shock. "I hate to throw all of this on you at one time, but there are a few things you should know."

"Okay." I mumbled, waiting for her to speak.

"The first and most important thing is you two can't ever be apart for longer than an hour. If you are you'll begin to feel a slight pull. The longer you're apart the stronger the pull will get until it's unbearable."

"Wow." I exclaimed, crossing my arms lightly. "Is that all?" I asked sarcastically.

"Unfortunately no. I also wanted to tell you to be careful. Pan may look like an innocent lost boy, but he's a bloody demon. He is by far the most treacherous villain I have ever encountered. He's selfish, and arrogant, and cunning, but on top of all that, to make matters worse, he's easily the smartest person in whatever room he enters and he knows it."

"But we're true love right? He'd never hurt me." I responded without even processing the words first, in an almost defensive tone.

She smiled and chucked breathlessly. "It's already forming, the bond. The first step was touching wrists and acknowledging the bond. You can feel it can't you?" She shook her head. "Sorry, your question. It is true that he loves you, and only you, and by that I mean literally only you. He is incapable of feeling anything for anyone aside from you because he never had a heart until you two met, it formed in his chest the moment you locked eyes. And as for the true love comment, don't ever get the two mixed up. Star crossed love is far stronger than true love. Everyone can have a true love, but hardly anyone has a star crossed love."

"H-how is that possible? How did he survive without a heart?" I stuttered, feeling my head swim with information and gripping the bottom of the stool so tightly my fingers began to grow numb.

"He ripped it out when he first got here on the island, convincing his shadow to destroy it and replace it more magic in exchange for a special gift." She rose to her feet, pacing the room with her hands behind behind her back as though recalling the memory.

"What was the gift?" I peered at her, rubbing my perspiring palms on my thighs.

"The shadow can quite literally rip another shadow from a persons body and when he does the person will die. I only wish for you to protect yourself. Though we wouldn't be able to physically hurt you, even he wanted to, the fact that he only cares for you could lead to deadly things. Pain doesn't only occur physically, it occurs mentally and emotionally as well." She glanced towards the curtain suddenly, as a shrill growl rang out.

"What-what is that thing?" I asked, hopping out of the chair and inching closer to her.

"Let's call it one of my pets. Go on now." She pushed me gently towards the exit where Pan awaited my presence. "Good luck Anna."