The Nemesis Syndrome

1. Eliza

It was an unspoken law since as long as anyone could remember- never show the names to a soul. Because they were your greatest hope and your deepest weakness. The one who would steal your heart, and the one that would stop it.

Names could be used against people. Anyone could pretend to be someone else. If they saw the name on your wrist, but you did not see the ones on theirs, you could fall in love with them before you even knew the truth.

The names were a blessing and a curse.

But Eliza- she kept hers hidden for another reason.

Names appeared on your sixteenth birthday. You went to sleep without them, and when you woke, they were there, black tattoos that would never come off.

One for The Soulmate Syndrome, the other for the Nemesis.

There was never a way to tell who was who.

Eliza had grown up with stories of her own parents- how they happened to meet at her mother's Circle fight, and she had grown up knowing what to expect. From both an enemy and a soulmate.

But that was the secret she had never told. She had been so ashamed the day her names showed up that she had put on gloves- and never taken them off. Not in the sight of anyone else, at least. Even her parents had not seen the names, and every time they teased her about it, she felt like sinking into the floor and never getting up.

Because the names on her wrists were the same.

Her soulmate and her nemesis were the same person.

Leo Jenson.

The name was burnt into her memory. Over the two years since it had appeared, she had dreamt about him a lot- who he would be, what he would look like, when she would find him.

But most of those dreams had turned into nightmares.

Because when the soulmate was the best of your, the nemesis was the worst. The nemesis was the one that turned you into a murderer.

Or killed you.

So many nights she had had woken after a dream when she had died. So many nights she had woken after a dream where she had fallen in love.

She couldn't let either happen.

But the first just might.

One hundred years ago, the country was struggling to stay upright in a world where everyone was out on the streets murdering everyone else. So the government came up with an idea- one that used The Nemesis Syndrome to pull money into the country, and one that meant they could still count murder as illegal- if someone was killed outside The Circle's walls.

The Circle was the most brutal part of life. At birth, each and every person was put onto a register for it, and when they found their Nemesis and fought against them, their name was crossed off. If they had not found and fought them before the age of sixty, they were fined.

But it was not the fine that was the harsh thing. It was that the fights were put on in front of the richest, most bloodthirsty people, the ones that could afford tickets to watch and bet on the winner. Murder in the Circle was legal, and it had become a form of entertainment.

And then there were the rumours. If you refused to fight after finding your Nemesis, it was said that you would disappear. Along with any family you had.

It was said, if you refused, they would kill both the fighters rather than one.

Eliza did not want to test that rumour out. But she also didn't want to fight. Not when he was her soulmate. Not when he was the other half of herself.

Eliza had known since the day the names appeared, that she would never fight him. So she kept her head down. She spoke only to the people she knew, she never let her eyes linger on anyone, just in case they tried to be friends. It was antisocial, rude, but Eliza didn't care.

Not when it was her life, and the life of the soulmate at risk.

And she thought she had done so well.

She thought that she was safe. If she hadn't met him by now, maybe she never would. Maybe he lived in a different part of the world, far enough away that they would never have to meet.

But two weeks after her eighteen birthday, as she walked down the street towards her home, she heard laughter, sweet and loud, and a girls voice.

'Leo.'

Eliza couldn't help it. She stopped where she stood and she turned slowly around, to see a girl running circles around a young man her own age.

'Leo.' The girl said again, tugging at his sleeve.

Eliza had never met someone with her soulmates name. Not once, growing up.

Her hands went instinctively to wrap around her covered wrists as his head looked up and eyes met hers.