The Rabbit-Man and Other Short Stories

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(A/N: Before I get started, I want to say that I got this idea for a short story book by Rainfern 's own short stories book! Be sure to check it out! And my short stories will all most likely be writing prompts I found on Pinterest.)

    She was always intrigued by drawings. How just lines on something could depict a clear image of the artist's own thoughts. How the image was basically a gateway to the creator's brain. And her soulmate loved drawing. Lines would often appear on her arm, revealing a great drawing in the end, and she was always amazed by them.

    This girl lived in another world, much different from our own. In this world, we have no connection whatsoever to our soulmates. In her world, whatever one writes on any part of their body, it will then appear, line after line, segment after segment, onto their soulmate's body.

    The girl smiled fondly at her arm, watching lines appear one after the other. She waited for yet another drawing to appear, but instead got fancy letters, curled and twisted and shaped into an intricate font, so extravagant that it was hard to decipher. Finally, the girl interpreted the words to read as the following: Do you want to meet up somewhere?

    The girl gasped, reasoning that it must be her soulmate trying to contact her. Smiling at her arm once again, she reached for a pen and started to scrawl a reply...

    "Ahem! Pay attention!" The girl snapped back to the world around her. Her vision blurred from the sudden movement, and slowly swam back to sharpness. "As I was saying, number one-oh-five please come up to the front of the room!" The teacher glared at the girl, who unconsciously shrank back in her seat due to the intensity of the glare. The girl got up and went to the front of the room, in the eye range of all the students in the room and teacher. "Your speech please?"

    "Ah, yes. Ahem." The girl began her speech and ended it with a flourish.

    "Hmph. And I suppose you constructed it last night, as usual?" The teacher had perched on the edge of her desk, pen poised above the grade book.

    "Yes," the girl answered defiantly. She met the teacher's stare evenly, but faltered under the older woman's deep green eyes. The girl bowed her head, an evident sign of her giving up. She walked back to her desk, and the next student replaced her up at the front. Today was a Monday, the day after she had replied to her soulmate. The girl's eyes clouded a bit with wistfulness as she remembered what had happened the previous day.

    Shortly after the girl had replied yes to her mysterious soulmate, he had countered back with a date, place, and time. To be precise, he had written '6:45 tomorrow, at Eleene's Park at the playground?' The girl was a bit flustered and replied yes back to him. A heart then formed around the yes and she giggled a bit.

    Today was the very day she would finally meet her soulmate. After class ended, the girl had to endure two more classes before she could hurry home and get ready. The girl immediately ran to her room, shutting the door behind her. She drew the drapes open to let the weak sunlight filter in. Frowning at the lack of light, the girl was forced to turn on the light bulbs as an alternative source of light. The girl then put on her nicest dress. She looked in the mirror and shook her head at herself. I shouldn't make myself look too eager. But wait, if I dress too casually, my soulmate might think that I don't really care when I do. Agh, this is so hard! The girl finally chose a nice shirt with her favorite skirt.

    The girl then debated on whether or not to put her hair up. She finally decided on a somewhat side-ponytail style. Some hair would be put up in a ponytail to the right side of her head, while the rest of her hair would hang down. She completed the look with a bow and glanced up at the clock. It was 15 minutes until 6:45. The girl went downstairs, sliding her hand down the railing as she went. She jumped down the last few steps and went into the pantry to grab a snack. The girl emerged, a token of her victorious journey being the fruit cup she now held in her hand. Quickly gulping down the fruits, she hurried out the door just as her mom walked in.

    "Going somewhere, honey?"

    "Ah, yes, I was just going to meet my soulmate in the park. The one right around the corner."

    "How fun! Be sure to be back by 9, okay? And tell me if anything juicy happens." Her mom winked and the girl felt herself blushing. She then proceeded to leave as fast as she could to Eleene's Park.

    The girl headed to the play equipment and saw a boy no older than herself stand next to the slide, looking a bit uncertain. The girl approached him and asked what he was doing there. He replied with, "Ah, waiting for..." The boy stopped speaking as soon as he saw the drawings and messages on the girl's hand. His eyes widened slightly.

    He's a bit handsome, the girl found herself thinking dreamily as the said boy now stared at her arm. "Do you happen to be the one who's my soulmate?" the girl asked sweetly, or at least what she thought she sounded sweet. She sure hoped she did.

    The boy backed away a little. It was the girl's turn to stare at him, confusion filling her eyes. "Um, no. Actually, your soulmate's my best friend. I'm Alex. He—he brought me along to help him look for you. He's actually on the top of the slide." The girl actually felt a bit disappointed when she learned that this boy was not her soulmate. She then shook her head slightly, trying to clear the disappointment away. After all, she was about to meet her true soulmate. The girl climbed the steep steps to go to where the slide started and was met with brown eyes staring at her, drinking her appearance in,

    "Uh, hi. Um.I guess, I'm your soulmate? Um. Yeah." Her soulmate was of average height, and looked no older than the girl. He had brown eyes and brown hair and looked like any other boy that one would pass somewhere and not give a second glance at. But yet, the girl felt a strong connection with this boy, and an invisible thread yanked her forward. The boy across from her also stepped forward, probably also pulled by the string that connected them. "Uh... sorry. I...I guess I'm just nervous," He ran a hand through his already ruffled hair, also unknowingly displaying the same marks and words and pictures that littered the girl's arm. She felt her breath hitch.

    "Um, hi," the girl squeaked. She then regained better control of her voice pitch. "Yeah, me too." The girl smiled nervously. She and her soulmate just stood there awkwardly, each smiling at each other, each with a light dusting of pink showing up on their cheeks. Each soulmate felt the invisible thread at work again, tugging them closer and closer together. The girl's vision blurred a bit, and when it cleared again, they were a nose away from each other. Almost simultaneously, both the girl's and her soulmate's cheeks flared up. It felt like fire was licking at the inside of her face, and her heart was beating rapidly, almost too rapidly. Suddenly, without warning, it felt like her heart was wrung like a wet towel over an overflowing bucket of water. The string had worked again, and suddenly they were kissing.

    The spell over both of them was broken as an all-too-familiar voice yelled from somewhere at the bottom of the slide, "I SHIP IT!!!" It was Alex.

(A/N: I may or may not be fangirling on the inside after writing this. After I finished and edited this, I realized that I had not revealed either the boy's or girl's names, so I kept on reading it over and over again, imagining different ships. And that is why I'm fangirling. ^^)