Soulmates

Chapter 1

A/N: Hey everyone! (Yes it's been long and yes I'm back!) For those of you who know me already, you probably know that I mostly wrote/posted fan-fiction before. This is my first "normal" fiction book I'm writing and I had the idea more than a year ago so I'm equally excited and scared about posting it, and where this story will lead me. Anyways, enough for the talking, I hope you will enjoy it!

At the exact same time as every morning Kassidy felt that familiar hand on her shoulder, waking her up gently with a smile.

"Morning.", Alex said with her soft and unmistakably monotonous voice. She wondered if her voice sounded that way to everyone else too, or if it was just that she had gotten so used to it over the years. Not like anyone else had heard it too often to even notice. Maybe there was just something wrong with her for even thinking that, probably it was not much different from hers after all. What did her voice even sound like? She could have asked Alex, but she could tell that this was the sort of question she would end up getting teased about for weeks. Obviously Kassidy liked to think a lot about peculiar ideas like that, that's probably why they had categorized her into science direction.

Oh yeah right. Science direction.

Memory of what day today was came back to her. She still had doubts about it all. Sure, in science school she had always been one of the best students but actually doing real work in it? Something that would contribute to the system and maybe determine the future of the next generation? That was an entirely different thing.

What if she wasn't good enough? Or didn't actually fit into science directions after all? But it couldn't be wrong, she had never heard of someone changing directions or even wanting to so she wouldn't get into that situation either.

"Calm down.", she whispered to herself. "Just do what you're told and you'll be fine." Everything would be alright, she was just being irrational again.

Alex reminded her friend that she only had 20 minutes left to leave, so she started packing her things and had a quick breakfast.

Half an hour later Kassidy arrived at the express train station and quickly climbed inside the vehicle, still feeling sick with anxiety and excitement.

Her first job was at the medical center, she had been there before for internships, but it still felt weirdly unfamiliar, walking into the clean white building. Soon this would be her routine, and this place would feel like she belonged here.

With a look into the eye-scanner she unlocked the door to the employee entrance, following the small corridor into the dressing room. She attached the green badge she had received earlier to her white gown, signalizing that she was a beginner.

Together with all the other beginners she gathered in the conference room to watch the introduction video. Some of the faces looked familiar, probably they had been in the same science school as Kassidy. But she didn't bother asking them about it, it's not like she really knew any of her colleagues more than superficially.

After the video was finished everyone in the room received a number, telling them which team they would work with from now on. Kassidy's team consisted of a young man who seemed to be only a few years older than her, and two women who probably were somewhere in their forties. The taller one of them seemed to be the leader of the group since she did most of the talking and was the only one with a purple badge.

She seemed quite serious and invested into her work, someone who got respected for what she did and not just because people were afraid of her or something.

The rather small room marked with the same number as she had received during the introductions seemed to be the office of the group. It was completely white, white walls, white floor and white furniture, and just a tad too clean, like the rest of the building. Her chair and space of work was smaller than those of the rest of the group, the office seemed like it hadn't initially been meant for four people.

And turns out her work wasn't all that exciting and ground-breaking as she had thought it to be this morning, she was mostly just doing assistant tasks. It had been obvious that she wouldn't be allowed to work on the most important matters right at the beginning, but Kassidy couldn't help being a bit disappointed at the rather mundane and uncreative assignments.

Nevertheless the day passed rather fast and the young women was too focused on her work to even notice it was the end of her shift already. She quickly got ready to leave, hurrying not to miss her train.

Kassidy didn't pay particular attention to any of her surroundings as she walked home from the familiar ET station. Yet somehow she caught a strange stare out of the corner of her eye. A rather short girl with strange hair in a reddish color was intensely looking at her, right into her eyes. Why did she stare at her? No one ever did that, not that intensely and pestering at least. Didn't she know that it was rude and unacceptable? She was just as unnoticeable as anyone else. Maybe that girl was worth staring at but definitely not Kassidy.

A feeling of fear mixed with anger started to spread in her guts, making her feel sick.

What did that girl even do here? She looked so different, like she didn't belong here, and Kassidy definitely had never seen her around this block ever before. Her mind was racing, bringing up a thousand questions at a time inside of her.

Kassidy noticed the clothes of the mysterious girl. They were almost all black, making a stark contrast to Kassidy's light clothes she usually wore.

Was she getting closer to her? Or was it just her mind playing tricks on her?

She definitely didn't want contact with the stranger, but she felt too paralyzed to turn around or walk away.

The situation made her feel so scared and powerless, in a way she had never felt before. But nothing was actually happening, was it?

Should she report it to anyone? But of what use would it be? They wouldn't be able to identify the girl anyway. Also, she really didn't want to get involved in any trouble, she couldn't afford any illegal activities being associated with her if she ever wanted to be successful.

Not being able to take the tension in the air anymore Kassidy finally unfroze and freed herself from the eyes of the red-haired girl by averting her own gaze. Suddenly her mind seemed to work again and signalized her to take flight, right now. She grabbed her bag tightly and started to run away. Slowing her pace down again Kassidy took a look on her phone, trying to pretend to herself that nothing of what had just happened had any meaning or was of particular interest to her. But she failed, finding herself turning back towards where the mysterious girl had stood only seconds later. She had disappeared, gone as unexpectedly as she had turned up.

Probably Kassidy's mind had just exaggerated the whole situation. The girl was gone now, so she couldn't be any threat to her anymore. "Nothing happened", she tried telling herself, yet she couldn't stop replaying those few seconds in her mind.

With an uneasy feeling in her stomach Kassidy unlocked the door of the flat Alex and her shared, trying to act all normal so as not to arouse the attention of her friend. She considered talking about what had just happened, but something told her it was better to just keep it inside. In a few days she most likely wouldn't even remember anymore, and going through it all again would only get her even more worked up.