Beautiful Pain

Chapter 1

Deacon

     My ribs are throbbing as I pass completed dishes onto the warming table for the servers. I mop the sweat off of my brow and grab my bottle of water while I wait for the next wave of orders. It's getting close to closing time, so we are finally getting a break.

"Hey Deak, how's it hanging?" My best friend and co-owner Sawyer Augustine saunters into the kitchen. He leans against the counter and snatches a grape from a plate of fruit.

"Peachy." I reply dryly "This is the first time I've gotten to stop in almost 6 hours. I'm dead. Everything hurts and I need a drink." I rip the bandana off of my head and run my hand through my hair. It's been a hell of a day. It started off normal enough, and I was happy to find that there were no new bruises. But just before we opened for dinner the pain started.

     A repeated throb in my ribs and stomach had me doubling over in pain. It felt like it went on for ages, and with every blow I grew angrier. When I lifted up my shirt and watched the bruises bloom, I felt tears pour down my cheeks as I imagined my poor soulmate suffering this abuse first hand. They are feeling this pain tenfold, I don't know how they're still going.

     It finally ended with a sharp pain to my head which left me dizzy. Once I regained my balance, I stalked into my kitchen where my staff avoided eye contact and worked hard to stay out of my way.

"It happened again, didn't it?" Sawyer looks at me with sad eyes and shakes his head. Everyone knows what my soulmate must go through, it's not exactly easy for me to hide.

"Yeah. Just before opening." I sigh as I start closing down the kitchen,"It's getting worse. It went on for almost an hour today. I don't know how much more of this I can take." My voice breaks and I fight to keep my composure and I sanitize my knives.

     Sawyer bows his head but doesn't say anything. There's nothing much for him to say at this point. It's been almost ten years of this and I still haven't found them. I don't even know if my soulmate is a man or a woman for goodness sakes. It's bad enough that I have one soulmate in a world of 6 billion plus people, but I also don't even get a hint as to their gender!

     Our friend Hunter was the ladies man of our group, and would always brag about how hot his future wife was going to be. He met his soulmate Greg last year at the state fair. Greg is a bull rider, and to say they were surprised by each other is an understatement. But once they got over the shock, they accepted it and fell in love.

Before then I hadn't even considered the possibility that my soulmate might be a man. Not that it would matter much to me, but that makes my job of finding them that much more difficult.

     With Sawyers help we finish early. I take off my chefs coat and toss it in the laundry in the break room. I hear Sawyer growl under his breath as he sees the new bruises.

"Whoever that son of a bitch is needs a serious ass kicking." His face grows dark with anger as he prods around my ribs, making me flinch.

"Trust me Sawyer, as soon as I find them, that's the first order of business." I pull on a new shirt, and head home. Sawyer wanted to take me out to a bar to try and get my mind off of it, but I just wanted to sleep it off.

The drive to my house seems to take forever, although really it's only twenty minutes. My mind is still stuck on that hour of torture, I hardly notice when I pull into my garage. For a minute I just sit there with my head on the steering wheel, trying to take deep breaths to calm myself. When that doesn't work I slam the door and storm up the stairs to my bedroom.

     I take a quick shower, wincing slightly as the cold water hit my skin. The water doesn't warm up until I'm getting out, but I don't mind. The cold helps to cool my anger. As I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, I try to think of ways I can find my soulmate. The only thing I haven't tried is taboo. I could cut a message for them, but in our society self harm is a punishable offense, as it also harms our soulmate.

     The only reason I haven't tried it yet is because it would cause them more pain, and they've already suffered enough. But I'm starting to think I don't have any other choice.