UNIVERSE ALTERATION
In this universe, you can find your soulmate by a specific matching mark. When you turn 16 (or as late as 21) the mark becomes visible on a certain part of your body.
It can be on your wrist, your back, chest, ankle, wherever- y...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Blow the candles and make a wish!"
I smiled and closed my eyes... the burning wick of the birthday candles leaving imprints on my eye-lids. I thought for what seemed like forever, but nothing I wanted was better than the thing I've been fantasizing ever since I was 4, love.
Different images flooded my mind- kisses, turning 16 and finding a heart shape on my wrist (or maybe even a circle on my ankle)- then the amazing day when I discover the same mark on my soulmate, finding the perfect wedding dress, and finally, getting married to the love of my life.
In that moment of pure hope and happiness, smoke spread about the top of the cake. I stopped a moment to look at the beautiful swirls smoke leaves in the air, but instead I was faced with distorted images of faces screaming. I could tell that my 10 year old figure was screaming, but it didn't sound like me. It sounded like my mother- and when I focused closer into the smoke, I saw her ten million different times getting killed over and over again all in one second. First it was a shooting, then it was my dad beating her, but the most prominent one was where she was stuck in her car and couldn't get out- right on top of the train tracks.
She couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe, and right when the train was about to wreck her and the vehicle into a million pieces, the vision turned black and my breathing stopped.
- - -
I woke up with a start, a jumble of gasping and sobbing for dear life. It felt so real. All I wanted was to hold my mother and father and tell them I loved them, but I really couldn't.
I felt so many feelings. Anger, for the fact that I could never ever hug my father again and my mother not for two seconds.
Sadness, for the fact that my parents were basically nonexistent.
Guilt, that even no matter how torn up I was, my best friend's parents had just died 6 months ago and here I was complaining about my still living ones.
I also felt fear, because I knew anyone of my friends could die in any one of those situations.
And lastly, in a total other scale- exhaustion. Exhaustion because these night terrors kept on coming almost every single night and they never got any less real or less daunting.
• • •
"You turn 16 in two weeks! Aren't you excited, Lucia?" My friend from school asked me. Amelie was definitely more amorous of us two.
"No, not really." I replied with a sure tone. "Quite the opposite, actually."
"What?!" She exclaimed.
I looked around us and sure enough there was people staring at her outburst.
I chuckled a little to settle my nerves. "Quiet down, Am!" I whispered. "Besides not everyone finds their soulmark or even their soulmate the day of their birthday like you."
