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Logan had never been particularly interested in the whole magical “soulmate” thing. He was far too busy ensuring his success later on in life and staying under the police’s radar as he went for his typical hunts in the alleyways of his city. Why would he even have a soulmate in the first place? He was a ghoul, it wasn’t like creatures such as himself even had souls worthy of soulmates.
Which is why he was so surprised when he woke up on his fifteenth birthday to find that both of his hands as well as his right knuckles had turned pitch black overnight. He simply sat there, staring unblinking at the marks for a good few minutes. His older sister then barged into the room, looking over at him with the largest grin on her face.
“So...where’s your mark?” She asked cheekily, adding a quick “Happy birthday, by the way” when he didn’t respond immediately. Logan simply got out of bed and held up his hands, turning them over for her to see. She hummed, seeming to be confused for a moment about why there were more than one. Logan turned around to grab some clothes out of his drawer, then heard a loud gasp.
“You have another on your neck!” She pulled out her phone and took a picture, showing it to Logan, the black mark clear on the nape of his neck. “I guess this means you get three, maybe four soulmates huh? That’s so weird and cool!”
“It’s not that uncommon. This is strange, though.” Despite all his previous thoughts on soulmates, Logan couldn’t help the small bubble of excitement and curiosity welling up in his stomach. He wasn’t even expecting one soulmate, and now he had four? It was quite peculiar.
Patton hummed to himself as he skipped down the hall to wait for his dad to finish up work in the principal’s office, before they could head home. Finding out he had soulmates was definitely the most exhilarating and most relieving moment of his life. Not just one, but four? Imagine how comfy cuddling would be! He looked down at his hands, excited to see the three marks still there, and trying to figure out what would happen when he meets the people those marks belonged to.
His right hand was pitch black in a way that showed that he’d be shaking one of his soulmate’s hands, so that was obvious. His left thumbprint was black, as well as his pointer and middle fingers, which he was having much more difficulty figuring out. But then there was his fourth soulmark.
He and his dad got home. Patton threw off his shoes and looked at the bottom of his foot. It was still there, and it was driving Patton insane with confusion. Why on earth was the entire bottom of his foot black? It didn’t make any sense; what, was he gonna step on his soulmate? The rest of his marks were in such normal places, and then there was this.
It was really strange, but Patton liked its placement anyway. Hopefully he’ll be a guy that’ll sweep me off my feet. Patton giggled to himself. Who that special guy was would have to wait, though.
It was another year until Patton and Logan met. Logan had to transfer to a new school; his sister had killed a...less than ideal target, and they had to leave the area while suspicion was off of the two siblings.
Logan walked into his biology class, taking a seat near the front. Class began, the teacher introduced him to everyone, then announced a group project. Logan groaned internally; he was not in the mood to deal with the imbeciles around him.
Two people groups, where we could pick our partners. As expected, everyone got with their friends and ignored Logan. By the time Patton came over, almost everyone had a partner.
“Hey, wanna be partners?” Logan looked over this teen for a moment. Blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin, round glasses, wearing pastel colors, but otherwise not really too out of the ordinary. Logan hummed. “I don’t see why not.” Patton clapped excitedly, holding out a hand.
“Great! I’m Patton, it’s good to meet you.” Logan took his hand, and a tingling sensation went through his arm and up his spine, almost like an electric shock, but not quite. The two pulled away quickly, staring at their hands. Patton then began jumping up and down, squeaking nonsense as he showed his now clear hand off. He then jumped into Logan’s arms and embraced him tightly, continuing to squeak excitedly.
Logan was happy that he had found one of his soulmates, he couldn’t deny that. But he couldn’t help but feel the dread set in as he looked Patton over a second time. Looking at him with this new context made him all the more normal. “A normal human is my soulmate” Logan thought in horror. Not a fellow ghoul, a human. What if he was the only monster out of all of them?
While they worked on their project, Logan couldn’t help but sneak glances at Patton and, when he wasn’t looking, he’d sniff the air, hoping every time that Patton was in fact a ghoul as well. By the end of the period, he had confirmed two things. One: Patton wasn’t a ghoul. Two: he sure as hell wasn’t human. Which was a strange thing for Logan to wrap his head around.
That’s why after only two days of being aware of Patton’s existence, Logan asked him for his number and if Patton could come over to his place. Patton, to his credit, didn’t really seem to bat an eye at this, simply handing over his number and telling Logan he’d meet him after school.
They had walked silently over to Logan’s house, Patton seeming to have realised what was going on. He was holding a pink and blue parasol over his head, fidgeting with it a bit as they walked. Logan didn’t question it, though he did find it strange how Patton seemed to hide under it like his life depended on it. The sun was nice and warm today, too.
The moment the two stepped inside, Logan closed and locked the door. “I’ll show you mine so long as you show me yours.” Patton blinked at him, his face blank as he tried to process that.
“...Come again?”
“I am assuming that you’re hiding your true appearance in order to attend a human school. Is that not correct?” Patton’s shoulders seemed to slump in relief. He closed his parasol with a smile, saying, “I knew you weren’t human! You don’t really smell like one, but you don’t smell like anything familiar so I got a bit confused.”
“As did I. I was under the assumption that only humans and ghouls existed. I was not aware of whether any others did.” Patton closed his eyes, shaking his head a bit before opening his eyes again to reveal bright, almost glowing red eyes.
“I thought only vampires and humans existed! You’re a ghoul? That’s so cool!” Logan chuckled at his enthusiasm, dropping his own disguise.
“It is somewhat cool, I suppose. I am rather interested in your species however. What parts of the stories are true and which are merely myths, for example.” The two went to sit on Logan’s bed, trading information about each other’s species, until eventually they were just talking as if they had known each other for years.
“Patton,” Logan spoke up as they stared up at the ceiling, “do you believe there may be other species we are unaware of?” Patton shrugged.
“Who knows? I hope we’ll get to meet some. Hey, do you think selkies are real?”
“The seals that take human form on land?” Patton nodded excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to meet a selkie!”
Logan was fully ready to say that selkies likely weren’t real, but then he paused. If vampires were real, who was to say that other creatures weren’t? They had been blissfully unaware of each other’s worlds, so who was to say that there weren’t other worlds they were unaware of?
Logan pulled Patton a bit closer to him. “There’s no evidence thus far proving that selkies or any other beings aren’t real. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.”
A few hundred miles away, their three other soulmates—two separated by a few more miles from the third—went through life, not knowing just how close they all were to each other, fully prepared to meet.