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Ava laid quietly on the beach, her chest heaving as she stared up at the night sky. She hoped Diego was wrong, that this wasn’t a fluke, wasn’t temporary, she hadn’t felt this free, this happy since before the accident, before the hellhole of an orphanage she had been stuck in.
Ava lost track of time she as lay there allowing her mind to drift, taking in the ocean air, the sand beneath her. Thoughts swam through her mind easily slipping away until one crashed into her so quickly Ava almost thought it was an actual wave. Her soulmark, her words, she could see them for herself. Ava didn’t know when the words had appeared, had been told by Sister Frances that she would never get them, that it was better that way. Ava had almost started to believe the old bat when Diego told her about the words, they were on her left side just below her boob.
Ava quickly scrambled up, sitting and pulling up her shirt, eyes searching hungrily. There. The mark was barely visible in the dark and from this angle but it was there. Ava couldn’t read the words, but she didn’t need to she had memorized them the moment Diego read it out to her.
I understand you’re scared but you need to calm down.
Ava slowly, carefully pressed a slightly sand covered hand to the mark, a smile tugging at her lips. Ever since Diego had told her what her mark said, it had been a comfort to her. Sure, they weren’t the most romantic first words, but they weren’t something like Hello, or One black coffee please, or even Fuck You, actually that last one would be pretty funny. At least they were memorable first words, Ava didn’t think she could miss them. They also meant her soulmate was probably at least a semi decent person, which was cool.
She could meet them, Ava had never really seriously considered that before, sure she had dreamed about it but honestly the chances of her meeting her soulmate had never seemed great or even somewhat possible. Sure, like 85% of people at least meet their soulmate but Ava had had a feeling that she was part of that 15% that didn’t. Orphan quadriplegics don’t tend to get around much.
But Ava could get around now, if she didn’t randomly drop dead at some point, if this was her new normal. Joy filled her, as she considered it. Soulmates weren’t always romantic, something like 35% of bonds were platonic. Ava didn’t really care much kind which she had; I mean romantic would be nice but she'd totally take some platonic loving too. Soulmates were supposed to just kinda get each other, understand each other innately. It would be nice to have someone like that, even just for a little while.
Ava pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked around, the sun was just starting to rise, the sky slowly turning light purple. She kept a hand pressed to her mark and fumbled to her feet, sitting here wasn’t going to help find anyone and if Diego was right (hopefully not) then Ava probably didn’t have time to find her soulmate anyways.
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Beatrice was sitting quietly on her bed; she should lay down and sleep but the past 48 hours played like a horror movie in her mind. Sister Shannon was dead. The Halo was lost. She had failed in her mission, failed her team.
Tears finally slid down her cheeks, as the walls she had been desperately holding up fell. Her right hand shot up to clamp over her mouth trying to contain the aching sobs shaking her body. She didn’t want anyone to hear her breaking. Her left arm wrapped around herself, her hand pressing tightly against the right side of her ribcage. Beatrice let out a muffled anguished cry as she realized where her hand had subconsciously landed, right where her soulmark laid.
Hours before the disastrous mission Beatrice had felt her soulmark tingling, at first it had felt like running your hands under warm water after being out in the snow, she had been in the library when it started thankfully alone, as just as quickly as the feeling had appeared it intensified; quickly going from mildly uncomfortable to searing pain in less than a minute. Beatrice had barely been able to hold in her scream of pain and then the pain was gone, disappearing just as quickly as it had came.
Beatrice didn’t remember going to her room but before she could fully register what had happened, she was closing her door and desperately pulling her robes off twisting to look down at her mark. The moment her eyes landed on it; Beatrice had frozen. Her words were faded, scared into her skin, Beatrice knew what this meant, had known what was happening since the tingling had turned into pain. Her soulmate had just died but before she could process that Mary was pounding on her door, yelling that they had a mission. Beatrice had done what she did best and shoved everything down, ignored her sisters concerned looks and insisted she was fine.
Beatrice shouldn’t have gone, she’d been distracted, everyone had noticed. She was the reason Shannon was dead because she’d been mourning a girl she’d hoped to never meet. Beatrice had never even had a chance to be excited about her mark appearing, her parents had found out about her months before and she had been shipped off to boarding school with a warning to make herself acceptable, to rid herself of her flaws or not to return. Beatrice had just started to consider becoming a nun when her mark had appeared, and truthfully, it’s appearance changed little, she had shortly after started the process of becoming a nun.
Beatrice pulled herself out of her memories and back into her room, she roughly wiped the tears from her face and stood. She stepped towards her dresser and pulled out a pain nightgown, and started undressing with practiced ease forcing her mind to quiet. Beatrice couldn’t help but glance down at her mark before she pulled the nightgown over her head, but her mark wasn’t faded and scared it was black once more. Beatrice dropped the nightgown with a gasp as her hand shot up to press against the words, she stared disbelieving, breathing heavily as she reread the mark, she had long past memorized.
What’s reacting to my emotions?