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He’d be a fool not to have expectations in regard to love.
It had been all around him, after all. Even one of his brothers had been able to find true love with the aid of that odd phenomenon. People had affectionately called it soulmarking because it marked the skin of who they believed to be soulmates with complementary symbols. It could be anything from a cryptic sign to a more understandable one. One way or another, it encapsulated the nature of their souls and why they were so intertwined, so destined to be together.
Everyone was always looking for their soulmate, some kids going as far as tapping everyone around their neighborhood just to see who their soulmate was. Alas, it never worked so easily. …And Travis had never been the soulmate of anyone.
He had resigned himself to actively avoiding thinking about it. He built an image of not being interested in romantic love, of being devoted only to family. This only amplified when the curse struck them all – he had no time to be daydreaming… Not in front of others. The only time he’d drown himself in dreams of love and all that gentleness the world had denied him was when his family was safe and he could read his romance stories at his office. Aside from that, in that sleepy town, nothing happened – nothing good, anyway.
Funny enough, though, he remembers yesterday night as if it were happening right now.
Wrong place, wrong time, he initially thought, but he should’ve known it was fate, instead.
He led them to safety, he tried to make them turn back, but they did not budge. And, the moment one of them got attacked, he could only subdue the other. Stealthily he approached and injected the tranquilizer on the side of her neck, quickly making her body topple against him. He thinks it’s the adrenaline rushing over his body when he feels a burning sensation rising from his feet all the way to his head. He never wanted anyone to get involved, after all… Having to take care of the situation at hand, he pushes that sensation behind. First, he places the dazed girl in the safety of a cell, making sure to lock it tight before grabbing the threat, Max, and pushing him forcefully towards the adjacent cell. Of course, it had been a gamble to put the girl first instead of him, but he wanted to make sure. He had to make sure she was safe because,... well just because he didn’t want any casualties, right?
Pulling over the man, she hears the girl groan awake. It seemed she wanted to call out to the other boy but she was unable to. After he successfully locks him up, he walks over to her, whispering.
“Ma’am… This is gonna get a little messy,” is all he can tell her before leaving. A warning, a sign, the best he can say at the moment.
Daylight comes and, with it, the girl’s interrogation. That was when things took an unexpected turn. Questioning the girl, Laura Kearney, had been a rocky road. It seemed on one end, she wanted to cooperate, on the other she just wanted out.
“You can’t just lock us up, that’s illegal!” She screams, squirming at the seat she was cuffed against. The way she moves causes her shirt to sway slightly and, right then, Travis thinks he can see something glow over her collarbone.
“What… What is that?” Travis asks without thinking. He could definitely see something starting to glow from over her collarbone. The girl groans in frustration, assuming he wants to change the subject.
“Stop that! I won’t fall for your diversion. You can’t keep us he–” a sharp pain comes as the glow grows in intensity. She can feel heat rising close to her neck and she tries glancing, only making half the shape of a crescent moon glowing from over her skin.
“What the fuck…?” She asks herself in slight panic.
“Let me take a look,” Travis quickly stands from his seat before he recoils back, placing a hand to the opposite end of his neck, on top of his own collarbone. Laura catches this, looking over at the man that was now pulling his uniform to the side just to check what was happening. She saw it clearer than he could.
“It’s… It’s a mark. The mark of a moon,” she informs him and he turns to her, confused.
“What? I–” Odd. He’d remember having a weird wound like that, right? It couldn’t be a tattoo, he wasn’t one to get one of those, nor one to get himself drunk enough to forget until now. No, it made no sense… And also, she had suffered the same ailment as him right now, hadn’t she? He didn’t want to draw a conclusion but…that could only mean…
Could it be? No, there was no way, right?
“It’s a soulmark…” Laura surmises and Travis shakes his head.
“No, there’s no way,” he almost says over her. But she is resolute, she is sure of what she is seeing.
“It is a soulmark. I’ve seen their form, I’ve heard all sorts of things about it. A complementary design… A crescent moon and its other half…”
It makes sense, when she says it; a crescent moon for her, its half for another. What didn’t make sense to him was him being that other person. Soulmarks didn’t need to follow logic, but facts. Both Laura and Travis knew this, but what could they do about it, now? Did it even matter, seeing the situation they were in?
The pain of the mark seems to lower the moment Travis decides to stand back up, stepping towards the girl.
“What…?” She asks, absent-mindedly as she notices the pain subside and the man approaches. She takes a second to glance at him, seeing as he himself paused for a bit.
“Let’s take you back,” he says with a voice that tries desperately to hide the panic looming over. Surprisingly, she complies, quiet and still. Though she knew she had worse things to care about, the mark on her collarbone was alarming her more… Having this mark towards the person that had locked her and her boyfriend up was strange, to say the least…
The bars close and the two part from each other. It takes Travis a bit to move towards his bathroom and look at the mark in the mirror. She had been right, his was the complementary side of the crescent moon over her own. But he still couldn’t believe it… Shouldn’t he be more courteous, more considerate towards the person who was literally soulbound to him?
No, he convinced himself, he could not back down. It was dangerous to let them free, to let her free, so he could do no more than to keep her in the cell. That was the most considerate he could be in this situation. Sighing to himself, he walks over to his office to watch over the two from over the cameras, he has time until the next full moon, he’d keep them safe – he’d make sure to keep her safe.
In the cell, Laura has time to ponder upon what they discussed. He had informed her that she was basically in the middle of a shitstorm. Not only that, but even during that night he had told her things would get messy, yet he seemed shaky when she complied and allowed him to interrogate her. Did that mean he did not know half of the situation? Maybe, there was more to this than she thought. And she traces over her collarbone, feeling that burning sensation she once thought was adrenaline, nervousness… How was it that she had ended up getting soulmarked in the strangest of places and with someone she thought was unsafe.
Many times she had discussed with Max about not being soulmarked before, she did not like bringing the subject up anymore. It didn’t mean anything, it didn’t matter. Lots of people who were not soulmarked married and had successful relationships, right? She didn’t want to think too much about it… But now, she was staring right at the face of the phenomenon…
It couldn’t have been that the way she felt when she saw the man back at the car had been misinterpreted by her, right? She couldn’t have felt attraction, there was no way. She thought him strange, creepy, a shadow roaming in the woods that refused to let them go to camp for some reason or the other. She had been soulmarked finally… but not with Max.
“Are you listening, Laura?” Max asks and she finally breaks out of the trance she was in.
“Huh? Uh–not really, I–” Strange, wasn’t the sheriff going to interrogate Max, too? “Are you okay, Max?”
“Yeah, I was just wondering about what he asked you. He didn’t do anything crazy, did he?”
“No–no! Of course not!” But her voice sounds just as absent as it had been before. Max wonders, but he chooses to remain quiet. Laura quietly traces over the mark on her collarbone, conveniently keeping it hidden.
Some time goes by and Travis finally returns. He walks over towards the cell, almost running towards Max. He takes hold of the boy and pulls him away without so much as looking at Laura. On the other hand, Laura’s eyes, widened and expecting, observe his every move, approaching the cells and looking until he is just out of sight.
But it doesn’t take long for him to return. He places Max back to the cell and is about to bolt away when he hears the voice of the girl and has to stop on his tracks.
“Hey! You can’t just leave like that without so much as…”
“So much as what? What can I say?” Travis answers, sounding more irritated than he really was. In reality, it was fear that he was feeling. Being soulmarked was supposed to be lovely, right? Yet, he felt conflicted. He had his soulmarked locked up in a cell and would have her there until she was safe to then try and forget about her… He could not reveal to her what was happening, nor could he even fathom asking her to discuss such a situation. That was what he initially thought. And yet here she was, speaking about it anyway.
“You can– we could actually discuss the– well…” She couldn't voice it, not with Max around here.
“Did something happen, Laura? Did he actually do something to you?”
“Max, I said he didn’t! This is– I’ll tell you later, just let me handle it.”
“There’s nothing to discuss, ma’am… You are a lady who trespassed private property and I, the sheriff who locked you up because of it.”
“ Bullshit! There’s more to it than that, I– I saw!”
“You didn’t… You don’t know what you both got yourselves into… And now I have to fix it for you.”
“If you opened up about it, maybe we could help.” I could, she kept to herself. It stung to see and hear him act so distant. Did it mean nothing to him that they were kindred souls, united by the universe or… whatever soulmarks truly were?
Travis stares back at her, he does so for almost a whole minute, quiet. He didn’t want to say no to her… Truly, he wanted to speak about the situation as a whole – a soulmate was your best bet at being understood and being aided… Who else could he rely upon that was not his family that could give him a hand? Laura was the best choice, but that also meant revealing his family’s secrets and putting her in danger. Alas, he could not do it.
“I can handle this by myself. Now you two just sit tight and let me do my job.”
“No! You listen to me! If you just talk I know we can be of help with whatever is down there!”
“ No, ma’am! I said I’ll handle it… I’ll handle that and…” He glances briefly at his hidden collarbone. “I’ll take care of it, just… stay here where it’s safe.”
It was almost as if he were begging, he stared right back at her. Though stern, it seemed a little more caring, as if he really wanted her to listen for her own good… And she let out a grunt before moving away from the bars. Finally, Travis felt as if the spell had been broken, able to walk away back into his office.
His heart was beating intensely even after reaching solitude in his office. He sat back down, clicking on the computer to monitor the two on the cells. He didn’t have to, he had just been there and yet…
It was a dilemma; he would have to keep the two younger individuals locked up in cells where he could monitor and take care of them until he found a way to break the curse, release his family and them at the same time and hope they either never noticed or never revealed any of this.
As the days go by, the burning sensation that had spiked the first day dies down just as things seem to be turning back to relative normalcy. Of course, as normal as it could go, having two people locked up, one a werewolf and the other an unsuspecting prey.
Though he doesn’t notice it, his eyes are planted upon the latter, growing concerned every time the girl seems to freeze, to grow altered, frustrated in her cell. He wishes he wouldn’t have subjected the two to such drastic measures, but how else could he ensure they were safe? He had let them go once and they hadn’t listened, what if they did it again? No, he could not let it happen, especially not to her. …Wait, what was he thinking?
It’s always when it comes to taking her out to shower or bringing her food, the sensation in the tip of his fingers asking for him to be gentler, to try and make things easier on her – to set her free. After all, what kind of soulmate would keep another locked up? But he hadn’t found answers, he could not save his family yet, so neither could he save her.
“You’re avoiding me,” she says with confidence as he pushes her on her way towards the showers. She had noticed. He was trying not to look at her, not to talk, even though she had attempted so many times to get him to say something.
“I’m just doing my job.”
“So not only are you a corrupt cop but you’re also a robot?”
“I’m not–I’m protecting both of you, I told you that.” He finally turns to her, eyes glistening against the faint lights of the hallway. It seemed like it hurt, Laura surmised. Maybe, her words had been harsher than she expected them to be. She just wanted to get him to talk, to look back at her… But not like this. So, she bites her lip before speaking.
“I know–I just… I wish you’d at least give me some details. I know I can help if I am just told about it.”
“If I tell you, if you discover it, you’re doomed.” He assures her, but she cannot back down. Tied hands struggle with a desire to reach for his own, staying in place and allowing for the moment to end unceremoniously.
It is when she is all bloodied up, inside the mayhem, the chaos, that he realizes he does have feelings for her. When she loses control and is about to curse him, maybe even kill him, his eyes open at the fact that he does not want to kill her. The silver-backed mirror shard lies steady on his free hand, the other being ferociously bitten by her – or what is left of her. Yet, he does nothing, and the fire on his collarbone flares, but it doesn’t burn him like the embers she lights up when the curse is lifted from her.
Eyes wide and frightened, she realizes she is still alive and that she had been attacking the man she had grown fond of… He was still here and she couldn’t be any more thankful to the moonlight for it, despite it being the one making her lose her sanity. She stares back at him, feeling a tingling sensation on her soulmark and noticing how his own is glowing just as much as the color of his usually dim eyes as he stares right back at hers. There is a brief moment in which he glances at the weapon he had at the ready and ends up throwing it aside.
“Thanks for not… killing me,” she says, still shaken, and only breaking eye contact for brief seconds. He can look back at her, relief lurking underneath the shock.
“Yeah,... likewise.” But they remain there, frozen in time. This had been the closest they had gotten ever since meeting and the magnetic pull that kept them close was only growing stronger. And they both felt it, there was a burning sensation not only on the mark that bound them together, but also all over their bodies. And somehow, they knew the other was feeling the same they were… Just staring at each other, seeing the light in their eyes turn into untamable fires. The world meant nothing in those seconds.
Travis leaned forward and so did Laura, growing ever closer until they were merely breaths away from each other.
“What…” Laura whispers between her breath and Travis softly shakes his head. He knew what her question was, and he did not know the answer.
The only thing he knew was that he was attracted to her, relieved that she was alright, and desiring to have her closer.
“Maybe, we don’t need to know,” was his reply before placing a careful hand on one of her cheeks, he gently stroked it with his thumb before they both leaned in almost at the same time, giving in to lock lips.
And the moment they did, the burning sensation turned into the gentle rays of the moon, enveloping them together.
Travis himself was unsure of what happened immediately after that. The only thing in his mind was that sensation, the person he fiercely wanted to keep safe – that stranger turned savior of his once lonely soul. Wandering that night by himself, the maze of a life that had always seemed so cruel and foreign to him was now a walk for two… Well, could it be? He wished it to be, wishing at the moon instead of the myriad stars that had ignored his pleas before.
And she, too, wished in her heart of hearts… and was brought to her destiny. Quite unexpected, but now something she felt like she could welcome, that she wanted to welcome – ignoring whatever turmoil came out of it.
Once they lay down together, after the rush is finally settled, they listen to their breaths. It feels warm still, to be so close to the other and they don’t want to part, but there is a curse to break, people to save.
“So, what now?” Laura asks, her hand resting over the man’s collarbone.
“Now we… We put the White Wolf down and–” he stops on his tracks of stroking her hair, seeming alarmed, a little wary. “You would be willing to help me, right? My family… They don’t deserve this.”
And of course, to her it was a little foreign, a little strange. That she had been caught up in such a situation felt unfair, but she had also met someone so special, she refused to let him keep sinking himself.
Deeper into that well, no. It was he whom she should protect. And she would do just that.
“I will help you, but only you.”
“That’s fair.” After all, it was his and only his duty to protect his family. Yet, the way she ended up going about it, he noticed her restraints. Laura had taken it upon herself to be considerate – just because those were the people he was giving his life for. She knew them to be part of his heart, that heart she was intricately connected to already, the one she wanted to keep whole. And she would stop at nothing to preserve it, even if it meant protecting those who had posed a threat to her.
So, off they go, in the dead of night, approaching the coming dawn. The two had already been caught up in the chaos that the White Wolf had caused, reaching his sad den.
“Put an end to it, Laura,” he implored her once he noticed that her aim was unsteady. Her grip on the shotgun was usually firm, just as determined as she was to get out of this nightmare. A small sound comes out of her shaky breath. She doesn’t like the state the creature is in or having to kill it when it seems so harmless.
The mark that binds them burns with worry, it wavers, but Travis didn’t need that to realize what was happening to Laura. Instead, he moves closer, a hand to her own, the one that is holding the shotgun steady.
“I’ll do it.” And it feels like a dagger to Laura, who turns to him, shaking her head.
“No, I can do it, I just–”
“This was never your battle to fight, I wouldn’t want the kid’s death in your hands.”
“I wouldn’t want it in yours, either. You’ve had enough to carry and god knows that you’re a mess when you try to handle things on your own. I’m going to change that.” His hand remains holding onto hers, as if to at least help her steady the shot. And with such support does she pull the trigger before tragedy repeats itself.
The end of the night and the daylight coming after it was not at all perfect. They were exhausted, listening to sirens in the distance, with survivors they both barely knew, and a beating soulmark that kept them bound to each other. They sat together, watching how things returned to relative normalcy – how the two could never go back to being as they used to.
“So, I suppose this is good-bye. You should go back home. Get some proper rest, if you’re allowed to after this.”
“Are you kidding? I won’t let anyone prohibit me from a damn good rest… But I also don’t plan on leaving you. ” Her words make him turn to her, a mixture of shock and quiet hope.
“What are you saying? You have to go home. You shouldn’t be here.”
“What? You’re just gonna throw me aside after all we did?”
“No! I don’t mean it like– It’s just– This is my home, but this place is cursed. You’d do best to stay away from it. …From me.”
“The curse is gone, Travis, stop trying to keep everyone at arms’ length. To keep yourself away from… something better than this.”
“That’s– I just want you safe. This place is not safe. I’m not safe. Surely that woman’s vengeful spirit still roams these roads. And she won’t rest until she exacts her revenge… or whatever this is.”
“Well, if that’s the case, you shouldn’t have to face it alone.” And right before he could say anything else, she continued, placing a careful hand over his own. “That or you leave this place once and for all… with me. ”
The proposal causes him to remain quiet – the two growing silent, staring at each other and wondering what the next step would truly be.
Leaning over the other without a clear answer, their lips find each other once more, as if to let them know that whatever was to come, they’d irrefutably face it and prevail together.
After all, they’d be fools not to have expectations in regard to love and what it can accomplish.