Romance/Supernatural/Drama
Story takes place in a futuristic alternative universe.
Twilight doesn't belong to me.
One
Scientist of our time cannot explain why we are, the way we are, most modern theorist just chalk it up to it being another step in human revolution to reduce conflict between ourselves. Which is ironic considering what a bloody start it was. Sometime around the mid-22nd century the first cases of tethering appeared and mistakes were made. Many horrible mistakes, as first those who were bonded were banished from society, because it was taught to be some sort of severe mental disorder caused by environmental pollution which was rampant at the time. Then there was the civil war between those who were tethered and those who did not have the mental capacity to be tethered, both sides thought that the other was an abomination. Then after nearly fifty years of fighting, laws were drafted to protect mates and the norms. Norms was the name given to those born without soulmates. A term which has long become extinct as the last norm had died over 100 years ago.
I remember the first time it happened, I awoke in the middle of the night bleeding from a long gash down my right arm, that obviously wasn't there before I fell asleep. It hurt so much and bought tears to my eyes. I just sat there sobbing, rocking back and forth cradling my arm when dad found me and bandaged the wound. I was ten. Mom and dad weren't the best at explaining things because they were a set of mismatch.
A mismatch are those humans who've decided to genetically sever their bonds in favor of someone else, it was highly frowned upon in our society but obviously that doesn't stop people from doing it anyway. Mom says it's a long, painful process, complications can often lead to death making it illegal in some sectors and that just because someone is your soulmate it doesn't mean you should always be together. Some relationships are toxic waste and I guess hers was and we never spoke about James, it's a weird fluke that I even know his name.
As I said, they're not the best at explaining, so they give me a holograph loaded with all the information I needed. I'd stay up countless nights reviewing the information and wondering and daydreaming about who my soulmate was. By that point the only thing I knew about him, was that he was perpetually reckless if the number of scrapped knees and elbows is anything to go by.
One quirk of being soulmates is that you can actually borrow skills or habits from each other, when you're younger its spontaneous and hard to control, but when you learn how to you can borrow the best traits from them. Turn it on and off when you want too and block out the worse traits, like when I turned 10, I suddenly knew how to skate board and play the piano although I'd never learned how and had a knack for chemistry which would later evolve into chemical engineering. I couldn't help but feel proud of my mate for being so mart and I found myself learning and picking up different skills and quirks because I wanted him to know the best of me too. I started learning another language, took creative writing and abstract painting classes.
Today's my 17th birthday and after years of borrowing his habits and sharing each other's bumps and bruises. I'll finally get to know who he is and given the opportunity to spend time together.
Mom has mixed feelings about the ceremony after school today, but doesn't say anything just forces a smile. It makes her look like she's sucking on a lemon and I'm not fooled for a moment. Dad is more the more stable one out of the two and I resemble him the most with my waist length dark chocolate hair and eyes. I wish I could talk to mom about what's running through my head, how excited I am to finally attach a face to my fantasies but terrified I am of how real it is now. It's not just a distant beginning, knowing that soon I'll have to move away from them. But I can't I know this day will be tough on her, fear is a powerful lithium. As she does my hair in front of the mirror, I can feel her normally steady fingers shaking, and I reach a hand up to grasp hers looking at her eyes in the floor length mirror.
"Mom it's going to be alright. All bonds are successful 98.9% percent of the time and I promise I won't move away right now. You've still got two years with me. I'm not going to lose myself in some other person. I'm way too stubborn." I say with a smirk and some life returns to her eyes and she giggles nervously, continuing to wrap my hair around a heated wand to create curls that she'll pin in an up do. Though the weight of my hair often gives me a headache. It is un seemingly for me to wear it down in public, it's a sign of my being unmarked. You're not considered legally tethered in the eyes of the state until you've received your mark or crest given, even though your names are recorded in the database under the male's family line. The dress rest just above my knee and shaped out at the waist with a high neck collar and three quarter sleeves.
"You say that now, but it's different once you meet him, get to know him and you start feeling that magnetic pull to always be together. When you're apart you borrow the others traits more to make up for the ache in your heart. You don't even know him yet and I can see it in your eyes that you'd be willing to give your heart to him." She sighs, before placing the last pin in place creating a pineapple waterfall of hair down the side of my head that reaches my shoulder, exposing most of my neck.
That's the one thing she has always banged into my head ever since I could remember. Know yourself so thoroughly you'll be able to love with your entire self. To her the greatest crime was loving somebody so much that you lost the essence of what makes you special. She always made sure I was active in different stuff because she wanted me to be well rounded I used to think well rounded was a euphemism for being larger than life. At first I used to resent my parents thinking they were ashamed of me, they just wanted to get me out of their way so that they could go to fancy fundraisers and parties. Vacation Talent camps were fun when I finally learned to come out of my shell a bit and I later learned that they just wanted to create more opportunities for me to possibly bump into my mate before my 17th birthday. Alas that didn't happen. I was painfully shy when I was younger and I didn't start speaking until I was five. The different classes and activities I took opened a new window to the world for me. Suddenly I was restless and wanted to see all of it. All my leaps into new hobbies didn't work out though.
The disaster that was ballet classes introduced my parents to my inability to negotiate a flat surface. After that I wasn't signed up for anything remotely athletic.
"You make me sound like a hopeless puppy." I laugh. "I won't lie, I'm scared and really nervous. It feels like a nest of butterflies have taken over my stomach, but this just feels right. I'll always be my own person mom and I'll visit regularly even though I hate the rain." I know she means well, she just wants to make sure that what happened to her doesn't happen to me, so I put up with her fussing as best as I can.
"After school, you and Rosalie should hang out. You haven't seen her in a while, the proper time has passed it should be okay now." I nearly drop the holopad I was tinkering with. I can't believe she'd actually choose to come back. Rose has been my best friend since we were five after saving me from some mean girls on the playground, three months ago her dad died in an accident at one of micro-chip plants in the city, taking her mother with him. He was the Head scientist working on some new form of technology for the government. Naturally everybody started speculating that he became a liability and the explosion was a perfect way to get rid of any evidence that may implicate the suspects. The investigations that were carried out for weeks after and the public demanding the release of the files from the plant just fed the fire. It's a small sector and the rumors took a toll on my already grieving friend, she had to get away. Even I wasn't allowed to see her. She went away with her aunt and uncle.
I know it was hard for her, but the fact that she shut me out and specifically made request for me not to be allowed to see her had hurt my feelings. Though logically I had no right to be hurt, her parents had just died. Then she left without saying good bye. I ending up hearing about it from dad, who heard it from her father's former lab assistant who quit the job three months before the accident. She didn't write me, not once. I worried about her the entire time. I knew I was being selfish though, she was my only friend in a Town that wasn't so kind to the child of a mismatched set. Tolerance and equality is much better appreciated in the larger sectors. Here not so much. Most of the adults thinks my parents are new age and sophisticated and represent the upscale city to life, the teenagers well they think I'm a freak.
I always did need her, more than she needed me and the time away helped me to deal with my own problems. I never did tell my parents about the snide remarks the other teenagers in my batch made. A weight on my chest I only talked about with Rosalie, but now she has her own weight to sling around in a slouchy bag. Everyone says she's an entitled ice princess and difficult and they're right to people who don't know here she is, but she's also the only person I can trust who will always tell me the truth no matter how much it hurts and fiercely loyally she stood up for me on the first day of school. I'm not going to bail on her at the first sign of trouble
"I'm not sure I would be helpful." I say and go back to scanning the holopad for anything interesting on the feed. "She just needs her friend Bella, maybe you being there is comfort enough." I sigh and roll my eyes at my mother suggestion.
"I think that she needs space away from it all, not to be badgered by anyone."
"Isolation is unhealthy." She comments. "Mom, not everyone heals that's way, girls like Angela and me like staying low when it calls for it." But she still insists saying. "So, even if she turns down visiting with you again she'll still know that you care and you're there for her if she changes her mind." I laugh and shake my head.
"I'll think about it, but for now. I don't think coming back here was the best thing. If I were her I'd probably get as far away from plastic doom ville as I can and never look back." Mom shakes her head at me. Our sector isn't actually called that. Its named Arcadia, after the bright pink hybrid flower that grows in nearly every body of water here. It's beautiful and makes the constant rain nearly bearable. Plastic doom ville is just my nickname for it.
"See, this is what I'm so worried about. You've got a restless heart and always so excited to get away. Sometimes I'm not sure if that's you or somebody else. Are you running from me?" she says with a mock stern face. I roll my eyes again at her, another bad habit of mine. Dad says if I keep doing it my pupils might end up being stuck looking upward.
"You very well know that it's me and who would be the one to make sure I look like an upstanding member of society?" I didn't care for girly stuff and would rather wear trousers and jackets. Mom is the one who makes sure that I look like the daughter of a prominent member of society. I couldn't care less, but I do it anyway if only to appease that small apart of me who still wants validation from society. I wanted to fit in seamlessly like everyone else did, show them that I wasn't born a mistake just because of who my parents are.
"I know sweetie. I guess I'm coming down with empty nest syndrome. Your fathers waiting downstairs for you." She kisses me on the forehead before gliding out of the room. I sigh to myself before rolling my eyes and making a huge flourishing movement to the room, watching as my scattered books and music holograms pick themselves up off the floor and corners before gliding onto the racks of invisible shelves that disappear into the walls. Another flourish and my crumpled bed makes itself and folds into a sky blue day bed. Metal curtains peel back and expose a window wall behind me.
I move from my vanity, which sinks into the floor to relieve space, and lean against the glass watching the rain beat against the windows creating small explosions of water against the surface and melting into rivers of liquid that drown the earth beneath. Outside trees and forest stretch out for what seems like miles before me with twinkles of random lights in between to break up the monotone of green and brown. Even though it's the 25th century the governments very strict on the preservation of plant life so most of our technology is built around it instead of through it and my parent's home is a perfect example, built into the side of a small mountain. Everything in our home is fueled by clean energy. A glass doom shields the roads and most of the public buildings from the weather and looks like a million transparent tubes and bubbles form so far away. Most tend to live as close to the square as possible, but not my dad.
Though I put on a brave face for mom, I really am scared as much as I'm excited. I've always been a cautious person, organized and meticulously in control of everything I do. That's not how life works though, it makes a habit of throwing a wrench into your plans as often as possible. The thought of never being alone, of always having someone on your side is a comfort in this unknown world but I'm human so I have my doubts. They're the usual stuff, what if he doesn't love me as much as I'll love him or I end up like my parents and voluntarily go through the surgery to get away from how intense and over whelming it is? Nothings certain but I'm not going to let my fear conquer me. I've always been safe and careful, while everyone else was learning to fly hovercrafts or hack into mech systems. I was learning dead languages and reading. This could be my new adventure. The dying man's regret is that he didn't fulfill his dreams.
I adjust the collar of my dress and slip on my shoes, stepping onto the transfer pad and typing in a short series of instructions on my wrist and closing my eyes. The transfer has always made me queasy, closing my eyes makes it better and stifles the paranoia in the part of my brain that screams that the transfer pad will malfunction and leave me with missing body parts or broken bones from being calibrated incorrectly. That happened once, when I was five and I ended up with a broken arm that required surgery to reconstruct. Needless to say they tech that installed it was fired. When I open my eyes again, I'm in dads in dad's lab. If I'm the epitome of a cluttered mess, dad is the god father of meticulous organization. He's so OCD I wonder how he even stands to stay in a house with mom for more than a day.
He looks up from his erratic scribbling at the floating hologram, of an exotic species of reptile. I don't bother asking which. His glasses fall down to rest on the bridge of his nose. "Bells!" Dear god, I hate that name but just for today I'll tolerate it. "Hey dad." I shuffle over and hop onto his desk, disrupting a dust covered pile of electrical trinkets, an annoyed glare is shot my way I smiled smugly.
That's what you get for calling me Bells. I shrug my shoulders innocently. "I wanted to give you something. I know, I know you don't like your birthday." He said before I could start protesting. "but I wanted to give you something in remembrance of today. When I met your mother I didn't imagine that we'd be where we are today. Just because you're soul mates, the road to happiness won't always be easy. This is so you remember what's always in front of you." With those words he reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a package sealed with transparent plastic and I gasp in shock snatching it away from him. It's a book. A real book and my eyes whelm up with tears and I fight them back. I'm not going to cry today. It's a 2005 double feature edition of Wuthering heights and Pride and Prejudice, my favorite books.
"Where'd you get this? They abolished civilian access to printed books because of environmental degradation." All books printed on paper were digitally integrated some time ago. I don't really care what his answer is, I'm just so excited that I'm holding a real book, I flip it over and over running my hands on the pages. Real pages! Real paper! Its yellowed with age and crinkled at some pages, but sealed over with a thin layer of plastic. The plastic is so pliable and thin that you only known it's there because of the slight sheen on the paper. This way I know it will never tear or be easily destroyed.
I hop off the desk and propel myself into his arms with such force a disgruntled grunt emits from his chest and he awkwardly pats my back. Dad isn't used to showing affection, it makes him uncomfortable. His previous admission is more than I've heard him speak in one setting in years.
"of course you know you've got to keep my little gift to yourself." He mumbles into my shoulder as I let him go. "Yeah I know." I sigh to myself, keeping it hidden doesn't negate how valuable his gift is to me. I shrink it down to the size of a small business card and slip it into the secret compartment in the sleeve of my dress. There's a huge risk in taking it with me anywhere, but bio scanners cannot pick up the chemical signature of paper, they haven't been programmed to do so. It was found to be unnecessary to include such a feature.
I step back on to the transfer pad and give a little wave before letting it whisk me away to the upper floor. My driver Dimitri is already waiting for me on the transport platform next to a white oval shaped seamless pod. He never talks to me and I don't mind the silence so I don't bother them. I'm not even sure he blinks ever, his eyes are a steel grey with jet black hair and a pair of tech glasses on his face. He never takes it off, I assume it makes his security job better. Dad hired him when I was seven and he's been here ever since. I give a small awkward smile, as he presses his palm against the right side of the pod and I slip in. The inside of the little pod is pure white with a sunken floor fluffed up with pillows with lights attached to the top. You can see through the entire thing but no one can see in, Dimitri slips into the driver seat and runs a diagnostic scan before warming up the engines. Pods are normally computer automated, but like I said over protective parents.
I nearly shriek in fright when a voice rings out from the pile of fluffy slouchy chairs next to me. "You look terrible. Purple was never your color."
"Rose!" If I wasn't so happy to see her, I'd try to strangle her for scaring me. Breakfast nearly made a combat. "I look terrible, you look terrible. If terrible needed definition an imagine of you right now would do it. I can't believe Dimitri let you in." I say gently sitting beside her. "Oh he didn't your mom did."
For a moment I can pretend that nothing happened and that she's alright, even though she's put together. Her eyes are tight around the edges and it looks like any little breeze might break her, but I decide if she doesn't want to talk about it I won't bring it up.
"To be human, is to feel and there is no feeling more painful than suffering, but as a Wiseman said this too shall pass." Is all I say, for a moment I think she'll cry but she burst out with a sarcastic laugh and with that simple gesture I know that this pass six months have changed her irrevocably. "Yeah well they always say pain is a construct of the mind, yet when I nearly fell of a hover this morning it was my body that hurt. Trust you to say some well-meaning but cheesy poetic phrase. At least you tried. I'm sorry I didn't let you see me, but it wasn't my choice." I shrug my shoulders and wait for her to continue. "I couldn't even com you, it just wasn't going happen." And what she's dancing around not saying. It doesn't even hurt anymore.
"It's okay, with the investigation going on it wouldn't have look good for your family to be associated with a mismatch. Everyone knows your aunt is a traditionalist." And we bought let out a fake laugh before falling into silence watching the scenery stream by in a blur of bright colors. I can almost forget it's raining today, good thing clothes are engineered to be weather resistant at least for those who can afford it.
"I'm here if you ever need me." I say casually. "Yeah I know, and this is also the first and last time you'll ever hear me apologized." There's a hardness in her eyes, that will never be erased by anything and with that simple expression I am reminded that adulthood is the place where everything you once loved about the world goes to die. I'm a contradiction of excitement and anxiety, because as much as I try to squash that pool of dread in my stomach something just feels wonderful awful about this day. Our mates will be revealed to us, after years of wondering but I don't feel like I'm as happy as I should be.
The pod operates like a train, magnetic plates line the tracks-and the bottom of the pod-that run parallel to the road so that the pod never actually touches the ground it's just held in place by a powerful magnetic force. " I'm just gonna look on the bright side, I'll get to see my mate today." She grumbles and rolls her eyes and I laugh. I know she's only half kidding, she's just as excited to meet her mate as I am to meet mine, but its hard to be excited about anything and not be braced for disappointed when life has dealt you the hand Rose got. "You've got to give me every single detail, I can't wait to meet the guy that faith says can handle you. " She lightly punches me in the arm before cracking a genuine smile. I feel victorious because I haven't seen a real smile on her in months. " Ugh, which means you're gonna be a love sick romantic even more than usual, you with your pre-historic novels and such." She rolls her eyes again with a dismissive hand gesture.
"They're not that old, and I am not an Old romantic." I huff, she snorts in disbelief. I'm not.
We're silent the rest of the drive to school and that's what I like best. She doesn't make the silence awkward or make me feel rude for being caught in another day dream.
The pod comes to a stop outside a light beige and cream building that floats on smooth granite stones that shine enough to be noticeable, the main building of our school is lined to radius windows and attached to several other small buildings that look like disjointed Lego structures of the same color and radius windows. The rain makes it seem more depressing than it actually is and I press my thumb against the scanner by hatch which pops open, pulling the hoodie of my dress over my head and hoping out of the pod onto the smooth gravel. My feet barely touch the ground before the artificial gravity repulsion mechanization under my shoes kick in and I'm floating on air.
Four hours of classes i won't be able to pay attention to today before we're called into the keepers arrive to present us with our matched files and I get to spend one blissful hour in a private port room with my mate on a port screen. Physical first meetings cane become over whelming so its always best to start off slow at least that's what the keepers insist on.
When I first see him it's like the entire world has exploded in a magnificent display of electrifying sensation and has pieced itself back together to form something just the same but totally different. The center of my world has shifted. Butterflies erupt in the depths of stomach falling over each other and bursting at the seams. I'm filled with so much emotion, that my heart feels like it will burst out of my chest at any moment and my skin tingles with a new sense of the atmosphere. Everything Is clearer and yet unfocused like a camera struggling to adjust its lenses. The world has been trapped in his bright green eyes and I can't look away from the screen, my mouth waters and my eyes become super sensitive to light. Like when you try to stare directly into the sun and water pools in your eyes and you have to look away. no matter how powerful the urge to look up is again.
Something inside just clicks into place and I know that I'd be able to find him anywhere, no matter the distance. It's the first time I've been able to feel the bond between us in a physical sense of the word. His presence has always been there in the back of my mind, a soft reassuring pressure, but seeing him even if just through a combination of high definition mega pixels on a hover screen makes it real. I understand now.I should be scared at how powerful my emotions are, but I'm not for the first time in my life i feel completely at peace and alive at the same time. The hazed storm that was my mind, is now a calm ocean.
He has unruly reddish copper hair that looks madly disheveled, some of it falling over his eyebrows and other parts of it sticking up like he ran his hand through it a thousand times. Intense green eyes and a jaw line that could have been crafted by Micheal Angelo himself, even sitting down i can tell he's well over 6' feet tall and lanky in built. He's the most handsome man on earth, even by my own ears i realize how bias that sounds but i can't help it. As i stare into those eyes that keep me captive, I wonder if he finds me just as overwhelming beautiful as I do him. The thought makes me nibble on my bottom lip and his eyes are instantly drawn to the movement. He clears his throat and speaks.
"One of us should say something, but I'm lost for words. I thought I'd have some eloquent thoughts on the tip of my tongue for when i first see your face but..." He trails off in a nervous laugh, that warms my heart and rakes his fingers through his hair before his lips settle in a half smirk. I return his smile.
" I thought so too." I mutter , pushing my current of hair behind my ears. The sound of my heart beating frantically in my chest makes it hard to think clearly for a moment.
"We should.." He trails off gesturing to the bowl containing a marking stamp and cloth. Though we both already know the truth, some things must be officially recorded for the keepers. It puts people's minds at rest that no mistakes were made. I nod, picking the knife up and twirling it in my hand. "Ready,inside of the wrist." He stretches his arm in front of himself for me to see. I grab the stamp and outstretch my right arm as well. Without taking my eyes off his, i position it over the desired spot and gently press the sharp side of the stamp over the flesh, hissing softly at the sting.
We both wait with baited breath, watching as an identical crest blossoms on the same spot above his wrist, just as pink and sore as mine. I let out a startled laugh that's half joy and half relief. Discarding the blood stained stamp in the bowl, wriggling my nose at the metallic smell of blood and quickly wrap my wrist in the cloth bandage provided, securing the snaps on the side. The bandage is laced with healing agents and be properly healed in four hours. The raised lines of his family crest scared into my skin and his. My eyes whelm up with tears, I feel like I'm watching myself from an observation deck somewhere, all my nerve endings feel so alive that they might actually explode. I rub lightly at it before running the digital scanner over it, green letters gloss across the screen in front of me ACCEPTED and I fold my arms in my lap and staring back at him. Our files start to load at the bottom of the screen.
"My names Isabella Swan, but everyone who values their life call's me Bella. "
"I'm Edward Cullen and a really embarrassing hover board accident explains the scar above both our eyebrows." My hand automatically touches the thin scar nearly hidden by the dark hair of my eyebrows.
"Why don't you tell me about it anyway." After all, I do owe him an explanation for all the scrapped knees and the twisted ankle debacle among other things. No matter what I choose now, nothing will ever be the same. Its amazing how one hour can completely change your life.
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