This new fic has been on my mind for like a million years and I'm finally just going to write it out. This took me four days of planning, writing, planning, editing, writing, planning, writing. So, I hope it's worth the read.

And yes, it was inspired by a couple tumblr posts that talk about the countdown to when you meet your soul mate. But! It was also inspired by Ellie Goulding's new song "Love Me Like You Do" and unholy hell is that song my jam.

Anyway,

The shitty summary:

What if you had a timer and when you were about to meet your soul mate it started counting down and when time ran out, that was it. You had your soul mate. You found your destiny

Legend says, There is a countdown until you meet your soul mate. Markings written in numbers that appear on your left palm just before you and your soul mate will come to finally meet. The countdown begins exactly twenty four hours before you find each other and when you do, the countdown will stop and you will have found your other half. Your soul mate.

Ally Dawson's life has finally come together; Experiencing her first year at college and having just moved in with her oh-so-amazing boyfriend, she finally has everything she ever wanted. Until markings appear on her left palm and only disappear with the meeting of a reckless blonde haired boy, whom, she quickly learns, is her soul mate. The one she's supposedly dreamed about her entire life. The one the universe has specifically designed her to be with. The one who is supposed to be her other half. The one who should just not be him. The one who flips her life completely upside down.

So, that was the terrible the plot-ish thing? I hate summaries. They should be outlawed. I know the whole good girl-bad boy thing is so overrated, but it's just what this has come to. Read the chapter and determine if it sucks or not ? ?

PROLOGUE

- Ally -

Her shampoo smelled like bananas.

The bathroom was the only place where she could really go to truly think about everything, to think about her life. Here's what she came up with:

1) Today was Valentine's Day. Her birthday. She's 19.

Deep breath. Continue lathering shampoo.

2) She aced her essay with flying colors. She's majoring in English at the College. She's going to be a teacher. Gavin reminded her that if anyone was capable of acing that essay, it would be her.

Smile. Time to rinse.

3) If she was sad, it had to be in a place where she no longer felt it, because for the first time in a while, she was happy.

Conditioner.

4) Gavin brought up marriage the other night. She told him she wasn't ready. He said he respected that. After all, they were hardly adults yet, but she couldn't say that the thought of him on one knee didn't make her stomach flip excitedly.

Rinse. Rinse. Rinse.

5) She missed her mom, but it's been six years, she could finally miss her mom with a smile. Still hurt though.

Relax. There's no hurry.

6) There was something missing. Something she wanted that she hadn't yet gotten. She didn't know what it was.

Turn off the water.

Ally ran her fingers along her smooth, sopping hair. She twisted her long mane, ridding it of the excess water and listening to the sound of it slop at her feet.

The bathroom fan blaring noisily almost covered the sound of her boyfriend humming in the kitchen nearby. Her lips curved upwards at the corners.

Her arm extended behind the shower curtain and grabbed onto the towel that was awaiting her on the toilet seat. The steam wasn't enough to keep her warm as goose bumps gathered on her skin while she dried herself.

She was in mid towel wrap when something red caught her eye. With the opposite hand, she held the towel in place and lifted her left palm. It was red raw from the heat of the water, but there was no denying an abnormality about the little flaws that had made it to her skin.

Confusion swept along her flushed face and her lips pouted into something relatively close to a frown. She rubbed at the piece of flesh. She hadn't recalled hurting her hand although recollected the vague memory of how tender the skin had gotten over the last couple of days.

Using her towel, Ally rubbed over the small flaw. It wasn't swollen, but her flesh looked peeled in that area. She tried rubbing it again with her finger tips. Nothing. In fact, it only seemed to stand out more. She shook her head and pushed it to the back of her mind as she went back to the simple task of getting out of the shower.

She pretended not to notice that the flaws looked a lot like the numbers: 24:00.

- Austin -

Smoke set off the fire alarm.

It was so typical for him to not acknowledge it. It was his best friend that turned the corner sharply and swatted at the damn thing while muttering incoherent curse words under his breath.

Sleep kept Dez's mind groggy. He made the official plan that he would uninstall the smoke detectors before Austin's early morning smoking habits could turn their friendship into a rivalry.

"It's Valentine's Day, bestie." Austin chortled. He only received a hard stare.

"We're leaving." Austin said, his cigarette bobbing at the corner of his lip. He put down the newspaper in his hands and turned it towards Dez.

BANDITS IN DALLAS?

The words were capitalized in bold. Dez lifted the paper and his eyes scanned the article, catching a few words here and there.

"I guess we overstayed our welcome." Austin said, wryly and lifted his arms above his head, stretching them. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and plunged it into the ash tray in front of him, watching it die.

"Two days, Austin. We were here for two days." Dez vocalized. "You didn't have to kill that girl."

A shrug lifted Austin's shoulders. "I had an extra bullet. Besides, she was high with a knife. Somebody was gonna die and, guaranteed, it wasn't gonna be me."

Dez shook his head, waving his hand dismissively. He turned around and headed for his bed again. A hangover cursed his skull. He collapsed himself back into bed and curled beneath his covers. He wanted so bad to be drunk again.

Austin shook his head and lifted the newspaper again as he read through the article, but he's suddenly distracted by welts he'd not yet seen on his palm. He drops the paper and stretches his palm open, eyeing the raw flesh. He hadn't recalled nicking himself with his knife and even if he had, he was sure he'd never be able to make a cut so clean.

Confused, Austin's chair scrapes against the hard flooring as he stands up. He dives his hands under the tap water and scrubs at his palms, trying to rid himself of the flaw. Strangely, it doesn't burn or ache. He doesn't even feel it. He rubs at it repeatedly, but it only makes the marks darken.

He blinks at it numbly. 24:00.

"What in the hell..." he mutters, watching the tap water run over it.

"Aus," grumbles Dez, trudging back into the kitchen.

Austin immediately clasps his hands together tightly and looks over his shoulder to his best friend. "Hm?" He saw the shape his best friend was in. "Advil's in the cupboard." He turned away and peeked at his hand again. He hadn't imagined it. The marks were still there.

They were numbers.

Numbers for what?

CHAPTER ONE

The strange flaw on Ally's left palm had never faded, but she had learned to ignore it only speculating it was a birthmark that had only become visible as of a month ago. Though, Ally couldn't say it wasn't creepy that it had only made an appearance on her nineteenth birthday. Gavin joshed about the fact when she'd mentioned it.

Ally had caught herself gazing down at the abnormality and often traced her finger over it. It felt rigid and sometimes curiosity bubbled in her gut. Gavin had agreed that it was rather intriguing that the mark had appeared in the array of numbers. A clock. It never changed; only reading out the same numbers each day: a two, four, and double zeroes.

Austin, on the other hand, was more experimental.

Dumb enough to scrape at the mark with his pocket knife and watch blood drool from his palm, but smart enough to know that it was no ordinary mark and he was damn sure that it wasn't a scar or a birthmark. He would have seen it before.

And what birthmark heals over and returns to its natural form after you cut it open five times?

City to city; crime by crime, the mark had only darkened on his palm but never changed form. Not only had the mark caught him off guard, but it had taken over his thoughts. Rubbing at it with his thumb when he sank deep into his thoughts, memorizing its rough edges in the form of those familiar four numbers.

Austin had kept quiet about the mark for the month, but as its reddened, he wondered about bringing it up to Dez, but he knew Dez well enough to decide not to bring it up.

It was when cops had chased Austin and Dez right out of Missouri that heading straight to Miami became an official plan. They needed to hide themselves in a big city, one that had a decently high crime rate, and neither one of them had explored Miami before.

Crossing into Florida's borders had never felt so welcoming. Dez had already arranged plans for he and Austin to stay with an old friend. Miami was too promising to not want to stay.

"New beginnings?" Dez voiced as they sped across the city border and flew passed Miami's welcoming sign.

A crooked smirk curled on the corner of Austin's lips. "Something like that."

His wrist rested on the steering wheel, his hand dangling limply whilst he balanced his pride on the tip of his tongue. As he breathed in deeply, he hadn't noticed one thing:

The mark had changed.

23:59.

Ally had her books scattered around her on a table. She peered into textbooks and copied notes into a notepad. Her nose buried itself into her text books, eyes only looking away to write a few more notes and then she's back to her studies. Her life was floating so delicately on cloud nine that studying felt so breezy, so calming.

The loud roar of a 1965, black Comet had a pretentious way of spitting gravel from beneath its wheels as it passed the coffee shop.

Ally glances towards the window, nearly catching the vehicle and the prideful yellow-haired boy inside, and it's funny how she just misses it. The car is gone in the blink of an eye, headed down the road away from her.

"Sick car." Gavin is reeling, only daydreaming about owning such an antique. He shakes his head and his smile is warm on his girlfriend. "Chai Tea Latte." He holds out the drink.

"Gavin, I-"

She stops.

It's her palm.

She blinks warily at it, lips parted slightly before they close and curl into the shape of an 'O'. She's spiraling with confusion and surprise.

The mark. It's changed. It's different.

23:59.

"Als, you alright?" Gavin frowns down at her, pale eyes knitting concern.

"Yeah, I just..." Ally shakes her head vigorously. "Nothing. Nothing." She couldn't even think of a lie. Her mind felt suddenly foggy.

Gavin stared at her with arched eye brows. "Maybe you should take a break."

"Yeah." Ally nodded. "Take a seat. Maybe I just need...a moment, or something."

Her eyes look back to her hand.

23:58

She swallows hard.

x

"Let me see it!"

Before Ally could think about protesting, her best friend snatched her hand and pried her fingers wide. Her lips gapped open.

08:03

Ally chewed on her bottom lip with her front teeth, casting her best friend a troubled glance.

Trish blinked at the numbers written there. Her eye brows furrowed together as she released Ally's hand. "I thought you said it was a birthmark." She strictly remembered when Ally had showed her the steady 24:00 that had been its original formation.

"It is! ...Or was." Ally shook her head. "I don't know. It..It keeps changing. Ever since yesterday at the coffee shop."

"It looks like a clock." Trish murmured.

Ally looked at her, eyes wider, blinked twice. "Yeah." she muttered, fisting her palm.

"Does Gavin know?" Trish wondered.

Ally opened her palm and stared openly at it again. She nodded her head. "Yeah, he knows."

"Well, what did he say?" Trish pressed.

Ally shrugged, shaking her head. "Nothing really. He's just as confused as I am."

Ally watched the skin patch up quickly before a new mark painlessly cut through her skin.

08:02

Ally gulped. She flashed Trish her palm once more.

Trish's eyes got rounder and she looked at Ally.

"There has to be a reason that this is happening. " Trish said, stumbling on the words.

"What if I'm dying?" Ally blurted, "Maybe this is some sort of cosmic sign for the time I have left!"

Trish rolled her eyes and swatted her best friend. "Ally, stop being so dramatic. You're not dying!"

But suddenly, a frown creased onto Trish's face. Time I have left. Time. Time. Time.

"Wait," Trish halted, "You said it keeps changing?"

Ally nodded slowly. "Yeah. Frequently, actually. I mean, I just take my eyes off of it for a minute and it's like it...changes. I don't know."

Ally looked at her palm and sighed. She showed Trish her palm again. 08:01

"A countdown." Trish thought aloud.

"What?" Ally quirked a brow.

"You're onto something, Ally." Trish said. "Think about it, the numbers change by the minute and it looks like a clock, the numbers are getting smaller." Her eyes were wide as she waited for Ally to silently fill in the blanks.

A laugh bubbled out Ally's throat. "A countdown? Trish, I was exaggerating. I'm not going to die. I promise."

"No, no." Trish shook her head. "Of course you're not, I know that, but I just...I don't know, maybe this is just the philosophy major in me, but what if it is a countdown? Not to some stupid death, but to something else?"

Ally stared at Trish. A silence stilled the air for a couple beats. Ally looked down at her hand again.

08:00

She slowly looked up at Trish, but then shook her head. "Trish, I think we both could use some sleep."

x

Austin picked at his palm with his pocket knife, his feet kicked up onto the table.

07: 58

"Look, man, I'm sure making yourself bleed isn't helping." Elliot said, pushing his shaggy hair away from his eyes.

"It's counting down. The damn thing is counting down." Austin narrowed his gaze at Elliot. "I'm pretty sure birthmarks don't count down."

Dez slid over a bottle of Gin to Austin who caught it steadily, but never took a drink from it.

"Whatever the thing is, we'll figure it out. Just please don't tell me you're flipping out over a damn cut." Dez said, logically.

"I'm not." Austin said, taking his eyes off of the cut and grabbing a bandana and bandaging his hand with it. He knotted it tightly and cracked open the Gin with his knife. He let the drink refresh him, but his mind was still scattered.

"Collins," Dez said, "Get the boy a cigarette, would you?"

Elliot tugged a box out of his pocket and slapped it on the table in front of Austin, who grabbed the package greedily and swiped a lighter from his pocket. With a couple clicks, a flame lit and Austin inhaled deeply.

Austin leaned his head back as he did so. He heard the hum of Dez and Elliot's voices twist together until it was muffled to his ears by the noise of his own thoughts. He tugged on the knot of the bandana, feeling too skeptical to leave it alone. Smoke puffed through his lips, not even the luck of cigarettes could stable his curiosity and stress.

His thoughts fell apart when Elliot slapped a palm on his shoulder and patted him briefly. He dismissed himself from the dining area. Austin reached for his drink and dunked the alcoholic contents back, ignoring the burn in his throat from such a swift and forceful movement.

Dez had his pale eyes narrowed on his friend. Not much bothered Austin, he wondered why this did so much. A silly cut. It's a silly cut. He thought to himself, but the stern fact wavered as he watched Austin peel back the bandana again and inhaled sharply through his nostrils, a troubled look filmed over his eyes before Austin managed to detach the feeling quickly. His dark eyes going back to its usual flat, cold look.

Austin's eyes caught Dez's. The corner of his mouth quirked upwards for a split second before he got up from the chair, leaving Dez alone at the table. His footsteps were loud on the stairwell.

Austin peaked at the mark again.

07: 49

He could only think one thing:

What the hell is going on?

x

So, I had writers block when I wrote this and if any of you know what that's like you'll know how much of a pain it is to write. But I did my best for it to come out and although it wasn't quite how I imagined the first chapter would go, it'll do.

I've done enormous planning for this one, the most planning I've ever done for any story so I hope that maybe it'll catch your attention or I'll be able to continue it. I'll warn you that I did miss two full weeks of school due to mental health circumstances and so I've been piled into a truckload of schoolwork so my updating schedule is all messed up and as you've noticed, I had a habit of posting quite regularly and then lately it's been like BLAH! That has everything to do with school and the insane amount of work, so I apologize. Maybe by the time it's summer, I'll be able to have regular updates again. Who knows?

Anyway, thanks for everything: Your love, support, and reviews!