Felicity didn't know what happened one minute she was sleeping peacefully in her bed and the next she felt a hot searing heat flaring across her ribs, she cried out clutching at her side, the pain was so sharp and intense, she writhed in pain, her eyes filled with tears, clenching her jaw tightly to stop from crying out but was unable to as the pain worsen, the heat intensifying but as soon as it had flared up it was gone to a low simmer.
She breathed deeply, her breaths coming out quick, her hand hovering over the spot that still flared with heat but at a moderate simmer to what it had been.
"Felicity, are you okay?" a disgruntled voice called from the hallway right before her door was being thrown open by a hungover Sara, her hair disheveled, couch marks indented on the skin of her face.
Felicity pushed her mess of blonde hair that was in tangles back from her face. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Sara eyed her skeptically. "Are you sure? You were screaming."
"Bad dream." she lied, hoping she sounded convincing. "I'm fine." she glanced at her clock and saw it was almost 5 in the morning. "Go back to sleep."
"If you're sure, you're fine?" Sara said, watching her carefully. If she hadn't been hungover Felicity was sure Sara would have known something was up but to Felicity's relief her friend let it go and stumbled further into the room. "Scoot over. Beds are more comfortable than couches."
Felicity forced a smile and scooted over, allowing Sara to climb into one side of the bed. It wasn't anything new for Felicity to have a hungover Sara crashing in her bed. Whenever they went out or had a girls night and Sara got too drunk to make it home on her own Felicity would take her friend home with her and either let her crash on the couch or in her bed whichever Sara ended up passed out on.
Felicity waited until she knew Sara had passed out again before climbing out of the bed and headed into her bathroom, she turned on the light and stood in front of the mirror, lifting her shirt up only for her eyes to widen at what she saw.
The words 'MAY YOU NEVER LOVE ANYONE BUT ME' etched into her skin like a severe burn, the flesh raised, looking like an angry red scar.
What the Frack?! She stared wide-eyed at the words scarring over on her ribs, slowly, hesitantly, she reached up a hand to trail her fingers over the mark but jerked back hissing, just touching it caused a jolt of pain to hit her.
She stumbled back a couple steps her back hitting the wall and looked up at her reflection in the mirror, seeing her wide eyes and pale skin, the look of panic on her face. She was freaking out.
She didn't know how she got the mark or when. It hadn't been there when she was out with Laurel and Sara just last night. But she knew as crazy as it sounded that she got it while she slept, it was the only way to describe the pain that had awoken her.
She knew it wasn't possible but the proof was on her skin, she felt her breathing escalate, her heart beating fast in her chest. She couldn't explain this, couldn't fathom it. It was like she was branded. She didn't know what was happening or why and it scared her. She slid down on to her bathroom floor, she brought her legs to her chest and haunched forward leaning her forehead against her bent knees and tried to get her racing heart to slow down, even out her rapid breathing, taking deep calming breaths and counting backwards in her head.
She didn't know how long she sat there on her bathroom floor but by the time she got up her butt hurt from the hard floor, her legs had fallen asleep that when she finally stood, she had to brace her hands on the wall, to steady herself, she moved her legs back in forth to get feeling back in them and once that was done she walked to her shower, turning on the water to a lukewarm before stripping out of her clothes and climbing into the shower. The warm water felt amazing on the mark and she stood under the water, allowing the water to soothe what seemed like a constant burning heat of the wound and didn't move from the water until it had started to go cold. She quickly washed up and washed her hair before stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around her body, and flinching when it seemed the cloth of the towel brushing against the mark irritated it causing her to hiss out, her face scrunching up into a grimace as a brief jolt of pain hit her.
She walked out of the bathroom, walked to her dresser, pulling out a pair of pajamas and underwear, glancing briefly at the bed to see that Sara was fast asleep and that the clock read a little after seven in the morning. She returned to the bathroom, drying off, throwing on her underwear and then rummaging through her cabinet for a first aid kent and put a bandage over the mark, hoping covering it would stop the heat from flaring again or her clothes from brushing against it irritably.
And after she pulled on her pajama's she returned to her room, climbing back into her side of the bed, scooting Sara over more to the other side of the bed since she had rolled to the center of it while she was in the bathroom, with a huff she laid back attempting to go back to sleep but despite her attempts sleep didn't come easy to her but eventually it did and when she woke again she would wish that she had never gone back to sleepto begin with.
Oliver snapped awake groaning, sitting up abruptly the sheet covering him sliding down to his naked waist, his hand clutching at his ribs as it felt like burning hot flames were burning at his skin, he clenched his jaw so tight to keep from screaming out from the pain that he was sure his teeth were going to crack.
"Are you alright?" a feminine voice asked from nearby.
He looked over to see a pretty raven haired girl, her hair disheveled around her shoulder in tangles, a sheet barely covering her obviously naked body. He stared back at her dumbly, he remembered dancing with her after Sara and Laurel's blonde friend had shot him down again and his date had left with someone else. He groaned again as the pain continued and glanced around the room, nothing about the bedroom was familiar and it wasn't a hotel room and he didn't need to be a genius to figure out that they were obviously in the woman's bedroom. He racked his brain for her name but couldn't recall it.
Had he even ask for it before taking her back to her apartment and fucking her until they clearly passed out?
"Hey, are you alright?" she asked again, sitting up the sheet falling from her body as her hand landed on his back between his shoulder blades. He grunted loudly, a jolt of pain scorching him from where she touched him, he jerked away from her, and fell right out of the bed, smacking his head against the floor.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Are you alright?" she jumped out of the bed and rushed to his side, her hands automatically reached for him but he scrambled back out of her reach afraid her touch might cause the same reaction.
"I'm fine." he said quickly, pushing to his feet uncaring of the fact that he was stark naked.
"Are you-" the woman broke off, her eyes widened as she looked at his ribs. "That- that wasn't there before."
His brow furrowed in confusion despite the pain he felt scorching his ribs, he looked down and saw to his bafflement a scar like burn, angry and red, still forming agonizingly slowly.
"How is this happening?" the woman asked eyes wide as she watched it expand across his ribs at a slow progression.
Oliver turned away from her he couldn't be bothered with her reaction only his own, clenching his jaw from the pain he quickly grabbed at his clothes strewn across the floor and quickly got dressed and took off without sparing the girl another look not responding or stopping as she called after him.
"Hey, where are you-" the door closed behind him, cutting her words off as he hurried out of her building.
Half an hour later relief washed through him as he arrived home, he quickly made his way toward his room, thankful that it was still too early for anyone to be up yet, the sun had yet to even rise, he glanced at the clock briefly when he entered his room seeing it was a little after five, he shook his head and quickly walked to his bathroom, stripping off his shirt and looked at the mark again that still burned like hot flames against his skin but the strange scar was no longer spreading across his ribs.
He noticed the scar was red and angry looking and formed words across his ribs, he looked closely, his eyes furrowing in confusion at the words etched into his skin like a searing burn. 'MAY YOU ALWAYS WANT ME AND ALWAYS LOVE ME BUT NEVER HAVE ME'.
Oliver stared wide-eyed at the words, he looked up at his reflection in the mirror and saw his freaked out expression staring back at him.
What the fuck? How the hell had it just shown up? He knew on some level it caused the pain he had felt but he didn't understand how it could just appear on his skin like a brand. What had happened? Why? The sight of it freaked him out, he quickly turned away from the mirror, pulling his shirt back down, covering it back up, ignoring the small flare of pain that jolted through his ribs from the fabric of his shirt brushing up against the scar-like mark.
Everything about this was impossible and unexplainable and it was freaking him out more than he could ever remember being before. He half convinced himself if he didn't see it, kept it covered, then it wasn't there, wasn't real, just a fragment of his imagination, maybe an aftereffect from his hangover.
But he still felt the pain, and he knew deep down it wasn't an aftereffect from a hangover. It wasn't a fragment of his imagination, just because he kept it covered so he couldn't see it didn't make it not real. It was real. And no matter how hard he tried to convince himself it wasn't, it was there and it wasn't going away. It was impossible, unexplainable but it was real.
Felicity walked down the strip heading toward the casino her mother worked at, her mother wanted to get lunch claiming they didn't spend as much time as she would have like with one another.
"Hey, you girl!" a voice called out but she kept on walking there were several people walking down the strip and she was sure whoever called out it wasn't to her.
"Hey, girl!" the voice called again insistently and she felt a hand tug at her shirt.
She stopped in surprise and turned around to come face to face with the gypsy woman she often saw sitting outside her little shop on the Vegas Strip. "Can I help you?" her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Come." the woman said. "You must come." she jerked her head in the direction of her shop.
"I'm not one for fortune telling." Felicity denied. "So thanks but no thanks." Felicity turned back around and she barely even took two steps before the woman was tugging on her again. "Okay, seriously. This is not okay." Felicity whirled back around to glare at the woman but stopped short at the look in the older woman's eyes. Her eyes were narrow and dark, jaw set stubbornly as she stared her down, Felicity felt like the woman was peering inside her soul.
"Come girl." the woman's tone brooked no room for argument. "What I have to tell you is of the utmost importance."
Felicity made a face. "Who even talks like that anymore," Felicity grumbled, reluctantly following the woman into her shop and over to a table near the back wall, with tarot cards and a crystal ball on the table.
"Sit, child." the woman directed, waving her hand at one of the chairs.
Felicity hesitated, glancing around the shop, the lighting was dim, there were gypsy things lining the shelves, incense burning. The light and incense were probably meant to comfort customers but it just made her wary and cautious, she scanned the shop, looking for any and all exits in case the older woman turned out to be some kind of psychotic crazy lady.
"Sit." the woman repeated, eyes leveling on her with intensity, her tone filled with steel.
Felicity took a seat, grudgingly, hoping that this wasn't going to be something she regretted.
"Wise choice." said the gypsy, taking the seat across from her, pushing the tarot cards and crystal ball carelessly to the side, just inches from the edge of the table. "I need to get a better look at your aura."
"My aura?" Felicity repeated in confusion.
"Yes. Your aura. It's shrouded in darkness, pain, longing, grief, regret." The woman continued. "Give me your hands."
Despite her reservations and earlier reluctance Felicity found herself curious and reach both arms across the table. The gypsy took her hands in her own, her grasp firm and closed her eyes.
"I thought you wanted a closer look at my aura?" questioned Felicity in confusion. "How do you plan on doing that with your eyes closed?"
"Hush!" the woman's hands tightened on her own. "One does not always need eyes to see."
Felicity rolled her eyes. Well, excuse her for thinking otherwise, it wasn't like she knew anything about this psychic mumbo jumbo.
The longer the gypsy kept her eyes closed, the tighter her grip got and Felicity watched her face, seeing the muscles in her face tightened more and more, her expression intense with conflict, but growing stiller by the moment, Felicity felt the tension in the air as it washed over her making her anxious.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when the gypsy's eyes snapped open, dropping her hands like she was burned. "You are cursed!" she exclaimed.
"What?!" Felicity's eyes widened. "Curses aren't real. You're just trying to play some kind of gimmick on me." Felicity pushed from the table with the intention of leaving but the woman, gripping her arm tightly, keeping her seated.
"Your soul is cursed." the woman said forebodingly. "You and your soulmate are cursed."
Felicity stared at the woman in confusion. One minute she was talking about curses and cursed souls and the next she was talking about soulmates. Felicity wasn't even sure she believed in soulmates but she sure as hell didn't believe in something as ridiculous as curses. "Let's say that I believe you." she totally didn't but she was curious where the gypsy was going with this. "How am I cursed? How is my soulmate cursed?" she made quotation air marks at the use of the word soulmate.
"Long, long ago, in one of your past lives, you and your soulmate were placed under two separate curses that are tied to your one soul." the gypsy said.
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "I'm sorry did you just say, one soul?"
The gypsy nodded, her eyes dark and foreboding. "Most soulmates have two souls that are connected but not you. No you and your soulmate share the same soul. I have never seen anything like it before."
"How-how is that possible?" Felicity questioned confounded. "Two people can't share the same soul. It's impossible."
"Not for you it is not." she insisted vehemently. "The connection that you have with your soulmate should you cross paths will be borderline unnatural even for soulmates. Your emotions will be twice as much. You will feel what he feels and vice versa."
"And the curse?" asked Felicity, not sure she liked any of what the gypsy was telling her.
"It will be etched into your skin like a brand." the gypsy said. "Do you have it?"
"No. That must mean your wrong." said Felicity feeling relief fill her because she had no such brand which could only mean that what this woman was saying had to be a bunch of BS crap to lure naive customers in. But she wasn't one of them.
"I am never wrong." the gypsy snapped shortly. "If you do not have the mark then you have yet to meet your soulmate."
"So you're saying this mark, this curse, brand or whatever will be etched into my skin when I meet him?" asked Felicity, this was sounding crazier by the minute.
"Yes within the time zone of 24 hours of meeting your soulmate, it will appear. And it will be painful and it will be just the beginning." said the gypsy, her hand latched onto Felicity's arm. "For your sake, I hope you never cross paths. All you will bring each other is resentment, hate, bitterness but most of all misery. As long as you're cursed you're not good for each other. You're better off alone than together."
The gypsy words had her heart beating fast, pounding against her ribs, she jumped up from her seat, knocking the tarot cards and crystal ball off the table in her haste, the crystal ball shatttered and the cards scattered on the floor but she barely noticed, running for the exit needing to get away from the woman and her dark warnings.
"Wait, child!" the gypsy called out to her.
Felicity stopped her hand on the door glancing back at the gypsy who had stood up and walked around her table but made no further movements to stop her from leaving. "If you ever do cross paths with your soulmate, return here and I shall do everything I can to help you lift the curse." she paused and what she said next had Felicity freaked out more than she already was. "Felicity Smoak."
"I never told you my name." Felicity's eyes were wide, she felt the color drain from her face.
"You didn't need to." said the gypsy knowingly. "If the time ever comes when you need my help, look for Talina Gray."
"Talina Gray." Felicity repeated so quietly before wrenching the door open and quickly leaving the shop, telling herself again and again, none of what Talina predicted would come to pass. She was just crazy and delusional and was trying to rub her crazy off on her.
For weeks to come Felicity would tell herself that exact thing, that Talina was crazy and none of what she said had any relevance until Talina and her tales of curses and soulmates became nothing but a strange encounter.
Until now.
Felicity woke up with a start, jolting up straight in bed, heart pounding, breath coming out in fast pants as her chest heaved, the memory so vivid that she had been able to remember every detail of the strange encounter with Talina Grey several years back in Vegas.
She had actually managed to forget all about it until her subconscious decided to remind her in the form of a dream slash memory.
And much to her horror what Talina had said was coming true. A mark had appeared on her skin out of the blue and it had been painful.
And if she was right about the mark did that mean she was right about everything? The soulmate thing? The sharing one's soul with said soulmate? The curse?
If she went by the words now etched into her ribs then yes Talina had been right. And it didn't just freak her out, it scared the fucking crap out of her.
Frack.
Fracking frack, frack, frack.
And it was the only thing her overwhelmed mind was able to process.
Fracking Frack.
A/N: Reviews are always welcomed. The next chapter will be up next Monday.
