The Soulmate Initiative: Book 3: Next Generation

4. A new home p2

The first door on the left says Nian above it, he opens that door first and we all peer inside "Every bedroom, even for the kids, has a walk-in wardrobe, it's just the same colour as the bedroom walls in those." Nian's ceiling, carpet, bedframe, curtains and storage are all black, his walls and bedding are a deep red. The room opposite is Warren's, which is exactly the same, but all the red is brighter and slightly pink, with some silver detailing around the room (like knobs on drawers). The room next to Warren is for Braden, the ceiling is a deep blue with white stars painted onto it, the walls painted shiny silver and the carpet is the closest grey possible to the silver. The storage and toddler bed are silver, the bedding and decorations around the room are light blue. I smile, proud of myself, Nian and I had taken Braden out shopping, letting him help us pick what he wanted. I speak up "Don't forget this." I walk over to a circular lamp and click a few buttons, it turns on and projects light blue stars around the room, I then pull his black black-out curtains shut, so everyone can see properly "It has a few different settings, including just lighting up blue as a nightlight. He was mesmerised by it in the store." Most of my soulmates look at the projection the same way my son did, making me smile at their faces. After a few minutes of just enjoying ourselves, I turn it off, open the curtains and we leave the room. We walk to the door opposite, to Joseph's room, as Ash is opening the door, Stacey says "Since Joseph's too young to choose anything for himself, it was up to Nian and I." The door opens and we see the ceiling has some very light blue, but most of it is covered by leaves of varying green, meeting the walls where the leaves continue and brown tree trunks travel all the way down the walls. There's not much space that isn't covered by trees or green bushes, the few little bits that don't have anything are white and then there are beams of white coming from it, like a gap in the trees where sunlight is streaming in.

There's no doubt in my mind that Stacey painted all of this, she is such a talented artist.

The carpet is moss green, the toddler bed and storage are the same brown as the trees, which isn't too dark, while the black-out curtains and bedding and green to match the carpet. There are details on the walls, like flowers or little decorations around the room that are in bright red and orange. Prisha doesn't look me in the eye as she says "This is my favourite room so far." I have a sneaky suspicion that some of the others went to Stacey for help with painting rooms. I look at Nian, who gives me a guilty smile and wraps an arm around my shoulders. We make our way to the elevator, the staircase we came up is on one side and a new staircase to go up to the next level is on the opposite side of the elevator. The staircase is exactly the same, even the step fronts matching the walls; the dark blues and purples to their light versions, going up.

We step onto the third level, straight into another area, this one has a white ceiling and black carpet like the others, with the same walls, the colouring going; black, dark red, lighter reds, pinks, white. Before any of us can protest about pink not being just for girls, Ash backs herself up "I thought we should keep the black at the bottom theme, which I didn't think would blend as well with orange and yellow, which was my other option of colours." This room has a longer corridor than the one below us, though this front area is about the same size, if not slightly bigger. It takes me a moment to realise why.

Oh, the training room is two floors high!

This space has black soft baskets as storage along the two side walls and a large red rug in the middle of the floor, pink and red cushions thrown in a heap on top of it "Play room for the little kids, there are some new toys in the baskets, but we'll unpack their older stuff into them, too. There's a little kitchen set and a little rocking horse on their way, for this room." We get to the corridor, where we can see three doors on the left side, two doors on the right and one at the end. Ash opens the first door on the left, revealing a bathroom with white ceiling, white walls and light pink flooring. Then she opens the door next to it, revealing the exact same bathroom, but with red flooring, both also have a potty that matches the flooring, so I assume the bathroom for the boys has one, too "Proper bathrooms, so that we don't have to adjust the house as they grow up. We can't have this place blown up again, we need a sign or something. I should add to the sign outside, it's already got that we'll shoot on sight and about our angry guard dog to deter people, but maybe we also need something about... it being nuclear or something." Stacey shakes her head, a smile on her face.