Matched

The Test

I watched as the nurse took out a needle, the sharp silver tip glistening underneath the horrible fluorescent lighting. The red headed girl on the chair stiffened at the sight of it and squeezed her eyes shut. Hesitantly, she placed her hand out for the nurse to take and within seconds her finger had been pricked, her blood oozing out onto a cotton swab. I swallowed hard and glanced over at my best friend Kara who stood next to me.

"Are you nervous?" I asked her. She sighed and ran her hand through her blonde hair.

"Very." She said.

"Do you want it? To be matched?" I asked again.

"I think so." She said. "I know how much you hate the wolves Anna, but i don't mind them, they're not that bad. I could handle spending the rest of my life with one." I scrunched up my face.

"Not that bad? Have you seen what they've done to the world?" I asked.

Werewolves came out of hiding when I was just nine years old. They had been populating over the years and finally thought that they had the numbers to overthrow the human race.

They did.

When the wolves announced their existence the world went into panic. They were stronger, faster, and always one step ahead of us humans. They could wipe us all out in one attack. When people started to rebel and hunt them down they killed them.

There was no mercy, they never showed us mercy.

After the attacks only a small amount of humans remained. We drew a white flag, begged for them to leave us be. We promised to be civil so they left us alone. The world after that had changed. Humans and wolves were segregated with the wolves taking up over half the country and humans were placed in the remaining areas. To enter a wolf town would be suicide. Although they promised to leave us alone they would find any excuse to kill one of us so we kept our distance. It wasn't a horrible life, we still had most of our basic rights and lived in decent towns, but it was nothing like what it was before.

Kara sighed again and looked at me. "I know what you think they did was horrible Anna, but you just have to put it in the past. The wolves aren't going anywhere, you need to learn to let it go and adapt."

"Your family wasn't killed in the attacks though Kara." I said. She looked at me sympathetically and closed her mouth knowing we were getting into an area i didn't want to talk about. We looked back at the red headed girl, the nurse had put the blood stained cotton swab in a machine and looked at the computer screen in front of her. The computer screen came up with green blinking letters and my heart stopped.

"Matched." I breathed.

The girl's eyes bugged out, a small smile lighting up her face. The nurse whipped out a walkie-talkie of some sorts and immediately a group of men rushed over to the girl, escorting her out of the building.

Most humans considered being matched a blessing. It was guaranteed that you would have someone to love for the rest of your life and you would be able to live out there, in the wolf world. I didn't want to be matched. The wolves were monsters and i despised them with every being of my soul. To be matched to one would be one of the worst things i could think of.

"How does the test work? How do they know if you're a match?" I asked Kara. Kara loved learning about the wolf culture, she found it fascinating. Any question I could ever have she would have the answer to.

"Each werewolf has a unique chemical in their blood, one shared with no other wolf, but is shared with their mate. All of the wolves have been blood tested, and their information is on a computer database. The nurse comes over, pricks your finger, and enters your results into the database. If there is a match found, then voila! You have a mate. The good news is that you only have to be tested once in your lifetime, so we don't have to do this again. Not all humans have a mate though, in fact it's quite rare to be a mate to a wolf. But you never know." She said. The line moved up and I watched as another girl was pricked with a needle.

The test wasn't the only way the wolves could find their mates, before the technology they would go into contact with every person they saw hoping for a spark. They could tell who their mates were by scent and a tingling sensation when they touched. The test made it easier to find mates though. Instead of having to roam the entire country to find your significant other it could all be done by a simple prick of the finger, so this method was used for it's speed and efficiency.

"So there's a good chance that I won't be matched?" I asked. She shrugged.

"It's a good chance, but don't get your hopes up, you just might be a mate to someone." My heart started to beat erratically in my chest and my hands were getting clammy. I was nervous. I kept trying to convince myself that everything would be fine, that I wouldn't have a mate and would be able to live my life as a normal human in a normal human town but a voice in the back of my head was telling me otherwise.

Before I could get another word out the nurse came over.

"Hello there sweetie." She said to Kara and ushered for her to sit down in one of the chairs.

"Hi." Kara said sweetly and put out her hand to be pricked. The nurse wiped down the area with some alcohol and stuck the tip into her finger, placing a drop onto a cotton swab. She placed the cotton swab into the machine and watched as the computer screen in front of her read 'NO MATCHES FOUND' in big red letters.

"No matches for you hun." She said and Kara hopped off of the chair.

"Well I guess I don't have a mate." She said sadly. "Ouch!" She yelled holding her finger. "The damn thing is still bleeding." Before she could do anything I grabbed her hand and squeezed her finger, letting the red substance flow out.

"What are you doing?" She shrieked.

"Shut up!" I hissed. While the nurse was distracted I grabbed a clean cotton swab and pushed it onto Kara's finger, letting the blood pool onto it. Kara looked at me horrified. "I'll explain later." I said and sat down in the chair where the nurse was preparing another needle. I watched as the needle went into my skin and the nurse collected my blood on a cotton swab. Just before she was about to put it into the machine I flung my hand onto the table sending supplies everywhere.

"Oh my god!" I shrieked in fake horror. "I am so sorry!" The nurse put the cotton swab down and helped me clean everything off the floor.

"It's fine hun, no worries." She said as she turned her back to me to clean up the band-aids that littered the floor. Quickly I grabbed the cotton swab with my blood on it and put it into the trash, replacing it with the one that had Kara's blood on it. After we finished cleaning up the woman put it in the machine where the 'NO MATCHES FOUND' sign appeared in red again. I let out a sigh of relief and smiled to myself.

"There's no matches for you either hun." The woman said and I sprung out of my chair while grabbing Kara's arm on the way out the door.

"What did you just do?" She asked looking at me wide eyed.

"I don't want that life Kara." I said as I pointed to the wooden doors in front of us. "I'm only sixteen. I shouldn't be worried about freaking soul mates, I should be worrying about my next math test or what colleges I want to go to. I don't like the wolves, I never have and I never will, and just the thought of being mated to one? To have the one thing I despise in life control what I do and who to love? I don't want that life."

"What if you're someone's mate Anna? Mates are meant for each other, he's made for you. Nobody could ever make you happier! I would kill to have a mate, even if it is a werewolf. To know that there is someone who loves you and will only love you for the rest of your live is a gift!" She yelled at me.

"Yes, that sounds amazing but it's not for me. I would rather live my life alone then to be mated to one of those things." I spat out. "Besides, I probably don't even have a mate. My result would probably have been the same as yours anyways."

She bit the inside of her cheek. "I guess so." She said. "The odds of humans having werewolf mates are slim anyways."

"See?" I said. "Nothing to be upset over. Now let's go get some ice cream or something, maybe have a sleepover tonight? I asked and her face lit up

"YES!" She shrieked and dragged me out of the hallway, me laughing behind her.