I looked at the clock and smoothed down my jeans and my favourite button up shirt. The invitation said to dress in what made you comfortable because what you were wearing didn't matter.
Today was my 18th birthday and the day I was to meet my soulmate. I felt nervous, so nervous the urge to throw up was nearly overpowering but I tried to force my body into submission. Everything would go smoothly, everything would be perfect. He would be perfect. I smiled at myself in the mirror, I fairly glowed with excitement and I hoped he would too.
"Liv, it's time to go." At my mum's voice the nervousness returned and I could see my face pale in the mirror. I forced myself to smile to hide it. After a moment of looking at myself, thinking how everything would be different when I came back, I turned away.
"Coming, mum." I rushed down the stairs and kissed my dad on his cheek before doing the same for my mum. They both looked so happy and I couldn't blame them. Their only daughter going out to meet the one she would love for eternity.
"We love you, sweety. Come back before the move and tell us everything." There were tears in my mum's eyes and she pressed her hand to her mouth.
"Bring your boy with you, we want to meet him. Deep breaths and don't forget to be respectful." My dad's eyes looked slightly watery and I flashed them one more smile before I rushed out the door. It was the beginning of forever.
The building wasn't as grand as I thought it would be. It was simple and grey. Its professional looking, I concluded as I stepped out of the government mandated vehicle. I would leave with a new car and a husband that would take me to our new house, government provided for all the new soulmates.
I took a deep breath in, my dad's words echoing in my head as I pulled the door open and stepped inside. The air was cool and I headed towards the front desk and the man sitting there pointed to a chair without looking at me.
Nervousness flooded my system once again as I sat down. It took all I had to not bounce my legs on my toes. My muscles jumped and twitched under my hands and I wondered if everyone felt like this before their meeting. If they felt this crushing mixture of nervousness, excitement, and pure happiness. This was the most important meeting in my life.
Since I was young everyone had told me what I was to expect on this day. That I would see him and the world would stop because in that moment all that mattered was him. That my heart would flutter in my chest and my mouth would feel dry because he was just so handsome. That I would want to laugh because I would know he felt the same way.
I clutched at my medallion where it hung between my breasts. Everyone was given one on their tenth birthday and it was to never be taken off until your eighteenth. On that day it would be removed and your soulmate's would take its place as yours would take theirs.
I worried that my medallion would be too plain. It was so simple, a flat metal oval, the edges worn slightly, with some strange symbols a gypsy at a fair I went to a few years ago said was Orrian. She told me she couldn't read it but my soulmate's medallion would look similar, his symbols completing mine.
The thought of the Orrians was a heart stopping one. Their species was divided. Half wished to help the humans and the other half wished to destroy us all. They had appeared over three hundred years ago and it was their intervention that started the soulmate program.
A tall woman walked towards me and I quickly got to my feet, nervousness twisting my insides once again. Her smile was calming and I felt myself take several deep breaths in, trying to relax. She motioned me to follow her and I do, mentally counting the steps it would take to lead me to my forever.
She pushed open a door and gestured at me to go inside and I hesitated for a moment, drawing in a breath before doing just that. I looked around the small room and my eyes finally land on a man sitting at the table in front of me. His eyes had gone wide and a large smile crossed his face. I blinked rapidly as he stood and I shook my head with a frown. It was all wrong, the man in front of me didn't make my heart flutter or my mouth go dry. I turned to look at the woman but the door was closed.
My heart thumped in my chest in panic, all of my worst fears had come true. I was broken because I did not want the stranger in front of me. So many times I had woken up as I had grown, screaming about just this nightmare. I closed my eyes and willed myself to wake up. I needed to wake up.
"My name is Mark." His voice was slightly wheezy as if he had asthma and I opened my eyes and looked at him. He looked at me like my dad looked at my mum and I felt sorry for him. I didn't love him like that. He was a stranger and would always be a stranger.
"I think there has been a mistake." My words sounded so foreign to my ears, they sounded so far away. My heart pounded hard in my chest and it drowned everything out. "There must be a mistake because you're not my soulmate." I watched as confusion crumbled the happiness that was on his face. He looked so confused but he wasn't experiencing what I was. He had love and I didn't. Not for him. He wasn't my soulmate and he would never be.
Tears filled my eyes as I thought of how disappointed my parents would be. About how disappointed his parents would be. All of that disappointment because I was broken, I was flawed because I didn't love my soulmate.
The door opened behind me and I turned around. Two large Orrians stepped inside, their neutral expressions couldn't hide their disdain and revulsion. My heart slammed into my rib cage. These weren't the nice Orrians. I could hear Mark shouting and I looked over my shoulder with wide eyes as two more Orrians grabbed him and dragged him from the room. I could see the fear in his eyes and my mouth went dry.
Rough hands grabbed my arms and spun me around before pulling them behind my back. The cold touch and click of handcuffs made fear surge through me. What was happening? I tried to think of other cases where soulmates were born broken but my brain froze.
I was pushed through the hallways, long twisting hallways to the point I felt dizzy, even if I escaped I could never find my way out. The two Orrians were speaking in their gruff language and I wanted to cry. What was going to happen to me? The answer came unbidden into my mind.
They will do to you what they do to all the other broken things. I started crying, tears running down my cheeks. I was going to be unmade. It is what they did to those with life altering defects, to those who didn't reach their proposed limits of perfection. I rejected my soulmate and so I was defective.
I didn't fight them, there was no point. Orrians were strong, far stronger than humans. I stood up straighter, my fate could not be changed. No one could escape the system, it was too perfect. I would be unmade and it is what I was destined for. My heart hurt for my parents. I wondered what story the Orrians would tell, I wondered if they would tell them the truth or if they would lie.
I felt the tears stop as I was pushed into a small room. One side was covered with buttons and screens and the others were glass. One of the Orrians closed the door before moving to the panel and pushing a few buttons. I felt the floor shift and then we were going up. I watched the windows but soon the rapidly passing floors made me dizzy and I closed my eyes. They would take me to one of their ships. Garbage disposal most likely. I felt a chuckle wanting to escape at my morbid attempt at humor but I bit it back.
Light soon filled the small ship and I risked opening my eyes. I wanted to close them again because we were going higher, far higher than I had ever been and the thought turned my stomach. It was a silly thing to want to vomit because of the height and not because I was going to be thrown into a garbage disposal.
I felt my legs grow weak and I closed my eyes. I didn't want to fall down, not without my hands to break the fall. I adjusted my hands behind my back, the cool metal had grown warmer from my skin but it still bit into it. I rolled my shoulders forward, trying to take off some of the strain but it didn't seem to help at all.
We went upwards for several more minutes before I felt the ship slow down. My heart did another lurch in my chest and the fear returned but I squared my shoulders as best I could. I was human and I wasn't going to let them tell all their other Orrian friends that I had fallen apart and fought them every step of the way. I would be brave and meet my fate like all the heroes of mythology. I would embrace death because it was inevitable. I was broken and this is what happened to the broken things.
The ship came to a stop and I stumbled slightly at the bump it made as it did. The two Orrians laughed and said something in their language before the door opened again. It was dark and one of the Orrians shoved me forward. I stumbled, nearly falling before I caught myself. Their laughter echoed in my ears as the door closed and I was left alone. I could hear movement around me and dull lights turned on. Several Orrians stared at me and I once again squared my shoulders and held my head high. I would not break at my fate. I would not weep for it. Their deep and guttural voices sounded around me but I kept my gaze straight.
"Rhex!" It sounded like a name and I glanced at the one who said it and he motioned for someone to come forward. My heart flipped in my chest as an Orrian stepped forward. He was large, his shoulders broad and it seemed like with every Orrian muscles came by him naturally. A scar went down his cheek and the corner of his mouth, giving him half a frown. His eyes were cold and he should have terrified me but he didn't.
The other Orrian said something else but it didn't matter, all that mattered was him. The Orrian called Rhex and his scarred face. He looked as though he had fought in many battles and had always emerged the victor. The thought made my mouth go dry, he would defeat all who opposed him and all who got between him and what he wanted.
The laughter that bubbled up was unexpected and I tried my best to force it back but I couldn't. I laughed and shook my head. I truly was broken because he was my soulmate. An Orrian and a human, never heard of but it was there, right in front of me. My mum used to say that the heart didn't lie and it seemed as though my heart wasn't, how I wished it was in that moment but it wasn't.
A large hand grabbed my arm and started dragging me down a long tunnel, he was muttering Orrian under his breath and I said nothing, just revelled in his presence. I wondered if this was what Mark had felt when he looked at me and the thought made me laugh again. I was fucked. I had an Orrian as a soulmate and I shook my head as the laughter died down.
Why did I have to be different? Why did I have to mess things up? Why was I so strange?
I let the questions bounce around my head as the person I was destined to love lead me to my death. His muttering became louder and he pulled me to a stop before pushing me up against the wall with one large hand. Fear bloomed in my chest at the angry look on his face and the fire in his eyes. He was dangerous, I knew that because all Orrians were dangerous. He pulled out a small device and pressed it to my neck. It pinched hard and I winced as he pulled it away. His gaze on the device.
He started shouting, I wondered if it was cursing. As he turned the device to my face, his tone sounded accusing and I tried to read the digital display but all I could make out was sixty-three percent. The numbers and the percentage sign flashed in my eyes and I didn't understand what it meant.
He abruptly dropped his hand and started pacing. I watched him warily, it was like watching the tigers pacing at the zoo. Only without the glass to protect you. He threw the device down the tunnel and I jumped as it shattered on the floor. He grabbed my arm and started pulling me down the tunnel once more. I was more and more certain that his mutterings were actually curses the further we moved along.
I wiggled my shoulders, hating how tight they were pulled back. He stopped again and I glanced over at him. His expression was blank and he turned me so I faced him. His hand reached down and pulled my medallion from my shirt. I almost gave a slight whimper of protest. My skin felt cold without it.
My dad told me that it was the physical representation of our souls and to be parted from it would mean aching loneliness forever. Without a medallion one could not claim their soulmate, they could not have children or ever be happy.
I watched as Rhex pulled out his own medallion, it looked similar to mine but the symbols were different. He muttered something, as if he had read the symbols. I looked up at his scarred face and it looked as though the harsh edges had softened. He held both the medallions in one hand and pointed to them. Repeating what he had just muttered.
"I don't understand. I can't speak Orrian." My voice was small, it almost didn't sound like my own and I watched frustration cross his face. He pointed at my medallion.
"Love is." His voice sounded so strange speaking English and I blinked in shock as his finger moved to his medallion. "Never easy." He looked at me and I blinked again.
"Mehba illeehd sirbaht onshe halh." He said the words slowly and I realized he wanted me to say it.
"Mehba illeehd sirbaht onshe halh." The repetition was slow and I stuttered over a few of the foreign words but he gave a quick nod before removing my medallion completely. I gave a noise of protest but the look he gave me silenced it in my throat. I watched as he removed his and replaced it with mine. He muttered something I couldn't understand before he gently pulled his medallion over my head, letting it fall into place. My skin warmed at the contact and I looked at him in confusion.
"Love is never easy." His gaze was as confused as mine but it appeared he had made a decision sometime during our trip down the tunnel.
Slowly, as if he was afraid I would run off, he reached behind me and released the cuffs. My shoulders ached with relief and I went to rub my wrists when he grabbed them instead. His rough fingers rubbed at the red marks, his voice was low as he spoke. He looked at me, his eyes were apologetic as he let my wrists go. I finally noticed in the dark lighting of the tunnel that his eyes were a pale green, a colour no one had on Earth. They were beautiful.
I reached up slowly, my fingers wanting to touch his scar, to touch the line that turned one corner of his mouth down into a perpetual frown. He jerked back slightly but I reached the rest of the distance anyway. The scar was smooth and the edges jagged as I trailed my fingertips from where it started to where it ended on his chin.
I did not know him or his past but in that moment all I wanted to do was take away that pain. To take away his scar and the memories that must have gone with it. I let out a sound of sympathy as I met his gaze, my fingertips still touching the scar.
"I am sorry this happened to you." I felt tears rush into my eyes as he reached up and took my hand in his. His palm was warm and large. He could hurt me without a thought but I knew he wouldn't. He couldn't hurt me anymore than I could hurt him.
"Never easy." The words were sighed and I realized we were going to have a hard time if we had a relationship. The language barrier alone would be hard to overcome but the intolerance of everyone else would be worse. Our relationship was unheard of for both humans and Orrians. We simply didn't mix but as his hand grasped the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss, I didn't care.
Love is never easy. The words were branded into both of our souls, a mantra for a new beginning, our beginning. As he broke off the kiss and threw me over his shoulder in standard Orrian fashion when declaring a mate. I smiled, it felt good to be broken.