Chapter one
Avgeline, or Eve as everyone called her, (well really only her mum called her that and her three only friends.) stared at herself in the mirror. She looked haggard and worse for wear. Her brown long hair was ruffled and knotted, her baby hairs slicked down on her face with her sweat. Her eyes were rimmed with bags and puffed red. Worse, she had a big red pimple on her nose, forehead and chin. She stunk as bad as the time the kids at school had tipped the bin from the cafeteria on her head. Her pits were soaked and surprise, surprise she had started her period.
Eve was not having a good morning, she trudged to the shower to find they had run out of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, so basically everything you need to have a shower. Better yet the shower was broken again so Eve had to stand buck naked with cold water sprinkle down her body as she rummaged about trying to squeeze even an ounce of soap out of the bottles. It didn’t work, the only result was her teeth chattering and her lips turning blue.
Nightmares had plagued her all night after her mark appeared. Dreams, of a cackling soulmate, gazing down at her with disgust and revolution. He stepped on her back, hard with solid sole boots, just between her shoulder blades. He pulled on her wings, as if wanting to rip them out. “You’re useless, you can’t even fly.” Eve though knowing he was right begged him to stop, he only laughed, “stop? Why? You don’t need them, you never will.” he proceeded to pull at her delicate wings, that resembled that of a butterflies, strangely in the dream realm her wings had seemed brighter and more colourful, not at all like the real greying, shadless pair, that seemed to dim in hue with each year. Only when Eve was submerged in water did her wings glisten and sparkle as they should.
The process was agony, she felt every strain of muscle and tissue that held her wings to his back, snap and break. She cried as the first of the pair yanked out, he dropped the wing beside her head, the ends coaxed in blood. She felt skin, she screamed when he wrenched the last out. Red trickled down the sides of her back, she was numb, her soulmate's voice echoing around her, bouncing in her mind with evil laughter.
The dream repeated itself overr and over, each time her soulmate becoming more and more creative with removing her wings, each time as torturous as the last. Eve was surprised she hadn’t woken up screaming during the night. Her last nightmare had her running through her school's hallways and suddenly in her local supermarket as a dinosaur with cowboy boots and hat chased after her, singing row, row, row your boat. Strangely that was the most terrifying of the nightmares that night for Eve, and possibly revealing some odd childhood trauma.
Eve quickly dried and changed into baggy clothes, a grey sweatshirt, with black wide leg corduroy trousers, she tied her hair back in a low ponytail, checking herself in the mirror. Happy that she didn’t stand out too much, her wings safely tucked hidden in her sweatshirt, she grabbed her backpack and headed out of her bedroom.
As soon as she stepped out of her door was bombarded with the delicious aroma of breakfast. Her mouth watered, entering the kitchen slash dining room slash living room, Eve was welcomed by an all you can eat breakfast. Her mum was dancing, swaying her hips side to side which made Eve cringe, glad no one else was there to see the embarrassing display. Feya sang along to the radio blasting around her, as she fried up more eggs and bacon.
“Are we feeding the whole building?”
“No,” Feya turned, “we’re celebrating,”
Eve tried to not look as if the idea of celebrating her mark was as appealing as being trampled by a stampede of centaurs. “Great,” she answered stiffly, taking a seat at the table, helping herself to some french toast, scooping beans onto and folding it into itself. She bit in with a satisfying crunch. Her mum had made a fresh pot of coffee, and poured some into her daughter's favourite mug, (which was engraved with, ‘do not compute, need more coffee,’) Eve chugged down the brown liquid, already feeling her energy going up.
“This is so exciting Eve. your mark,” Feya gushed while sitting down at the table with the girl, “it’s great you got it so young, you’ll get to have more time with them.” Eve just nodded at her mums words, finishing off her french toast, “to think my little girl is going to meet her soulmate at some point this month,” her mum was mooning as if it were her mark that appeared, Eve couldn’t voice the dread she felt as the thought of meeting them, it would disappoint her mum more than she already did on a daily basis.
“Wonder what they’ll be, I'd love it if they were a fairy like us, but having a wolf might be useful to have in the family. What I'd give to have their keen senses.”
Eve shuddered, a wolf would be a terrible outcome, they were bossy, and liked to think they were a macho man, well the guys did at least. Awful enough about how territorial they were about their belongings, which included their mates. She had read online somewhere that a guy was so paranoid he didn’t let his soulmate outside the house. Besides wolf shifters were dicks, she knew from experience, they were horny messes when it came to the full moon, and being soulmates with one during that time, was nothing short of hell. She’d seen the wolves at school, a mark connecting them soul, body and mind, she’d felt the need just as badly as they did. No, a wolf shifter was bad news. She prayed to the goddess that her soulmate wasn’t one.
Eve looked up past her mum at the clock, “shit,” she muttered, “I need to go, i’ll be late.” late to be the first in the school library.
“Do you want a lift?”
“No,” Eve shook her head, “i can walk, it’ll be good,”
Feya shrugged, “it’s your funeral,” she flicked her hands up, the plates of food began to levitate immediately. Eve felt a pang of jealousy for a moment, she wished she had magic like her mum, but she was magicless just like she was flightless.
“I don’t think i need to say we’ll be having leftover breakfast for dinner tonight,” her mum smirked,
“My favourite type of meal,” Eve chuckled. She sat up, travelling to the front door, her backpack hanging from one of her shoulders. She put on her platform trainers, knotting the bowes neatly.
“Bye!”
“Have a good day at school!” her mum called,
Eve snorted, “I can try,” she muttered.
Walking to school always put a wrench in her morning, going back to hell she dreaded. The city was busy at six-thirty, horns honking, as the morning traffic began. It took her half an hour to get to the school gates, there were only a few cars in the parking lot, mostly teachers. Getting the doors, a car drove up in the car drop off section. Eve recognized that car, she let out a small smile seeing a happy pink, with baby blue and lilac striped haired girl jumping out of the bright orange beetle. The girl wore a long white t-shirt that fell to the middle of her calves, with a pink and white plaid patterned pleated mini skirt, and white high knee socks, completing the outfit with pink pointed toe heel boots. A man with dark blue hair and darker eyes, sat at the steering wheel, looking grumpy as ever. “I’ll pick you up later Lola,” the man grunted,
“See ya,” Lola waved like a manic person as the car drove away. As soon as she spotted Eve she sprinted into action, her multi coloured eyes lighting up with joy. “Eve!” she shouted.
“Lola,” Eve smiled,
“Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?” she jumped nutty. “Look,” she pulled up her long white t-shirt, with two clouds and a rainbow printed on it, revealing a tattooed mark on her right rib cage. “Isn’t it great!” she raved, her white teeth shining in the morning sun.
“Holy shit,” Eve muttered, then rolled the sleeve on the left arm, showing Lola her wrist.
Lola squealed, going up to an impossible high octave. “Oh my goddess!” she took hold of Eve shoulders, “this fate,”
“That we’re going to meet our soulmates during the same month?” Eve questioned dryly.
“Yes!”
“You’re too optimistic,”
“Someone has to be,” she gleefully agreed, the two moved on into the school, directly going to the library.
They sat in their normal seats nodding to the satyr librarian, Eve pulled out a large folder, then a pencil case, along with a history textbook. Lola played with a pen, balancing it on her lips, then nose. She wasn’t studious like Eve or Penny was, and certainly didn’t ask for extra work from her teachers. Eve was currently doing an extended project for her early history class, a project her teacher had to come up with, considering Eve had already gone through all of the other extra credit projects and assessments. It was the only thing at school that went right for her, her grades.
Eve hadn’t ever had friends, which left her alone and with too much time to spare, so she had begun to console her lonesome self by doing homework and trying extra hard in class. The only thing she failed was her fairy studies, her teacher had it out for her, it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t fly or do magic, yet she seemed to be the class beating bag because of it.
Soon two more girls entered the library, one was a stick of a person, practically skin and bones, with dark chestnut hair, cut short and braided on both sides of her ears. She was mousy, pale of skin, she wore a long brown jumper with argyle check patterns, and light blue mom jeans, with simple white trainers. She looked as if she had been crying, her hollow cheeks looking wet and her nose red as she sniffed.
The other girl, had a blank expression on her face as if in shock, she had grey skin, with light silver freckles dusted on her cheeks, nose, and forehead, her white milky eyes gazing at the floor, her flat white hair tied up in a bun, her fringe curtained behind her ears. She wore a long flowing grey dress that fell to her ankles, with a black crocheted cardigan. The dress floral printed, with a peter pan collar and buttons buttoning down to her rib cage. It was as if cottagecore met grunge.
The two girls sat down at the table, “guys i have amazing news,” Lola started right away,
“Lets share the good before the bad then,” Delila, the girl with the dress grumbled.
Lola cleared her throat as if her news was the most important thing in the world. “Eve and I have our marks!” she blasted, all grins and sunshine, as if not taking note of the glum mood her friends were in.
“What?” Penny, the girl wearing the jumper, spoke shocked, “but-but-Delila and I have our marks too.”
Eve stared wide eyed, “well isn’t that bloody fantastic,”
“This is the best day ever!” Lola cheered, not at all catching on to the scaresatim that dripped from Eve's mouth.
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