Heart of a Spartan

Soulmates, You Before Me Deal

In the mornings after a bad nightmare, both Pythia and Marcus are a tangled mess of blonde hair, pale limbs and sheets. Pythia had managed to tuck all her limbs under Marcus, and it caused Marcus to have a pained look. What usually finally wakes them up is their mother, one Mrs. Bane, was a frighting woman that stood at only 5"3. She could get her children out of bed and have them make their bed by the time it took for her to yell that it was 6:30 to when she reached the landing upstairs. It was something Mrs. Bane prided herself on, because when Mr. Bane tried it only ended with empty threats, yelling and finally Mrs. Bane. Sure enough, the twins were up, beds made and when passing their mother both kissed her cheek in good morning.

Today, however, Mrs. Bane woke to her daughter holding coffee (from the glazed look, that coffee was most likely cold) in the kitchen at 6:05. It surprised Mrs. Bane a little, but it wasn't entirely uncommon for Pythia to be awake this early, it's just the reason that made Mrs. Bane sad. Her daughter was plagued by terrible nightmares on top of her blackouts, this one must have had her mind in turmoil, since there was a near empty cup of coffee sitting alone on the kitchen island and a soon-to-be full pot of coffee, curtesy of Pythia who looked like hell warmed over.

"How bad?" Mrs. Bane asked quietly. Going by the slight flinch her daughter made, not good. It pained Mrs. Bane, she couldn't do anything for her baby girl, she could protect her body, but when it came to her daughter's mind... Well, she realized after 17 years of trying, she could do nothing more than damage control.

"Um-" Pythia paused to sniffle, and Mrs. Bane grabbed the box of tissues from the living room and brought it close to her baby girl "- It wasn't the worst, but it- it was pretty bad." Mrs. Bane moved to sit next to her daughter and Pythia turned to rest her head on her mother's shoulders.

"You want to tell me what it was about?" Mrs. Bane asked, even while she knew Pythia would just lie. Her daughter had a telltale for when she lied, she looked down and bit her lip, almost as if to keep her secrets back.

"I was dying, and um this guy? Um, well I kind of just knew he was my soulmate. He- well, he was doing it. Killing me that is-" Pythia sneaks a look at her mom and finds her looking horrified, Pythia stares down into her lap. It was dumb that Pythia couldn't tell the truth without sounding like a complete psychopath, and even when she made it sound all hypothetical, it all still sounded strange. It was stupid, everything was stupid, why couldn't she have just lied and said she had a dream about falling of a building? At least then her mom would laugh and tell some of her own crazy dreams. Not crazy like Pythia's crazy, it was normal crazy, the actual dreams and not a vision with a horrible ending.

"Well, at least it was just a dream?" Her mom tries to hide her horror, it doesn't work. Pythia looks back up at her mom and tears up.

"What if it wasn't?" Pythia whimpers and instantly her mom had Pythia in a bear hug.

"Then I would kill the bastard and send him with a one way ticket to hell. But baby, it was just a dream, it wasn't real. Remember what your therapist said? Don't confuse your dreams for reality, count your fingers, do a trust fall if you need, but keep in touch with reality." Pythia noted the slight anxiety she could hear in her mom's words, but didn't say anything. If only she could tell her mom how much she knew that this wasn't a dream, how she had counted her fingers three times before she jumped into Marcus' bed last night. She had counted five finger all three times, it was real, or it was going to be soon.

"Yeah mom, of course. After all, what soulmate would kill their other half? A psychopath, right?" Pythia said in a weak joking voice.