Stains on my Skin (Lost Boys)

3 Marks for the Price of One

They didn't begin to show until your 14th birthday, but everyone always got one...your soul mate mark. It was a thing to be proud of, show off, gossip about. You always heard proud parents telling their friends about their child's mark, their soul mates first words to their children, the colors always bright greens, and yellow, sometimes even pink and blue...well...except mine.

As you would expect, everyone has one soul mate, but very rarely a child finds themselves with two. Now that, you don't gossip about, same as if your marks are dark colors. Dark colors means the first words aren't exactly intended kindly. Now growing up, I always found myself the odd man out of things. I didn't have that many friends, and I didn't excel at anything particular, but my mother always told me the one thing I could look forward to in life was my soul mate, and just like every other day in her life, my mother, was wrong.

My 14th birthday wasn't a great day, my family didn't celebrate as all others do, or tell anyone about my amazing soul mate...well...mates. I woke up on the morning of my 14th birthday excited, but that quickly dissipated when I looked into my bathroom mirror. There, on my right forearm, was a dark purple mark in the shape of a hand, and shaping around the side were the words 'Well don't you look delicious.' I was honestly ready to start crying when I noticed something else...my hair had been dyed black. It looked almost as if someone was grabbing it...I took a hand mirror and faced it at the back of my head so I could see on my neck in my bathroom mirror the words, 'I want to taste her first.' I felt almost as if I was about to pass out. My breathing got heavy and I felt tears streaming from my eyes as I turned on the hot water to my shower and stripped, jumping in. I scrubbed harshly at my arm, willing this to all be a dream, for the mark to wash off and it all be a sick joke played by my parents, but it stayed the same. It wasn't until I looked down that I had finally had enough. I screamed as loudly as possible as I felt myself getting dizzy. There on my left hip was another hand print, this one a dark blue, all of them looking like stains on my flesh. My vision started to go black just as my bathroom door burst open and I felt arms around me. My legs gave up and I was swallowed whole by the darkness. 'Do you want to play with us cutie?'

My parents of coarse weren't very happy about my situation. Needless to say...we moved. Across the country. We moved from Virginia all the way to dreary Seattle, for one reason because my grandparents live there, but I think a perk was its always stormy and rainy, so I will always have a reason to wear long sleeves. The mark on my hip was easily covered by regular clothes, and I'm now not allowed to leave the house without long sleeves of some kind. The only time I'm allowed to have them in view is when I'm alone in my room. My mother went out immediately after I fainted and bought black hair dye, at least then I wouldn't have to shave my head, right? I went from dirty blonde hair to jet black in the course of an hour. Not much else changed in my life really. I didn't have any friends, not that my mother would have let me even if I could make them. She barely let me see anyone, she was too afraid I would meet my soul mates. It was almost as if she thought she could keep me from ever meeting them. She home schooled me from then on and did all of my shopping online, I felt like a prisoner every day of my life.

I lived like that for the next 3 years. Occasionally my father would bring me out with him. Take me to the bank, or grocery store, or if I was really lucky, the mall. He wanted me to be able to have more of a life, but he worried about me too. I knew he was putting money into a checking account for me to have college money, one thing he kept a secret from my mother. God bless him. But that was ruined the day after I finished 12th grade. I was 3 days away from my 18th birthday, just 3 days away from getting out of my prison when she found out. I could hear her yelling at my father after dinner that night.

"She's not going! That money will pay for an online college, but that's all!"

"You can't keep her locked in the house forever, in 3 days she'll be 18 and what we're doing to her will be illegal! She needs a life-"