The Red Strings Of Fate //✔️//

1 | The Beginning

When Reese decides to go to a different city for college, she didn't tell her parents. At least not right away. She does loves her parents, truly she does, but they have been adamant, and very extremely different views on life.

Reese can't remember how many times her parents had told her the story of how they met, how it was love at first sight, and everything is sunshine and rainbows in their world. Her mom is one of the rare ones: her colors in her vision disappeared a whole year before they were supposed to. This happens to some people, it happened to Reese's older brother, but it is a rare phenomenon.

They call these people eternal lovers. They lose their colors early, so that must mean that they are extra destined for their soulmate. Because just being bound to someone, sharing part of their DNA, and losing your ability to see certain colors for someone isn't enough.

When Reese's parents first met, they were partaking in the local Christmas play together. It was her dad's first time doing a play, as he had lost a bet with a friend. Her father was given the role of wise man number one, came to rehearsals, took one look at Reese's mom, gained his colors back, and "the rest was history." But Reese knows that not every story is that happy.

When you turn eighteen, you either lose the ability to see all color except black and white, or you lose ability to see only black and white. When you meet your soulmate, your lost ability returns. There have been stories where someone who only sees color will find their soulmate, and they don't realize they can see black and white again. Their world is so overwhelmed with colors, that the slight change isn't enough to tip them off. So, when their other half reveals that they are soulmates, they don't believe it at first, because of the fact they didn't realize anything happened when they looked at that person. If they didn't notice it right away, then it didn't happen at all, right? A soulmate's bond is an unyielding and powerful thing, and it can take years off your life if you choose not to be with your literal other-half.

Your soulmate, the one you are meant to be with forever, have only good thoughts of, and have only good feelings around, can kill you.

Even though the idea of soulmates is terrifying, Reese has always loved the idea. She has always loved watching her parents interact, as soulmates-- even now as she resents them.

Reese recalls going to church, listening to the pastor speak about the Lord, and how he blesses us with our one true love. How he doesn't want us to be forever alone as it feels like a sin to him, so he gives us our soulmate. Reese loves it, and can't wait to meet her soulmate in all due time.

Reese remembers being beyond ecstatic on her eighteenth birthday when she woke up and realized that she could only see in black and white. Reese remembers her parents being excited and driving her an hour one way to get tested for her soulmates blood.

It is said that you share part of your soulmate's DNA, so doctors can tell you vaguely what they might look like, what sex they are, and some have even gotten personality traits. 

Reese is prepared for some boy in her small town, as she hadn't planned on leaving— at least not anytime soon. She is ready for a boy that may be a few months in age difference, just like her parents. Reese is prepared for happiness from getting her blood tested for soulmates. What Reese is not ready for, is when she gets the letter from the doctor's office in the mail, rips it open to read about her soulmate, and in big, bold, black letters at the very top of the sheet,

"No Traces Found."

Reese is not prepared to be shunned by her parents. To be told that the Pastor did not want people to be alone and that it is a sin. She is not ready to be treated like shit from that day forward, by the very people who created her. She is not prepared for the unhappiness, or the abuse, or the neglect.