Love, Honey

#15 *SS - Blood

My race is amazing, honestly. I have no idea what we're called, but we're the coolest of the bunch! We don't need such a thing as the police to determine a person guilty; we don't need judges, prosecutors or anything like that. Why, you may ask? It's simple: Our bodies change when we commit crimes. We're born with blood as white as snow, some rare cases have see-through blood, they're called "Angels", because they reincarnated from a body with white blood at its time of death. Now, from the currently given information you might think everybody will be reincarnated as an Angel, but you're wrong. The more crimes or sins a person commits, the darker their blood gets. It turns from a nice innocent white to a baby pink, to hot pink, to cherry red, to dark red and finally to black. But to have black blood you'd have to commit lots and lots of really bad crimes. The time of colour change is also temporary, depending on the crime.
A serial killer targeting kids, who is a master thief and con-artist in their free time, could have black blood for example, depending how long they've been in the business, and their colour will probably last a lifetime.
That's the perfect moment for me to introduce myself. My name's Mirah, I'm 19 and I have black blood. I'll have it forever, because the criminal I've mentioned above is no other than me. I've actually never met anyone with blood as dark as mine, not even in the guild I'm active in. The darkest was cherry red, and the guy was almost 70. He said he's the most wanted criminal of our time since there's nobody with blood darker than his. At that time, I was 13 and my blood was already a nice mix of cherry and dark red. When I told him that, he laughed and didn't believe me. I had no other choice than to show him, and because he now knew my secret, I killed him. He viewed it as an honour, I think. As you've probably gathered by now, quite some things happened in 6 years, some more killings, some more robberies, some more con-acts. I'm actually quite proud of what I've achieved in such little time...
Well, I'm now in my last teenage year and apparently every person of our race meets their soulmate in their teens. I haven't met mine yet, but I've also never felt agonising pain, which means I haven't accidentally killed him or her. To be quite frank I couldn't care less about having a soulmate, they could ruin my entire life in the split of a second. But apparently people cut all ties with you if you're still soulmate-less in your twenties and your appearance wherever is very much frowned upon. So, I'm kind of desperate right now, because I don't have much time left.
Whenever someone comes up to me I panic internally, since I don't have any information on that person, but as I'm lost in thought I bump into someone and for the first time in my entire life I feel at ease while meeting a stranger. Of course, for the first couple of moments I'm super confused, who wouldn't, honestly, but I'm quick to realise that this stunning girl with short, curly, fiery red hair is my soulmate. Whatever last-life-me did to make me deserve this beautiful being as a soulmate, I'm thankful for it. She's a few centimetres smaller than me, some cute freckles dance on her nose and a light blush paints her cheeks. She's dressed in the most amazing pair of biker boots and she rocks very shredded, black shorts of knee-length, and a white crop top with – no way! – It's the Cookie Monster! She's also wearing a red, plaid flannel, a choker and thinly rimmed Harry Potter glasses. While I'm busy looking her up and down, her blush deepens and her eyes cast downwards. I'm not even going to lie, she's the most adorable thing I've ever seen, and most of my work revolves around kids...
I think I should say something. But what? I'm at a loss of words, she's got me speechless. The only word I can somehow form leaves my mouth: "Wow..."
She giggles at that and I swear, it's the most angelic thing I've ever heard in my life.
"Well, hi?" She smiles at me, having me almost fainting.
"Hi!" I breathe out. "I'm Mirah."
I want to slap myself. Why am I suddenly so shy? Why couldn't I just stay all cool? Way to go, Mirah, way to go. She probably thinks I'm a –
"I'm Sarena. Would you mind having a drink with me?"
A drink?! She doesn't think I'm a moron? And she wants to get to know me? Hell yes!
I quickly nod my head and point into the general direction of a Café, which fortunately is right next to a little pub. Maybe she wants an alcoholic beverage instead of a hot chocolate or coffee. Maybe she prefers getting drunk over a nice sit in? Maybe she –
Sarena interrupts my train of thoughts once again. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards the Café, eyes still cast to the floor in a shy manner. My soulmate is adorable. I quickly order for the both of us, I'm having hot chocolate while she's now sipping on a Vanilla Frappuccino and we're both munching on a cupcake while we exchange small talk and get to know each other. The more I learn about her, the more I am whipped. We exchange our ages, where we live, what we like to do in our free time, what our official job is, basically everything there was to know.
I'm just talking about my pet dog, a cute, black Labrador Retriever bitch I named Shimmie, when a waitress lost control of the tablet she's carrying and mugs and glass cups filled with hot and cold beverages crash to the floor, leaving shards all over the place. Sarena gasps loudly when one of the shards cut her shin, and a trail of very lightly tinted baby pink blood runs down to her foot. I also feel a cut on my ankle and immediately know that in a matter seconds black blood would come oozing out. Something had to happen, fast, Sarena shouldn't, or basically couldn't see my blood colour. Not now, not ever.
I do what has to be done: From the pocket of my pants I snatch a couple of band-aids and throw them on the table, quickly covering my injury before helping Sarena. The waitress is screaming, completely hysteric, apologising over and over again. Rolling my eyes, I grab my soulmate and leave the Café, glad to have payed beforehand. We walk around for a bit, before I check the time and try to say goodbye as we sit by a fountain. But Sarena interrupts me before I even have a sentence to say formed in my head.
"It's you, isn't it?"
I look at her, puzzled. What does she mean, it's me? What's me? But I didn't dare ask her with words. I only shot her a confused look, silently asking her to elaborate.
"The one they're desperately looking for. The worst criminal to date. It's you, right?"
I suddenly can't breathe. How did she find out? What indicated that I'm the only black blooded person on the planet? Did she perhaps catch a glimpse of my blood – no, that's impossible, I've covered it quickly enough! I don't know what to do, she's gonna hand me to state officials, she'll send me to jail! I can't let that happen, I'll be imprisoned for life! But I also can't –
Sarena interrupts my panicking mind once again, she's good at that, I've come to notice.
"Stop panicking. Tell me the truth. I promise I won't do anything both of us would regret."
Breathe in, breathe out. Calm yourself, Mirah. She said she wouldn't report me. Tell her. I need to tell her and, in case of the worst-case scenario, kidnap her afterwards. I can't kill her. She's my soulmate, so kidnapping is the next best option.
"Mirah!" Sarena yells at me and lightly slaps my thigh.
I sigh and know that she won't let me off the hook. "Yes" I mutter, "I'm the one they're looking for. The worst criminal to date, as you've put it." I play with my fingers, not daring to look up. "Please don't hate me." I whisper.
She does the unthinkable: she lifts my chin with two of her fingers, cups my face and gently kisses my forehead, then my nose, both my cheeks and finally leaves a short peck on my lips. She rests her head on my shoulder and tells me in a hushed voice "Thank you for telling me. Even though you're making me seem like an idiot for not reporting you to the officials. Do you want to come around my place or should I come around yours? I think we need to thoroughly talk about this."
"Do you seriously want to come around my place after knowing who I am? Seriously? Aren't you afraid?" I cannot believe her. She finds out I, her soulmate, am a person with black blood and she still wants to stay around? Is she nuts?
"I know you won't hurt me, Mirah. Hurting me would mean hurting yourself, and I know you wouldn't want that. In addition to that, I'd really like to know why you do it. What are your motives? I just want to understand."
I have no choice but to look at her like she's grown a second head. She wants to understand why I do what I do? What's wrong with her? Now I most definitely know that she's in desperate need of psychiatric help, but so am I. I guess we're made for each other. We're soulmates after all.
Sighing, I take her hand and pull her towards my car. "You pick... I live with a bunch of guys with criminal records. That might change where you want to go."
"Let's go to yours. It might bring me new clients." She smiles and something tells me she's not as innocent as her blood makes her seem.
***
The moment we walk through the door to the guild's headquarters we're crowded by middle aged men, asking one question after another, making up theories and gossiping like schoolgirls.
"Sarena, what the fuck are you doing here?"
My eyes widen, I didn't expect one of my roommates to know my soulmate.
"Fishing for new clients, Matthew. And getting to know my soulmate better."
The men spit out their drinks, furiously looking from Sarena to me and back to her. "Soulmate?!" And there goes my chance of hiding that I found my soulmate.
"Mirah, how the hell do you know Sarena, who is basically the queen of criminals?"
Queen of criminals, huh? I had a feeling she wasn't all innocent, but her blood basically screams exactly that. Plus, I thought I was the queen of criminals, as the only black-blooded person known to mankind.
"What do you mean by that? Elaborate. Especially since I should have that title"
"Sarena makes everyone seem like an innocent man. She can wash blood back to a sweet baby pink, no matter how dark. Yet, many can't afford her services, which is why the guild headquarters are always filled to the brim."
She can make dark blood lighter again? What kind of witchcraft is that? I don't believe it one bit! Sarena is just a sweet girl with no extraordinary abilities except hiding fear and relationships with men. Nobody can wash blood to a lighter shade. It's impossible.
"Mirah? Do you want me to prove it? I can show you how I do it if you'd like."
I just manage to nod at her and let her pull me to a vacant room. She pulls some shady looking equipment and a lighter from her shorts and starts heating up a needle.
"There's no need to be afraid. I've done this tons of times. I'm gonna prick you with the needle and have a serum run into your blood. It'll clean it right up. Once the serum is all inside your bloodstream, we wait for 5 minutes, then I make a small cut in a place you choose and we let some colour drip out. It seems impossible and like witchcraft, but trust me, okay? I perform this procedure once a month on myself, you don't need to worry about a thing."
Why on earth am I trusting my soulmate with this, even though she's basically a stranger? Am I really willing to give up on my blood colour? I've always been so proud of it.
"Wait! Sarena stop!" She already put the needle in but hasn't connected the serum to it yet. "Will it hurt? Will I ever be able to get my black blood back? Are you sure you can –"
"Don't worry, Mirah. I can do this, trust me. It will probably hurt a bit, most of my clients have cherry red blood, some have dark red blood. They say it tingles a bit, so it might hurt the tiniest bit for people with black blood. The serum is in your blood for about a month before it's all processed and out of your system. Over the timespan of a month you'll notice your blood darkening to its 'normal' colour. Which means that at the end of the month you'll be black-blooded again. Does this answer all of your questions?"
I gulp and shake my head, no. But I'm going to trust her with this. She nods and connects the serum to the needle and we both watch the liquid drop into my bloodstream until there's no more left. We wait for a bit before she quietly asks: "Does it hurt a black-blooded being to be cleaned?"
"Not really. It kind of tickles, maybe stings here and there, but it doesn't hurt." I let out a chuckle. This is surreal. She's actually cleaning my blood, she's getting rid of the evidence against me.
"Where should we let the colour out? I'm going to have to make an incision anywhere on your body to get rid of some colour."
"Do it on my thigh. There are enough scars already, one more won't be noticeable."
She cuts into my thigh and I watch thick black stuff oozing out. That seems to be the stuff that coloured my blood.
"This isn't much of the overall colour in your system that's coming out. It's just the tiniest bit. I'm going to collect it and run some test as well as perform an incision every week to see how dark your blood's gotten. I really need to do some research on black blood."
I stare at her, speechless. She scrapes some of the black ooze into a jar and stores it on a shelf.
"Once the cut is closed again, we wait an hour before making another incision. Then you can see your new blood colour."
Sarena really seems to know her stuff. We wait for another 3 hours, since the black oozes out for longer than we anticipated and I tell her all of my motives for basically any crime I've ever committed. Then she cuts me again to show me my blood. But instead of the light baby pink that she told me I'd get I had incredible white, almost see-through blood running through my system. I kissed her and smiled dreamily. Technically I could start anew now.

But why would I want that?