The year someone turns 18 they have the opportunity to be injected with a serum that will produce a soulmate mark somewhere on their body. This serum is costly and the procedure to get the injection is not covered by insurance.
A rare illness cropp...
A/N: This particular chapter is longer than the rest. Normally my chapters run about 2000 words or a hair more. This chapter in particular is 5217 words long. So, if you typically read them during a quick 15 minute break you might have to stop in the middle. I'll have a few more notes after the chapter, along with some links in the comments regarding the images to give credit appropriately. However, you will also find some links to the images directly on where you can find some of the things I personally added like her bed, some lamps, etc.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I don't know where I am. Last thing I clearly remember was my attempt at surviving the second flight to our final destination. Now? I only know that I am surrounded by plush softness. The pillows beneath my head are softer than any I have ever touched before. The only thing marring the wonderful sensations brought on by the pillows, the buttery soft sheets, and the warm duvet is the underwire poking at me and the restricting straps of my bra. I open an eye and peek down at myself under the covers.
Someone was nice enough to change me into a pair of my pajamas. But, they were obviously also respectful enough that they kept my undergarments on. I glance around the room and try to take in my surroundings, but honestly I can't see anything other than pitch black darkness past my immediate area. The blinds on the windows are obviously heavy duty and top dollar in their light blocking ability. I am not sure if it's day or night, and I know when I look at the time and date it will just confuse the crap out of me even more.
I sigh. I know I need to get up but leaving the comforts of this bed, obviously my bed, is the last thing I want to do right now. It's my insistent bladder that makes the choice for me. I fumble to my right, reaching past my field of vision toward the direction where I'm hoping there might be a bedside table with either my phone, a table lamp, or better yet both.
I'm reaching at the full extension of my arms when I realize that I am going to have to climb up on my knees to be able to continue my search. Apparently they bought me one of the biggest beds they could find. I continue seeking with fingers outstretched until they collide with something, and I wince at the impact. I hesitantly reach around the spot I collided with and find something tall, somewhat cylindrical, and slender which I can only guess must be a bedpost. I touch it tentatively trying to source out its size so I hopefully don't collide with it again in the future. Luckily, while it's tall, it's not very wide and I'm pretty confident that the collision will rarely happen again.
Finally, another foot or so later I find the edge of another piece of furniture. My hands skid over the surface coming in direct contact with my phone. Which, judging from the cord inserted into it, whoever put me in bed was also considerate enough to make sure the device had power when I woke up. I blindly unplug the cord and wake up my homescreen.
Some of the facts before we got to the mansion come back to me as I begin to wake up even more fully. We had arrived at the airport at about 7pm. I had only been awake enough, at the time, to shuffle my feet and propel myself from point a to point b. I remember there was at least a handful of Army at the airport, but I don't remember how big of a group it was. I can only hope it wasn't too big since I was basically a walking zombie. Once we got in the awaiting transportation, pretty sure it was an SUV but I was too out of it to really get a good look at it, I immediately fell asleep against one of my soulmates. In my current muddled mind I couldn't even remember which soulmate. From there I can only guess that one of them had obviously carried me in and taken me straight to my bedroom. Perhaps it was the jet lag that completely depleted my energy since I've been asleep about twelve hours, and it's now nearly 7am.
