Soul Searching Part II

Hello hello, I've typed my fingers off to churn out another chunk of Soul Serching just for you! This isn't the entire part, it's a long one, but hopefully enough to fulfill any burning needs (ha.).
Enjoy :)


PART TWO
DREAMS



I dream of my memories, of my past, of Kieran. We’ve been through so much together and yet is seems we grow apart every day. I’ve seen into the very depths of Kieran’s soul, and yet our miscommunications are still fatal. How could we let this happen again?
My dreams are vivid and startlingly clear. Each slips and slides into the next before it is properly finished so that the end of one becomes the beginning of another. Memories I’ve tried to bury, and others that I hold dear all raise their heads and in the fight for dreamspace as I drift among them.

The blackness of unconsciousness enveloping around me slowly thins into a fine grey mist that feels cool and moist against my skin.
I am small. The playground around me is filled with parents and older children. They all seem so tall. The ominous building in front of me is the biggest of them all.
I am not scared about my first day of school. This new experience seems like an exciting adventure to my young mind. Even so, I can’t help but feel butterflies of nervousness fluttering around in my small chest.
My mittened hand is clamped tight to another, it is so big it almost completely envelopes mine in its grasp. I look up at the owner of the hand but I can’t see their face. The body seems so tall that it reaches up into the sky. I can see my breath curling up towards it in the frosty September air.
I’m a dragon. RAWR!
I take a deep breath and it shoots out in a line in front of me, like the smoke from a dragons lungs. I imagine flames licking at chapped lips.
A few minutes into my game I am suddenly called back to reality as a strange surge rolls through my chest. My little heart beats faster and I feel a strange force pulling, beckoning me towards the entrance of the school.
I drop the hand I am holding and slowly turn around to face the gates. It is there that I find the source of this strange energy.
A small, blond haired boy stands in the entrance, clinging to his mother’s leg. He buries his face in her thigh and wails.
Like everyone else in the playground, the boy’s mother’s head seems to disappear into the clouds. I feel a strange urge to protect him.
As I watch the boy seems to sense my presence. His wailing abruptly ceases as he turns to stare at me with wide blue eyes.
In that moment everything going on around me seems to stop. I feel his fear in the back of my mind; I can almost hear his thoughts. His presence seems to fill an empty space inside me that I hadn’t noticed until now.
Involuntarily me feet begin to move, one in front the other, carrying me towards him. I come to a stop about a foot away. Not once have we broken our gaze.
Tentatively, I hold out my hand to him. The boy releases his grip on his mother’s leg and takes it, still looking at me with the same wonder that I can feel overflowing inside me. My skin tingles through the glove at his touch.
I look from our hands to his face and grin at my new sandy-haired friend. He grin back and together we walk through the crowd of insanely tall strangers and towards the ominous building before us…

…Kieran squeezes my hand. The walk down the long and unfamiliar hallway seems endless. Finally we are going to find out what the strange bond that was forged between us that first day in the playground is.
I am twelve years old. But the strains of my bond with Kieran, the fact that nobody seems to understand what he means to me, have already caused me- both of us in fact, to mature beyond our years.
After what seems like an eternity of following the ghostly figure that finally answered our calls for help we come to a stop.
A tall but narrow white door stretches up before us. I look behind me but all I can see is the long white hallway stretching back into the distance. It is brightly lit, although there are no lights or windows. It’s almost as if the unchanging walls are emanating their very own luminescent light, leaving no place for shadows to linger.
When I turn back to the door, our ghostly guide had disappeared. I look towards Kieran but I’m afraid to speak in this strange place, it just doesn’t seem right. It’s so strange to knowing his thoughts after the seven years we’ve spent together, our souls and sub consciousness’ endlessly entwined. He was always there, somewhere, even when we were physically miles apart.
Taking a deep breath I reach towards the brass doorknob and slowly turn it, suddenly afraid of what’s inside.
Kieran puts his hand over mine on the handle and we push open the door together.
It opens into a large room. Bare and white like the hallway, except for a large window in the wall opposite me, showing a clear blue sky. There is a single chair in front of the window. On that chair sits a man.
Long, deep purple hair hangs straight down his back. The man stares longingly out of the window, off into the depths of the sky.
Kieran and I stand awkwardly next to the door before the man gets up out of his chair. He looks at us with wise eyes. They are such a vivid emerald they seem almost unreal. He spreads his long arms elegantly before him.
A deep and calming voice spills from his lips.
“Welcome.”
I open my mouth to speak but I can’t find my voice. I am so nervous but as soon as I look into this strange man’s eyes it all drains away. I know I can trust him. I know he can answer our questions. Despite his youthful appearance- About in his mid to late twenties- his eyes hold such knowledge that could not be obtained over a single lifetime.
Kieran’s grip on my hand relaxes, and, even without being connected to him, I can tell he feels the same way.
The man chuckles at our bewildered faces and gestures towards the window where two more elegant looking chairs have appeared, their satin upholstery matched the man’s hair.
He grins at us.
“Take a seat; I’m sure this is a lot to take it. My name is Zain, I am your mentor, and behalf of everybody here I would like to welcome you to the Soul Society.”
This is all so surreal, I manage to teeter over to a chair and drop down into the surprisingly comfortable seat. Kieran takes the seat next to me, perching tentatively on the edge while Zain sprawls in a big armchair that I could have sworn was a wooden chair just moments ago.
Zain regards us for a few moments with those piercing eyes and sighs.
“Well, Scarlett, Kieran… Congratulations!” What? This was not what I expected. “It’s so rare for two soulmates to connect at such a young age, in fact most people’s soulmates don’t even live in the same time as them, let alone get to meet each other. I’m surprised you managed to survive so long undetected.” Survive? There are more dangers to this world than I thought.
“The Soul Society is a safe haven for people like us. We can teach you how to develop your bonds, and shield yourself from the dangers that could pounce at any moment, if you’ll allow us.” He pauses to give us a crinkly-eyed grin.
“I have been assigned as your mentor, someone to teach you and listen to you, and help you understand just how important you’ve now become to each other.”
If I were in any other situation I would find this all completely unbelievable, but in this place I could probably believe anything.

Sasha x