My senses were heightened, like all of the water signs but I was extra sensitive for some reason. When I heard loud noises for long periods of time, or watched continually flashing lights, my senses would go into overload. I knew when it was time to cocoon myself and so did the others.
‘Sorry,’ she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the house. ‘The boys said that you went off on your own and I thought you might have run away again.’
‘I didn’t run away.’ I took her hand to release the grip she had on me.
We made our way to the bedroom. I swallowed my sigh as the four walls enclosed around me. Cancer and I had shared a room since we were children and I was sick of it. I was twenty years old. I could do without sharing a room with another woman. However, I would be happy to share a room with my twin flame soulmate. If I ever met him.
‘Pisces, I missed you!’
Cancer hugged me, which caused me to stiffen. Despite us being good friends, I still wasn't a fan of physical contact.
‘No offence but—’
‘Don’t say it. I know,’ she said, backing off.
I glanced down at her wrist. The bracelet she wore was a different colour to mine but still a shade of blue. ‘Do you think we’ll ever be able to take them off?’
The bracelet made me feel like I was branded. We were trapped in the house of weirdness and had been our whole lives. Cancer glanced down at hers. Her bobbed blonde hair fell forward and covered her face as she looked at her own birth sign charm. Whenever we had tried to take the bracelet off, we found that we couldn’t. It wouldn’t budge. Even though it wasn’t tight.
‘I don’t want to.’ She moved over to the window.
Her slim frame was curvy in all the right places. We had similar figures but I was taller. We often shared clothes, except trousers. My hips and legs were bigger than hers but I didn’t mind.
‘It seems you’ve lost faith in our mission.’
The words were said quietly. They shot straight into my heart. They were true and I hadn’t acknowledged it. I sighed and lay back on my bed. Closing my eyes, I fought against the lump that rose in my throat.
‘I think I have,’ I replied, not able to lie to her.
She gasped and came over to the bed. She looked down at me. I kept my eyes closed but could feel the heat of her gaze.
‘Go away,’ I muttered, feeling my energy drain.
‘You will meet your twin flame.’ She grabbed my hand and shook it.
When we were young, our parents had explained that we were to complete an important mission. There wasn’t enough love on the planet. People had lost faith in happily ever after and stopped believing in romance. All twelve of us had agreed to be born on earth to show the world that true love exists.
Being told by someone else was in no way the same as experiencing it yourself. I couldn’t remember my life before I was about five. How was I supposed to know what had happened before I was born? Mother always chastised me for being impatient. I wanted more answers. Apparently it would all become clear as we got older.
‘Do you really believe that? Twelve of us are literally here to find a soulmate and live happily ever after?’
She let go of me. I opened my eyes and watched her move to her own bed.
‘It’s not just any old soulmate, though, is it? And no…I don’t believe that’s all we’re here to do and neither do you.’
I swallowed as I shifted onto my side. The bed felt familiar. I was bored with familiar. I needed something new and exciting. I had been trapped in the same house my whole life. I had to find a way to breathe…I had to get out somehow.
‘You don’t know what I believe,’ I whispered.
Her laugh was typical. She assumed that I was having one of my emotional sulks. She was right, of course. I hated that I had lost confidence but I couldn’t help it.
‘You’ll find him, Pisces, just keep the faith.’
Chapter Three
‘When are you going to bed, Pisces?’ Aries called.
He sat on the sofa with the boys. They were playing on one of their game consoles.
‘Not yet. Why? Do you want to play one of the dancing games?’ I laughed.
He growled as he spun in his seat to look at me. I was at the kitchen table with my laptop. The combined kitchen and living area was big enough for twelve people to gather. Six men and six women living under the same roof made it hard to compromise sometimes.
‘No, we were thinking of inviting some friends over,’ he said.
I glared at the back of his head as he turned away. His definition of friends actually meant girls. All six boys turned and looked at me.
‘Are you serious? Can’t you just go out?’
The decision was made there and then as they glared, grunted, or muttered under their breath. I had to find a way to leave so they couldn’t find me. I loved my siblings but I was tired of being around them. As usual, the girls were in bed. I was the only one up. The boys turned back to their game and I bit my lip as I watched them.
The three men who had come to fetch me back were wearing nothing but jeans. The heating was high. They were getting worked up as they played a fighting game. The others had clothes on but were no less handsome.
Swallowing a mouthful of water, I wondered whether to give in and go to bed. It didn’t look like the boys would leave me alone anytime soon.
The phone started to ring. Everyone in the room froze. The only person that called was our mother. She had moved out two years ago to give us more space.
‘Hello,’ I answered after a mad dash to grab the phone before the men did.
‘Pisces, it’s Mother. I need to let you know that he’s back…’
The phone cut off and I swallowed hard.
‘He’s back,’ I announced, turning to the boys.
They swore and jumped up from their seats, getting ready for a fight that hadn’t even started yet.
‘Did she say anymore?’ Aries said.
I shook my head and came away from the phone. Father couldn’t find us, we had made sure of it but we needed to be on guard. I didn’t believe Mother when she had said that he would hurt us. When things had gone wrong between them, he had left. Mother believed that he could cause us harm. I just couldn’t see my father giving up on the reason he came to earth.
‘It’s been five years. Why is he back?’ Leo came over to me.
I shrugged as he grabbed me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. The hug was reassuring. I hadn’t even been aware that I needed one.
Father was married to Mother when they had collected us from our birth parents and brought us to live together. As we grew older, Father had tried to persuade Mother to let us have space so we could get on with our lives. I’d begged them to let us lead a freer life but she had been entrusted with our care by the universe and felt that it was her duty to safeguard us.
When I had questioned her about the universe and who had entrusted her, she avoided the answer, which made me even more curious.
We’d rebelled in our teenage years but she still wouldn’t grant us freedom. I would cry at night, wishing I could go out and meet new friends. We were home schooled and never allowed out on our own. She tried to get us to see that our lives were bigger than ourselves. We were not on earth to be free. We had to help save the world by uniting with our twin flame soulmate and defeating the evil that made people harm each other.
‘Do you think he’ll try to destroy us?’ Aries stepped forward and picked up the phone.
‘That’s only what Mother said. I don’t think he would. What are you doing?’ I snatched the phone from him.
‘Things have got to change,’ Aries said, holding out his hand.
I looked between the men as they stepped forward. Something felt different somehow. I had always followed the rules, in spite of yearning to be free. We all had. It looked like the boys were about to go against the grain.
‘Pisces, we need to take charge of our own destiny but we need to
stick together to do that.’
Handing him the phone, I took a step back. I couldn’t stop them. He was right. I had been dreaming of the day that I could leave the house and be on my own for good.
‘But…’ I stuttered.
‘Don’t you think we would make better partners for our soulmates if we experienced life more?’ Scorpio asked.
Admitting he was right, even to myself, was hard. None of us were ready for love. We had no experience of socialising with the opposite sex on a one to one basis, never mind leading an independent lifestyle. Finding our soulmate was our lifetime purpose. We needed to be ready for that. It seemed that the more I thought about being a soulmate, the less I wanted to carry out my mission.
‘Okay but you’ve got to let me go,’ I whispered.
They looked at one another and nodded. ‘You don’t have to go. We need to stick together but we promise to give you more freedom. We really do know how you’ve been feeling, it’s time for a change. Our lives can’t be governed by Mother any longer. We need to grow.’ Aries pressed the buttons on the phone.
The distant sound of ringing filtered to my ears. He frowned when someone answered.
‘Mother…it’s time for us to be free. It’s time to let us go. We need to start living a normal life,’ he said, before hanging up.
The others reacted in different ways. Leo and Aries high fived. Scorpio just grinned.
‘What’s the plan?’
They became silent and avoided looking at me. I knew they had been hiding something. I had suspected for months. It was another reason I had wanted to get out of there.
‘We have another house set up. We’re all going to live there.’ Scorpio took my hand.
I blinked as I tried to wrap my head around what they were saying. They had obviously been thinking about defying Mother for a while.
‘We need to see the world without someone breathing down our necks,’ Aquarius said.
I nodded, because I agreed. The house we lived in was more like a prison. There were cameras in most of the rooms. Even in the doors so Mother could watch us come and go. She hadn’t lived with us for two years but she still kept an eye on us. She said that it was for our own protection. We were in danger from the Dysfunctionals. A group of men that wanted to stop us from uniting with our twin flame. In her eyes, she was protecting us.
‘Great. When do we move?’
They shuffled on their feet. My stomach flipped when they stared at the floor.
‘When I said we’re all going to live there, I meant the boys,’ Scorpio said.
Nodding once, I turned on my heel. That was fine by me; it meant I could go it alone. I fought the fear that tightened my stomach and it made me want to heave. I had never been alone in the big wide world. The little things had always scared me. It didn’t matter though, I could do it. I had a taste of freedom in my old flat so I knew the score, though I did feel scared from time to time.
‘Where are you going?’ Aries called.
‘You made me leave my flat for this? Why?’ I almost shouted, spinning to them.
Leo found his feet fascinating. Aries looked me straight in the eye. ‘Old habits.’
I growled as I stomped to my room. A part of me wanted to crawl into bed and bury my head under the blue duvet. I was Pisces. I couldn’t do anything on my own. I had tried several times and failed. It was time to stop trying, though. I had to just get on with it.
‘Are you okay?’ Cancer asked, her voice groggy from sleep.
I froze for a moment. I had been throwing my things into a bag. I hadn’t planned on telling her that I was leaving. She was a heavy sleeper so I was surprised to hear her voice. If she was awake now, it was because I needed to let her know what was happening. I believed in signs and always followed any guidance.
‘I’m leaving,’ I said. ‘And so are the boys.’
Cancer sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her blonde hair was messed up and her makeup was smudged on her face.
‘Why? The boys only just brought you back.’
I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. ‘Father’s back so we’re in danger. It’s time that Mother stopped controlling us, too. We need to be free. I need to experience more of life. We all do.’
Cancer watched me pack every single piece of clothing I owned. It wasn’t a lot. We paid our own bills and most of us had jobs. I was an accounts administrator but dreamt of more exciting things to do with my time.
‘I’m coming with you.’ She flipped her covers off.
‘I need to do this alone,’ I replied.
‘You really think we would leave you behind?’ Aries said from the open doorway.
He grinned at me. My teeth clenched together. I was tempted to smack his smug chiselled face. His tanned skin set off his white teeth and I wondered if I could punch high enough to cause them any damage.
‘No, I really thought you’d let me live my life. You just said we wold be living separately,’ I replied as I zipped up my suitcase.
He laughed and came to sit on my bed. ‘Come and see the house.’ He put his hand on the bag. I was about to lift it but his strength stopped me.
‘Why won’t you just let me go? I managed okay before.’ I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.
‘Because you’re our sister. We stick together. You’re…Pisces…’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I said, glaring at Cancer as she started to move her things around.
‘It means that you can’t handle… You need us. You revealed your power to Kat, for goodness sake…’ His sentence trailed off as he gestured with his big meaty hand.
‘Really…?’ The heat that danced over my skin could’ve been dangerous but his fire would far outweigh mine. His was real fire for a start. Mine was just normal emotion. I took a deep breath but stayed still. ‘You don’t know what I can handle. Don’t talk to me anymore.’
Pushing his hand away from my suitcase, I pulled it off the bed. I walked from the room, dragging my possessions with me.
‘Don’t shut down. We need to show you the new place regardless of where you go,’ Leo said.
He was waiting in the hallway outside. I could tell he had been strategically placed there. I wanted to lash out at them all, though I wasn’t a violent person. In fact I hated violence but when I was pushed to the limit, I could lose it.
‘Here…’ Leo handed me a business card.
I frowned as I looked down at it. The address was in South London.
‘You’re going to live in Clapham?’
I had heard of it before but had never been there.
He smiled and shrugged. ‘A good place to keep a low profile.’
I shook my head. The boys could never be discreet. They always got into trouble.
‘We’ve set up a pretty amazing place. You’d have your freedom there.’
I stilled as I looked at the card. I wanted my freedom but if I was honest, I was scared. Each one of us had an ability that we had to keep hidden. We always looked out for each other. If anyone outside our family discovered that I could breathe underwater, I would be turned into a science project.
‘Just come with us. Everyone’s packing. If we go there now, we can be the first in. If you don’t like it, you can leave.’ Leo tried to take my hand. My scowl stopped him.
My personal space was mine. I didn’t like being invaded. People meant well but why did they always have to touch me?
‘Let’s go,’ Cancer said, coming out of our room with Aries.
I nodded, defeated.
They stared at me. They were probably trying to predict whether I was going to melt down in tears, or just get on with it. They wouldn’t get any tears from me. I was ready for this, although I still felt trapped.
‘Let’s go!’ Scorpio called from the end of the hallway.
We were leaving the safety of the nest. This time I wasn’t attempting to make it on my own. Leaving with the others made it more real somehow. Although we were still going to live t
ogether, it would be different. We would finally be free from our parents.
‘Let’s hope neither of them will find us now,’ Leo said, picking up my suitcase and throwing it on his shoulder. We went to his room where he put on a coat and grabbed his own suitcase. I took his much loved guitar and slung it over my back. He was right. If we wanted to be free to live our lives, we had to hide from them both. Father wanted to kill us according to our mother and she just wanted to control us.
Everyone met in the hallway, before the boy’s shepherded us into the living area. Aries droned on as he explained the new plan. Now that Father had reappeared, we were all going to move to the new place. I looked around the room we had called home for most of our lives but didn’t feel anything. I was ready to leave the past behind. I had held on for too long. It was time to start again.
Chapter Four
‘Keep running.’ She panted behind me.
I didn’t know what to do. Spotting the men at the station, we managed to sneak out before they saw us. It had been a month since we had moved. We knew that Mother would send someone to try and find us. So far we hadn’t seen anyone. Until now. They wore suits and talked into their phones as they looked around them. I had recognised one. That had been enough to make me grab Cancer and get out of the station.
We were running on the concrete path alongside the river Thames, hoping we didn’t look too obvious. There wasn’t a lot of people around during the middle of day. Most of them were still at work. It was cold. My breath huffed out in a puff of white mist as I tried to get more air into my lungs.
‘I think they saw us. A car just skidded over there.’
I looked but couldn’t see anything as my hair swept into my face. I pushed past a tourist group, apologising when I knocked one of them.
‘Pisces, jump in!’ Cancer called.
I spun to see Cancer pointing down to the river. I nodded as her body changed and she turned into liquid. The shower of water hit the ground. I turned to where she had been standing. Wishing I was fitter, I grabbed the green railing and lifted my leg over it. A shout from behind made me look back briefly. I recognised the man’s face as he ran towards me but I didn’t have time to place him. Had he been one of our bodyguards when we were younger? He didn’t look old enough.
Pisces: Book 1 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series) Page 2
