Day 3: Road

newrageinc:

Part one of three.
See if you can guess which other days will be the next two parts. Part two is
obvious in my opinion. Soulmates AU

All Roads Lead to You i

It was just before my ninth birthday.

I had overheard my parents discussing the possibilities of
soul mates but I had never paid much attention to it. The phenomenon was not an
uncommon occurrence but also not a guaranteed experience for most. I didn’t
think I’d fall into the smaller fraction that would have the pleasure of having
a soul mate. Even with all the signs staring me in the face, I had a hard time
believing that somewhere, out there, in the world was someone who would be the
other half of me.

I started having a dream. Even now I can recall the details
of that first dream vividly.

I would be standing on a narrow country road. Just wide
enough for two cars to be going in the opposite direction of the other. Early
on, there’d always be a dense fog around me, obscuring my view of my immediate
surroundings aside from the dark pavement beneath my feet. I remember,
distinctly, feeling the cool wisps of fogs around my fingertips as I walked
down the road, the rustle of my clothes loud in the enveloping silence.

I should have probably felt some kind of fear.

The sun was out, or not out as it was heavily overcast, but
the gray light around me suggested it was day time despite the fog. I felt no
fear in this pocket of road. I only felt a sense of familiarity as I continued
forward, navigating down the narrow road with a sense of purpose I did not know
in my waking life. The wispy gray acted more like a blanket of calm than a
blindfold because I didn’t feel like it was blocking me from my ultimate
destination. Now where I was walking to, I wasn’t sure at the time.

When I would wake from these dreams I would still feel the
calmness of the fog in the way my body seemed to have melded to my sheets,
muscles loose and thoughts light like air as I slowly came to consciousness. I
would usually take longer in waking up on those mornings, relishing in the
heavy feeling of my limbs. When I finally would drag myself to the bathroom to
brush my teeth, my reflection always looked clearer than it had the night
prior.

I never told anyone about the dreams. Not right away at least.
Even when they started increasing in frequency I didn’t feel like it was worth
mentioning to family or friends. Even when Naruto had started talking about his
tree dreams, I kept my mouth shut.

In hindsight my lack of concern or even curiosity is laughable.
My body seemed to know more than I did at the time.

I found myself taking longer moments studying crowds. Eyes
taking in more details than I normally would have before the dreams, like I was
looking for something. Or someone, rather, with how much time I spent focusing
on faces, but it was like I had put up a mental block on what was going on.

Or maybe I didn’t want to know what was going on.

As the years passed, the fog steadily began to lift,
unveiling rolling hills to one side of the road and dense forest on the other.
The hills are what I felt myself being drawn to. The tall grass shifting with
the breeze as my pace began to quicken, a sudden sense of urgency replacing the
calm.

On the night of my sixteenth birthday, my dream changed even
more so.

In the distance I could see a farm house perched on one of
the hills. My pulse quickened at the sight of it. My legs moved of their own
accord as my focus zeroed in on the house.

This house.

This house was where I needed to be and my body wasn’t
moving fast enough for me. I felt frustrated and distantly aware that this was
a dream so why couldn’t I teleport to this house? I needed to be at this house.
My heart thudded heavily against my chest and I could feel the blood coursing
through my veins, buzzing as it pulsed by my ears in my efforts to reach this
house.

The road curved at the bottom of a hill, branching off into
two directions, one still paved and the other a dirt path that angled towards
the front of the house. I didn’t hesitate. My bare feet becoming dusty as I
strode forward on the dirt road with the house becoming clearer with each step.

The house was larger
than it seemed in the distance. Pale yellow paneling surrounded its walls,
white trim neat and clean as though recently painted. The grass around the
house, though yellow and dry, was short and kept free of weeds. I started to
slow and found myself searching the windows of the house as I drew nearer, as
though the answer to my whole life were just beyond those walls.

The fog had broken, after all these years of walking down
this road in a gray haze it was startling to see the vast azure of the sky laid
out as the backdrop to this house. The sun was hot against the nape of my neck
and my legs stopped just as the screen door slammed open.

Standing in the threshold, arm
still extended from pushing the door open, was a girl. Her eyes were open as
wide as they could as she took in her surroundings before she noticed me. My
heart stuttered in my chest.

She was unlike anyone I had ever
seen before. Her hair was straight and long, shimmering as it fell around her
shoulders and down to her waist. Her skin was pale and looked smooth as porcelain.
Her eyes were also impossibly pale and so big and round I wasn’t sure I was
looking at a real person but maybe a life size doll.  She was staring at me, her mouth opening a
closing a few times as she took me in.

“Hi…” I said, feeling suddenly self-conscious
of my lack of shoes and how out of breath I was from my hike. The sound of my
voice seemed to break her out of her trance.

“You’re finally here.”

Um. Yes. I am trying to find words for thus fic but failing. She took them all and used them – as well she should.