"Pay up." Gemini stretched her hand towards Aquarius and opened her palm.

He reluctantly pulled a suspiciously shiny object out of his pocket and hand it to her while muttering cusses under his breath.

I stare at my reflection in the tray,my mouth still agape. It looks just like the tattoos on the zodiacs' forehead but it's...

It's all of them.

I have all the zodiac signs on my forehead and they're all merged to make one beautiful symbol.

"How is this possible? " Taurus asked, still shocked.

"I knew it the moment I saw her." Gemini smirks.

"wait you guys bet on me?" I look between Gemini and Aquarius, having just registered the exchange between them.

"of course, he bets on everything and I make money off of him." she winked.

Aquarius bolted in immediately after Gemini screamed for him to come witness his 'biggest loss ever' those were her words.

"Now what do we do?  This is all so awesome. It's over."Aquarius perks.

"Guys... " I start but they don't even let me speak.

"We should keep this low key for a while and then reveal her when she's trained" Gemini replies, excitement oozing from her.

"But —"

"Or we could keep her a secret, train her and when everything is fully over, we can reveal her don't you think." Taurus reasoned.

"Guys...."

"Or... Maybe we could—"

"Guys!!" I scream and only now did I get their attention

"Okay, as much as I want to know what this said 'prophecy' is, I want to know where I am and also go back home." I say, glancing towards taurus who still has a puzzled expression on his face.for a moment, our gazes lock and something shifts in my stomach.

"You're in talove's bedroom.you passed out after burning stero's men to ashes and but he escaped at the last minute." tarius explained.

"uhh..whoa!" I exclaim.

"yeah whoa and, he only escaped because someone let him" Taurus snarled at him.

"Hey!  You try staying in a room with white hot searing fire" he scoffs.

"Okay.. You know what? I don't want to know what this 'prophecy is and neither do I want to know what that fire that consumed me but didn't burn me is. I just want to go back to my apartment and talk to regular people who are not some part of a paranormal astronomical organisation." i take a deep breath and stole a glance at tarius who stares at me like I'm the last cookie in the jar. Our eyes meet and something warm flutter in my gut. I quickly look away and raise my eyes to look at Taurus who is still staring at me with such intensity. I feel naked under those golden eyes and my stomach flutters when he gave me a small sad smile. I tear my gaze from his and suddenly found the floor very interesting.

"Okay." Says Gemini after what feels like eternity.

"Wait, you're just going to let her go like that?" Aquarius Gave her a quizzical look.

"Yes. But you do know you're still a target to anyone who knows who you are, right?" she asks

That's true. And Scorpio knows where I stay plus who knows who else he's allied with.

"well you have to do something, I am not staying here under any circumstance." I insist.

"You know,i think I can do something to help.its worth a shot." talove suggested.

"Okay.. Can you do it now?" I ask.

"Yes, I can.". She says calmly but there's an edge to her tone, and it seems I'm the only one who noticed it. She disappeared into a room in a corner.

"Are you sure about this Emma?" tarius asks and walks towards me,keeping barely half a foot between us.

"I've never been more sure" I gave him a smile but I'm sure it looks wobbly. He smiled back,a sad one.

"Here Emma" talove calls out.
I walk towards her as she dipped her hand in a glowing white substance that looks strangely like glitter in glowing white vanilla with whipped cream. She smeared it on my forehead, arms, and eyes.it leaves a vibration where she touched before she placed her thumb on my fore head then just like that, she pulled away.

I open my eyes and gave her a quizzical look.

"That's it. I'm done." she confirms

" Well that was easier than I expected." I chuckle nervously and clasp my palms together.

something I do when I'm nervous.

"So, now that that's over with, Who will take me home?"

The other zodiacs are out on some mission, I don't know what it is but the only ones left are Gemini, Aquarius, Taurus, Tarius and Talove. And they don't look thrilled,even Aquarius who's always smiling has a frown on his face. It doesn't really go well with his wife beater,sweat pants and vans and his beautifully tousled hair, it just doesn't sit well with his handsome face. But they have to understand, I don't want to be couped up for days in a building I never even knew existed until yesterday. I miss eating lunch with Riley and bickering with Lindsy. I even miss those hypocrites in college.

And it's only been a day.

"I will" tarius strode towards me and asked again
"Are you sure about this?" 

"I've never been more sure." I repeat.
He smiled, nodded and took my hand.

"Emma wait.!" Taurus stopped me just as I'm about to go through the door with tarius.

"You can't leave. Your life is in danger especially now that we've found out about this and your..." he trailed off and stole a look at Gemini behind me. I don't even bother to ask what he's talking about because I don't want to know, I just want to go home.

"I want to go Taurus, I have to. I have a life outside these walls you know. I want to go back, this is not where I belong." I shake my head and step away from him.

"Then I'll come with you. I can't leave you alone." he insisted.

"Uh... She's not alone, she's with me." tarius spoke behind me and Taurus gave him a withering glare.

"I meant I will stay in her apartment, until she comes back here because—" he decreases the distance between us and place his hands on my shoulders " You have no idea how much danger you're in. And you need someone who will protect you." he finishes and I look up to meet his eyes, they're soft and I can see flecks of silver in his golden eyes.they look so intense, like him and only now do I see the turmoil behind their ethereal beauty.it seems everyone is hiding stuff these days.

We're all wearing masks.

My heart quicken it's pace when his gaze drops to my lips and mine dropped to his, and I start thinking what they'll feel like on my lips. I raise my gaze back to his again and he smirked, amusement dancing in his eyes,my heard lurched and ached at the next words that came out of my mouth like a whisper and I'm scared of own voice.

"I'm never coming back here."

I tear my gaze away from his, unable to handle the look in his intense gaze.then I'm pulled by tarius outside the room.

I recognise the room we are currently in as the living room, where I had been about two and half hours ago.

We made our way back up the stairs to my room so I can pack my stuff. I find rags curled up on my bed and I walk over to her,she immediately perks up and her tail starts wagging when I start smoothing out her fur.

"What do I do with her?" I whisper.

His voice booms behind me "we can keep her here for now but if you stay away too long, she will definitely find a way to come to you."

We finally decided to just let talove spell bound rags and make her forget me until the day she sees me again. It's like talove can do anything.

"Shall we?" he asks after I packed my stuff in my duffle bag and hug rags one more time.

"Yeah... "

We walk out and I have no idea how many turns we took, this place feels like a maze. We took an elevator to the ground floor which looks as prestine as I remembered.

The black SUV is waiting outside for us and I recognise the guy waiting with it as the guy that came with tarius that day Scorpio invaded my room. That reminds me.. I hope that psycho doesn't come back. Hopefully, what talove did will be strong enough to keep him away

I step inside the car and try closing the door but tarius held it open and slipped inside beside me. He doesn't say a word and I truly appreciate it. I don't want him to try changing my mind on this.

My thoughts go to Riley and I start feeling giddy and excited which is way better that the feeling of impending doom that lurks in my gut.

I stare at the houses that pass by as we drove towards that weird wall. few people are outside in the premises of their houses and it makes me think, what kind of people are these?  What kind of life do they live?.

We went through the weird wall and I gawk as it returns back to its normal dirty wall look. I recognise alot of stores and markings as we pass through the familiar landscape of colston.

We arrived at my apartment finally but I stay in the car not making any move to get down and tarius who didn't say anything through out the ride asks
"Nervous Huh?"

He laughs a little and it's all that's needed to lift the mood in the car.

"Yeah, it's not everytime you leave home to learn about paranormal astronomy." I let out a nervous chuckle.

"Don't think too much. Pretend it didn't happen, for now. But don't forget everything." he suddenly turned serious again it makes me think this guy is bipolar.

"things like what?" I ask,puzzled

"Like me?" he blurted and my head felt like it was under vertigo for a second.

I turn in his direction and I felt my heart lurch at the sight of him. I nod and gulp ,hard.

The car suddenly feels very tight and the air feels awkward, I can practically feel his body heat.

I turn away and scrambled out of the car. Taking my duffle bag with me, I scurry to the door and never look back but I swear I can feel his eyes on the back of my head.i am seriously fighting the urge to turn around.

Don't turn around

Don't turn around

Don't turn around

Don't turn around

Don't t—

Of course.

I turn around and a sense of Deja Vu hits me as we lock gazes,just like that day at the bus stop. Neither of us move or blink, our gazes lingering for longer than appropriate and suddenly, he blinks and smiles,one of those breath taking smiles that caused me to hold my breath. I turn away and fumbled with the door knob ,it finally opens and I scrambled inside.

I turn around, my back against the door and let out a breath I forgot I was holding.

My poor heart.

The apartment looks clean, not a speck out of place,even the shattered mirror,its whole and unbroken. I stand in awe of the room for some time before I feel the weariness from earlier today kick in.

Tears almost well up in my eyes at the glance of my old bed. I went over to it and fall face down on it. I close my eyes and blazing hazel eyes stare back at me and I recognise them clearly.

Unfortunately...

***

Bring!!!!!!!!!!!

Arrrrghhh!!!!! My stupid alarm!

I definitely did not miss this dreadful contraption. My eyes feel groggy and my head feels hazy.

I decided to wait a while last night incase lindsy comes back, but seems she's at some friend's place or probably some guy's place.

I take my precious time going into the bathroom, but I remember I'm going to see riley today and I pick up pace and ran into the bathroom.

Thud!

Another blasted soap! Why!!!!?
I groan and slip back up, pick the soap from the floor and put it under the running water in the sink before placing it back in its container.

It's definitely lindsy's.

I shower and walk out of the bathroom a few minutes later and stood in front of the mirror in nothing but the flimsy towel around my torso and skimming just below my upper thigh.

My reflection.

It's a wonder how I still don't recognise myself and I forgot to ask why my appearance changed, of course. Only Emma Andrews would forget about the most important thing at that moment.

I reach out and run my fingers along the fine lines of my wet hair and let my towel down,leaving me buck naked. My eyes catch the tattoo that ran across my side, just before my left breast. The first time I saw it was two days ago but I never gave it much attention and now, it looks more pronounced than it did two days back. It looks familiar. Then it dawned on me.

It's the same tattoo

It's the same tattoo I saw on my forehead yesterday. Oh God,i don't want another weird tattoo on my body!.

My forest green eyes shimmer and glints when I turn at a certain angle and my hair, my almost white, blond hair seems to make them look more beautiful than they truly are.

Crap, look at me, like some bozo narsiccist.

I pick up the towel and wrap it back around me. I shuffle through my closet and picked a long sleeved off shoulder stretchy black top and a pair of ripped denims with my white vans and my blue hoodie. I quickly blow dry my hair and style it into a messy bun. No more time left. My stomach rumbled in hunger. Probably because I missed dinner last night.  I shove  an enormous amount of pop tarts in my backpack and run out of the apartment.

The bus ride was filled with stares and stupid guys trying to hit on me, nothing out of the usual these days. But once I got into the university, it felt like someone blew a horn and asked everyone to pay attention to the skinny girl with vans and a terrible looking blue hoodie.

Okay, fine. This time, I will walk with pride into the campus and they can stare all they want, it'll only make me prouder. Yeah.. That's how I feel.

"Emma! Emma! " I hear someone shouting and turn to their direction.

"Lindsy!" I threw my arms around her immediately she was in my reach.

Lindsy is my childhood friend, we grew up together, literally. Her mom and mine met in the labour ward,since then, they were practically inseparable and so are lindsy and I even though we are a little more distant because of her obsession with the male species.

"Where the hell have you been! I have tried calling, looking and even almost gathered a search party. I went to the police yesterday and they told me I have to come back because you're an adult and you are responsible and and and...." she starts taking deep breaths and it hits me, how could I forget? She's asthmatic.

"Where is your inhaler!!? " I scream, rummaging my hands all over her body to find the damn thing.

She put her hand in a pocket I didn't even know she had and pulled the inhaler out.i help her position it and she starts taking deep breaths, starts inhaling. Mean while a little crowd have managed to gather around us. She calmed down and let the inhaler down, giving me a grimace and I sigh in relief.

"I'm fine lyn, you didn't have to die to find that out." I say In attempt to lighten the mood but Lyn's way ahead of me.

"Oh my God you have to meet Derek. What about lunch? " she gushed.

"um Okay.. Bring him to our table in the cafeteria." I reply. This girl needs a break from boys.

"Okay then! Bye babe." she walked in another direction leaving me alone on the pavement. Looks like  she's not worried anymore. I chuckle and I notice the small crowd still gathered around me. I am not good with public attention, so I run off.

First Class Physics.

I walk into the class with my hoodie over my head. remember my 'pride' earlier ....yeah it didn't work out.

I get into my seat and put my head on the desk.hopefully no one saw me when I came in.But slowly, the noise in the classroom quiets down and I look up to see why.

Okay this is insane

This is totally insane and irrational!!

lindsy walked in with her hand in aquarius's but that's not all.

Gemini, Tarius, and Taurus  trailed behind them.
Lindsy came up to me and put her hand under my chin and pushed it up.

"I know right!  He's jaw dropping gorgeous." she gushed and swooned all over Aquarius who just placed a ridiculous grin on his face .

"Emma, meet Derek,my boyfriend."

I blinked and blinked, this can't be happening.

This time it's the lecturer's jaw which dropped when  tarius winked at him,he immediately turned red and abruptly turned to the board. If I didn't know better, I'd think he's got the hots for him

Someone sat beside me and I turned to find blazing gold orbs staring at me,it felt like vertigo again when our gazes locked. This will not be fun.

*****
TEE'S RAMBLE.

I'm  doing my best not to.. You know, ramble. 😓😓
Okay you guys blew my mind 😨
250+ reads and 50 votes 😲
I didn't even think anyone would read this book. I was bored one day and started typing. Thank you so much 😘😘😘 all of you.

This chapter is kind of long. And I kind of like Aquarius.🙈

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Oh the rhymes.. Okay I rhymed “to” with “to”😓