I became infatuated with reading from the moment I learned. At six years old I would grab a hold of anything with words: books, magazines, product labels, receipts, anything to immerse myself in language. My favorite stories were always those epic, once in a lifetime love stories. Maybe they could be a little corny but there was nothing more romantic than an eternal, powerful love.

On my tenth birthday my best friend, Hobi, dared me to go into our attic. We'd both always been afraid of the dark, mysterious room and were convinced it held cobwebs, bugs, and maybe a ghost or two, but with a flashlight in tow I climbed the rinky ladder.

"What do you see?" I could hear his voice from below and rolled my eyes at him.

"Don't be a punk. Come up." I called back to him, hearing his initial protest but knowing he wouldn't be able to fight the urge to prove he wasn't afraid.

I squirmed and swatted my arms around as the stringy feeling of a cobweb hit my face and hair. By the time I clicked the flashlight on Hobi had finished climbing the ladder, his eyes wide as he peered around the room.

"See anything cool?" He crawled through the space so that he was right next to me.

I shook my head, scanning over the old couch, baby toys, and random boxes that filled the room. Hobi was busy doing the same, grabbing the flashlight to read the box labels and pulling open a couple to see what was inside.

When my eyes landed on a small box, I pulled it to my lap, my heart racing when I read in my mother's print, FAMILY.

I tugged at the tape, a smile immediately spread across my face when I recognized a worn photo of my great-grandmother. After placing it aside gently I dug through the rest of the box stuffed with old photos, news articles and two journals.

We jumped at the sound of my mom's voice calling out from the kitchen. I resealed the box, climbing down with it and tossing it onto my bed before heading to the kitchen with Hobi trailing behind me.

"Hosoek your mom called and said that dinner's ready." My mom nodded toward him, always a little terse with him. He turned to me, pulling me into a hug and whispering a short goodbye in my ear.

I sat at the kitchen table with my mom and dad, watching as my mom served both of us our dinner. She brought out a small birthday cake to be shared between us, my dad kissing the top of my head and ruffling my hair as he added a dramatic note to the end of the birthday song.

After helping my mom clean the kitchen I exaggerated my tiredness, eager to find out more about the box I'd retrieved. From my bedroom window I could already see the top of Hobi's head peeking from just above the windowsill.

"Took you long enough." He complained when I let him in. I laughed as he brushed the dirt off his bottom from where he'd been sitting in the grass.

We sat on my bedroom floor and I dumped the contents of the box onto the rug, Hobi starting to organize the newspaper clippings by date. I grabbed one of the journals, opening it to the first page, the writing faded and pages worn so that it was harder to read. The entries were short with only names and information I couldn't make sense of below.

August 14, 1802
Anne John Patrick
Soulmate meeting: April 1, 1817
Marriage: August 14, 1818

May 6, 1823
Janine Patrick Wells
Soulmate meeting: November 12, 1840
Marriage: May 6, 1846

I started to skip through until I recognized the name of my great-grandmother.

September 7, 1930
Mary Allen Phillips
Soulmate meeting: June 3, 1944
Marriage: September 7, 1948

My grandmother.

December 12, 1955
Julia Phillips Jacobs
Soulmate meeting: August 28, 1973
Marriage: December 12, 1973

My mother.

July 10, 1977
Alena Jacobs Wright
Soulmate meeting: October 31, 1980
Marriage: July 10, 1992

And finally me.

September 26, 1993
Seline Wright
Soulmate meeting:
Marriage:

Hobi caught on to my confusion through my furrowed brow, leaning over my shoulder. "All of these clippings are marriage announcements." He pointed out.

I put down the journal and he grabbed it, scanning through the entries while I checked out the newspaper clippings. I noticed that they corresponded with the names listed in the journal, Hobi leaning over in wonder when he realized the marriage dates listed were in exact alignment.

"The women in your family sure like to keep records." He observed, flipping through the sticky pages of the journal. There were a few loose sheets at the back, newer than the others and he unfolded them, his eyes widening as he read.

"What does it say?" I asked, his expression always giving him away. There was obviously something shocking written on the pages.

He jerked them back too quickly for my liking, trying to stuff the pages into his pocket. "Nothing really, just the same as the other pages." He was a horrible liar.

I snatched them away from him, recognizing my mother's neat handwriting immediately.

September 26, 1998
Today, as per our family tradition, we took Seline to Chavali. Seline may be the last woman of our lineage to have her attachment divinity foretold. I have prayed that this is a sick joke that Chavali decided to play as their last encounter, but when she held onto my 3-year-old's hands, something happened.

When the reading was complete she began to scribble down multiple dates where Seline would meet her soulmate. There were seven. Chavali started to have heart palpitations at the power of the love she felt within Seline's spirit. How is that going to work? Seven soulmates across her lifetime? She'll spend her life from man to man, without settling down, with no marriage and alone. Everything that our family has held as tradition will be ruined by my daughter.

I was processing too much information, my mind swimming as I put down the pages, reaching out to reread the beginning entries of the journal and newspaper clippings. It didn't make sense. Someone read my palm or something ridiculous when I was a toddler and saw that I would have seven soulmates over my life. Even the thought sounded absurd, but everything from the box was aligned with the idea.

"What kind of crazy story has your mom been writing?" Hobi laughed, reaching out to put the items back in the box. He tried to assure me, able to see that I was freaking out and covering my hand with his. "Hey, it isn't real."

I let myself believe his words, but every year on the night of my birthday, I'd reach into the top of my closet where I hid the box, spending a night obsessing over the divine beliefs of my family.

There were things that always made sense and others that didn't. I was always aware of the lessons that my grandmother instilled in me from the time I was a child. The mother is the leader of the household in our family. That means that it's a part of your journey to find a mate and create a family for you to care for and nurture. This is our contribution to the world, letting our traditions and values pass through the matriarchy. Even though I thought it was a bunch of bullshit by the time I was a preteen, it made sense in respect to their lives.

I always struggled with the whole mystical aspect of it, that we were supposed to be so obsessed with finding a man and having babies that we literally had someone tell that fortune before we were even fully potty trained. Yeah right.

Despite everything, I never talked to my mother about it. Maybe it was fear, since she might confirm that I'll likely be the person who will screw up the traditions our family had over the years. A part of me felt bad about that, if it all happened to be real, and if it was, the other part sort of looked forward to having seven epic loves.
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Author's Note: Okay everyone, truly let me know how you feel about this little prologue to my next story. I'm currently still working on Grounded, but since I've actually started to picture the conclusion to that story, decided to test the waters with this new prologue. I've read a couple of soulmate fanfics before and I know that in the ones I've read the main character was involved with all seven soulmates at once. This story will more so explore the seven different soulmate relationships that occur over her life. Alright, I don't want to give too much more away but I'll do my best to update soon.