My series of actions caused a chain of reactions across the room.

Everything froze in the room for a second. Everything except the delirious Kane who was still howling and trying to fight the two other frozen men.

Who were they? What was their role, and how were they able to crash their way into this dorm room to subdue a rogue ghost gone demon? All these questions were something that I would only think about until later. At that point in time, I was still... beyond myself.

The shock of the sight I had witnessed in the form of Kane, as well as the mind-numbing pain I was feeling due to the assault at the hand of the same demon — I could only think less and instead entrust myself into the hands of my soulmate. Stick myself onto him as much as I could without a single sense of shame. Adam was there and I was going to be alright.

On a night when Adam once again mysteriously disappeared into his portrait after dinner, I lay on the bed in the master bedroom — lights dim and the air cool — and couldn't help but wonder where he was, what he was doing.

By the end of the night, I suddenly realised that there had never been, in weeks that had passed, a single moment where I had been repulsed by Adam. Despite our differences, despite our different planes of existence, I had easily eased into the concept of family with him. With those in the estate. For the first time, in a long long time, I had finally come close to familial familiarity. And strangely... that didn't feel strange.

Adam was... unlike any werewolf mate I had seen before. He was intimidating and decisive, yes, but there was also an abundance of humour and ease about "life" that felt so alien to me in the picture that I had formed in my mind about soulmates. Sometimes I wondered whether he had been of some other species when he was alive.

However, on other accounts, he was quite werewolf in nature as well. Perhaps even more so. More so than a wolf, sometimes it felt like he was a dragon protecting its virgin sacrifice, or maybe even its gold. His protectiveness and possessiveness, while something that was growing on me, sometimes left me at very uncomfortable junctures in my life. For instance, just today, I had to evade the two bodyguards that were mysteriously placed for my safety (from what I was still unaware — but was sure it had been set up due to his orders).

"A...Adam," I whispered, my fingers tightening around a strap wrapped across his long coat. For a second, I wondered what the straps were for, but then my mind wandered again and I went back to sticking myself as close to the man as possible.

"Mm," His low voice made a sound of acknowledgment.

Amidst the chaotically loud room — a howling demon, a traumatized unresponsive girl above the bed, and my noisy brain — a sigh echoed above my head. Strong steel-like arms slowly but surely wrapped their way around me, almost pulling me up until my cheeks brushed against the roughness of his jaw. The pain of the prickly hair took me by surprise, bringing me quickly back to reality as my head tilted back and wide eyes snapped up to stare directly into two orbs of fire.

Fire. There was fire in his eyes. Swirling, cackling golden red. Sparkles flew in those round orbs and I could only stare back at the unworldly being staring down at me.

I melted into a smile but my vision began to get blurry as tears pooled up in them.

"Save Opal," I choked out pleadingly, grasping onto him as hard as possible, "He was her soulmate... he can't take her..."

I knew I was safe. But Opal surely needed immediate medical attention. We needed to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.

Loud wails burst around the room in depressingly loud booms. Deafening lightning-like cracks boomed throughout the bedroom.

The wails, the ungodly sounds were so unbearable that I moved my face as humanly close to Adam as possible, bringing the palm of my hands over my ears.

Despite the chaos in my mind and the room, I couldn't help but be curious about what was happening behind me. I wanted to see what was happening to Kane, and yet I was terrified to see what was happening to him.

As another crack tore across the room, my curiosity bubbled to the surface and I turned my head just enough to witness Adam's hand stretched behind his back and a golden lightning flash out of the tips of his fingers, striking the wailing reptile-human being one last time before he visibly slumped against the floor, unconscious.

"You take her home, we will take care of him and the girl." The third man turned to Adam. An unconscious Kane was slowly levitating behind him, the two other identical twins standing on either side of the demon — thick chains still wrapped tightly around him.

The man's gaze then drifted and stopped at me. Then, he smirked.

My eyes widened in surprise.

This man...this man...

"KAI?!"

|||||||

The events that followed post-realization of Kai's identity as Man #3 occurred so quickly that before I knew it, Kai had rolled his eyes and ordered the weird elevator pervert ghost into the dorm room — who had then procured a cell phone out of God knows where and proceeded to phone the ambulance. After which he simply turned around with the other two tall men and a good-for-dead reptile demon, and stepped into the crack of light ... closing it behind them.

I, on the other hand, seemed to experience something entirely impossible.

One minute I was in the dorm room, sprawled half on the floor and half on Adam, and the next I was back in my bedroom... at the estate.

It was like a spell was cast on me. Consciousness came and went like the tides. When it came first, I was being carried into the bathroom. When it left, long slender fingers were slowly pulling off a black hand glove from the other hand, one finger at a time. When it returned, I was gently put onto the bed and covered with a blanket. When it left, I rubbed my cheek against the palm that caressed my face lovingly. When it returned, the birds were singing outside and the bedroom curtains were dancing softly with the morning breeze.

A new day had arrived and I had slept the previous chaos away. The first thing that rushed through the lobes of my brain in a rush of chemical signals was not the fact that I had given myself away in front of my soulmate, nor was it a thought thrown to the conclusion of Kane, but instead it was if Opal had been taken to the hospital on time.

Unable to discard the question, I made an attempt to reach for my cellphone. Then made an attempt again. And again.

As the arm around me tightened to a point where I was beginning to feel quite breathless, I finally stopped in the resigned defeat. Fine, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to move with a ghost trying to absorb me into him.

I let out a loud, long sigh of defeat. Events from the previous night began to flip in my mind, one by one, like an old presentation on a Windows XP computer.

"Let go a little," I grumbled, breathing out against a semi-transparent chest, " It hurts."

An exhale. An inhale. Nothing changed.

Then suddenly, a yelp ripped out from between the seams of my lips. My lips parted in surprise as I was suddenly flipped over and found myself within a few seconds lying on with my back against the bouncy mattress, staring wide-eyed into icy blue eyes.

Icy blue eyes that peered down at me for a moment and then ...

"Ah!" I yelped as Adam suddenly swooped down and planted his lips on my cheek.

He lifted his face again to look down at me again. A mischievous grin spread across his face and sparkling blue eyes. Then he did it again. Swooped down and smacked his lips on the other cheek. Then my forehead. My chin. My nose.

When his lips touched mine, they brushed against mine with gentle descent. Almost like a whisper. Almost like a dream.

Pulling back almost a breath's distance, his lips touched mine again. I could feel his grin against my lips. Unknowingly, I had also been infested with the pure happiness he was carrying. I felt myself smile against him.

"Hello," I greeted him with a smile.

The crinkle in the corner of Adam's eyes deepened, and so did the dimples on both sides of his cheek.

"Hello,"

.

.

.

Somehow, and quite strangely so, explanations and discussions were never held between Adam and me. An unspoken understanding of exactly what happened the past few weeks formed itself between us. Like sediments settling in the bottom of the sea.

He understood I was somewhat revengeful towards his and Fate's pretending to take me as a fool on the first day, and I understood that the reason why what had happened on the first day, could be directly related to the abnormal bleeding I had witnessed on him when he had attempted to communicate with me.

I decided to find out about what exactly happened on that day. But the urgency to do so was diluted by the desire to be at peace now that we were finally acknowledging each other's presence openly. Now that we were existing as each other's destiny.

The remainder of the day passed by with an unspoken understanding on both our ends. The weekend had come to an end and I had classes from 10 AM to 3 PM. And so by the time the clock struck 8, I had the most tiresome experience of my life — extracting myself from the bed and my soulmate.

His sticky fingers wrapped around me like glue, digging into my skin, refusing to let me go. I, on the other hand, did not know how to coax someone, let alone... a lover.

Were we lovers?

But then... we had kissed.

Oh well.

By the time I finally succeeded in extracting myself from his sticky arms, it was 9 AM, and I was running late.

Breezing through brushing, showering, and dressing up, breakfast still had to be on the go as I got into the back of the SUV with my bag and the Mocha and sandwiches Otto had stuffed into my hands, like a complaining mother, while I was making a beeline towards the front door.

"Good morning," I greet the older driver with a smile, "Thank you for the help!"

"My pleasure, Nia! Should I pick you up around the same time?" The driver's eyes crinkled brightly as she looked at me in the mirror before glancing beside me and then quickly looking back at the road.

Because I was doing my masters degree in librarianship, I didn't have to spend too much time on the campus. I didn't even have to be there every day. And when I did, classes generally ended by 1 PM, which gave me enough time to do other things.

As the car rolled down the road, I felt the fleeting gaze of the driver fly between the ghost and me.

There was something peculiar that I had noticed in the estate. Every employee that worked around the main building seemed to have the sight to see Adam. Which was quite strange, it made me wonder if a being of his capacity had the ability to show himself to people, or that they had been quietly collecting people with their third eyes open to work at the estate.

"Eat,"

The low coaxing command gripped my heart and tugged at it. My gaze lowered just as the milky soft crumbs touched my lips. Pale fingers wrapped around my wrist, carefully lifting my hand and the sandwich it had been holding, up to my lips.

"Bossy," I glanced to my side and poking my tongue out in defiance, quickly brought the sandwich up and took a big bite before the ghost could react.

"Is it okay to visit the warden and Opal after school?" I nibbled at the corner of the sandwich.

Had it been last week, I would have avoided visiting the hospital as much as I could. In fact, I wouldn't have thought about visiting anyone at all. However, after seeing what the worst sort of dead being could look like...what more could I see that could scare me? If anything...they could simply be just as ugly as Kane was, right?

"That will be arranged," Adam sighed happily, taking me by surprise as he shuffled on the seat noisily before leaning his on my shoulder, "So comfortable..."

A choked sound came from the front of the SUV making my attention snap to the source of the sound, just in time to catch the bright red face of the driver in the mirror.

I was sure that I could probably contend her in the shade of redness, but decidedly stifled the shyness into a lowered head and shy smile as I stayed still, letting the man continue leaning against me without a care in the world and a smile on his lips.

Was this what my mum felt like when she first met my dad?

This.... spring-like happiness?

||||||||

Strong concrete buildings stood tall, above the heads of the students gathered in various places by it, some in groups and some simply sitting, enjoying the morning breeze, waiting for their classes to begin. Some, like myself, were even walking towards their class with a bag slung over their shoulder and urgent footsteps.

"Nia!"

A turn of my head revealed a smiling Nadine seated on a bench, stuffing her iPad into her bag and standing up to jog towards me. Surprisingly, unlike how it usually was, there wasn't a sticky shadow behind her this time.

Which somehow mirrored my own situation.

"Good morning!"

"I know we texted but, I just want to be sure, are you sure you're alright?" Nadine stopped before me and reached out with both of her surprisingly strong hands, her gaze doing a once over me carefully, inspecting for any injuries or cuts.

"Apart from the visual abuse I went through yesterday, I am quite alright as you can see." I grinned up at the slightly taller girl, who only frowned and continued her search until she was satisfied and I had twirled 360 degrees to appease her.

"Do you know the dormitory girls were talking in the group chat about you all night? They were saying you're some sort of being because you went into the building but never came out. I told them that you were still in the room checking things and I saw you leave later in the night."

I couldn't help but slump against Nadine in relief.

"Thank you so much," I breathed out in relief, wrapping an arm around the girl more freely now that she didn't have a sticky bulldog around her.

"He is not with you today?" Nadine asks as we begin to walk towards the lecture hall. I don't need to be told twice to understand who she is talking about.

"Do you think there is an organised society in the afterlife?" I turn to look at Nadine with a serious expression.

Aside from her, I do not have anyone in my life with whom I share this sort of similarity. So it seems fair to consider her a colleague in chaos.

"Of course there is. There is a hierarchical society in every aspect of existence."

This takes me by surprise, my wide eyes snap to Nadine's and stay there, "You think so?"

"Yeah! Like with humans, there are those people in political power, then there are those that have economic power, then there are the rest of the adult population, then there are the elderly population and the children. In werewolf pacts, there are the alpha kings, queens, princes, princesses, guards, beta, omega, and non-werewolves offsprings. Similarly in the vampire community, there are royalty, the guards, and then everyone else. Likewise, in the higher layers of life, there are Gods, deities, guards, satan demons and ghosts, and so on. In conclusion, a multi-layered community of different power scales. It's like this everywhere, isn't it? What do you think?" She looks at me with a smile.

"That would make the most sense," I nodded in agreement, "You know I think our soulmates work together in the afterlife."

"Of course they do, Kai told me that day when I saw your husband."

"What's their role?" I frowned in confusion, feeling a little lightheaded at the "husband" title Adam had received in his absence.

" They are both — Nia, I think... I think I'm also beginning to... to see them... "

My hand had just touched the door of our lecture hall when Nadine confessed.

"Actually... that day at the dormitory... I saw a demon, and I was so helpless. I couldn't help Opal at all." My fingers curled into each other. I looked down in frustration.

"Do you think— do you think we should stop running from our abilities?"

I froze.

"What do you mean?"

The shuffling footsteps behind me told me the girl behind me was nervous, and yet I could not turn around and face her. I could not turn around and face what she was suddenly proposing to me.

"Well, it depends on our perspective, right?" A small voice finally spoke in the midst of silence. Surprisingly, there was no one in the hallways. It didn't even feel like there was a class gathered beyond the doors before me. It was as quiet as a moonless night.

"Our abilities could seem to be a curse...or a gift. You know... I've been meditating lately... and now I've started to see them too. Sometimes, not always. But it's an evolution, right?"

The tight lines between my eyes gradually relaxed, and I lightly turned my head to the side.

"Do you think we can hone our abilities into something... powerful?"

Nadine jumped forward, an arm wrapping around my shoulder and her sparkling eyes suddenly holding my own gaze captive.

"Let's try?" She grins.

I stare at her.

Her big hazel eyes sparkled so brightly, making her Middle Eastern features all the more sharp and striking. And somehow there was this innocence... this positivity that only radiates in youthfulness. At that moment, to me, Nadine looked like a flower.

"Let's try!"

"YAY!" Nadine jumped in triumph, before deflating the next second, "but how?"

Just then, as if the universe decided to drop a bucket of water on our heads. A translucent head stuck out of the door before us, looking at Nadine and I with an eyebrow cocked up and a tired look on her face.

"Are you two going to stand here and make life decisions for the next 2 hours?"

Not even waiting for us to reply, Lucia rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Get your asses inside the lecture room, little virgins! You're paying tuition for a reason! Leave the rest to me!"