Chapter Text
The rain pours down from the clouds above while you make it to your bookstore to open for the day. It’s been raining for a week now, however, that’s not too uncommon for your shop’s location. Your umbrella barely kept the rain at bay while you made your way to the door of the bookstore. Making sure to shake out your umbrella, you tie it together before putting it on the coat rack by the door.
Looking beside the door, you turn on all of the lights to the store watching as the place lights up, coming to life before your eyes. You quickly turn your sign in front of the door from closed to open. When you begin walking to your desk at the side of the shop you notice two large boxes behind it. They must have come in during the weekend while you were out.
You take a box cutter from the top drawer of your desk, slowly cutting the middle of the first box. Pulling the cardboard apart, you can see the many books stacked inside the boxes. As you shuffle through the books you notice most of them are children’s books, but one catches your eye. It’s titled “How To Find Your Soulmate”, the book immediately made you laugh softly. Flipping
the book over the description simply spoke about how to touch someone’s arm or leg discreetly. This caused a small smile from you as you place the book back.
Lots of people, including your friends, were ecstatic to find their soulmate. A person you were destined to be with for the rest of your life. You could find them in any part of your life, all it took was one touch. Someone that you touch on purpose or accidentally sends a spark down your body. After that spark, you suddenly gain a special ability. You and the person you touch, or your soulmate, can teleport to where each other is. The only downside to this is that the teleportation happens randomly and leads to some of the most embarrassing stories you’ve ever heard. You will never forget your friend's story of ending up next to the urinal of her soulmate.
Most of your friends have found their soulmates over the years. Some were random touches in the hallways at school or the shaking of the hand at a work meeting. However, there were rare times that someone purposely asks to touch someone else to see if they were soulmates. It’s quite a new occurrence and is seen as quite taboo for the elderly to experience. Usually, a person will hold their arm or wrist to the person they want to touch it.
You’ve always been curious about who your soulmate could be, but it’s never been a huge part of your life. Studying was a bigger part of your life than a love life ever was, not that you hadn’t had your flings or partners from time to time. By the time you were twenty-five, you had already established this bookstore by yourself. But, it’s not that you didn’t yearn for a soulmate, a life partner to lean on for comfort and love. You just trusted the process and certainly didn’t want to rush anything.
You look at the cardboard box in front of you, cracking your back slightly before picking it up. Walking through the different aisles in your bookstore, you make it to the children’s section. You begin picking up the smaller books from the box and placing them in their proper location. The box is about half empty when you hear the bell connected to the front door go off signaling the arrival of a customer.
“Be there in a moment!” You call from your place in the children’s section.
Placing the final book on the shelf, you walk towards the front of the store and see a tall person looking at the mystery section. Their stature made you take a step back to get his size into your vision fully. You note their clothing is all black, including a mask that covers their head, or at least most of it. You’ve never been someone who judges, but there’s no other reason someone wears all black including a mask unless they are here to rob you, right?
“Excuse me, can I help you?” You’re hands shake slightly as the person turns around to you.
You now see that the person, the man, in front of you has a balaclava with a design on it, something that looks like a skeleton’s mouth. The man grunts once, nodding his head at your question.
“Do you have any books you suggest? Lookin’ for a mystery novel.” The man’s voice is gruff and slightly muffled due to his balaclava.
“I have a favorite, do you prefer any authors?” You ask, trying to keep your voice even.
“Nah, I rarely have enough time to read anyway, anythin’ is fine with me.” The man’s face stays stoic.
You stiffly nod your head hoping that he won’t notice your nervous nature around him. Looking through the books you shift through the authors until you find the book that you pick out. You hand the book to the man and watch as he scans over the cover. You gave him one of your favorite mystery books. There is no noticeable change in expression on his face as he turns the book and reads the back.
“Looks good.” You smile at his words, glad you could help him.
“Ready to check out?” You look at the man and he nods his head.
You grab the book and guide the man to the register at the back of the store. Quickly jumping behind the register you take the scanner from its place and scan the barcode on the man’s book. When you go to give the book back to the man your hands touch and in a split second you both drop the book.
The sensation you feel when you touch the man is unlike any other you’ve ever felt in your life. It feels better than when you have hot soup on a cold day or when you bake your favorite treat. It feels like a jolt of euphoria running from your arm to your toes, it’s almost euphoric enough to send you off your feet. You can still see the man in front of you, but suddenly you feel nothing but comfort and safety when you look at his eyes. His eyes remind you of one word. Home.
-
Ghost is completely thrown into another universe when he touches you. Suddenly the stoic man is feeling emotions he’s never felt before. He feels his emotional guard slip for a moment as your hands make contact. Brought back to his childhood, Ghost is reminded of what it feels like to be loved, to be saved, and to have someone care. As he stares deeply into your eyes he sees a future, and more importantly, he sees hope.
Ghost slips his hand away from yours quickly, his hands clammy as they search his pockets for something. He ignores you completely, every one of your questions and exclamations goes on deaf ears as he searches his pockets. Pulling out a significant amount of money he slams it onto the counter without giving you a second glance. He grabs his book swiftly from the counter and marches for the door.
“Stop! Please, c’mon work with me! I mean, we are soulmates, can I at least know your name-”
Ghost ignores every plea as he reaches the door of the bookstore, throwing it open. Before he can set foot outside of the store, he feels a hand wrap around his wrist. The hand can barely wrap around half his wrist, he turns around only to see you glaring at him.
“Just…tell me your name.” You sigh as you try to get any bit of information that you can.
“...Ghost.” His voice is a low grumble.
Ghost snatches his hand from you pushing his way through the door. He knows he shouldn’t be such a pussy when it comes to this, but he can’t help it. You could never see him again, that was something he promised himself as he walks from the bookstore. Although he felt longing in his chest after being apart from you for just a few seconds, he has no doubts that this is the right option. The man would rather be shot in each leg than speak to his soulmate right now.
Pulling his rain jacket’s hood over his balaclava, Ghost sets off to his temporary apartment. As his feet splash in puddles that appear on the street he can’t help but let his mind wander. He had secretly always wanted a soulmate, but once he joined the military, he swore that if he found his soulmate he would never contact them. It was too much risk, too much emotion involved.
Ghost never learned much about soulmates from anyone growing up. He had learned the basics from school, but he’s long forgotten anything he’s learned. Once he felt that tingle in his body it reminded him of what his teachers taught him. That feeling was unmistakable.
Taking his shoes off at the front door’s mat, he unlocks his flat with his key before heading for a shower. As Ghost waits for the water to completely heat up he undresses, taking his balaclava off last. He looks at himself in the mirror noticing the dark circles under his eyes.
Stepping into the shower, Ghost lets the warm water rush over his body. The water washes over his face as he tries to focus on the feeling instead of his thoughts. He’s set to leave for the base in a few hours and he would rather just forget about this soulmate fiasco. The last thing he needs during this next is Soap up his ass about a soulmate.
Ghost gets out of the shower, wrapping a towel around himself. He hears his phone go off and he moves towards the bedroom and looks at whos calling him. Price’s name shows up on his screen and he answers quickly.
“Captain,” Ghost answers, putting the phone on speaker as he puts on underwear.
“Ghost, are you comin’ to base tonight?” Price’s voice echoes from the phone’s speaker as Ghost gets dressed.
“Yes sir, I’ll be there in half an hour.” Ghost responds quickly, buckling his belt.
“See you then.” The phone call ends swiftly.
-
You stare outside of the bookstore’s window for the last time before turning the sign from open to closed. You were hoping, praying to whoever was listening that Ghost, as he calls himself, would come back through those doors. That never came though and you doubt he would be back anytime soon. However, you did get a few confused stares from a few old ladies coming in to buy books as you whipped your head around when they walked in.
Now you just have to wait, you will probably teleport, you just don’t know when, or where. Your mind wandered throughout the day, wondering what his job was, where he lived. You hoped that you didn’t teleport somewhere you were not welcome. The worst part about this was that it seemed that your soulmate didn’t even want to be yours. Were you that bad?
You sigh as you open and close the door to your shop, locking the door before beginning your walk back home. It was a rather quiet night, so the walk home was quicker than usual. A bath was necessary after the day you’ve had and it’s never felt better. The suds on your body wash away the stress and worry from the day's events.
Climbing into bed, you turn on some soft music to drown out your thoughts as you lay down. It didn’t take long for sleep to take control of your body, slowly sending you into a dreamless night.
That was until you felt something touch your arm, then you feel something on your neck. You move slightly, pushing whatever it was away until you realize you can’t, and that you live alone. Opening your eyes, you begin to scream when you notice a hand is over your mouth covering it. You look up and see that someone is hovering above you with a knife at your neck.
“Who are you?” The blonde man hissed at you.
You try to speak but your mouth is still muffled by his hand. After a moment, you realize who this must be. It’s Ghost, and you’ve just teleported to him in your sleep, and he’s holding a knife to your neck. Ghost gets closer to you before his eyes widen and he pulls both his hands back.
“Ghost?!” You squeak.
“How the fuck did you get here?” Ghost demands his face nearly touching yours as he gets as close as he can to you a knife still in his palm.
“We’re soulmates…you know, teleporting is a common symptom of being soulmates.” You try not to sound as scared as you feel.
“Teleporting?” Ghost mumbles, it looks like he has no idea what you are talking about.
When Ghost looks at you again he looks at you fully. He sees your lips trembling and your body shaking, you look like you are about to break down.
“You have to get out of here, now.” Ghost says firmly.
“Where is here? Where are we?” You sound almost frantic at this point.
Ghost decides to keep quiet when you ask that question, only staring at you.
“Ghost, where is here?” You repeat your question.
“Military base.”
“What the fuck.”