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Soul mates, useless and weak. Those were the exact words that I had heard my mother tell me multiple times since I was young enough to understand. I’d taken her words to heart at this point. I knew that just because you had a soulmate, it doesn't mean they want to end up with you or love you, for that matter. I guess that's what made me even more fearful of them.It was around about the time I had turned 3 years old, that my mother had started to force me to cover up my soul marking on my shoulder. Telling me to keep my mouth shut at all times. I was never to speak to anyone because it could lead to me finding my other half. At the time I thought she was making me do these things because she was trying to protect me from ending up hurt, but deep down I knew it was for her own sake, not mine. Never mine.----By the time I was 4, I’d become fully mute, from both fears of finding my soulmate and being rejected by them and because I didn't want to make my mother angry. I didn’t need that to happen, as long as I keep quiet she wouldn’t say horrible things to me. Sadly for me though my muteness didn’t help me make many friends at all. If anything it just got me an endless supply of bullies who would tease, hurt, and tell me how much of a pathetic waste I am.I’d tried to ignore them all constantly, to the point I would avoid even going into what was supposed to be the family's garden at hell hall. If I was honest their words hurt me, it hurt at knowing they were right. I am a waste, what person could ever willingly love me and want to stay with me.I was a doomed child because I would probably never be loved the way I want after all. If I couldn't get my mother's love then how could I even hope to have the love of a soulmate? I was bound to spend my life alone and unloved.----It was a couple of months before my 6 birthday when my mother started to take me with her when she went to Maleficent’s home to talk and plan. Instead of leaving me at home to clean, I came face to face with three slightly older and taller kids than me. Mal, Jay and Evie.When I first met them I was scared, not just because of how tough they looked but because I was afraid of their first words to me could be. I don't know what I would have done if they spoke the same words on my shoulder. I could freak out, have a panic attack or scream. But I found myself relieved at finding out none of them was my soulmate. I knew they would never be like me, scared of finding their soulmate. If I'm honest Evie seemed excited at one day finding their one true love, Jay could care less, and Mal gave the impression of never wanting to find them because they would get in the way of her mother's plans for her future. But if you saw what I saw in Mal’s eyes you would see the need to protect... she wanted to keep her soulmate safe from her mother.-----When I turned 9 years old Mal, Jay and Evie decided it was ‘our’ time to shine and bring trouble to the isle. To become greater than our parents, so we would travel the isle more and more and fight others to claim parts as our territory.As we did this ‘our’ parents took this as their time to teach us all we should know, and how to become the worst of the worst. Jay’s dad had taught him how to become the best thief around, Evie’s mom taught her how to charm men and get them to do anything for her, even though she was too young to do it just yet. So she used her charming abilities to charm the gang out of trouble. Mal was trained to be a leader, commanding and the best at everything. She was the prime example of how to be wicked. And my mom….. She taught me how to become the perfect errand boy or in my case errand dog.Not long after we started to claim places as our turf Mal had accidentally found her soulmate. In the form of her very first rival Uma, the daughter of Ursula, the sea witch.No one but I noticed the way the two acted towards each other, Jay and Evie just found it funny how they would fight, call each other names and deny being soul mates, but the truth was I could see the longing in Mal’s eyes as she gazed at Uma when the girl and the others weren't looking. But I did and I also saw the way Uma would look at Mal as they retreated and left the girls standing there. She was broken and sad over the fact that the other half of her soul acted like they didn’t know who they were to them, that Mal denied they had a connection.I felt sorry for her, maybe that's why I started to seek her out when I wasn't doing things for my mother or hanging out with the gang. I wanted to help her more than anything.Seeking her out probed to be hard at first but soon I started to hear rumours on the isle that she had started to build up a gang of her own with the pirate at the dock not far from her home. Her two main members were that of Harry Hook and Gil, the son of Gaston.To say the least, I avoided ever going near the docs in fear of bumping into Uma’s gang so imagine my surprise one day opening my door to see Uma stood there, broken and sad with eyes that spoke so many unvoiced things. That day was the first and last time I held her crying form, she needed me and I was willing to help her.After she had finished crying I remember her looking me in the eyes and told me that from that day I was her secret sea pup, and no harm would willing come to me from her or her gang if she had anything to say. At that moment I had felt happy, so happy that I ended up crying in Uma’s embraces as she rubbed my back. ---- Uma and I had hidden our newfound friendship from our other friends for months and we wanted to keep it that way. After all, we’re from rival gangs, and the others might not have taken it very well at all.For months I listened to her talk about her life, friends and soulmate problem, and she did the same for me, but instead of listening she read what I wrote on the chalkboard that Jay had ‘borrowed’ for me.I had come to trust Uma to the point that I explained to her why I was mute and how it came to me being that way. She was understanding and beyond all belief at what my mother had put me through. I had to cling to her so that she wouldn't go to hell hall and ‘hurt’ my mom. I wouldn't care if Uma did that, because I care more about the fact that Uma could've gotten hurt trying to protect me.Uma had become more than just a friend to me. She became family to me, the sister I’d always wanted to have. She started to replace the spot my mother once held. I didn’t have to lie to her, do what she wanted and I didn’t have to be afraid to show her love, that she returned. The newfound sibling bond we made, had filled part of our broken heart, filling a small part of the void that was to be filled by our parents.I wanted this feeling of happiness I felt to last forever, it was the first good thing I had felt in a very good while. No offence to Mal and the others, but I didn’t feel the same connection with them like I did with Uma. But knowing my luck, something could pass by and shattered it all right in front of my eyes.----- The day that happened was around the time that Mal decided, that it was time our gang confront Uma’s. Sadly for me, I had no choice in the matter of it, I didn’t even want to go down to the dock and pretend that I and Uma weren't like siblings to each other.I remember the exact moment my luck had run out and shattered. It was as Mal and Evie were walking behind me and Jay, who then thought it was a good idea to smack my back hard. Which sent me forward only to crash into the form of another person as he and another were passing the ally we were cutting through.I would have expected the other to just let me fall to either my ass or knees before yelling at me to watch where I was going. But no this kid wrapped his arm around my waist to stop me from falling before tilting my chin up to look them in the eyes, and dear god if those weren't the most beautiful baby blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Beautiful eyes mixed with wildness and mischief.I only wish at that time I had been deaf, that way my world wouldn’t have been shattered by the words that flowed out of his mouth. It was those 5 words that had rendered me stiff, it was the sentence from this kid’s lips that would make me hate my mother so much more than before.How should a 9-year-old reacted to hearing the 5 worded sentence on their shoulder, ‘Well aren't you just cute~’ being said to them, because all I remember was a small part of my mind telling me to open my mouth and say the first thing I could think of. While a different bit pointed out the fact I wouldn’t even be able to say proper words because of how long I had been mute. But it was sadly the idea of a larger part of my mind that my body agreed to follow. That idea turned out to be me passing out in the boy’s arms from both shock and slight fear.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Walking up I didn’t know where I was, only that it was dark and I was laid on something soft meaning I knew this was not my room. I wanted to panic and just run, but doing that wouldn’t help me it would only make things worse and I did not need that right now, getting up I turned to look down at the soft thing I was laid on only to find out that it was a bed, I was just laid on an actual bed, I almost thought I was still dreaming but even I knew that wasn’t true.Squinting slightly I turned to look at the room best I could in the dark as I waited for my eyes to slightly adjust to the darkness around me, getting a little bit of vision back I slowly looked at the things next to me, hoping they would tell me or give me a slight clue as to where I was.Taking a step forward I squeaked in the back of my throat as a coldness rushed through me, looking down I found that my shoes were missing, as with the rest of my normal clothes that were now replaced with a pair of very long, losses pants and a long top that fell just above my knees. I had been changed, by who I don’t know but I wanted to hit them, they had no right.Letting my eyes widen I quickly looked to my shoulder and sight as I saw that my soul mark was still covered, meaning the person that redressed me hadn’t tried to look at it. I will thank them for that, but I still wanted to punch them.Giving another look around the room, now that my eyes had focused in the dark I spotted my chalkboard on a small little table, making my way towards it I frowned as I felt my footwork a slight bit wobbly, as if the floor was either moving or I hadn’t walked in weeks. It was strange, stranger than normal for me.Trying to shake off the feeling I got to the table and grabbed my board and then set out looking around the room and taking notes of the things I saw so that I could try and piece together where I was. So far all I found were scrolls of maps, small trinkets like jewellery, the odd skull and a sword. At writing the last one down I let out a squeak and dropped the chalk, making it break in half. Turning my eyes to the floor I watched as it rolled slight left and right I cursed myself for not figuring it out sooner. The floor moving, swords, maps and all the other stuff pointed to the person that took me being a pirate, and if they were a pirate then it was highly possible I was on a ship, but which ship there are only a few ships in the doc, maybe 4 at most.Bending down I grabbed the two pieces of chalk and sighs, now trying to figure out why a pirate would have taken me on their ship and changed my clothes, walking to the bed I laid back down to put the board and chalk next to me, before closing my eyes again.Letting out a small hum I could feel myself trying to slip straight back into sleep, only to then shoot up and look at my hands in shock and slight shame, I had passed out.