She blinks once, and endless, empty darkness greet her again. Her entire being froze involuntarily, including her heart and her lungs. She couldn't afford to breath, fearing all hell will break loose, and God decides to snatch away all this piece of bliss from her. Her soulmates.

Soulmates.

The moment of realization dawned on her, she started breathing again, greedily take a mouthful of air into her lungs. Her ragged breathing does not calm down, all of her organs especially her heart felt like as if they were set on fire.

Soulmates.

Two.

Two soulmates.

The words flying, floating in her mind in circle, repeatedly until she feels another splitting headache coming.

How could...? How could it be? She have two...soulmates? How could?

She feels like she should just be thankful, gifted with one extra person who would love her and be with her the rest of her life, one more person she could trust and love.

But on the other hand, these two people will make her vulnerable, her heart open to them, and the chance of her breaking far worse than the effect of a person if they decide that they will just crush it with just a single sentence. How could she bear it? Her body, her mind, her soul, can't afford to be in pain again, or she will die. She will really die if the same thing a couple years ago happen again.

She now just have to defend her fragile heart from two people, and she doesn't know if this is a gift or a curse.

Mind in a mess, Ara doesn't aware her ability to see has returned as she thinks. Her hands started shaking, ears ringing as her breathing increased irregularly.

"RAPHAEL!" A voice suddenly booming near her startled her out of her reverie. She blinks her eyes thrice, chasing the sudden blurriness of her sight away. She then started to feel a pair of strong hands gripped her muscled arms, a strand of black, along with familiar pallette purple fall in front of her eyes.

Huh?

She touches the strands of purple hair that shining under the light.

Soulhair?

A strong whiff of something spice mixed with leather that she found so intoxicating, assaulting her nose so suddenly that she feels drunk on the scent.

Bewilderment started to fill her heart as her mind went blank with all the fog in them. For a second she just stares into space, voices shouting and talking back and forth enter her ears.

Suddenly notices something from the corner of her eyes, she snapped her head down so fast she fears she damage her neck. But those thoughts fly out of the window in the next second because she saw her hands.

It is okay if the hands in front of her eyes now are her usual pale, slender hands. But the thing is they are not hers. This hands are not hers. Skin a couple shades darker than her very very fair hands, and a few inches bigger than hers, waving when she waves and wriggling when she wriggles.

Her eyes widen. As if waiting for the right moment, a glint of her gold eyes catches her attention through the glass of her hand watch.

Soul Exchange?

Again?

A cursive letter of 'U' on her wrist caught her attention. It was shining in beautiful gold, before it faded back to black, just like the one on her other soulmate's.

She let out air through her nose in thought. This must be his Soulmark. He too has a letter as a Soulmark. Just like her.

Sudden loud noises startled her out of her reverie.

She frowns as she turned her head to the source of the noises when words registered in her brain. She couldn't see what those men all circle for. What happened?

Curiosity peeked through, Ara attempted to stand and go to look what makes them so panic about, but then the grip on her arms tightened, halting her movement.

A husky voice laced with concern spoke to her, "Hey Raph, you okay? You suddenly went...blank. What's wrong?"

Hearing the voice makes her heart skips, the voice sounded deep but light, and with the perfect amount huskiness, a little scratchy as she slowly looks up at the man in front of her, and a pair of black eyes so dark that they seem bottomless stare back at her. Those eyes seem like they could suck her in them, like a black hole.

A sharp intake of breath and then darkness consuming her again.