THE SOUL MATE PRINCIPALS

Reading guide

Italic - thoughts

"Normal speech"

'Quoted speech, words etc.'

In this world, they are people who are very sensitive. When they feel sad they feel it a hundred times worse than anybody and when it comes to love, they feel all that love comes with a hundred times than anyone else; The heartbreak, the excruciating pain, like having an un-sedated operation…

"Urgh. I hate hospitals!" complained Edward for what seem like the hundredth time since he and his little brother Alphonse had received the call that afternoon that Winry, their childhood friend and neighbour was in the hospital. They didn't know exactly how she had ended up in the hospital when she was supposed to be on her way to visit them from their home. So here they were outside room 104.

As habitual, Alphonse responded with a "brother, please." And he went on ahead apologising to the displeased nurse who had led them to the door. Despite the apology given, the nurse still felt the need to inflict some sort of punishment on the brothers for ignoring the obvious but not written rule to not make noise in the hospital. She glared at them as if to say 'make even a squeak and you are dead.'

The brothers shrank back and were almost about to cling to each other in fear; this lady made them feel like they were back to that time of their first day of preschool; small and oblivious to the new world called education.

The nurse cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Come on" she nodded her head to the door and the brothers blunted out a "yes ma'am" as a response. Upon realising their mistake, they blushed in embarrassment.

The nurse decided not to react to their antics and reached for the door in silence.

"Oh. Doctor?" the nurse questioned upon opening the door. What was he still doing here during visiting hours? With an exaggerated sigh she took a guess,

"Paper work?"

"Ah. Nurse Hawkeye…" a voice that Edward guessed belonged to the mentioned doctor responded as if he were a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Despite the nervousness lacing the voice, Edward felt his heart skip a beat at the voice; he felt the need to see whom that voice belonged to. Finally, after what seemed like a year, nurse Hawkeye moved into the room giving way for Edward to see the owner of the voice which with not a tinge of reservation had captivated him.

Edward's golden eyes met with the dark pools of the doctor. Then it was just him and the doctor in the room; not even the sound of his friend's voice calling out to him could penetrate the invisible shield enveloping him with the dark haired Doctor. He took a step forward as if he was being pulled by an unseen wire. His next step failed as his legs felt numb and heavy. His heart felt awfully constricted as if the rib cage was shrinking by the second, everything in the room became disoriented. His eye lids grew too heavy to stay open.

He heard a familiar voice call out his name. But he found himself unable to open his mouth for a response. He tried to search for the owner of the voice. However, it was too dark; he couldn't see who was calling to him. The calls grew distant until he saw nothing but darkness.

TBC