The sixteen year old boy was sitting at his desk working on his history paper, minding his own business, when it happened. It started with a swirling sensation at the back of his head, like spinning on a merry go-round on hyper speed. This sensation was suddenly met with a cold wave that passed over his body, stealing his breath, leaving him feeling like he'd been struck with an icy tidal wave. Finally a sharp jolt of pain like a giant boot had struck his spine shooting through the boy's middle, drowning out other sensations with its intensity. The invisible blow fell with such force that his body arched in extreme pain, causing a strangled cry to leave him before he fell limp, in shock and terror to the floor.

It took some time for the pounding of his own heart beat and gasping breath to settle back into something like his normal rhythm. When the boy's muscles eventually remembered how to function, he crawled shakily to his bed. Peeling off the sweat dampened shirt and wrapping himself in blankets he continued to shiver sporadically. Curled up with one hand pressed firmly to the throbbing mark that curved around his lower ribs the boy whispered one muffled word as he slipped into a dreamless sleep. "Kurt".

…

The next day the still exhausted boy sat listlessly hunched over his cereal bowl, stirring the contents aimlessly, while his lively friends chatted around him. After some moments of this behavior two of the older boys shared a look, before stepping out from their places at the table to appear on either side of the oblivious youngster. Simultaneously the two seniors took hold of an arm each; Wes spoke first, "Come on Blaine…"

"..Let's go have a talk", continued the taller boy David. Steering the quiet boy away from the riot of their group's breakfast activities they found a quiet place in a vacant rec room nearby.

Getting seated comfortably the two seniors watched as Blaine sat rubbing absent-mindedly at his side where has sat on the armchair. Wes was again the first to speak. "What's bothering you Blaine? We haven't seen you this quiet since you first started here."

"…"

"Blaine!" both Wes and David raised their voices in concern, trying to bring back the boy's attention.

Blinking and yawning Blaine's eyes came back into focus. "Urgh, I don't really know what's going on, but I think I finally made my Connection last night. But I'm really worried because something weird happened….. Have you ever heard of anyone passing out or anything from the feelings from their Connection?"

The older boys' exchanged concerned looks. "I can't say that I've heard of anything like that happening before, quite a few people get hints of emotions at different times and some pick up the feeling of a thought but even that is uncommon..", David said cautiously.

The look of anxiety on Blaine's face had Wes interrupt firmly, "But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, maybe it's just rare, I have heard of other unusual stuff, so maybe we just need to do some research." At this Wes pulled his smartphone from his jacket pocket, looking up a database of various research papers of different phenomena associated with peoples Soulmate Connections.

"Hey, come take a seat between Wes and me." David said as he shuffled over, patting the space he had made.

"Tell me more about what happened? It'll help me find relevant articles," Wes continued, ever the leader. "That way, we can look through these links together and you can point out anything that seems useful while you explain what exactly happened."

Even though David was older and had gone through a phase of unusual experiences himself the idea of Blaine passing out and it being linked in some way with his Soulmate was a scary thought.

After half an hour of intensive searching, in which David had also pulled out his laptop to help in the search, the three boys had managed to find various articles that offered some explanation to the traumatic experience. One piece in particular gave Blaine an answer, if not comfort.

'There is no definitive answer as to why any two people are bonded by the mark of a Soulmate, despite many case studies that have tried to explain this occurrence and numerous other phenomena that have been linked with this Connection. The most common of theses involvesbeing able to feel shifts in their matches' mood or frame of mind via the Connection and some rare cases have been noted in which particularly strongly bonded individuals can contribute to the others feelings either intentionally or unintentionally.

The appearance of ones Soulmate mark is generally considered a stage in the 'coming of age' process and very much seen as a positive thing by the majority of societies around the world. Many cultures have even created special ceremonies or rituals to celebrate the occasion. Although the physical appearance of a mark will vary as to its location and style, the aspects often indicative of something particular to an individual's Soulmate. There is no one initiating factor that has been identified as to causing the marks arrival although many suggestions have been raised in attempts to explain this still mysterious phenomenon. The sensations associated with its appearance are known to vary in intensity are almost exclusively pleasant and sometimes described as "anticlimactic", but in some extreme cases one individual of a pair may actually experience an "overload". This situation is where one Soulmate is going through some extreme of physical, mental and/or emotional trauma to the extent that it is transmitted in such a way that the other Soulmate feels physical and/or psychological symptoms.'(Holly & Harper)

Reading this Blaine was struck with the realization of how serious the situation could be for this unknown boy that was somewhere out in the world seriously suffering. If his own experience was even half as traumatic as his Soulmate's was then he hated to think what could have happened. He cringed in remembered pain.