SmolNarwhalWrites

You always imagined your soulmate to be this wonderful, kind person. You thought you might run into them in public. Maybe at work or even while you were out running errands.

What you didn't expect, however, for your soulmate to already know you. In fact, they've known who you are for years. They've kept tabs on your whereabouts and never made themself known... Until now.

It started with small things. The rent on your tiny apartment kept you busy. Sometimes, you skipped meals to keep the lights on. You didn't have a car, instead walking to work and school or riding your beat up old bike. Occasionally, food would show up on your doorstep. It was a blessed treat, usually the type of food you wouldn't buy for yourself. You were managing to keep your head above water just barely until you lost your job.

It was the worst week of the semester. You were in the middle of studying for finals and you had a ton of work to do. It wasn't your fault, really. You'd been fired after a Karen badmouthed you in front of the district manager. When the first of the month rolled around, you tried to pinch together what meager savings you had. But when you approached your landlord with your rent, you were informed that it had already been paid in full.

Stumped, you returned to your job hunt. You couldn't be sure it actually was your soulmate looking out for you. Maybe it was a mistake. But that night, dinner arrived on your doorstep. And with it, a single red rose.

While out on your morning walk, you stumble across a tree that had split and grown into a rather odd round shape. You walk the same path every day, but you have never once seen this tree. When you investigate it, you notice a shimmering pool of light spilling from the center of the round shape. When you reach out to touch it, you are pulled rather forcefully through.

Your stomach drops violently, almost causing you to retch as you tumble head over heels through a dark portal. You land, completely unharmed but feeling terribly sick, on the leaf-strewn floor of the forest.

At first glance, it appears to be the same forest. Upon closer inspection, you quickly realize that this couldn't be your forest.

In your forest, the trees don't have eyes.

After moving from place to place all your life, you expected this town to be the same as anywhere else. You'd been an outcast most of your life, never staying in one place long enough to make any proper friends. This place shouldn't have been any different. And yet, something about the town seems completely wrong. You go to your first day of school to find it to be unrealistically similar to something out of a movie. The quarterback is dating the head cheerleader, there are ridiculous cliques and the jocks really do pick on the nerds. It's so similar to fiction that at times you find yourself wondering if it is all real.

But when people start disappearing, no one seems to remember them. They vanish in the night and as soon as they are gone, everyone forgets. You find that you are the only one who remembers.