_Hannele
Life is cruel. Sometimes it makes it hard for you to accept your own identity. Growing up with the unique features of your body isn't always a good experience. Sometimes it makes you go through hell and hate your own existence. And if you're like me, you start hiding your uniqueness under the cover of normalcy in order to live a peaceful life. Well, that's what I've been doing for almost 10 years now, living a normal life while concealing some truths about myself. You can't blame me though, no one wants to be labeled as an alien or cursed being due to a birthmark.
"Hurry up Hanny, we're leaving in 10 minutes."
I heard my best friend shout from the room causing me to snap out of my trance.
"Yeah, coming," I shouted back from the bathroom before looking at my reflection in the mirror for one last time.
There they're, looking back at me with all the resentment in this world. I know they hate me, for hiding them from people around me, for not looking back at them even in the mirror, and for rejecting their existence. With one last sigh, I grabbed the contact lens case and took out the natural brown contact lense from the right chamber. Looking in the mirror, I allowed my crystal purple eyes to curse me for one last time before wearing the lenses.
My best friend Brylee says that I have the most enchanting eyes in this world but I know better. She only says this out of her unconditional love for me. Who can look in these eyes of mine without getting a heart attack or scream 'alien.?' Brylee is an exception though. She is a cousin and childhood friend. To be honest, my only friend. She loves everything about me that others would label as hate worthy. I'm using the word 'would' because I haven't actually had the chance to appear in public with my real eyes after that incident years ago.
She was there when it all happened ten years ago. The incident caused me to hate the birthmark sloping royally on my nape. As for my eyes, We shifted to another city and I never showed my true self to anyone else. I get along well with people around me but it's only Brylee who has the key to my inner self.
"Ms. Hennele, are you going to come out, or should I leave on my own?" The banging on the door scared me for a second. Brylee is getting worked up. I placed my right hand on my chest to calm myself before looking back in the mirror. There, now, was standing the Hannele whom people call Hanny. I smiled at myself with enthusiasm.
"It's finally here. I can't control my excitement…" The door to the bathroom was thrashed mercilessly again and this time I ran out to calm my friend down.
She eyed me from head to toe before a lazy smirk appeared on her lips.
"Oh..hooo, the princess's coming of age ceremony arrives in two months and the signs are already here."
"Shut up," I shouted in embarrassment. She's hinting at my seventeenth birthday arriving soon. Well, I once declared my goal of getting a boyfriend on my seventeenth birthday to her and it didn't go well. She's been teasing me over it for years now. Both I and Brylee have been together since childhood. We studied in the same school and same class. We passed our university entrance exam with flying colors and starting next month we're going to start a new life. I've heard that university life is attractive and full of fun. I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's going to be a new life at university and I'm excited about that. But, since we've been studying hard for the last twelve years to reach where we're today, we decided to join this camping tour to the famous "Jewel Forest".
Jewel forest is an ancient and most fascinating jungle of our country. It is said that it is a habitat for all types of animals in this world and the wildlife there never hurts anyone, as long as the humans don't start it first that is. It is situated in the southernmost area of our country. I looked in my bag to check if my camera and sketchbooks are there. This tour is going to be fun I know. I've so many plans and for these ten days, I want to live my life to the fullest. I just hope I don't have to cross paths with any snake there.
Brylee knows my concern and she has promised me that she'll always stay by my side and protect me against my 'enemies'. I looked up to see Brylee checking on the luggage one last time before she turned to me and smiled excitedly. " we're ready. Let's gooo…" we both shouted enthusiastically before laughing hard and running towards the door of our dorm room. We're soon going to say bye to this place too.
[Third Person]
As the girls came out of their building, they excitedly looked around like little kids taking everything around them in. It was six in the morning and the travel company's bus was waiting for them already at the door. After putting their luggage in the trunk they hopped in.
It's four in the evening when the bus came to a halt. It took them ten hours to reach their destination and after initial four hours of the journey where they kept looking out of the window, made videos and captured photos of the scenery, sang songs with their fellow tourists, ate the food they had prepared, and most importantly, claimed how excited they were for this camp, they've been sleeping for the past six hours.
As the instructor blew the whistle and told everyone to come out, they both sprang up from their deep slumber and looked around. "We're already here?" Hannele spoke in disappointment. They had made so many plans to enjoy during the journey and decided to take a beauty nap before continuing their plans. And here they were, standing in front of the Jewel forest.
Brylee looked at her with the same expression of feeling betrayed.
"They said it takes 10 hours to reach here. How come we're already here? Could it be, they lied and made us sleep by using some secret spells and reached here in a blink of an eye with the help of magic? Are we going to meet some supernatural beings here?" Being the fantasy worm, Brylee immediately came up with an imaginary situation that caused Hannele to laugh out loud and smack her forehead.
"What?" Brylee asked with a sour expression while rubbing her forehead. "Stop daydreaming and grow up. These things don't exist, you know it. So stop weaving fairy tales and move, we've to set up everything before the sun sets".
" Yeah, whatever". Brylee was still in a foul mood and stood up to get out of the bus. Little did they know, their perception of life was going to change soon.
*Sneak Peek for the next chapter*
Hannele looked at the serpent in front of her with a terrified expression. Its glaring red eyes seemed to be boring in her soul and she unconsciously gulped while looking at them. She wanted to scream but her voice was lost and before she could muster up the courage to scream for help, someone jumped in front of her.
The last thing she noticed before losing her consciousness was his concerned touch and the burning sensation behind her neck, at the place where that mysterious birthmark was hiding under her hair. The birthmark that looked like a snake, a Cobra King in its fury. At that time if someone removed her hair from her nape, they could see the mark emitting golden light as if a serpent made of fire was sitting there with all its glory.
A/N
I've used a specific mate mark in this story, which is quite different from all the existing mate marks. You can call this type of mark my obsession too because another story of mine has a character with this same kind of mate mark. The mark I'm talking about isn't Hannele's but someone else. Stay tuned to find out who that person is.