Chapter One (Soul Recognition)

The true story of that soul awaking first love. Let me know if you want the next chapter!

I was twenty-two. Still soft with the weight of innocence, still sure the world was made of clear lines and gentle truths. I lived quietly and my world was small, but it was warm and safe. I shared a house on the coast near Geelong with my two best friends. Katrina, who was my age, and her older sister Leanne. We were inseparable. Most weekends you’d find us curled up on the couch watching movies, walking along the beach, or wandering through the shops downtown. It wasn’t exciting, but it was familiar, and at that point in my life, I didn’t need more than that.

We were good girls. Raised in faith, wrapped in morals like cardigans. Church was the rhythm of our weeks, and we stuck to each other the way only young women with shared beliefs and a thousand whispered secrets can.
I never strayed. Not once. I didn’t drink. I didn’t flirt with danger. I had never been kissed by anything darker than a sad song. But little did I know, my entire world was about to cracked open in way I could have never prepared for.
He wasn’t supposed to be there.
It was a typical Saturday night and we were meeting a group of friends for dinner. Just the usual faces. Safe ones. I arrived a little late, laughing with Katrina and another friend as we stepped into the restaurant, lightly dressed, cheeks pink from the chill outside.

The second I saw him, I knew.
It was like catching a secret in the corner of my eye ,familiar, ancient, forgotten. A soul I felt l had been intertwined with in another lifetime. That feeling gripped me so fast, so completely, it eclipsed any logic I had left. I can still feel the air from that moment, the hush in the particles around us, like even the dust dared not stir. Everything froze. Not dramatically, but gently, reverently. As if the world itself had paused, leaned in, and whispered, pay attention… this matters.
He was leaning casually near the end of the table, half-turned in conversation, eyes dancing with a smile that hadn’t reached his lips yet. There was nothing polished about him. He was raw and magnetic, beautiful in the kind of way that unsettles something primal in you.

He turned toward me and met my gaze. And in that second, everything in me, the girl I had been, the woman I would become, just… held her breath.
It was like time folded in on itself. Everything else fell into a soft blur, muffled and distant, like I was underwater. All I could see was him.

We didn’t say a word. We didn’t need to. The recognition was instant and bone-deep. He smiled, and it wasn’t just a smile. It was a collision. Something about it made my chest ache, like I’d been missing him my whole life without knowing it. I looked away, heart thudding against my ribs like a trapped bird. But he held his gaze on me. I felt it. I felt his attention, heavy and hot, like sun through glass. And when I dared glance back, he was still watching me, but not in that cocky, boyish way some guys do. No, it was reverent. Curious. Almost cautious. Like he was asking a question with his eyes.
I didn't know the answer yet. But I wanted to.

I tried to act natural and I forced body to move from that frozen state and start greeting some of my friends at the table. But what was happening inside me, didn’t feel natural at all. Something about him grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Maybe it was the way he moved, relaxed but confident. Or maybe it was his face, handsome in a rugged, unpolished way. But it was more than that. It was a feeling. Like something electric had passed between us, even though we hadn’t yet met.
I didn’t sit near him. I wanted to, but it would’ve been too obvious, and I wasn’t the kind of girl who did bold things like that. I stuck to the middle of the table with Katrina and the others and tried to focus on the conversation, but I could feel him down at the other end, like a magnet quietly pulling at me.
And it was though there was a magnet in me, deep within me something was telling me, I needed to be near him, urgently, irrationally.

He was talking to Rhyno, a friend of mine, laughing at something, completely unaware that my entire world had just tilted. His name was Seth. I overheard it somewhere between the entrees and the main course. He was from a small town in Western Australia, and had only recently moved to Melbourne. I found out later that he and Rhyno had met at a party in the city and hit it off, which is what brought him down to Geelong for the weekend.

After dinner, we decided to go for drinks at another spot nearby. This time, I made sure I sat beside him. That wasn’t like me. Not at all. Normally I’d be too timid. Too tangled in self-doubt to make a move that bold. But some force inside me had overruled that shy girl. For the first time in my life, I ignored the rules I’d built to protect myself, and chose to follow the ache instead.

Up close, he was even more beautiful than I’d thought. His hair was sandy blond and a little messy, like he hadn’t done much to it. His eyes were green, deep and captivating, and he had this quiet confidence about him, like he wasn’t trying to impress anyone. He just was.

When we started talking, everything else disappeared. He wasn’t just attractive, he was interesting. His voice was low and warm, with a slow rhythm that made you want to lean in just to catch it again. We talked about music first. Not the stuff on the mainstream stuff on the radio, but the kind of music that means something. He loved it like I did, deeply, emotionally, the kind of love that comes from needing it to survive a dark secret.

His words were sparse but sincere. There was a thoughtfulness to him that surprised me. A quiet gravity, like someone who’d seen things he wasn’t ready to name. And I could feel it, his hurt reaching toward mine.
Somehow, his trauma already knew mine.
There was this… knowing. Like we were strangers only on the surface.
There was a connection. I knew it wasn’t one-sided. He was curious. He asked questions, not just polite ones, but the kind that made me feel like he actually wanted to know me. Still, I could tell he was holding back, and I wasn’t sure if I was the kind of girl he’d go for. I was quiet, careful. He was all rough edges and mystery.

But still, even though I wasn’t sure I was enough to draw him in. I could feel his intrigue, but not yet his pursuit.
My friends and I walked him back to his car. I will never forget the image of him standing there. It’s crazy how the mind takes screenshots like, while you are completely unaware. I can still see him now, standing in street, he was in full colour. Taller than most, but not towering. Broad-shouldered. Muscular in a quiet, functional way, like he moved his body with purpose.

I waved good bye to him. And when he looked to me to say goodbye, we held each other gaze for longer than what’s usually comfortable. But it was like we both stuck there, not trapped, but willing captured. Until a mate’s hand grabbed is hand to shake it and say goodbye. And just like that the night was over and I was driving home, unsure if I would ever see him again. I felt as if I had left and followed the wrong time line. I was meant to be on the time line that was heading towards the complete intwining of our souls.

That night, I fell asleep with his voice still echoing in my chest.
A part of me already his, without either of us understanding what had begun.
And deep down, I already knew, I wasn’t going to be the same after Seth.