“Once we read this, we can’t ever go back. You understand?” Jeremiah warns in an overly serious tone.

Lou doesn’t quite get it. Maybe it’s a movie reference. She doesn’t watch things that has no animal main character or at least heavily featured one.

“This isn’t the Matrix, Jeremiah,” Ria points out, putting an end of Lou’s confusion. The Matrix doesn’t sound like an animal movie.

All eight of them all made it back to Bell’s house after the break in, so here they are. Just staring at their phones which hold the evidence, gathered around the coffee table like a cult. Lou draws the line at any animal sacrifices.

“Where are your parents?” Roman questions Bell, looking around like they will hop out behind the corner.

She cringes. “My dad is spending time with my Nǎi Nai. My mom is trying to convince her own mother that she isn’t holding any more secrets. Good luck with that,” she mutters.

“So neither of them will come in when we are discussing the obtained evidence?” Jones asks. She confirms with a nod of her head.

“So….how should we do this?” Amelie trails off, unsure. Clearly none of them have had to deal with a break in situation.

They would have never survived her first criminal activity. Breaking into a pet store.

Her parents nearly killed her when they found out. And of course, her felony was on clear display because she stole like five different species of cats.

She was banned for years from that place.

“How about we group up and go through certain pages? That way we aren’t reading alone,” Liam suggests, his phone voice somehow sounding excited.

Like swans they naturally paired off. Bell and Cross. Roman and Jeremiah. Amelie and Ria. Liam and Zac. Lou and Jones.

Lou and Jones huddle over her phone that has about 10 pages.

This is it.

Soulmate Power Dampening Cuffs

_These cuffs with their power dampening function (see section 3 for explanation of workings) are implemented for safety above all else. 87% of crimes are done by individuals abusing their soulmate capabilities. 56% of the population either have non-threatening abilities or no powers at all (soulmateless). Individuals with forceful powers cause a threat to that 56%. _

_This initiative will ensure the population’s safety. The secondary function of the cuffs (see section 8) causes a small side effect, but it has been tested to only last for an average of seven days. It will be staggered to minimize the awareness. The mission outweighs the risk. _

What in the world does this mean? Lou can’t make sense to any of it.

“Who has section 3 and 8?” Jones questions, having finished the first page just as she had.

“We have section 3,” Amelie says, her face reminding her of a nervous pet before getting a bath. Or going to the vet.

That unsettles Lou.

“We have 8,” Zac answers, his scowl worrying her even more.

While she’s fixed on them, Jones must’ve read ahead, because he leans back and curses loudly. All their gazes turn away from their phones with worry lines adorning their faces. “What the hell are they doing to us,” Roman sputters.

“How do they work?” someone asks. It takes Lou a moment to realize it is her voice. The voice sounded way more confident than she felt right now. All her insides are trembling like a scared little mouse.

More than anything, she wishes she had any of her animal friends with her. They always comfort her in ways that only non-humans know how.

Amelie and Ria share a look as if they are telepathically deciding on how to say it. In the end, Ria is the one who speaks. “The cuffs are similar to the ones used in prisons. But those suppress their abilities.”

“Ours don’t?” Jeremiah says, speaking for everyone.

That’s not what Lou expected her to say. She always knew the muzzles were no good, but now they aren’t even doing what they told them they do?

“No. They are modified to…” Amelie’s eyes drag upwards, as if searching for the words on the ceiling, “sample our powers.”

“What does that mean?” Cross huffs, frustrated like the rest of them.

It doesn’t make sense. Lou feels like she’s been thinking that a lot lately. Nothing makes sense.

Humans lie. She understands that. But this feels different. Worse.

She feels sick again.

“We aren’t a buffet,” Roman physically reels from the information.

Lou never imagined when she first made this her mission that it would lead to all this. Even though she pushed to find answers, she never once stopped to think about what the answers could be.

“Our section doesn’t talk more about that. Just mostly is about into the mechanics of it,” Ria finishes.

Liam raises his hand for a moment to get their attention. “We have section 8 which talks loads about their awful purpose,” Zac explains.

“The public reason for the cuffs is to decrease violence in schools, but there’s a secret one that they don’t put out there. Like Ria read, the cuffs take a sliver of our abilities that the government can study and not just suppress our powers but lessen them.”

Lessen them.

Lessen their powers?

The whale weight of those words hangs in the air.

“That makes sense with what we read. They said how a lot of people’s soulmate powers are dangerous and those people commit crimes. The cuffs are suppose to protect us,” Jones adds, distain clear in his tone by the end. His eyes narrow at her phone where he continues to read. They look suspiciously like snake eyes.

A chilly draft blows through the room. Lou wonders if a door was left open. She could a animal friend to warm her right now. And for some emotional support. Bell speaks up, most likely being the source of cold, “So they are taking away our powers.”

It’s not a question.

“They are taking a part of us away, little by little, and we didn’t even know,” Ria sounds like a bear. Growling lowly, dangerous.

Lou would not want to get in her way. That’s one thing people should know. You don’t get between a bear and her loved ones.

“How come I don’t feel a difference? I got sick first and I can still communicate with animals when I take off the muzzle,” Lou inquires, reflecting on the beginning of the muzzle.

Her power isn’t different. While they both felt sick and hurt, Lou and Jones were affected differently after they began recovering.

Hers remains unchanged.

Jones described still feeling the effects even after taking off the muzzle.

“Our section said that 56% of people have non-threatening or no powers. Maybe it’s a case by case basis? Like they sample our powers to see if we are a true threat,” Jones tries to piece it together.

They just aren’t falling into place for Lou. Thankfully, she has her human friends to help it all come together.

“Then if they are threatening, they take them away,” Amelie concludes, resting a hand on Ria’s arm. Without powers, Amelie is the most normal out of them. This doesn’t change anything for her other than how it affects all of them.

Lou’s ears perk up when she hears a familiar typing from Liam. “Maybe the color of the light is threat level, and they are working their way up. Going through who they know or think aren’t threats. To see if it works,” he expresses through his phone voice.

“We don’t know a lot of stuff still. We don’t know if it is permanent. Or why the government is choosing schools to do this,” Roman says.

What does this all mean? The school/entire government is trying to take away the soulmate powers? To what? Make the world abnormal?

Humans are nuts but this? This is a whole new level.

Jeremiah thankfully interrupts her thoughts and her downward spiral, “They are afraid of soulmated pairs. According to this,” he shakes his phone that has the section he and Roman read, “personas who meet their soulmates, their powers come back even stronger.”

Bell and Cross notable look at one another. That isn’t new. But their gaze holds more than just a simple meaning. It has understanding.

“When we kissed for the first time, we hadn’t had our powers for most of our lives. Our abilities came back strongly. I thought it was because we hadn’t used them in so long, but maybe it’s because that’s what happens. They come back stronger,” Cross describes.

So in addition to her power not being labeled as “dangerous,” it also helps that she hasn’t met her soulmate.

If how she felt was supposed to be mild, she can’t imagine how it will be for her friends that have stronger abilities and having met their fated mate.

“Ours talked about people with heartache and that they are dangerous. More likely to be erratic,” Bell reads, wincing at the last part. “Sorry,” she apologizes to Ria.

Lou always forgets that Amelie isn’t Ria’s formal soulmate.

Ria has told them about her deceased mate and that she doesn’t really experience heartache.

Heartache has never really been a worry for Lou. She has never cared about soulmates. The closest thing she has felt to that is being apart from her animal friends.

They are worth being sad over much more than someone she’s never met.

But all of this combined has to mean something.

The school or government or both want to lessen their powers. Study them. Exterminate the dangerous capabilities. Especially the ones that have met their soulmates. They are skiddish towards people that have lost their soulmate as well.

It leads Lou to only one conclusion.

“Are they trying to get rid of soulmates?”