My Elf Soulmate
Chapter 4

When I woke up for the second time around, I woke up to replace that I was alone in the room and most of all I felt so calm, I was so calm that I even began doubting that everything that had happened had actually happened. The growling of my stomach was the one thing that caused me to fully wake up from my currently dazed-like world. I stood up and stretched my body before I made my way to the door in search of a kitchen, as much as I wanted to get away from here, what I had experienced earlier proved that I couldn't just run away. There was obviously more to Paxton and this place than I believed. I walked down the same hallway as earlier except I paid more detail to my surroundings this time around than I had before. The house was pretty homey for the house of a kidnapper, I saw many portraits of flowers and I saw pictures of Paxton with a couple of people which I guessed were his family members. When I was halfway down the hallway I was met with the delicious smell of food as I walked through the hall and down to what I assumed would be the kitchen.

When I entered the kitchen I was shocked to replace an empty, or what I initially guessed to be an empty kitchen, until I saw something zipping around the kitchen at such a fast pace that I couldn't exactly pinpoint where it had gone or what it was. I heard the sound of dishes crashing to the floor and a curse coming from a slightly squeaky voice. Before I saw the thing zipping off somewhere else, I heard the sound of a drawer being pulled and then it was closed again, but again when I looked at where I had heard the sound coming from I saw nothing, my heart began to accelerate in fear, I was in a hunted house. I was kidnapped and brought into a haunted house, or that's what I thought until I saw a short man suddenly standing in front of me, making me jump in shock and fear as a sharp squeak came out of my lips.

"You're awake," The short man, who looked a little elvish, said. "Oh, I forgot that you haven't seen me in this form yet." The elvish like man said as he nervously laughed before he emitted a bright light. Right in front of me, I watched as the elvish man disappeared, and right where he had stood now stood Paxton. I couldn't help but to gasp in surprise as my eyes traveled up and done the figure of the man. This couldn't be real. I heard a nervous laugh emit from Paxton as I looked up to replace him scratching the back of his neck.

"What's going on here?" I quietly asked, still in shock.

Paxton released a sigh before he silently waved me over, I took that as a sign that he wanted me to follow him so I did just that, until we reached the Island which had floating chairs around it. I looked at the chairs in shock and mistrust. To be honest, I was worried that they would fall with me if I sat on them. Paxton gestured towards a chair, and sat quietly and watched me as I hesitantly sat down before he took a sit on one of the floating chairs as well.

"I'm sure that you have many questions," He said and watched as I nodded. "What do you want to know first?" He asked, looking at me with an encouraging smile that seemed to ease my nerves.

"Where am I? Did you bring me here, and if you did, why, what do you want with me, what are you?" I blurted everything out, not holding back. If I was going to be held here against my own will, I believe that I had the right to know why and with whom.

"Okay like I had introduced myself earlier on, my name is Paxton Woods, I'm an elf, you are in my house, I brought you here because you are my soulmate and I need you here with me." He explained with his voice softening with every word that he said.

I slowly nodded because it honestly felt like the was nothing else for me to do, I had already seen him zipping around in elf form, he made me fall asleep somehow, he transformed from being an elf into a man right in front of me, a strange thing had happened to bring me here, which reminds me, I have to ask him about how I got here, and he leaves in a maze of a house.

"How did you bring me here, and how do you know that I'm your soulmate?" I asked and watched as his eyes seemed to brighten up and soften out at the same time when I mentioned the name soulmate, I saw longing fill his eyes as he looked up at me and for some reason his gaze made me want to shy away. The intensity and longing in his eyes was just too much for me at the moment, I guess.

"The application that you have in your phone, the fantasy app one is the one that found you for me. It's a magical app that helps people replace their soulmates. It is mostly effective for us magical beings because it was created by magical beings for magical beings, but it is also helpful for humans, there are a couple of humans that also replace their soulmates through the instrument as well but not many, others just replace good matches from what I've seen. The app notified me when it had found you, and then it teleported you here, but it still has some glitches that the team and I still have to fix." He explained, looking very cute and a little nerdy at that moment.

"Okay, so I heard you mentioning that you are a part of the repair team. Does this mean that you are the creator or one of the creators of this app, then? and what are the glitches that you and your team have to fix?" I asked him out of pure curiosity, it would be great to have an intelligent soulmate, immediately after that thought had come to my mind I pushed it away, not feeling pleased about it all, this was still a kidnapping.

"Yes, I am part of the team that created the app. It is difficult for us elves to replace and stay with our soulmates if they are out of the elf society, for example, if they are werewolves. The app is there to give us magical beings, especially us rejected magical beings, most specifically us rejected elves, second chance mates. Not every elf or magical being has a second chance, mate, but a few of us do, and we just wanted to try out our luck. About the glitches, you personally experienced one, when your body practically shut down. Teleportation is a bit hard on the human body and this time around it's worse so we have to fix that and then the is the problem of the app not creating good enough duplicates if any at all for certain people. This is a problem because we don't want people to notice that we have taken a person, we don't want the family that is left behind to go through the pain of losing a daughter, son, grandchild etcetera." Paxton explained.

"So you're practically saying that my mother doesn't see that I'm missing, she has or is supposed to have a duplicate of me that will prevent her from noticing my missing presence?" I asked and watched as Paxton nodded, looking a little tired. "Okay, so why kidnap me and not just try to get to know me like a normal person?" I asked him.

"The form that I'm in right now can be very draining, so I didn't want to risk the chance of changing back into my elf form in front of people. It's much harder for me to keep this form than it is for werewolves and other magical beings to keep theirs. The magical community is a secret, one that we do not want to risk revealing because if we did, the very existence of magical beings could be endangered, and we would be hunted down until extinction." He explained with complete seriousness regardless of the exhaustion that I could see reflecting through his eyes. For some reason it worried me a little, then again I was a person who cared about people and I guess that magical beings weren't excluded.

"Okay, one last question," I stated with a raised finger as illustration and watched as amusement flooded his eyes, but he nodded nonetheless.

"I actually have many questions, but I'll ask this one only for now because you seem exhausted. Will you ever take me back home?" I asked, looking down at the clothes that I was currently dressed in and frowning in dismay.

"I don't want to force you into staying, but all I ask for is that you give me a chance before you choose to leave, it might take days or even a week before I can send you back. This is simply because I want to fix the portal before I can send you back." He said, looking at me with so much sadness that I couldn't help but to give in. Imagine my first dating experience might be with me dating an elf, oh well.

"Okay, I'll stay for a bit and see how everything will go. How are you in this form, though, and is this form the reason why you seem so tired?" I asked, having the feeling that I was right, I watched as he nodded at me with a small lazy smile. "Okay, two final real questions. Why were you in this form instead of your elf form when I met you?" I asked him, especially since this form seemed to be more of a disadvantage than an advantage for him.

"Well, I thought that this form would make you feel more comfortable. It is a form that you're more familiar with." He said, making me feel like awing at how sweet he had been even though each form would have done the same thing, and that is to freak me out.

"And then what did you do to me before that made me fall asleep, and how am I so calm right now?" I asked the questions that I had wanted to initially ask but had forgotten to ask before.

"It's part of the powers that I have on you as your soulmate. The other thing that you saw when you tried to leave is part of my elf illusion powers, but they can also be very draining so I try to avoid using them as much as I can," He further explained everything before he released a yawn at around the same moment as when my stomach chose to rumble. I watched as his eyes moved to my stomach and his eyes filled with amusement. "I guess that this is a sign that you, my little mate, are starving." He said as he stood up and offered me his hand, which I looked at for a couple of seconds before I took it and stood up, I felt shocks shooting up my body and looked at Paxton's hand, but decided to say nothing as we walked to a small table located near a huge window that gave a beautiful view of a garden filled with what looked like butterflies, we ate in slightly comfortable silence before Paxton asked me whether it would be okay for him to change back into his elf form and I of course agreed to it because he looked like he was about collapse out of exhaustion, after dinner he showed me back to the room that I had woken up, bid me goodnight and was also off to bed, leaving me to my silently raging thoughts.