Taurus' POV

*Flashback*

"Taurus, did you take your medicine today?" my mom asks.

I groan. "Yes, mom," I lied.

She gave me a look, basically implying she knew that I didn't. I groan again and took the bottle of pills from my dresser. I popped two pills in front of her and drunk water behind them.

I gave my mom a fake smile. "Happy?" I say, closing the bottle and slamming it on my dresser.

She got closer to me. "Open up your mouth," she says.

I gave her a confusing look. She must've thought I skipped my medicine again. I attempted doing it about twice in my lifetime, but she caught me those two times. I guess I can't blame her for wanting to make sure.

I open my mouth wide and moved my tounge. She smiled and patted my cheek. "Good. Now you can go and eat dinner downstairs."

I roll my eyes and sat up from my bed to run down the stairs. Mom was coming down behind me. Dinner was boring and tasteless as usual. I swear all of it was just blob that was supposed to be edible.

"Hey, Taur. Did you take your-"

"Yes! I did!" I shout at my dad, preparing to sit down at the table to eat the disgusting blob we call for dinner.

He didn't say anything or gave me any look. At least I don't think so. I decided not to look at him right after.

My mom hands me a fork and tells me to tuck my napkin in my shirt, and I did just that. I started picking at my food. I didn't want to eat this disgusting shit, but I really don't have a choice.

"Taurus, are you going to eat?" Dad asks me.

I had my chin in the palm of my hand with my elbow on the table and just glanced at him, still poking the blob with my fork. "Why don't we eat out or something? I'm tired of eating this shit," I say, mumbling the last part under my breath.

My mom gave me a worried look. "Taurus, why can't you just eat up? It's your favorite!"

"Since when has any of this been my favorite?" I say, gesturing a hand to the blob and taking my elbow off the table.

Mom bit the inside of her cheek.

"I just want to go outside of the house. I'll be fine, I promise. You can even come with me if you don't believe me," I say, putting my fork down beside the blob.

"Taurus! You know why your mother doesn't want you outside the house!" Dad yells.

I glared at him. "I fucking took my medicine. I won't do any crazy shit," I say.

"Watch your damn mouth, boy! Don't let me to catch you talking to me like that again," he says, pointing a stern finger at me that I wasn't scared of.

"George, stop. It's okay," Mom says, motioning a hand for him to stop raising his voice. "But Taurus, I don't want you outside of the house. Not yet anyway."

I groan. "This is bullshit," I mumble under my breath. I could feel my Dad's nerves about to blow up, but he retained himself to say anything else to me.

I picked up my plate and scraped the blob off to the trash. All of the sudden, I wasn't hungry anymore. If I'm going to live here forever, I'd rather die quicker of starvation or whatever. None of this was fair to me, and they know it.

"Taurus. Eat," my dad says, gesturing his fork to my plate.

I look at him and placed my plate in the sink with a smile across my face. That made him angry, and that was exactly what I was going for. I knew he wasn't going to yell at me. He was just concerned about me. So concerned it pissed me the hell off.

"Taur, are you sure you took your meds?" Mom asks, turning to me.

I look at her now. "You were there to see me take them. I'm fine! I'm sure any normal 16 year old would feel the same if they have to be trapped at home forever over some incident that didn't concern them," I say, almost raising my voice.

My dad sighed. "Taurus-"

"Nope. I'm fine. I was always fine. Neither of you believed that when I told you," I say, almost bursting into tears.

"I don't think his meds kicked in yet, Maria," my dad whispers to her but I could clearly hear him.

I clenched my fists together. He just doesn't get it does he? Neither of them do! "I don't need the stupid medicines," I say, as a tear roll down my face. Why am I crying? Why the fuck am I crying?!

My mom shook her head. "Taurus, please don't cry. We believe you. We just don't want anything bad to happen to you either. The medicines help. They'll kick in about any minute now," she says calmly.

I never understood. I mean, from her point of view, I understand why she should be worried. But being imprisoned because of her own fear makes me so anxious and frustrated. I take my medicine like she tells me to, eat the disgusting blob all just because my mom really sucks at cooking, and can't leave the house because of something that hasn't happened to me yet. It was all bullshit.

Next thing you knew, my mom walked up to me and pulled me into a hug. "I just can't let you get hurt too, Taur."

I didn't hug her back. I wanted to because I knew where she was coming from, but I was just so frustrated myself. Why the hell can't I just be normal? And can I just stop crying now?

She pulled away from the hug, and I could see two drops of tears roll down both of her cheeks. She was holding onto my arms and just like that, my crying stopped amd I felt completely normal again. I felt bad for even cursing at Dad and not eating. I turn to see Dad watching us from behind her.

"Can you just go to bed right now, please?" she asks, with a smile now, not even bothering wiping away her own tears.

I thought about it for a minute. I didn't want to sleep. At all. I guess you could say I'm stubborn like that. But like I said, I know where my mom is coming from, so I nodded and hugged her which made her almost cry again. I then run up the stairs, and I could feel the both of them watching me with worried eyes.

When I was in my room, I looked to see what time it was. Exactly 9:30PM. I turn on the TV and watched silly cartoons and reality TV shows until I fell asleep.

*End of Flashback*

When I woke up from the couch, seriously everyone was gone except for Leo. I turn to him. He was already looking at me but just started laughing.

"What?" I ask.

He stopped looking at me and tried to hold in his laughter. "Nothing," he says.

I squinted my eyes at him. Then I stood up and went upstairs where I'm assuming everybody else went, leaving Leo alone downstairs.

When I reached the hallway mirror, I could see my hair in braids. I already knew who did it. I went over to knock on Aquarius' door who answered it quickly. She had a cheeky grin on her face.

"Hey, Taur. How may I help you?" she asks, holding the door wide enough for me to enter. I didn't enter though.

"Did you braid my hair?" I ask quickly, pointing to it.

Her eyes widened as her smile did. "Braid your hair? What braids are you talking about?" she says, playing dumb.

I roll my eyes as I picked her up by her legs and her torso facing my back.

"Hey! Stop it!" she shouts.

I walk over to her bed and drop her there, leaving her laughing like crazy. It made me smile. She then started getting pillows and threw them at me, but I dodged all of them.

She was still laughing like a complete psychopath. What was wrong with her? Is she high or something?

When she stopped laughing. she acted like nothing happened. "Ooh!" she says getting up from the bed, "I have to show you somethiiiinnng," she sings, picking up a book from her dresser.

I cock an eyebrow and sat down on her bed. She knows I don't like to read. She is totally high this early in the morning! When she got closer, I finally saw what the book was about. My eyes widened. "Ophiuchus," I say, snatching it from her hands.

She was smiling and nodding. "Yep. This one has more things we didn't know about him. Like his constellation, his main reason to want to get rid of us," she says, pulling a strand of her brown hair behind her ear.

I look at the door. "Close the door," I say. She quickly did that as I was going through the pages. It had pictures, so luckily I did have to do too much reading. The pictures were only drawings though, and they weren't really that good. Those were kind of useless if you ask me.

Aqua sits on her bed next to me. She pointed to a page. "Look. It's our constellations," she says.

I tilted my head. I could barely even recognize them. Now that she said that, they were easy to see now. I turn to look at all of our constellations, but there wasn't one of Scorpio's or Sag's.

I pointed to the constellations that jumped from Libra to Capricorn. "Where's Scorpio's and Sagittarius'?"

She took the book from my hands to looked more into it. "Um... I don't know," she says, sounding completely serious now. "I'm gonna try to read more into it."

Aqua was turning through multiple pages scanning for Scorpio's and Sag's constellation or even their name in the book. She finally saw it and slapped her finger to where it said "Scorpio." She was moving her finger to see where the sentence began.

'Ophiuchus' dates are November 30th to December 17th. His zodiac was suppose to lead him inbetween Scorpio and Sagittarius until he was soon trapped into his own personal hell by a sorcerer or sorceress whose name is unknown. He is known as The Serpent-Bearer because his constellation is holding Serpens Caput in his left hand and Serpens Cauda in his right. He's also located north of Scorpius-'

"Wait, a minute," I hear Aqua say, interrupting my reading. "Scorpio is a Scorpion. Ophiuchus is a snake. Those are kind of similar, right?" she asks.

I cocked a brow again. "How?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Just think about it. In the real world, we know that scorpions and snakes endanger lives equally. A sting from a scorpion or a snake will paralyze it's prey and quickly kill them."

I stopped her with my hand. "What does that have to do with anything, Aqua? Are we saying Scorpio is going to kill someone in a quick and painful way? I'm pretty sure he's already done that anyway," I joked.

She exhaled an irritating breath. "No, Taurus. What I'm saying is that our signs matter! They're not just a logo it's a... a mentality?" she asks herself outloud.

I blinked at her. "Like a spirit animal or something?"

She nodded her head. "Yes! Exactly! Our signs are literally a symbolism of our personalities. We know what snakes are, Taur. They're sneaky, deadly, vengeful creatures. The exact description of Ophiuchus. Scorpions," she begins while pointing to a picture of a scorpion on the page next to Scorpio's constellation, "they're brave right? As small as they are, they still manage to fight and poison anyone or anything. They'll fight when they feel threatened. Makes sense why Scorpio's always bickering with the Fire Signs, right?" she says.

I was nodding my head in understandment. "Okay, but what does any of this have to do with Sagittarius?"

She didn't make eye contact with me as I asked the question and started flipping through the pages again, looking for Sagittarius' name or constellation.

"Well apparently, he's east to Sagittarius' constellation. Ooh! And it says here that Sagittarius, the archer, dips her bow in snake venom. That means her sign also kills but with the help of Ophiuchus' sign."

"So all three of them are linked in a way. They all kill?" I ask to make sure if I'm understanding all of this.

She nodded her head. "But that's not the important thing. Remember Leo's sign can kill too. Scorpio's and Sagittarius' are just both linked with Ophiuchus."

I stop her for a second. "So that's why Scorpio and Sag aren't with the other constellations on that page? Because they both link with Ophiuchus?"

She kept looking at the pages of the scorpion and archer's bow and arrow. "I guess so."

"So why is he coming for all of us? That makes no sense. No offense, I wouldn't leave Sag and Scorpio to be the only ones this Ophiuchus guy goes after, but what did the rest of us have to do with anything?"

Aquarius looked at me with worried eyes. "I don't know, Taur."

"There's something these books are forgetting to mention."

She nodded her head in agreement, and I took the book from her hands to look for more pages myself. I randomly turned to a page. "This one has all of our constellations" I say, pointing to the page.

Her head was almost in contact with mine as she tried to read. Our laps were basically touching along with our shoulders. I tried not to think too much about it. We had far more important things to think about.

"Yeah," she says. She then pointed to a constellation between Scorpio's and Sagittarius'. "And there's also Ophiuchus'."

I shake my head. "That doesn't even make sense. Was he supposed to be one of us or not?"

She started flipping through the pages, and I noticed her hand brushed my thigh. It didn't come to her mind that she did it, but it sure did come to mine. I ignored it again. We have important things to do.

"Wait," I say, touching her hand so that she could stop flipping them. I pointed to a sentence with the other hand. "There."

'Ophiuchus was supposed to be one of the zodiacs. Inbetween Scorpio and Sagittarius, Ophiuchus' role in the zodiac was important as well. Although due to the threat he made wanting to destroy each and every one of the zodiacs, he was sent to hell. He promised one day to send each of the zodiacs to hell for eternity. Prophecy couldn't predict if this will happen or not.'

I could see Aqua shivver reading the last sentence. "So we don't know if this will actually happen or not?" she asks, looking at me now.

I bit the inside of my cheek. "I-I don't know. I doubt it will," I say, trying to calm her.

"But we don't know, Taur. He's been in hell for 1000 years and was probably plotting what each of our hells will be like once he meets us. Hell, if I were stuck in a position like that I would want revenge too," she says, biting her upper lip.

I take a deep breath. "But Lupus is going to help us prepare for his arrival. We don't need to panic just yet-"

"The Fire Signs practice their magic more than us and are probably still rookies compared to Ophiuchus. It's just child's play with him. We need to start training now."

"But Lupus has everything under control! She won't let anything happen to us," I say.

"How do you know that? I mean, sure she's nice and pretty and got us a mansion, but we don't know if we can fully trust her either," Aqua says, almost yelling out of frustration.

I shrugged. "I just have this feeling that I can trust her. Trust doesn't come around so quickly like that, Aqua."

My opinion on Lupus is very positive. I have pretty positive opinions on almost everyone in the zodiac and that's because I see them like family. But Lupus? I feel like I owe her something, and I know I'm not the only one. I don't know why, but it's like she's always been a part of the family too.

Aquarius cocked her head at me. "Do you like her or something?" she asks me.

My eyes widened. "No! Oh, God, no, Aqua," I say.

She nodded in understandment and looked at her hands that were on her lap.

I look back at the book. "There goes our constellations again. Except this time, it's just Ophiuchus without Scorpio and Sag," I pointed out.

Aqua stopped looking at her hands and looked at the page. "These are so weird. There's one without Scorpio and Sag, one with the three of them, and now just of Ophiuchus?"

I shake my head at the page, almost letting my black hair cover one of my eyes. "That's so... messy," I say.

She agreed. "And about that gate," she began, looking at me as she was talking now, "we still don't know how easy it is to escape this world," she says.

I shrug. "It's probably not a literal gate. Maybe just something like a figurative one," I say. "It took a lot for us to go through the real world to the one where the constellations are. So just how easy is it to leave this one?"

She bit her bottom lip. "I don't know. Do you think anybody here even attempted on leaving this world anyway?"

I shook my head. "I doubt it. Who would want to leave this place anyway? Plus, I don't think most of them know there was even another world out there until we arrived. Scorpio told me that Lyra knew about it, but she found out after we came to this world," I say.

Aqua was closing her eyes now. "Everything is just so confusing," she says, almost whispering. I could hear her loud and clear by how quiet the room was.

I sighed. "I know. But we're getting somewhere."

She was looking at her hands in her lap again. "I think we should go back to Virgo and Pisces," she says.

My eyes widened. "Really? That's the first you've actually asked anyone for help instead of doing it yourself," I say, shocked.

She squinted her eyes by how shocked I was that she finally stopped acting independent like she usually does. "I asked you for help."

I thought about that for a second. That was comoletely true. I didn't know why she would ask me for help instead of Virgo anyways. I don't even like to read. I didn't mind helping Aqua though. I didn't mind being around her in general. She was cool, independent, and just so positive in horrible situations. Even if she tried to fix them herself, she still had hope that she could fix them and does just that. One of the things I admire about her.

I nodded my head. "Okay," I say. "We can ask Virgo and Pisces for help."

She sat up from her bed. "Great! Let's go right now," she says, attempting on taking the book.

I pull it away from her reach. "No. Not today. Today's Scorpio's birthday, and I think we shouldn't have to worry about Ophiuchus for right now, Aqua. Whatever we found out stays between us for now," I say, pointing a stern finger at her.

She sat back down beside me. "But they need to know too," she says.

I nodded in agreement. "I know. But not today. Everyone's too happy right now, including Virgo and Pisces. Y'know Virgo is just as concerned and anxious at finding out about Ophiuchus more than we are. We'll tell her soon, I promise," I say.

Aqua just nods while biting her upper lip. I could tell how scared she looked. This was bigger than anything she's faced before. Than we faced before. The fact she's wanting help shows how scared she really is. I've never seen her this way. I hated seeing her this way. Next time we find out more about Ophiuchus, it'll be with the whole zodiac this time. Not just Virgo and Pisces. Aquarius needs everyone's help. She doesn't want to admit it, but this side of her could show the blind the obvious.

I don't know what Ophiuchus wants from us, but whatever it is, there is no way in hell he's getting it.