Marked

by T. L. McDonald

  He looks at me like I’ve just removed the weight of the world from his shoulders. “Anyway, when Sam marked you, I think that allowed you to take on his abilities like his telekinesis, but because he marked you with ultimate knowledge it’s possible that you’re capable of anything. So yeah, you might be able to heal too. With practice.”

  “With practice,” I mumble to myself. If that’s the case it will probably take me forever to learn to do anything else considering I still haven’t learned to control the telekinesis I do have. But how great it would be to be able to heal something instead of destroying it.

  I can practice.

  “So what exactly are we looking for again?” I ask.

  “Anything that could have physically belonged to Sam’s brother. A blanket, stuffed animal, anything like that.” Will grabs another box off the shelf, opens it, but doesn’t go through it. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “That this is completely impossible, which I already know, but it’s all we got.”

  “Hey, over here. I think I found something,” Jared calls from the other side of the cellar. He waits for us to get closer before he elaborates. “I was looking for a crutch when I found this.” He hands Will a small silver box. The top is smooth with just a bit of tarnish here and there. The sides are covered in carved roses in full bloom. “It was hidden in the wall over there behind a loose brick.”

  “Behind a loose brick? How would you even know to look there?” I ask more than a little perplexed.

  Jared drawls his shoulders up in a shrug. “I don’t know. I just got this weird feeling that I should look there, so I did.”

  “It’s locked. But luckily I always come prepared.” Will places the silver box down on a shelf then proceeds to remove a small black case from the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

  “A lock picking kit? Is that how you broke into my house?” I ask.

  Will grins as he gets to work unlocking the box. “Nope.” He glances up; his hands still busy picking the lock. “Didn’t need to. Your window was unlocked.” There’s a soft click and Will puts his kit back in his jacket pocket. “Let’s see what’s inside, shall we.”

  Jared and I lean in anticipating. Will opens the lid to reveal…nothing. The box is completely empty.

  “Well, that was anti-climactic.” Will tosses the box to the floor without a second thought. It rolls end over end coming to a rest against the wall.

  “Wait. There’s a false bottom.” I pick up the box removing a folded piece of paper that had been hidden inside. It’s old and yellowed but still legible. Tucked inside the paper is a picture of a woman holding a small baby wrapped in a light blue crocheted blanket with a brown teddy bear stitched into the corner.

  “Can I see that?” Jared asks, his voice calm and controlled, but only from effort. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but his face looks pale and his hands seem to be having a hard time keeping still.

  From the way he’s reacting I start to wonder if maybe he knows the woman in the photo somehow, but then his face becomes unreadable and I’m no longer sure. He leans his back against the wall taking his weight off his injured foot and I all but slap myself in the forehead for a ‘duh’ moment. Of course he’s pale and shaky, he just broke his foot and had it magically almost healed.

  “Do you know them?” Will asks.

  Jared stares at the photo a moment longer with a look in his eye like he’s carefully considering his answer. With no emotion he says, “No.” And then hands the photo to Will. He hobbles past me without another word.

  “Don’t you want to know what the letter says?” I ask.

  Jared pauses in mid-step, but doesn’t turn around. “No, you can read it to me later. I’m going to keep looking for a crutch. It’s a long walk back to the Jeep.”

  “Oookaay.” He seems off, bothered by something and I’m about to ask him about it when Will takes the letter from my hands.

  “I want to know what it says.” Will opens the letter, reads aloud.

  To my son,

  You are one day old today and it’s killing me that today will be the last we spend together. I love you more than you will ever know and I hope that one day this letter somehow finds you so that you will know why I had to give you up. You are special and fated to do great things, but there are those that would seek to take advantage of you, to mold you to fit their so-called prophecies. So even though it breaks my heart into pieces that will never heal, I know that this is the only way I can truly protect you. It’s the only way to guarantee that you will have the chance to choose your own path in this world and not have it chosen for you. Your destiny doesn’t have to be pre-determined; it can be your own. You can choose your own fate.

  I love you always,

  Mom

  While Will refolds the letter and places it back into the silver box with the photo, I keep my eyes on Jared. The whole time it was being read he never moved and inch. His shoulders were so stiff that I’m not even sure he was breathing. He’s definitely acting weird.

  “Well, as touching as that was it’s not going to help us find him now unless,” Will’s eyes light up with possibility. “Unless the baby blanket is still here somewhere. We can use that to locate him.” He shoves the box into my hands before rummaging through the junk on the shelf to his left with renewed vigor.

  I peek at the letter and photo inside the silver box one last time before closing the lid and shoving it into the front pocket of my hoodie. Looking around the cellar for Jared, I spot him on the opposite side of the room from where I stand. I’m about to go talk to him when Will shoves a large heavy cardboard box into my arms.

  “Here, look through this. See if you can find anything.”

  “YES!” Jared shouts. Will and I both whip our heads in his direction.

  “Did you find something?” Will smiles, takes a step.

  Jared lifts up a walking cane shaking it with excitement. Annoyed, Will waves him off and takes down another box from the shelf.

  We search the cellar for what seems like forever going through every box, nook, and cranny and in the end; we have nothing to show for it. There is nothing here we can use.

  “Damn it.” Will kicks the junk at his feet sending it skittering to the other side of the cellar. He looks at me, his eyes travelling down to my wrist. “Sam knows who he is, which means you do too. You’re our last option Hanna. You have to go back in and find the right memory.”

  I throw my head back and sigh. “I’ve tried. Over and over I’ve tried, but it’s not that easy. I don’t have any control over what I see.”

  “Just…really focus on what it is you want to see and try again.”

  “Here?” I look around the cluttered, and most likely spider infested cellar, and shudder. I usually end up on the floor when I come back to myself and the thought of having creepy crawlies potentially scurrying over my face is starting to give me a panic attack. Spiders or really any multi-legged creature and I do not mix well.

  Picking up on my vibe, Jared hobbles over with his newfound walking cane. He takes my hand. “Why don’t we wait until we get back to the house?” He winks at me. I start to relax. Home would be much better.

  “Yes, but if she tries here she might have better luck since this is the place Sam’s brother was born. The connection could be stronger,” Will reasons, and I can’t deny his logic.

  “Fine. I’ll try here, but if any spiders crawl on me while I’m Sam,” I point my finger at Will, “there will be hell to pay.”

  Will smiles, and then hooks an arm around mine as he leads me over to the rocking chair. “Duly noted.”

  My heart speeds up as my fingers lower. The symbol shimmers against my skin. In my head I repeat the words please show me your brother over and over.

  “Will! Will, you have to help me!”

  Zoe’s screams fill the air, breaking the silence.

  I jump to my feet. Together the three of us, Will, Jared, and I, s
tare out into the darkness of the world above.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Will cups his hands around his mouth. “Zoe!”

  Lightning flashes over the sky illuminating the doorway, but the rain is coming down too hard now to see anything.

  “Zoe!” Will yells again, louder.

  Thunder answers with a ground-shaking clap that makes me jump.

  Will drops his hands to his sides. “I’m going up there.”

  The ground above, having become so saturated with water to hold it all in, starts to flow over the broken stairs like a small waterfall. My lungs burn as if they’re already drowning in it. Who knows what could be waiting for him up there.

  “Wait.” I grab ahold of Will’s arm stopping him. “What if it’s a trap? No one knows we’re here so how would she know to call for you?” He looks at me, a battle raging behind his eyes. “We know she took the journal.” Now he looks like I just slapped him across the face. “I know this is hard for you to hear, but what if she’s not alone? What if she’s with Blondie?”

  “Or what if you’re wrong about her? What if she’s not the traitor you think she is and she really is in trouble?” He starts to pry my fingers from his arm. His voice softens. “She’s my sister Hanna, I can’t just do nothing.”

  “I know.” I let go.

  Will takes the stairs two at a time hesitating only for a second at the gap where Jared fell through. He looks back at me just once before he jumps to the other side landing flawlessly on the upper portion of the stairs. Lightning flashes across the sky outlining his silhouette in the doorway and then he’s gone.

  I look over at Jared, as a really bad feeling, worms its way into my gut.

  “Don’t look at me. There’s no way I can jump those with my ankle.”

  “Well, we can’t stay here. We have to go after him.” I shine my light around the cellar looking for anything I can use to help Jared climb out. Every second I spend looking is another second Will is out there alone facing who knows what. My hands start to tremble, the light of the flashlight going all over the place. Jared covers my hands with his steadying them.

  “He’ll be okay,” he says reassuringly. I hope he’s right.

  I take a deep breath. “Over there.” I nod toward and old dresser. “Help me move this under the stairs. It’s not tall enough, but maybe if we find something to put on top of it you’ll be able to climb out.”

  The dresser is much heavier than it looks and it takes us longer than I’d hoped to move it into position. Once it’s under the gap I place an old suitcase on top and Jared tops that off with a metal toolbox. It looks completely unsafe, but it’s all we’ve got.

  “Are you ready?” I ask.

  “Yeah.” Jared doesn’t look nearly as sure as he sounds. I can’t say I blame him.

  I go up the stairs first where I stop on the upper landing turning around to help Jared across. “Take my hand.” He puts his hand in mine giving me his full trust. The toolbox slides a little under his foot but holds. He climbs across and we step outside into the unknown.

  A bolt of lightning crashes down splitting a tree in half just to my right. Time slows as the tree begins to fall. Out of the corner of my eye Jared is yelling and motioning for me to move. I don’t. I just stare as the tree falls closer and closer. It’s not that I don’t want to move, because I do, but for some reason I just can’t. Air rushes out of my lungs as Jared’s body slams into mine. Arms and legs tangled, together we roll as the tree crashes to the ground.

  “Are you crazy?” Jared’s cap is gone, his eyes wild and terrified. “Why were you just standing there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The tree rests a few feet from us with a section of Jared’s hat exposed underneath, and all I can think is, that could have been me. I could have been crushed, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why I didn’t move.

  Laughter rings through the air.

  Both Jared and I jump to our feet. He stands just in front of me his arm stretched out protectively. Our flashlights are gone, probably crushed under the tree somewhere, and I can’t see much through the darkness and the rain.

  “Who’s there?” I call out.

  A figure emerges from the depths of the trees before Jared and I. Lightning streaks overhead making Zoe’s features appear distorted and ghostly. She shines a light into my face temporarily blinding me. “That was so much fun.”

  “What was so much fun?” I ask.

  She grins. “I’m going to share a little secret with you Hanna.” She walks a little closer. “I have a gift, a gift that no one knows about, not even Will. Do you want to know what it is?”

  Zoe steps closer. Jared grabs a thick branch protruding out of the mud. Raising it up he holds it at the ready.

  Zoe laughs out loud, clearly amused and not at all threatened. “Maybe I’ll just show you.” She focuses on Jared, a sinister grin that reminds me a lot of Blondie’s spreads across her face. She whispers something only she can hear and before I can register what’s happening Jared is swinging the branch.

  I land hard on my back, my head bouncing off the ground. Pain ricochets up and down my legs, spreading out from behind my knees where Jared hit me. He stands above me, his face swimming in and out of focus. Raising the branch over his head he swings again. I grab his foot and pull, knocking him down. The branch barely misses my head.

  “Jared, stop.” Still on the ground I scramble backward putting distance between us. He climbs to his feet picking up the branch. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh, he can’t answer you,” Zoe muses. “He’s under my control now.”

  “What do you mean he’s under your control?” My eyes dart back and forth between them.

  “I thought it was obvious, but maybe I need to spell it out for you? You see I can make people do whatever I want. All I have to do is whisper a command and they obey. Isn’t it great? And I have Jasper to thank for it. He’s the one who taught me how to reach my full potential. I used it on you too, back there with the tree. Too bad it didn’t land on you.”

  Zoe looks back at Jared, her lips moving in silence. The branch lifts and I back into a tree. I plead, but it’s like he’s a machine. He doesn’t flinch, he doesn’t move, he just waits for her next command.

  “Who’s Jasper?” I ask, hoping to distract her. Being beaten to death by my best friend who’s at the mercy of a mind-controlling psychopath is not something I want to experience.

  “Jasper’s the one who freed me. The one who made me see all that I could be. All my life I’ve played the good little girl who did what she was told, but I’m not that girl anymore. Now I’m so much more and I don’t have to live by their rules.”

  Jared lowers the branch a fraction, a look of confusion on his face. Hope mixes with the fear harboring in my chest. If I can keep her talking maybe Jared can break free.

  “What did you do to Will?”

  “Ah, yes, my dear brother Will.” She smiles and I want to throw up. I don’t know Zoe well and I haven’t known her long, but I never would have imagined this is who she really is. “He should wake up in a few hours with a raging headache. Do you know he has a thing for you and it kills him every time he sees you with Jared? Personally, I don’t understand what he sees in you. But maybe if he knew what I knew he’d hate you like I do.” She studies me, tilting her head to the side. “Do you know why I hate you Hanna?”

  I don’t say anything because honestly, I don’t know how to respond. I’ve only known her for a week so I don’t know what I could have possibly done for her to hate me.

  “You’re the reason Sam died.”

  Those five little words are a slap to the face, although not totally unexpected. For a few dark moments I blamed myself too until Will convinced me it wasn’t my fault. “That’s not true.”

  This only seems to anger her. With a whisper from her lips Jared charges me. I drop to the ground, the branch in his hand slams against the tree above my head. I cover my face with m
y arm only to lower it a moment later to see Jared looming in front of me. With no emotion he presses the sharp end of the broken branch to my neck.

  Zoe squats down in front of me gripping my chin between her fingers. “It is true. Jasper was only there that night to question Sam, but then you interrupted. And when Sam tried to get away…” She pushes my face to the side violently then stands. “Jasper never intended to hurt him. It was an accident.”

  The memory of Sam’s death enters my mind. The sick smile on Blondie’s face, the pain Sam felt when the knife pierced his stomach, the pleasure Blondie took in watching him suffer. No. Sam’s death was no accident. What happened to Sam was intentional and it would have happened whether I was there or not. Sam became a dead man walking the moment Zoe opened her mouth and spilled his secrets.

  “If you believe that, then you’re more delusional than I thought. Blondie or Jasper or whatever it is you called him had every intention of killing Sam. I know this for a fact because Sam showed me himself. I felt his death Zoe. There was nothing accidental about it.”

  “Liar!” She kicks me in the stomach. I double over; Jared presses the branch further into my neck. “Now do us all a favor and tell me who Sam’s brother is.”

  I cough attempting to find my voice. “Tell me what Blondie wants with him first.”

  Zoe smiles sweetly. “First of all, his name is Jasper, not Blondie. And what he wants is Sam’s brother’s help in changing the world for the better of course. But I’ve already said too much. When Jasper explains you’ll understand.”

  “I’ll understand that you’re crazy.”

  “Not the smartest thing to say right now.” She waves her hand and Jared digs the sharp edge of the branch further into my neck.

  Blood pours out from around the branch with each heartbeat, leaving me more than a little lightheaded. Jared’s face weaves in and out of focus as I try my hardest to keep from passing out. He stares at me with empty green eyes. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.