Marked

by Jasmine Derriman

  “I don’t know,” I muttered.

  “It was a demon whether you want to believe it or not, and you should be thanking me,” he said firmly.

  “Shut up, Isaac,” Felix said quickly.

  Isaac, his name was Isaac. Not that he looked like an Isaac or anything similar for that matter; I think I had wanted to know his name all along. In a way, he suddenly became more realistic in a way.

  “He’s not exactly so subtle,” Felix said to me quickly. “I understand this is confusing, but you need to listen.”

  “I don’t want to listen. I want to just leave,” I said suddenly, trying to get up.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Isaac jumped in front of me as I stood up from the couch. Felix mirrored my actions, also to keep me from going anywhere. “You’re not leaving.”

  “This is crazy! This isn’t a true!” I told him, pushing him in my attempt to get him out of the way.

  Isaac though was probably ten times stronger than me and he barely budged. He however managed to grab onto both of my wrists and just completely stop me from going anywhere.

  “I don’t even know why I’m doing this,” he muttered, pushing me back. “You need to understand what that was and that you’re in danger.”

  “I don’t even care who you are,” I told harshly.

  “You cared enough to follow me through that restaurant the other night,” Isaac pointed out. “You are obsessed with what that symbols, what all of it is. I can tell you.”

  It was the first thing that made me listen, the first thing that made me not want to run and scream. “What?”

  Isaac sighed a little and dropped my hands and walked around me and over to Felix. Isaac now left the way for me to get to the door but now there was something hold me there, even if I was confused. Even Felix looked a little confused though as Isaac picked up his hand. Felix was wearing a hoddie, so Isaac pushed Felix’s sleeve up and I think then Felix realised what he was doing, and so did I.

  I think everyone in this room waited for my reaction but I didn’t know how to react. It was there, on Felix’s forearm, a symbol. I didn’t know if I had drawn this symbol before, I didn’t even know if had seen it before, but I knew what it was the moment I saw it on it his arm.

  It was etched into skin; it wasn’t like a tattoo or anything. It was like it had been burnt or craved into his skin with some sort of knife, or just something sharp. The symbol was literally a part of him. Now I seriously couldn’t move I didn’t know what to do, but it seemed my mouth had a mind of its own.

  “It’s the healing mark.”

  I was aware at that point that they were all looking at me, not lazily wondering their eyes over me like they were before, they were now staring at me, and I probably would’ve done the same. Felix frowned at me and stepped closer to me, and he was the first to speak to me.

  “You know what this is?” he asked surprised.

  I shook my head a little and curled my lips together. “I have no idea…I just said it.”

  “Is she one of us?” it was Hadley who spoke now and she had been silent for a while.

  “She doesn’t have a mark,” Isaac whispered.

  “She knows what they are,” Hadley jumped in.

  “I don’t know how I know,” I snapped at them. “It just…came out. I don’t even understand what is going on!”

  They all exchanged glances at this point and none of them wanted to speak. I looked at Isaac, and unlike before, he was unwilling to make eyes contact with me. I turned back to Felix and I realised he was probably the only one who would say anything to me, and I realised quickly I was right about that.

  “Okay, so… we’re all not exactly human,” Felix said slowly. “We called… Insignes…and we exist…to kill demons.”

  Chapter Five

  It was like someone had just spoken to me in a foreign language, but I somehow understood that I was being told something important. I wasn’t entirely sure what one of those words were, and I realised right now that everyone was waiting for me to say something.

  “You’re all crazy.”

  Isaac was the first to sigh and he also kind of groaned at me. I could tell he wasn’t someone who had a lot of patience and right now, I understood why.

  “You were attacked by a demon!” Isaac snapped suddenly at me. “Are you really trying to deny everything you just saw?! You’ve been running around the last three days looking around for these symbols, wanting to know what they are, this is your answer!”

  Isaac stood every strong in front of me and there was nothing about him that scared me right now. I don’t know if it was because right now I was scared of everything else, everything they were trying to tell me or if it was just the shock of everything that happened today.

  “Okay, fine, let’s say or argument…I believe some of this crazy crap,” I said quickly. “Then why did that demon attack me today?”

  “I don’t know,” Isaac admitted. “Did it say anything to you?”

  “Um…. Yes, actually,” I said slowly. “It…it asked me where to dagger was?”

  “The dagger?!”

  I jumped slightly, only because Hadley had yelled louder than I had expected her too at any point. I realised she wasn’t the only one with a shocked expressing covering her face

  “Why would it be asking her?” Hadley said quickly. “She’s not an Insigne. She’s just a girl who found one of the marks.”

  “Maybe it thought she was one?” Isaac suggested.

  “Maybe she is one?” Felix suggested.

  “What?” I asked surprised, turning to Felix.

  “It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Felix asked, looking back between Hadley and Isaac. “She became attached to the marks, she knew what mine meant, and the demon wouldn’t have just attached her for the hell of it. I think she was in danger the moment she found that mark. It opened something in her mind.”

  “She doesn’t have a mark,” Hadley said dimly. “She’s old enough, if she really was one then she would have one by now.”

  “Not if she grew up without knowledge of this,” Felix said. “Which she obviously did.”

  There was something else going on Isaac’s head and I seemed to be the only one who noticed it as Hadley seemed to be arguing over my human status.

  “Did you tell anyone else about the symbols?” Isaac asked me suddenly.

  “Um… not really,” I muttered. “My uncle never saw any of it because I threw it away…but…oh god…Rhys was the one who looked it up for me…oh god researched everything for me. Oh god.”

  I realised quickly why Isaac had asked me this. It wasn’t hard for me to make the connection. The demon had come after me because I was looking into the symbols, and Rhys had been too. No one was ready for me to run out of the door, but the moment I realised Rhys might end up going through the same thing that I had been going through today, I knew I had to get to him. I realised as I ran down the stairs and out of the apartment, I had no idea where I was. I realised I was still in Brooklyn at least as I stepped outside, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t that far from Rhys’ house.

  So I just started to run in the direction I thought Rhys’ house was in. I was desperate to make sure he was okay and I had no idea why I was running around the streets of this town like I actually could help him. Maybe it was sinking in now. Maybe it really was a demon that attacked me in that alley. I think it was the symbols though that was keeping me going. I had answers. I wanted answers for the past three days, it had been driving me crazy and now… I may be crazy and all of this may be crazy but for some reason, I didn’t feel as crazy as I thought.

  I was surprised when I realised that I had found myself in Rhys’ street and I didn’t pause for a second as I ran into Rhys building. His family lived in an apartment like everyone in this city as it wasn’t easy to live anywhere else. I was a little thankful that Rhys lived on the first floor and I literally just kicked the front door in without even thinking about it.

  Rhys’ house had alw
ays been particularly clean; his mother enjoyed keeping everything neat and tidy, in fact it was probably the only annoying trait I found in her. Their lounge room though, as I stepped inside it, was not in its normally organised state.

  I didn’t even think about it then and I walked into that house like there was possibly no danger. The couch was almost turned into shreds, and the TV was lying smashed on the floor and the light fixture was hanging out of the roof and swinging above me. There was no sign of anyone and I knew it wasn’t exactly wise to scream out his name at this point, but I also knew something was wrong.

  I kept stepping forward and I didn’t really pay any attention as to what I standing on until I heard the sound of glass shatter at my feet. I swore under my breath a little but that wasn’t my main problem. I heard the sound of something else, the sound of a clang and I suddenly felt nervous.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  I jumped and turned around to see Isaac walking through the front door, which I had left open. He held in his hand the blade that I had seen before and a very serious look on his face, and he was puffing a little just like I was, from running.

  “You followed me?” I hissed at him.

  “Yes I did,” he told me, “and now I’m glad I did.”

  “This doesn’t look good,” I muttered, looking away from him. “I don’t know where Rhys is.”

  “Keep looking,” Isaac encouraged.

  He came up closer to me and I noticed how he gripped tightly onto his blade and he walked close behind me, in a sort of protective mode. The rest of the house was a disaster zone though. There were holes in the wall and carpet torn up. I decided to check Rhys room, surely he’d be in there if he was still here. The door ajar and I pushed on it slightly and I let it swing open. I barely stepped into the room before I heard a yell as someone with a saucepan came running towards me.

  “AHHHHH! Oh my god, Rhys, what are you doing?!”

  Rhys stopped in his tracks holding the saucepan above his head and when he realised I was standing in the door he slowly lowered it.

  “Lily,” he breathed out in relief. “Sorry… I thought you…you were…”

  “If he thinks a saucepan it going to kill a demon, he’s delusional,” Isaac laughed a little.

  “Who the hell is he?” Rhys insisted.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said quickly. “Are you okay? Did you see anything?”

  “I’m fine,” he told me turning around, but looking from the state of his room it was hard to believe. “And…and I don’t know what I saw.”

  “Okay…its okay, we have to get out of here,” I told him.

  “I don’t think that will be so easy, Lily,” Rhys told me shaking his head.

  “Well, I got in, didn’t I?”

  “I don’t think they mind that you found your way in,” Isaac said suddenly. “Getting out might be a different story.”

  I think Rhys was too scared to realise that there was boy standing in the doorway with a blade that looked like it was out of one of his video game. I was more concerned about just getting out of here then explaining to Rhys that some of my crazy from the other day could actually be backed up right about now. I gave a look to Isaac and then turned back to Rhys.

  “We can’t stay in here,” I said. “Come on.”

  “Lily!”

  Isaac was almost too late to stop me, and I didn’t see it until it was almost too late. If I hadn’t already seen something so crazy today I think I would’ve fainted right, there on the spot. It wasn’t like the smoke demon, this one wasn’t even made out of my smoke, and it appeared to be made out of rock. It was so tall that it bent over and so its head was touching the roof. The moment it saw me it let out a low growl and I felt myself breathe out, and the forget how to breathe.

  It came charging at me and I didn’t even know where to run, or even how to move my legs in those few seconds. I thought for sure I was going to be hit by the rock creature, but I felt something grab a hold of me and pull me out of the way. The demon was going too fast to exactly stop and went crashing into the wall at the opposite end, leaving the hallway open for a clean get away.

  “Go,” Isaac said, looking at me and Rhys.

  “But-,” I started to protest. He had already saved my life once today, and now he wanted me to leave in him a room with a giant rock creature.

  “Go,” he repeated to me harshly. “I can handle this. Just go.”

  In the end, I didn’t need to be told twice. I grabbed hold of Rhys’ wrist, as he stood in shock-horror of the moment that was unravelling before us. He seemed to respond to me as I pulled him along and we both broke into a run. We rounded the corner to the living room and I was convinced then we were going to make a clean get away, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Rhys and I immediately hit the floor when the roof came crashing down in front of us. I felt dust enter my mouth and the plaster of roof hit me as part of the house started to fall apart. I started to cough to get the dust out of my lungs and my view was momentarily blocked, until the dusk cleared, and when it did, I really wished that it hadn’t.

  What I saw looked like a panther, well it kind of did anyway. It was in the shape of a panther, and it was black and it had yellow piercing eyes that shone brighter than the sun, but also had this slick scary look about it and it was nearly as tall as I was, and I knew better than to think it was just a panther right now. There were two demons in this house and we weren’t getting out of this house so easily.

  Rhys was behind me and I could feel him freaking out, and it didn’t help that he was trapped under most of the pieces of the ceiling that had fallen. The panther like creature let out a low growl, similar to the growl of the rock demon and I felt myself swallow. It started to advance on me and I scrambled on top of the rubble to crawl back away from it as fast as I could, but I was trapped, there wasn’t anything I could do.

  “Where is the dagger?”

  I felt myself pause as the creature turned its head slightly. Its mouth didn’t move but the voice was kind of like an echo, like the smoke demon’s voice had been. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t even know what it was talking about. Not responding only seemed to make the creature angrier and it took a larger step forward and I found myself completely backed up into the corner with Rhys.

  “Where is the dagger?” it repeated, its word stronger and louder.

  “I don’t have your stupid dagger!”

  Something had erupted inside of me and maybe it was the fact that I was facing death twice in one day, or my will to live right now was stronger than my fear. My response however only angered the creature and this time when it growled it showed its teeth. I felt Rhys’ hands grip onto my shoulders and as it pounced towards us I screamed. It was a reaction to hold my hands, but it wasn’t any reaction that I had had before that happened next.

  At first I didn’t know where it came from because I couldn’t feel anything different. It was fire, and it burned in a stream towards the creature. The creature was thrown across the room from the force of the fire and I heard it wince. I was breathing heavily and my head was spinning a little. My arm was hurting; the top of near my shoulder and it was kind of burning. No, it was stinging.

  “Ah,” I muttered, gripping onto the top of my arm.

  I pulled up my sleeve and at this point I thought maybe I had just gotten hit by some of the fire, but as I looked down at my arm I didn’t what to do. My arm was red and it felt hot, and the skin all around it was stinging, and I figured that had something to do with mark that was on my arm.

  It was like Felix’s mark, but wasn’t the same shape, or the same mark. It was etched into my skin however, like it had been carved there. I ran finger over it slowly and I felt the bumps and I knew it was real, and I knew what I meant the moment I looked it. Fire, the mark meant fire.

  “Lily, it’s coming back.”

  Rhys’ voice alerted me to the fact that we were still in danger. To my horror t
he creature had found its way back to its feet. I could tell that the fire had caused it some damage but it almost seemed to be healing. I grabbed onto Rhys and tried to get both of us on our feet. I heard a crash from the side and by the time I got to my feet and turned and I saw Isaac fly into the room.

  He ended up landing on the floor once he hit the wall and slide down to the ground, and the rock demon he had been fighting didn’t take one look at Rhys and me before he started to charge back towards Isaac. I saw Isaac stir his head a little, trying to regain himself and when he realised what was happening and he managed to duck away from a punch before finding something on the ground to defend himself with.

  I realised then that he didn’t have his blade anymore. I turned my head back to the floor quickly, searching for it, but the panther demon wasn’t really going to give me time for that. I realised now it was ready to pounce and I jumped, almost dived out of the way. I hit the floor very quickly and I turned back my head to see that I had put Rhys in danger. I saw the creature swipe at him and he tried to kick it away whilst screaming, but he stood no chance.

  I reached around for anything and managed to pick up a piece of rubble from when the ceiling had collapsed. I got to my feet and threw it at the creature, successfully managing to hit it. That however, only turned its attention onto me and I realised that I had no idea what to do next. I started to back away as it started to walk towards. I could try that fire thing again, but I had no idea how it worked and I didn’t exactly have time to figure it out, but I needed to defend myself somehow.

  I almost tripped on something as I was backing away, which wasn’t surprising but as I looked down to kick whatever it was out of the way, I realised it was Isaac’s blade. It was the one thing I needed right now to help me, and I had found it. I scrambled to pick it up as the creature realised what I had seen. I only managed to grab onto it in time and blocked the attack of its swiping claw as I ducked out of the way.