Marked

by Jasmine Derriman

  I felt a stinging on my right forearm. I made noise as I turned my head to towards my arm. I slowly tilted my arm over too see why I had felt the pain. I sucked in air so deeply it hurt my throat, but it was out of shock. Out of shock because, there was another mark on my arm. The skin was slightly red but it was settling in quickly but I also immediately knew what the mark was I looked at it. Shield. I had created shield.

  I looked back up at the demons and I realised there was no shield around me anymore. The pulse from before, left a kind of blue glowing circle around me that had protected me, but it was gone now and none of the demons moved, in fact they all looked…terrified.

  I didn’t move from the ground instantly, I didn’t think I could. My eyes were so fixated on the demons I could barely believe what I was seeing. A minute ago these demons were ready to rip me to pieces, but now, they were as scared as I had been. My new mark was still stinging on my foreman as I looked down at it again I didn’t think I was really processing what was happening.

  All that doubt about whether or not it would be boil down to me, whether or not I really was this ‘chosen one,’ was all false doubt. This new mark wasn’t just a mark, it was the proof. The proof it was true, and that moment I knew I was the only Insigne in the world with two marks. My second mark meant I was more powerful than anyone ever imagined, then I ever imagined. I knew why the demons were scared now, and I was too.

  I slowly started to get to my feet, cautiously in case one of the demons decided to move, but they didn’t, and I knew they won’t. I gripped to the telum which I now had securely in my hand and briefly checked the dagger hadn’t moved, but made sure it had happened. I felt my stomach flip as I realised it still had it. It was pure relief.

  I realised I needed to leave now, why these demons were scared and confused. So I started to move slowly towards the door, hesitant with my steps. As I heard a noise from somewhere behind me I realised cautious wasn’t going to get me out of here and I broke into a run, leaving the room in an instant.

  When I broke into the hallway I didn’t see Hadley fighting like I thought I might, instead I saw nothing but any empty hallway. I wasn’t sure which way to run or even where she had gone for that matter.

  “Hadley?!” I yelled her name and it echoed slightly.

  I started to walk, and with each step I tended to check around me to make sure I wasn’t followed.

  “Hadley!” I yelled again, hoping for answer. “Hadley?”

  “Lily!” I heard her voice near me, at least I think I did, it echoed and I wasn’t entirely sure where it had come from.

  “Hadley?” I repeated as my walk fastened.

  “I’m here! Hurry!”

  I just started to run in the general direction of the voice and hoped for the best, and I was surprised how easily that worked. I saw Hadley as I turned down a new hallway. She was couched on the ground, her face look down and for a moment I didn’t realise what was going on, but then I noticed Hadley wasn’t alone.

  I didn’t recognise him so weak and helpless. Isaac’s body was limp on the floor next to Hadley and his head was tilted to the side and I could see his eyes were shut. Most of his shirt was soaked in blood, and it was ripped and torn and I could see flesh wounds and bruises. I felt myself swallow as I realise I haven’t moved yet.

  My legs started to carry me towards them as I felt my eyes start to water. The closer I got the more I felt the pit in my stomach grow. This was my fault. My last few steps I ran towards them and I fell right next to Isaac with Hadley on the other side of him.

  “What… what’s wrong with him?” I whispered to her, my eyes fixed on Isaac’s face.

  “I…I don’t know,” Hadley admitted. “He…he’s hurt…but I don’t know why…”

  It was only now I realised Hadley was crying. She couldn’t control it anymore; she couldn’t t hide it from me any longer. I saw the tears slide down her cheeks and she refused to look at me. I couldn’t focus on her, I couldn’t look at her crying because I knew I would cry too, and I already felt I was.

  My telum dropped to my side as I let go of it, and my other hand touched the dagger again, to make sure I still had it. I used my free hand and I brushed my fingers slowly over Isaac’s arm as it lied in front of me. As I did I noticed something, something that was very strange.

  “Hadley, what is this?” I asked her, lifting Isaac’s arm slightly.

  I saw her lift her am as I showed her the mark on Isaac’s arm. It was a small wound, but it was quite thick with blood, but that’s not what was strange about it. What was strange about it was how the veins and the wound itself were just…black. His veins ran black from the wound and disappeared into the skin of his arm.

  “It’s…it’s a demon bite,” Hadley replied suddenly as our eyes meet. “He’s dying.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Neither of us spoke. I didn’t think Hadley even knew how to at the moment. Never seeing a demon bite before I didn’t know what it was seeing it, but I remembered what Even and Seth had taught me about them, and I remembered that they were poisonous. I knew that from a bite it could take up to an hour for the venom to spread and reach the heart. We had no idea how long Isaac had been here for.

  Hadley was a complete mess at the moment and I had no idea what to do. Isaac couldn’t die. It can’t end like that, it doesn’t end like this. He won’t die for me; he doesn’t die here like this.

  “There has to be something we can do,” I finally managed to speak, but I haven’t let go of Isaac’s arm.

  “There is nothing,” Hadley said bluntly.

  “There’s a cure,” I remembered.

  “I don’t just have one with me, Lily,” she said through her teeth.

  “If we get him to Felix-,” I started to say.

  “You think he has that much time?” she snapped at me. “There’s…nothing…”

  I didn’t speak and Hadley looked to Isaac’s face. I could only imagine what was going through her head. Whether or not she loved him, whether he knew or not, he’s was still her friend. He was still the boy that made her feel like she wasn’t alone and made her feel like she had some sort of family. To Hadley, Isaac was the most important person in the world.

  I started to shake my head and I let go of Isaac’s arm only to wipe a few silent tears escaping down my cheeks. I couldn’t let this happen. He doesn’t die today, he just doesn’t. What could I do though? I didn’t have a cure and I didn’t know what to do with a demon bite, and I didn’t have the healing mark, not that that was probably the mark that would help…

  Something clicked in my head. In the corner of my eye I saw the shield mark, my second burn still slightly red and new on my arm. I gripped tighter to the dagger as I moved my shirt aside it pulled it from my pants. I could see it in my head, the mark that was needed, but not a mark for me.

  “Hadley,” I whispered, my eyes focused on the dagger. “We can save him.”

  “Are you just not listening? We can’t do-,” her tone was angry but the moment she looked up at me and she immediately stopped talking when she saw the dagger in my hand. “When…how did you get that?”

  “It…It doesn’t matter now,” I shook my head. “What matters is I can use it to save him.”

  “Use it?” Hadley said in surprise. “Are you crazy?! You don’t know how to use it.”

  “I do know,” I argued, “or at least I think I do.”

  “That’s not going to save him!” Hadley yelled at me.

  “Hadley, listen to me this time,” I said to her. “Look at my arm, what do you see?”

  Hadley just shook her head a little at me as I held out of my arm to show her my new mark.

  “No,” Hadley whispered.

  “I have another mark,” I wanted to yell at her. “Hadley, I am the one who can use the dagger, I am the only one, and I can do this.”

  “You could kill him,” Hadley whispered.

  “Any more than this bite will?” I snapped back, but realise qu
ickly it wasn’t the best thing to say, but I just keep speaking. “I try this Hadley and maybe it doesn’t work, but what do we have to lose? He dies if I don’t try, at least I can try.”

  Hadley didn’t answer me as I saw her eyeing the dagger for a minute. She drew her eyes off it and onto Isaac’s face. His head was basically resting on his shoulder now and there was no moment from him at all. His chest was slightly rising and falling, but barely, there wasn’t much time.

  “What will you do?” Hadley asked, looking back at me.

  “The immunity mark,” I said confidently. “It protects anyone from any sickness, or even poison, right? It would work.”

  Hadley nodded at me. “Okay….okay, just do it.”

  I nodded at her but I didn’t move immediately. It was hard to move straight away. I thought about what I just said I would do and I realised it involved carving something into Isaac’s skin, which I wasn’t sure I could do, but I had to be sure, and I had to do this.

  My fingers tightened around the dagger as I used my other arm to pick up Isaac’s arm again. I knew that the best place to mark him was as close to the bite as I could. I touched the point of the dagger to Isaac’s arm and I saw Hadley tighten as I did too. If I don’t do, Isaac will die, if I don’t do it…I lose him.

  I took a deep breath before I finally pushed the dagger into Isaac’s left foreman directly above his bite. I expected to see blood, but instead there was nothing; he didn’t even bleed a drop. I chose to ignore it; I mean I didn’t exactly know what the dagger did, so it doesn’t surprise me as much as it should.

  I didn’t know how I knew exactly what to do to, but I knew my hand is moving without much thought. It suddenly made sense to me why I saw the marks in my head all the time, why I knew what they were upon looking at them, I could create those marks with the dagger. I needed to know what they look liked and what they did, which is why I carved the immunity mark with ease into his arm.

  I lifted the dagger slowly once the mark was complete and I realised I wasn’t breathing. I let out a small breath but not much, I still felt too nervous to breathe. Both Hadley and I were starting at the mark now carved into his arm and waiting for something to happen. I felt my eyes burn as I realised the mark was starting to heal. The skin in which I had opened up was healing over and it was starting to look more as our marks do now.

  I wasn’t breathing again as I finally saw the last bit of skin heal over. The skin around it was all irritated and red, and as I looked down at the bite, I finally saw something that brought me hope.

  “Look!”

  I said it only so Hadley would notice it too. His veins that had been running black were starting to disappear, completely just fade. The skin there was slowly starting to return back to its normal colour, and so did the wound.

  Isaac suddenly jolted and both Hadley and I jumped to see his eyes fling open and as he sucked a big breathe of air in and wriggled a little before settling and pacing his breathe. I immediately felt myself start to breathe again and a smile reached my face. He wasn’t going to die like this, and I didn’t let him.

  “Oh my god,” Hadley suddenly said, reaching up her hands to push Isaac’s hair from his face. “Oh, thank, god.”

  “What…what…?” Isaac was so confused I didn’t even think he could find words, but as he started to pace himself more I could see that he started to remember everything.

  “I thought you were going to die,” Hadley said angrily towards him.

  Isaac cracked a weak smile. “Me? Die? That’s a good joke, Hadley.”

  “No, no, you are not allowed to make jokes right now,” Hadley said even though I saw her smiling a little.

  Isaac and Hadley both just looked at each other for a minute. Hadley had managed to drop crying finally but it was too evident on face that she had been and Isaac noticed. Isaac lifted up both his arms and he wrapped them around her. Hadley fell into the hug more than happy to receive it from him. I noticed Isaac put his head past her shoulder and look over to me. Our eyes meet and we just stared at each other until saw his eyes strayed from my face to my hand.

  Hadley pulled out of the hug and leant back but Isaac was still looking at my hands.

  “You…you have it,” Isaac whispered.

  Of course he had noticed the dagger. Why else would he stay at my hands in such shock?

  “How do you think we cured you of a demon bite?” I said to him.

  “I….Are you okay?” Isaac asked suddenly.

  “What?” I retorted quickly. “I’m not the one you need to worry about it; you’re the one who almost died.”

  “But you have the dagger-.”

  A noise in the distance stopped Isaac mid-sentence. I snapped my head to turn around and look behind me. I almost forgot where we were, what Hadley and I both went through just to get here, and that we still had to get out.

  “We can talk about this later,” I said softly as I slowly turned my head back towards them.

  “I agree,” Hadley said with a nod. “We need to get you out of here, but you are still quite weak.”

  “Hey,” Isaac shot back. “I’m not weak.”

  “You’re weak now,” Hadley said back. “You can’t walk by yourself.”

  “He can lean on me?” I suggested. “If anyone needs both their arms to help us get out of here, it’s you, Hadley, not me.”

  Hadley’s eyes met mine and then she nodded. “Okay, fine. Let’s just get out of here.”

  Although Isaac still didn’t want to admit it, he was weak. Both Hadley and I had to help Isaac off the ground before I draped his arm around my shoulder to help him walk. I felt his body weight shift onto me and since he was taller than me, it was not as easy to walk with him as I had originally thought. I had no choice but to hook the dagger back into my belt and hold the telum in my left hand just in case it was needed.

  We couldn’t walk fast at all. Isaac’s leg seemed to be hurt as well and it made it hard for him to step fast. Hadley stayed in front of us ready for anything that was going to come at her, but I wasn’t sure if anything thing would. The demons were terrified of what I had done before when I got my second mar, I was kind of hoping it would stay that way and we could make a clean get away.

  Hadley seemed to have a good sense of where we going and while she slowed down to make sure we were behind her, she often disappeared out ahead. She had become a lot more alert since we had got Isaac to his feet, there was no doubt since we had saved him once, and she wasn’t going to let him go anywhere again.

  “Something’s not right,” Isaac whispered suddenly. “They wouldn’t just let use leave with the dagger.”

  “You’d be surprised of what demons are afraid of,” I informed him.

  “You?” he guessed, looking over at me slightly.

  “I don’t know if it’s me exactly,” I told him, “it doesn’t matter anyway, if we can get out, let’s just be thankful for it.”

  The sound of a door shutting near us made me even jump slightly. I had my arm around Isaac, gripping to his shirt at his waist. He had no choice but to put most of weight on me, he really was weak, but I realised now how difficult that made everything else. We all knew what the noise was and as I looked ahead I saw Hadley swipe her telum towards the corridor.

  I didn’t see the demon immediately, but as Hadley took a step back I saw the three headed demon from earlier emerge from the corridor. Each head kind of extended at Hadley and they all snapped their teeth at her. She dodged each head and spun on the spot, ducked and swung her telum all at the same time and the telum made connection to the smoke that connected the head to body. Her telum sliced through it and the head broke from the body and rolled on the floor before it disappeared into a cloud of smoke. I turned my head back to the demon, now hoping that Hadley was winning, but before I could even blink I saw smoke gather near the other two heads and before I knew it, there was a third head again.

  “GO! NOW!”

  Isaac was moving before I was and I foun
d myself gripping to him to make sure he didn’t slip from my grip and I didn’t trip over. We were both walking fast now as we rushed past Hadley who had the three headed demon distracted. We didn’t make it far before I heard heavy footsteps coming from somewhere in front of us.

  When I see it, I honestly just wanted to run the other way, but I knew we were not too far from the exit. It was the demon from before, the one the resembled an ox and it didn’t look at happy at all. Its eyes were as black as most demons seemed to be, and they locked onto mine and I felt Isaac move his hand off my shoulder and down my back a little. I realised what he’s doing, he’s going to grab my telum, try helping us, but I couldn’t let him do that, because physically right now he couldn’t. I couldn’t fight this demon; it was far too big for me, not to mention I was sure I had no skill with a telum in one hand and an injured boy in the other.

  It only hit me then as the ox started to charge towards, I scared it once before, I could do it again. With the telum still in my hand I held my hand up and open my palm the best I could. I felt the surge leave my hand and I saw the shimmering blue light leave my hand and pulsed towards the ox. The ox was running at such a fast pace towards us that the moment the shield hit the ox, the force of it made the ox lose its footing and fly off its feet. It flew quite a distance actually as I saw it hit the wall, breaking the wall on impact.

  I looked at Isaac who was slightly frightened by me. He didn’t notice the new mark on my arm before, but I had a feeling he had caught onto it now. He broke eye contact with me as we both hear a distant scream. We both now turn to see Hadley sprinting down the hall.