red and yellow

When the clock strikes 12

The sun beams through the window of the small cornered off bedroom, nothing but a slight shuffle is heard from the covers, that is until a loud peircing screech echoes through the hallways.

Linn is not happy. She smashes her alarm clock before smothering her face into her pillow getting smothered by her auburn locks covering her features, she's never been a fan of her birthday, especially since it's her 18th. Even though that number had a great significance in the old world; it's always come bearing a could dark burden in the new one, the year is 2099 and this large coloured marble of a planet whom of which was once inhabited and ruled purely by mankind had been enslaved by some kind of creature.

These creatures however do not reveal themselves in their true forms to the naked eye of just any mortal, they take the form of humans in order to blend in, and keep a close eye. When a human turns 18 nowadays they become aware of a new mark on  their wrist, that mark could be one of 2 colours both colors meaning different things the most common is of course the colour yellow. In this time if your colour is yellow then you're completely fine to live out yours days in peace and harmony(normal human laws still apply though) and of course finally there's the one you never want.. there's red.

Luckily red is least common, fairly rare actually, red means you're going to get killed by them. Nobody here actually knows why these marks exist, some think it's some form of messed up population control, others think these creatures enjoy torturing the human mind.

"Linn!" A voice could be heard bouncing round the thin long hallway towards the door of her room, she proceeds to sit up and rub her eyes: before then looking down to her wrist which was covered in a type of tape as instructed by her mother the previous day, maybe some kind of surprise to make the day better? That's what she mentioned it as anyway, nothing better than to be surprised by your fate by a piece of f*cking tape. She rolled her eyes to herself and stood up out of bed before getting greeted by a knock at the door and her mother's head poking through the slot in the door. "Get dressed and come now for breakfast afterwards, it's your birthday and you can remove the tape at 12!" She said with a small little smile plastered on her face, her brown hair rushed into a bun and some concealer carefully placed under her eyes to hide her massive bags, she hadn't slept that night, that much was obvious.

Linn let out a massive sigh, "mum, I hate this stupid cultist sh*t, why can't we just live normal lives instead of-" she is immediately cut off by her mother in a stern voice "now, Linn Rose O'conner, you know you don't speak to me like that in this house, if your father was here he would've had you bent over his knee!" Linn looked back at her mother in a calm but fed up stare, she knew her mother doesn't like to talk about the situation but she wished she could have someone to rant too "now.. I made pancakes.. get changed." Her mother then proceeded to close the door and head downstairs.

Linn lazily pulled on her previous days clothing and started to make her way downstairs, she pulled her hair into a lose ponytail before pushing open the door to the kitchen where was met with the strong aroma of pancakes and her siblings casually squabbling in the usual sibling rivalry, she had her 2 brothers Kodi aged 12 and Ryan aged 11 and of course her older sister Esbern, her and Esbern had always been the best of friends, taking on the world's challenges together, she had just turned 20 a couple weeks before.

Linn was born at 12pm lunch time which was why she had to officially be 18 for the mark to trigger. She sat down at the breakfast table before she rubbed her eyes and yawned before a pancake was carelessly plopped on her plate "good morning birthday girl" remarked Esbern with a cheeky smirk on her face before Linn quickly replied back "what's so good about it?" before digging into her pancakes. "Oh come on, your officially an adult, we can officially go out to clubs together and get you drunk" their mother quickly snapped "not at the table" which caused them to both chuckle quietly.

Lunchtime rolled by quick however Linn was sat in her room trying to stop her nerves from doing summersaults as she looked down at the bandage nervously , "c'mon.. don't be such a chicken.. you've never done anything wrong to p*ss these people off.. you'll be fine! It'll be yellow and you can go ahead and go clubbing with Esbern later.. yeah..." She mumbled motivated to herself, she took a deep breath as she gently pulled it off, however what she saw what not what she wanted to see.

Small glints of ruby red flickered against her light blue eyes as they widened, "this can't be right!" She spoke quietly and out of breath. This couldn't be it... But.. why is it glowing?..