Unmarked

Chapter 20

"Lavina, sweetheart!" Amilia yelled up the stairs. "Come down, I want to talk to you!" Lavina looked to her door and then sat up on the bed.

"Coming, mom!" Lavina made her way down the stairs and saw Oglm and her mother in the living room. Oglm patted next to him and she sat down. Amilia dragged a chair over and sat down herself.

"Lavina, I wanted to tell you that I didn't exactly go on vacation when I left." Amilia looked right at her. "I went to see if I could find your father." Lavina looked at her intently."

"Did you find him?"

"I did, yes." Lavina smiled.

"Where is he, is he here?"

"Uh, no, Lavina, he's not here." Her smile disappeared. "He's still a businessman, and he has a lovely home."

"Where is he, Amilia?"

"He's in Arizona." She scratched the back of her head.

"And he couldn't come back?"

"Well he can't just pick up and leave." Oglm shrugged. Amilia sighed, "I'll explain it to you later."

"What did he say about your son?"

"He told me that he put Jacob up for adoption."

"Oh, Amilia. Was it an open adoption?"

"Yes, he said he made sure of that." She paused again. "But there's another constraint."

"What is it mom?"

"Well, he said that he put Jacob up for adoption, in the Market. He figured it was safer this way in case he was Marked."

"He's somewhere in the Underground!? That's bigger than the whole U.S of A!"

"Yes, yes, but he gave me the papers from the orphanage. If the adopted parents kept it open, then I might be able to track him down." Amilia looked to Lavina. "What is it, Lavina."

"There's a kid in my history class whose name is Jacob."

"His name is Jacob?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm English. He goes by Anghi."

"You're right, that is Jacob in English."

"Yeah, well, it gets even weirder."

"It does?"

"He's adopted."

"He's- he's adopted? What does he look like?"

"Uh, um," she blushed.

Oglm laughed.

"What, what is it?"

"She likes him." Amilia made a weird face.

"Oh, Lavina."

Lavina laughed. "Um, well, he has brown hair and purple eyes. He's white and kind of strong. And he said that he doesn't really have a mark. I mean, he does, but it only shows when he wears a dog tag."

"I hate to say this Lavina, but that might be him, that might be your brother." She looked to the floor. "I mean it makes sense, I'm about three fourths Marked and about a fourth Chelanema. Which makes you half human, a fourth Marked and a fourth Chelanema. Which means there's about a half on half chance of you being either Marked or not Marked." Lavina put her hand to her eye.

"You know, I'm Marked."

"You are?!" Oglm said, looking at her.

"You are?"

"Yeah, it's nothing really, but I have a faint one when I wear a dog tag. But I saw Anghi's, it's much brighter than mine and he can do things with it."

"Huh, Lavina, you know I have to look into this, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, I suppose I should go check up with the orphanage anyway, just to be sure." Amilia left for about two hours and then returned with more papers.

"Well?" Oglm said, looking at her.

"Well, it says that the parents are two shopkeepers." Amilia stopped and looked at Lavina. "Kffek Anhcod and Jnimekf Anhcod."

"That's him." She sat down on the couch. "Oh my god!" She said putting her hands behind her neck.

"What's the matter Lavina?" She looked up to Oglm.

"What am I supposed to do? I- I do love him, Oglm, and I can't change that feeling."

"You don't have to." Amilia said, putting her hand on her shoulder. "You can just love him as your brother." Lavina plopped into her mothers side. "Come on, now." She started, "What do you want for dinner?"

"Dinner? To be honest, I just want chips."

"Oh, ok, ok." Amilia rubbed her head and then got up. Lavina watched her mom disappear into the kitchen. Then Lavina looked to the glass door, her grandparents were there, after all it was Saturday. They opened up the door and walked in, all smiles.

"Oh, hello you two! Oh my word, Lavina are you alright? Oglm what did you say to this poor child."

"What? Why do you always assume I made her sad?" Cristel peered at him.

"Lavina, I don't know what you like so I have lays and-" Amilia stopped in the doorway. "Ah, well, shit."

"Amilia!" They screamed in shock. Amilia's parents knocked her down almost immediately.

"Ok, ok," she said muffled, "Please try not to kill me. I didn't like it the first time, not going to like it now." They let her go and looked at her. Cristel held her cheek and Yxeyhzfkx watched her eyes.

"How, when, why-" they stumbled to say.

"Lavina stepped in a spell circle." Amilia got up and held out her hand. "It activated and brought me back to life." She helped them both up off the ground. "So here I am, back in the living world."

"For how long, Amilia?"

"About two weeks." They looked to Lavina.

"She told me not to tell."

"Why, why this is great!" Lavina pointed to a chip bag and Amilia threw it to her. Then she sat down on the arm of the sofa and opened up the other chip bag herself.

"Wait, Amilia."

"Yes?"

"Is it true? Did you ask Leovan to kill you?" Amilia stopped and just looked at them. Lavina looked to the floor.

"Yes, I- I asked him to. I couldn't fight her back any longer and I couldn't find a cure. I, I ran out of options."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"How could I?"

"Amilia!" She looked to the floor, it was silent.

"I'm not going to apologize, it was my decision, and I made the right choice." Amilia's gaze turned to Lavina, she smiled as Lavina smiled back at her.