Marked.

Chapter 1

"Don't you dare move." A voice sounded.

I brought my hands to my eyes and rubbed them until they were able to adjust to the painful glare of the bright light shining down on me. I was in a small room. It was painted in a deep hue of blue. It looked much like a child's bedroom. It was decorated in different shades of blue from lights to darks, toy cars were all over the floor and it reeked of old clothes. The part that was far too out of place, though, was the fact that there were two very grown women five feet away from me.

"We've been hunting her for years. I'm not going to let some mortal stop us. We're too close to succeeding this time." The same voice from earlier said. "Don't let her leave this room. Do you hear me?"

I couldn't really see the other woman. However, I was almost sure that she had nodded in agreement. Where was I? Something was off about this place. I could feel it. I closed my eyes as the woman walked past me, her red heels clacking against the wooden floor as she made her exit.

"Who are you?" I asked. My voice came out in a low whisper.

I watched as the woman glanced at me, a sick smile playing on her lips. She made her way over to the bedroom door. She made sure it was completely shut before she locked the door and started towards me. I struggled to sit up and back away from her. My body felt weak and I couldn't remember a damn thing. There was only one thing that I was certain of. I knew she'd hurt me.

"You know exactly who I am."

I was stripped of the horrific, puzzling nightmare by the roaring of my alarm clock. My nightmare spiraling back into my once blissful thoughts. Her words repeating in my mind, haunting me and becoming a never ending broken record that screeches and scratches in my brain. I feel the walls that I've tried so hard to build weaken a little as a rush of emotion jolts through my body, seeping into the brick wall's cracks. I just lay there for a moment. I lay there contemplating if I should continue to lay here while the pain consumes me or if I should unseal my eyes to get rid of the haunting memory that lies between myself and my sleep. I choose the second option. The weakness of my body makes this simple task seem like a thirty-minute workout. My body is tired. I dig deep inside of myself to complete the next task. My feet swing off of the bed and the familiar coldness of my bedroom's wooden floor welcomes me. I stifle a slight gasp before I catch myself, my small hands flying to my mouth as I make my way to the bathroom.

No matter how many times those words replay in my head, they never fail to sound more confusing. When I hear my mother yelling at the other end of the hallway, I've snapped out of my daze. I quickly rinse the shampoo from my hair and climb out of the shower, I stumble on the saxony carpet and grab the shower curtain for support before I realize the shower rod is plunging toward me. I stare at it for a split second before recovering. I reach for the rod, before it can hit me or anything for that matter.

"Carson! NOW!" My mother's voice sounds from the other end of the hallway.

I narrow my eyes at the door before my temper begins to spiral out of control. Before I can stop it, the shower rod along with the shower curtain are thrown towards the door frame and bending down the middle practically breaking into two smaller pieces of carbon steel.

I grab my towel from the rack and stumble to my room. The wooden floor feels much colder against my wet toes and I can't help but think about the ice that lies beneath my chest. I had hoped that these dreams would stop haunting me, yet years later the same brown-eyed girl clouds my thoughts. She still looks to me with that frown on her face, her eyes silently pleading for me to save her.

I'm ripped from my thoughts as the familiar tune of "Iris" by SWS fills the room. I reach for my phone, silence it and shove it into my jacket pocket. When I look down at myself, I subconsciously notice that I'm clad in deep blue boyfriend jeans, a black crop-top and my black leather jacket.