The Fate Of The Marked

Chapter Fourteen

It rained for a week straight, and those days were the slowest of my life.

Nothing happened. I woke up, lounged around the house on edge, ate dinner with Jane and Derek, then went to sleep. I spend countless hours in front of the mirror, studying the shapes over my heart.

A new mark had appeared on my arm that I hadn't noticed before, on my left shoulder. A sideways S shape with a small, smeared dot beside it.

Part of me wanted to ask Derek for help. I had no idea what it was and pouring over the books in the library wasn't helping.

But I didn't.

On mornings when it was still dark, I would lay and stare out the window, thinking of the woman. I kept the small crystal in my pocket, but didn't touch it. I was afraid of what I would feel, or rather, wouldn't.

The whole week, I had waited for something to happen. For a clue to pop out, for Derek to tell me that he knew where I had come from.

If anything, I would bet that I was from the land of Screw-ups, where everyone broke things and tripped over their own feet. Or the land of impatience.

I wanted desperately to go outside and wander around. We were in a gated neighborhood, I couldn't leave or get in without a key, so I couldn't exactly go far. It was killing me to not know what was going on, no matter how busy I tried to keep myself.

On Friday morning, Derek dragged me into the front hall before he left for work, away from Jane, and handed me a small key. He smirked as he pulled his jacket on.

"This is an old house, Elliot. Even older than you can imagine," He said. "There are secret doors and hallways everywhere. I figured this would keep you occupied for a few days or so until we can see about getting you into school."

I wanted to hand it back and say that I was better off reading, but I couldn't make myself. Another disappointing day of finding nothing in the massive textbooks didn't sound appealing at all.

I slipped the key in my pocket.

Derek grinned and ruffled my hair.

"Don't get lost."

-------

Those words had cursed me, because exactly four hours later, I had no idea where I was.

The hallway was dark and narrow. One door wouldn't open and the other looked like it was smeared in something black and sticky. I ran my hands along the wall, trying to ignore how dim my flash light was and how the small space seemed to be getting smaller.

Finally, I pressed a faulty brick and the whole place opened up into brightness.

I was back in the library, exactly where I had started.

I sighed and sat down at one of the tables, closing the small door. I was done playing adventurer for the day. It was raining again, and I was cold and wet. Derek hadn't said anything about there being open holes of water near the basement, but I guessed he would get a laugh out of it if he knew that I had fallen in. Three times. In a row.

I pulled off my shoe, draining the water out with a sigh. I threw them in under the desk, pulled out another book, and went upstairs to change clothes.

I fell flat on my face in the middle of the first story hallway. Something solid and flat was under the rug. I shoved It out of the way.

There was a grate the size of the ones in city streets. I ran my hand over the cold metal, and shivered. Just as I was about to put the rug back, I saw something familiar carved out of the side.

It was the sideways S, with the same dot.

I held still for a long while, starring at it. I lifted it up carefully, almost afraid that something would pop out and grab me. I stuck my head down into the darkness. A cold wind hit my face and made it hard to breath.

It smelled familiar, but horrible, like rotting flesh. The memory of where I had smelled it before hit me and I slammed the grate back down, shoving the rug back and stood in almost a single motion.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I wasn't even going to do it.

I tried to convince myself that it was a bad idea, I really did. It was dangerous, even if nothing was down there, even if I was wrong about the smell. But I knew I wasn't wrong and I knew that there was something down there that I needed to see.

That's why mdnight found me dangling by my hands into the manhole with a crowbar on my back and a cross in my pocket. Just in case.

I should rethink where I'm from, I thought as my fingers began to ache from holding me up, I must be from the land of suicidal idiots.

And then I let myself fall.