Marked

Chapter 1

I've been wandering around from place-to-place for a few weeks now. I don't know how long for sure though. I've lost count. I don't know where I'm planning on going. I just don't want to be found.

The world we live in-it all starts when we turn eighteen. A little mark appears on our wrist. It almost looks like a tattoo. A certain color tells us where we're supposed to live and what our job is. The mark also tells us who we are supposed to be with for the rest of our lives. It supposedly will match our soulmate's mark exactly.

That's why I've been wandering around. Well, it's more like hiding. My eighteenth birthday's in a few days. At least, I think it's in a few days. It's hard to keep track. Eighteen year olds are important to society, so the Authority keeps an eye on all of the kids turning eighteen. I've heard rumors that they have one big list of all the children turning eighteen. It changes all the time, and if they aren't checked into the system to their proper location, the Authority sends their people after you.

All I know is that I really don't want to deal with a new job, a new house, a supposed "soulmate"-none of it. As strange as this may sound, I like being alone and independent. I don't want to be a robot, like everyone else.

Before my parents died, I saw the way they lived. Each day they'd have a certain routine that they had to follow. My mother died because she was worked to death. She had been working all day and most of the night at the sewing factory month after month. I was never told what for. Maybe the Authority decided they needed new fancy suits, so they could attend more posh parties.

I remember the Authority carrying my mother's limp body to our door-setting her down on the front porch step. Never saying a word to me or my father-just showing us a death certificate. My father and I broke down in tears and grieved over her body, until the Authority swept her up and took her body where they take every dead body. The Graves. I heard that they just dig a hole and throw the body in it. No tombstone. No coffin. No resting in peace. They don't let anyone visit. They think it's best if we just "move on." My father disobeyed that rule.

My father was killed because he skipped a few days of work after my mother died to be with me and grieve. The Authority barged into our house, grabbed my father, and took him outside. Another member of the Authority held me still in the house, so I wouldn't run after him. I heard two echoing gun shoots.

I was fourteen when they died. I was sent to a boarding school after that. They let you go when you turn 18 and they know your place in society. I, of course, escaped. I did what no other child in that place dared to do. It was an easy escape. I stole a staff member's uniform and put it on. The security wasn't tight, because no other kid was crazy enough to do what I did. I was able to walk right out the doors.

I escaped only a few weeks ago from that prison. That was the happiest day of my life. Now I don't know what to do. I hadn't planned this far.

~•~•~•~•~•~

I walked into a grocery store to steal some food. I grabbed an apple and shoved it into my jacket pocket when no one was looking. I sneaked back out of the store. I walked down the sidewalk and took a bite of the apple.

Stealing has become a regular thing for me. I had no money, so what else could I do?

I took another bite of the apple, but then bumped into someone. He wore a black suit. He stood still, looking at me.

"Sorry," I mumbled and walked past him as quickly as I could.

"Wait," he grabbed my wrist. "you should be in school. You don't look old enough."

Shit, I cursed in my head. With a nice suit like that, I had a feeling he was a Snitch. Snitches are rumored to be paid by the Authority to catch people doing things they shouldn't be doing.