Marked

Chapter 2

The festival was as boring as always. At least it was pretty. It was late at night, and completely dark aside from the fire and the dim lights flickering in the trees. There was a stage with bright flowers and banners set with light that waited to be switched on. All the lights in the country would be off tonight, so the stars would be bright.

People were everywhere in fancy dresses and suits. Most dresses were red, yellow, or orange to mimic the fire and the changing of the season. The dresses were the same style, fitting into one of two categories: Big and fluffy, like ball gowns; or light and long. All of them spun beautifully, and no one was wearing a short dress. In all, it looked more like a ball than a festival.

Casey and Vincent tried many times to get to me. They were surprised I would show up since I had told them I wouldn't. They were both really stunning in their gowns. I hadn't seen them in formal wear in years.

Casey, like most people, was wearing a big and fluffy ball gown with a sweetheart neckline. Her sunset orange dress gradually shifted at a golden color as it went up, and it matched perfectly with her dark skin and hair. Near the bottom, in the most orange part, were elegant golden swirls. Her makeup was done beautifully, reflecting how beautiful she was. Her hair was in a bun, with small bright orange flowers woven into it. It looked professionally done, but knowing her, she probably did it herself. She seemed to stand out from everyone else as she glowed in the light of the fire.

Vincent was wearing suit with a gradient tie to match Casey's dress, which signaled they came here together. Standing next to each other, they looked like a couple. I noticed that the only thing that clashed between the two was their eye color. The blue in Vincent's eyes was stunning, and you could easily only pay attention to them. Though Casey's warm brown eyes were beautiful, they didn't draw as much attention as her dress did.

Then there was me. I had probably looked tired from all the late night spent trying to perfect plans and sort out research. Not to mention keeping up with college too, which I had just graduated from earlier in the week, but the eye bags from studying were still there. I tried to cover that up with what little makeup skills I had, but I suspect I didn't do a very good job. My dress was off the shoulder and short. It was suppose to go mid-thigh, but I'm too short for that, so instead it went to my knees. I was always too short to wear long dresses. It was midnight blue, my parents favorite color, and had silver gems at the bottom that resembled stars against the blue. The blue matched closely with my dark blue eyes, a color that is more common than ever these days. My hair was curled, but that was all I knew how to do.

The place was heavily guarded for some reason. I don't remember them being this guarded, but then again that was years ago. Even still, I noticed a few of the marked. They were taking a big risk even being near here, and I don't even know how they got in. They normally check for guards at the fences.

I knew everyone here by name, but only about five people personally. I don't make much of an effort to get to know anyone. The only thing I knew about people were their IQ scores and their criminal record files. I could sort everyone here into the smartest and the dumbest, or the most arrested to the least. Still, I thought I saw a few times a familiar face from years ago, but I never got to catch up to him. He seemed to yell something at me, it it got lost in the crowd and I'm terrible at reading lips. I thought for sure my moping was playing tricks on me.

Soon it was about time to announce the nominations for the job with the government. Absentmindedly, I started walking towards Casey and Vincent. They both looked worried about something, and it worried me. As I got closer, I could hear a little of what they were saying

"...wrist burning," Casey was saying to Vincent. Her hand was on her left wrist as if she were in pain. Vincent agreed and said that his wrist hurt too. They continued talking about how they might've gotten hurt while I contemplated on seeing what was going on. I tried telling myself that it was nothing and that they must've gotten too close to the fire or something, but decided it wasn't worth the risk. I couldn't take that chance.