The Marked

Rumors And Reality

Mike's eyes widened after Emma had spoken, and I knew that he could see her. The others were just as shocked, but Shea seemed the most out of all of them. Emma looked back down at her tray and continued to eat while the others watched her, ignoring their gazes. I cleared my throat, and they all jumped slightly to look back at me.

I made a snipping motion with my right hand, letting them know to cut it out. Ryan recovered the fastest, leaning across Mike to extend his hand towards her. "Nice to meet you Emma, I'm Ryan. So, how old are you?" The others looked at him with even more shock than they had at Emma, but she just looked up curiously at him.

"Fifteen, the same as all of you. We're in the same class after all." Ryan looked at her for a moment with squinted eyes, and shook his head with an apologetic smile on his face.

"Sorry, I've never seen you before. So, where do you sit in our classes?" I smiled behind the sandwich I was holding in front of my face while I watched Ryan's face and waited for Emma to answer him.

"Actually Ryan, I sit next to you." At first it didn't seem like he had heard her, and then it seemed to hit him. He lowered his hand that she hadn't tried to shake, and looked over to me with a thousand questions on his face. I just nodded and continued to eat, enjoying the slight shock she was giving them all.

"Well, if I had known that then I wouldn't have chosen my seat as carelessly as I did," Shea said as she munched on a bite of her salad. I turned to her with a frown on my face, and finally decided to get to the bottom of her rudeness.

"Shea, I don't know why you're treating Em like you are, but you need to stop it. She hasn't done or said anything mean to you, so there's no reason for you to do it to her." Shea looked at me like I was mildly insane, and pointed her finger at where Em sat.

"First off, she doesn't have to do anything to me for me to treat her this way, because it's what she's already done that has earned her my disrespect." Sighing in exasperation, I grabbed her hand that was pointing at Emma and brought it to my chest.

"Then tell me what she's done for you to hate her so much." Shea blushed slightly as she looked at my hand that held hers against me, and turned her face away to look over at Emma.

"Why don't you tell him, seeing as how you're the best of friends now." Emma looked surprised that Shea had directly addressed her, but after a moment she set down her fork and turned to face me.

"My Unseen ability wasn't always passive. They say that young Marked abilities can fluctuate as they grow older, and that's exactly what mine did. I used to only be able to use it for five minutes, and the recharge rate was about thirty minutes." Her lips curved into a smile as she turned to look up at the ceiling, and it was obvious that she was thinking back to happier times.

"I used to be the best at hide and seek, and I remember my brother always complaining that my ability was unfair. He's two years younger than me, and has the Rewind ability which effectively lets him turn back time for himself or others up to five minutes before he uses it. So any damage received he can heal, or any healing his opponent performs can be wiped away." She was about to continue, but Shea interrupted her.

"What does this have to do with anything, huh? Just tell him about all the trouble you've caused this school, instead of telling us your life story." I was about to tell her off for being so rude, but Em's face turned somber as she answered Shea before I could say anything.

"Because you need to understand my history for any of this to make sense. You see, my ability became passive just as the school year was starting. I was sitting in my room, getting ready for the first day of school here, when my father walked into my room and called my name. I thought that he was just messing around, but when I saw his face, I knew that he seriously couldn't see me.