The Marked

Book 2-Chapter 1

"James. . . James, why?" Opening my eyes as I heard the voice speak my name, a pair of blood-stained hands greeted my vision. I stared at them, not processing what it was I was seeing. Focusing beyond my hands towards the ground, I noticed that it was moving up and down slowly, stained red like the blood on my hands. Wait. . . floors don't move. Something clicked inside my brain, and all at once the synapses started flooding my mind with information.

I'm kneeling on a rough surface, most likely dirt, with pebbles and small rocks digging into my legs through the torn jeans I'm wearing. I'm missing the right pant leg. What I at first thought to be the ground is a body, breathing raggedly as dark red blood flows from its stomach and stains its white shirt. A small hole the size of my fist has been torn through the upper left side of their body, and I can see the puddle of blood inside the hole filling up and leaking out.

"James. . ." looking up from the wound in its side, I stare at the body's face. My mind seems to stop working, and for a moment I don't know what I'm looking at. And then, just like before with the wound, my brain puts the pieces together. Shea lay before me on the ground, her eyes filled with tears as the pain from her wound was no doubt so strong that she could barely speak. I lifted my hands to touch her face, to offer some kind of encouragement as I tried desperately to think of a way to help. However, when I did I noticed something I hadn't seen earlier.

In my right hand I held a still faintly beating heart, its small pulse causing blood to slowly ooze out into my palm and cascade down my arm.

"NO!" For a moment I didn't know where I was, still trapped back in that nightmare. Slowly, however, I came to my senses. I was sitting up on my bed in my room at Black Academy, Ryan above me in his bunk still sleeping soundly. Evidently he hadn't woken up when I screamed. I could feel the sweat on my back and in my hair, and when I turned around to face my bedsheets in the dim moonlight, I saw that they were drenched with sweat as well. Sighing, I stepped off of my bed and gathered the sheets off of the mattress before tossing them in the dirty clothes basket. I wouldn't need them for now, as there was no way I could possibly go back to sleep after that.

I went to the bathroom and turned the bath faucet on, letting the water heat up as I went to go check the time on my phone. When I picked it up, I noticed that I had a message alert. Unlocking my phone, I saw that it was from Shea. For a moment the image of her heart in my hand clouded my vision, and I thought I was going to be sick. I was able to force it down, however, and tried to put the memory out of my head for good. Why would I ever envision something like that? Jeez.

The time was 5:48, and her message was from ten minutes ago. Why is she awake so early, I thought as I read her text. "Hey J, if you're awake would you mind calling me? I just need someone to talk to right now." Concern instantly flooded through me, and I took my phone into the bathroom with me, deciding to take a bath instead of a shower like I had originally planned so that I could talk on the phone with Shea. Clicking the call button, I set it on the bathroom sink's countertop and took off my thin white long sleeve shirt, my shorts, and my briefs. By the fifth ring I was completely undressed in the dark of the bathroom, the only light coming from the screen of my phone.

I shone it down into the bathtub to check on the water level, and that's when Shea answered. "Hey J, thanks for calling. Did I wake you up?" There wasn't a hint of sleep in her voice, so I assumed that she had been up for a little while.

"No, I actually woke up on my own and just so happened to be looking at the time when I saw your text." There wasn't a hint of sleep in my voice, either. "So what's up?"

"Well, it's just something that I've been thinking about for awhile now, and tonight I just couldn't go to sleep until I addressed it, and so I decided to text you. I was just about to give up and try to go to sleep when you called. By the way," she added as I turned the bath faucet off, "why do I hear water?"