The Hues

t h r e e .

Later that evening, Holland tells her parents she has been invited to Evelyn's for dinner. This is not uncommon, so they allow her to go. She makes a pot of tea, and pours it into a thermos, which she conceals inside her schoolbag, along with two mugs and some sandwiches.

Pulling on a hat and gloves, along with the warm cloak and thick boots, she sweeps out of the house and heads for the quiet woods. The previous night's snow is thick and cumbersome as she trudges through it.

Finally, she reaches a tree which had toppled long ago. It is enormous and hollowed out. It had fallen and caught upon another tree, which now supports it. The former lays slanted diagonally upon the latter. Holland moves towards the two, which were quite familiar to her. She scales the tipped tree easily, and sets herself into one of the large knots carved deep into its bark. It was a wonderful thinking spot, the tree. You could see the entire subdivision from this place, and it's all hers. No one else knows of it.

Just then, Will appears below. He looks up at Holland and waves, then makes his way to the base of the trunk and ascends the short area. He settles himself into the other knot, close to Holland. She pours the tea and hands him a mug and a sandwich. They eat in silence, a strange thing for a pair of blues.

Finally, Holland breaks the silence, "Nice up here, eh?"

"Gorgeous view," Will notes, staring into the distance.

"It gets better. Wait until sundown," she says, eyes glued on the horizon. Will clears his throat.

"So... what were you thinking? Why do you think they separate us?" he asks.

"I've got a few theories. One is that they put the marks there on purpose."

"Why would they do that?"

"I don't know. To piss people off?" Will laughs.

"Okay, good theory, but I don't think they'd do that just to piss people off. I mean, if that were true, there'd have to be more to it than that. My turn. Maybe in the Gray Days, everyone was allowed to intermix, and it went bad," Will says. Holland considers for a minute. It could be so. After all, they have been taught a little about the Gray Days.

It is told that before the city and the Hues, there were just people. Some had markings, some didn't. The ones with markings were not considered more special, nor were they isolated from the others. But after some time, that became untrue. There came to be more and more people with markings than not. New colors and shapes were developing on newborns.

Then, word spread that children born without a mark were being killed, ripped from the world just as they entered it. People had begun to believe this, as there was a spike in infant death rates. The non-marked people began to panic.

And before long, the Great War began. It was the marked versus the unmarked. The odds were in favor of the marked, as their numbers were much higher by now. The proof was yet to be seen that marked doctors had been the reason for the death toll rising, but the unmarkeds were willing to die, rather than have the chance of being wiped out regardless.

When the war had finally come to an end, the marked humans, obviously, came out on top. They had wiped the city clean from the bare-armed freaks. Any unmarked people who were left were forced to report to city officials, and then were never heard from again.

Some tried to run, some tried to hide. Very few were successful. Those who ran were never heard from either. If they truly made it out to Somewhere would never be known. Those who hid had to be extremely careful. They had learned how to forge the marks upon their arms, but had to repeat it after every daily washing. The fake marks would wash away with the water. This was how most of them were discovered. The government was so keen to seek out the unmarkeds and kill them, that they would call every citizen of the city into the hub and wash their arms. If the mark washed away, the person would be Removed; taken away to a dungeon, tortured and killed.

As the two teenagers sit together up high in the tall tree, their minds both drift over the subject of the Great War.

"Why do you think they did it? Killed each other, I mean? In the War?" Holland blurts out.

"Because," Will says sullenly, "people are intimidated by things they don't understand."