The Marked

The Society of Red

"Was that necessary?" I asked as I got up from my chair. Ashley sighed as she poured herself a cup of tea. She took a sip and this sigh was of happiness. "Want some tea?" She asked as she stirred in more sugar to hers.

I thought about refusing because I was still mad at her. Then again she was my friend and I thought she was dead for weeks. "Fine." I said and she brightened and went quickly to pour me some. "Sugar?" She asked me. "Tons I like mine sweet." I replied. She bought my tea over to the table in front of me and sat down in the chair across from mine.

"So how are Jenna and the gang?" She asked me as she sipped her tea. I stiffened at the mention of my friends. I probably wouldn't see them ever again. "They were good the last time I saw them. Or should I say before I was abducted and brought here." I said as I gestured around at the red pristine room.

The red was supposed to calm people down but it had the opposite effect on me. My legs bounced and I drummed my fingers on the table. "Look Addy I'm sorry I had you abducted but I, I really can't tell you why yet." She said pleading with me to understand.

I'd been here three days in this red prison and I had yet to find out why I was here and why the rest of them weren't taken as well. I missed them so much. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed Will too. Id looked at him as I was taken away because, well I wasn't sure.

"Mind if I show you around and explain to you along the way?" She asked after minutes of awkward silence had passed. I nodded and she and I finished our tea. She put the empty cups in the sink as I got up and started pacing, eager to leave this sterile room.

She opened the door and led the way through the hallway. It was red as well which I found quite irritating. "If everything is red here I might just go insane." I mumbled to myself. "Everything is." Ashley replied with a laugh. So her sense of hearing hasn't changed I thought to myself. I was glad because most everything else about her had.

Her blond curls were pulled into an elegant bun on the top of her head. Instead of funky shirts she had on a red t-shirt and red pants. After a few turns we were suddenly overlooking a huge room. Kids of all ages were crowding the commonplace. The second they saw Ashley the whole room turned to look at her.

"This is my friend Adeline she will be staying here until she decides if this is where she wants to be or not. I want all of you to welcome her with open arms as if she is one of our own. Any of you who wish to harm her have to come through me." She said to the sea of red. They all understood and many came to the bottom of the stairs to come meet me.

I stiffened at her use of my full name but chose to ignore it as I glanced at Ashley, she gestured to go on ahead. I slowly walked down the stairs to the people waiting below. They all wanted to hug me or just talk to me to see what I was like. I gave them a brief backstory and I soon began to notice something the same about all of them. Everyone who reached out to hug me or touch my arm had a black Mark on them.

Suddenly the pieces came together in my mind. The facility with no windows, a horde of kids all with the Mark, a leader. This was a rebel group. As the realization hit me Ashley came up to me and pulled me away from the people. She led me up the stairs and through a hallway until we got to a glass window. I eagerly looked out to see that I wasn't looking out, I was looking in. Looking in a room to be more specific. The room housed babies in cribs that were lining the wall.

We walked down the hall until we got to a similar room. This one had smaller children in it and they were crawling around and playing with the limited amount of toys there. Ashley grabbed my arm and pulled me to a door on the right side of the hallway. She did a special knock and people yelled to come in.

We entered into what seemed to be a meeting room. Seated around the long table were mostly faces I didn't recognize. Then my eyes moved to the only red head and the brown haired boy with freckles. Emma and Zach were seated and when they saw me they both smiled.

I almost ran over and hugged them both but Ashley held me back. "After the meeting." She whispered as she went to go sit down. I sat down in the chair beside her and with that, the meeting started.

"Let's start by introducing everybody. Hello my name is Ashley and head of the S.O.M." Everybody else introduced themselves soon after. "Hi my name is Elise and I'm the food director of S.O.M." said a brown haired girl on the far end of the table. "Hi my name is Zach," he grinned at me, "and I'm weapons master at S.O.M."

I giggled, they couldn't have picked a better person. I knew he must love his job. "Hi my name is Emma and I oversee all organized attacks at S.O.M." She said proudly as her red hair shone a little brighter.

Ashley cleared her throat, "Now that we have all been introduced," she looked at me, "I think it's time to tell Adeline the truth."