ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀʀᴋᴇᴅ (ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴏɴᴇ)

PROLOGUE

"Mama!" The screams of a little ten year old girl echoed throughout her house as three older men dressed all in black yanked her arms and dragged out of her large house. "Don't let them take me mama!" She screamed as she thrashed in the men's iron grip.

An older woman ran down the stairs after the men carrying her daughter with a man around her own age behind her. The woman had tears flowing down her pale cheeks as she knew there was nothing she could do - her young, ten year old daughter would be taken that day and marked for her heritage.

"Don't scream Emillia, you are a noble lady, act right," the man standing behind the girl's mother barked before grabbing his wife's arm and leading her back into the large mansion that made up the Cross family's home.

Little Emillia continued to cry and scream as she was thrown harshly into the back of a van and handcuffed to metal bars that were against the walls. Muffling her noises to quiet sobs, Emillia realized she wasn't alone in the back of this van. Three other ten year olds sat next to her, also handcuffed.

"W-where are we going?" Emillia managed to croak out as she looked at the three others sitting with her. The other two girls shook their heads before slumping in their seats. The lone boy watched Emillia carefully. He seemed to be around the age of fourteen, much older than the others who are taken.

"We're going to The Centre," the boy mumbled as he tried to shift in his seat so he could lean against the wall of the car, but the handcuffs made any movement harder. But, he seemed to managed moving well enough

"Why are they taking us to The Centre?" A girl with dark brown hair asked him. Her voice small, meek and as she spoke, trembled with fear. She was obviously scared, all of them except for the boy seemed to be.

"They're going to mark us," he replied to the brown haired ten year old sitting next to him. His voice seemed flat and emotionless as he spoke. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath bwfore stilling with sleep.

Emillia felt her nerves rise up inside of her the longer that the van drove along the roads, the longer the silence stretched out, and the longer she was left to her own thoughts. Finally, they slowed to a stop and the men came back to the doors and yanked all four of them out. Emillia was dragged through a door and shoved into a chair.

Then, she was strapped down and left alone. Emillia began to whimper as she looked around the room she was trapped in. She coukd feel the sobs coming back. Just before she could start crying, a young woman walked and over to her.

"Your mark will be on the left of your neck," the woman stated with her back turned to Emillia. Sounds of things moving around caught her ears as another whimper escaped her lips. "Be quiet," the woman said before stepping over to Emillia, a tattoo pen in her hand.

Pulling Emillia's hair away, the woman started drawing a symbol on Emillia's bare neck. Pain erupted from where she touched and Emillia let loose an ear splitting scream.

Then, the woman stepped away and put away her equipment. She held a mirror up to so Emillia could see the mark that the woman just etched into her skin.

Now, Emillia was officially marked as a witch...