When you're marked you have two choices; fight or die. Nance lives in the past, literally. Her city is a recreation of early twenty-first century society. To the outside world they're experiments, just rats running around a maze. In an impoverished future world, the city seems to be their only chance of finding where they went wrong, or so they say. Nance doesn't know the real purpose of her home, and she doesn't care. All she sees are the one hundred teenagers, just like her, who are killed every year in the barbaric ritual known as the marking. They tattoo your face and pit you against your peers, against the city. Nance doesn't know why, but it doesn't matter, because she's sixteen and it's her turn to be marked. **So I decided to replace the original story with the rewrite because they are pretty much exactly the same. Plus, it's a lot less complicated then having two separate books for the same story.** There is a * next to all rewritten chapters. THE ORIGINAL VERSION IS COMPLETE. IT'S JUST NOT MARKED AS SUCH BECAUSE I GAVE UP ON THE REWRITE.

A short story about a girl understanding the true value of friendship. Sequel now available: "Goodbye" on my page.

Once I was a god. Worshiped. Revered. The huddled masses cast themselves at my feet, heads bowed and eyes wide. Save us, they begged. Spare us, they pleaded. And, fool that I was, I tried. Now I am nothing. Fallen. A bitter memory of an age long passed. A broken old fool too stubborn to die. This is my story. My rise, my fall. The pathetic mess, after. Read it. Don’t. I care little. My words are not for you.