Mark of the Murderer

Mark of the Murderer

America had gone to hell ten years before, and now it was divided into Reforms. In Reform One, the citizens all had marks on their arms for their destinies. Some were amazing, such as; chief or artist. But some…some were unwanted destines, like robber or thief. On this particular day, a mother would discover her child would get the most unwanted destiny in Reform One.

Acacia screamed as she pushed.
“One more push. I can see her head” The doctor said.
She screamed again, before hearing the shrill cries of a baby. She smiled weakly, but frowned, noticing that no one smiled with her.
“Is my baby okay?” she questioned.
The doctor nodded, numbly, as he stared at the baby girl in horror.
“L-let me see my child.” Acacia said.
The doctor handed the baby to her. That’s when she saw it. Her daughter’s arm had the mark she had been warned about by the nurses and her mother. The mark that looked like a black widow spider. The mark of the murderer.

Maureen sighed as she finished putting on the last coat of black nail polish. She didn’t like black nail polish, but because of her Destiny mark, she had to wear black or red nail polish. She waved her hands to dry them when her mentor burst through the door.
Faas had the same destiny mark as her, but it didn’t look like a black widow. His mark looked like a scorpion. Faas didn’t look like your usual mentor either. He had bleached hair. How Maureen knew it was bleached was that his eyebrows were dark brown. His skin was pale, so pale you could almost mistake his destiny for being ghost hunter. His eyes were mismatched, the left one being lapis blue and the right one being crimson red. He always dressed in tight-fitting jeans, a black shirt, black boots, and a long trench coat. His nails were long and polished red.
Maureen watched, her eyes wide as Faas pulled her knapsack out roughly. He threw open her closet, and began throwing her clothes in it sloppily.
“Faas?” she squeaked.
He didn’t acknowledge her.
“Faas.” She tried again, her voice louder.
He turned his back to her, making it seem like he didn’t hear her
“Faas, answer me!” Maureen shrieked, her emerald green eyes flashing.
Faas turned toward her sharply, and that’s when she saw it. The rare look of fear reflected in his eyes
Maureen leaned away, her head nearly colliding with the head board. She had hardly seen her mentor like this. Usually he adopted a smirk or a stern face. What had happened to get him so afraid?
“We have to leave. Tonight.” Faas said, turning back to the knapsack on the end of the bed.
“What?! Why?!” Maureen asked, horrified and confused at the same time. Faas was silent for a few moments as he put more red and black clothing into Maureen’s bag.
“I killed the Dictator.”
Maureen’s eyes widened at that news. The Dictator was in charge of all seven Reforms. Faas saying he killed him, he might as well have said he killed her mother.
Faas began explaining how it happened. It was just supposed to be a clean cut job. In and out, that was it. But the Dictator had seen him and screamed. The scream alerted the guards and his son. Faas had to move quickly. Taking his knife from his belt, he brought it down on his victim’s heart, silencing him. The guards and Prince Cyrus saw him as he was escaping off the balcony.
Maureen swallowed deep again. How could Faas have been so stupid!?
Faas stared at his student’s wide eyes. He tried to ignore them as he stuffed the last thing in her knapsack. That’s when he heard the ever fearful banging on the door.
“Open up in the name of Prince Cyrus!” came a guard’s barking voice.
Faas had to act quickly. Unstrapping his knife from his side, he tossed it at Maureen, who caught it expertly. He pulled her off the bed and handed her the knapsack.
“Go!” he told her
“Faas…” she began
“I’ll be fine. Go!” he said shoving her towards the window. He threw down the rope ladder down the open window and looked down at Maureen as she climbed down it. Just as she ran out of sight, the Guards burst in.
Faas continued staring in the distance as one guard pulled his hands behind his back rather ungently. He listened to the guard’s spill about the crime he did (even though they should have known what would happen because of his mark). He was led out of the house into the police carriage, listening to the stallions’ hooves clip-clop down the street. He only had one thought on his mind as he stared at the floor.
Did Maureen get away in time?

Chal jumped from tree to tree watching the girl that was running through the forest, a bag bouncing on her back. He watched her for a little while more before racing ahead of her and leaping in front of her.
When he saw the girl was about to scream, he covered her mouth “Don’t scream or you’ll alert the guards.”
The girl looked at him confused as he removed his hand. “How did you-“
“We need to get you to safety” Chal said, interrupting her. He grabbed her wrist.
He didn’t notice the girl’s shocked look as he led her quickly through the forest, practically dragging her.

Maureen tried to respond to the boy dragging her. She could feel the leaves and mud slipping under her boots. Her eyes wondered to the boy’s wrist and her eyes widened when she saw it was bear. You don’t have a mark she wanted to say, but all that came out of her mouth was squeaking, nonsense noises.
The boy didn’t seem to acknowledge them as they came to some trees that grew into an arch. Maureen looked around surprised as lights appeared in the trees, flickering slightly. What she didn’t notice is that the boy had slowed down.
“Are you ok back there?” The boy asked for the first time in miles.
Maureen whiped her head around to face the boy and notice his face for the first time. The boy had golden yellow hair that was shaggy, tangled, and grown down to his upper back. The boy’s eyes-she gulped as she stared at them. The boy’s eyes were the most unusual shade of brown she had ever seen and there was a scar above his left eye.
“Miss?” The boy asked again. It was then Maureen realized he was talking to her
“Oh-uh- yeah. Yeah I’m ok.” Maureen said, nodding quickly.
The boy blinked at her, before nodding as if satisfied with something. He moved some leaves in front of them revealing what seemed to be a village. In the middle of the forest!
Maureen followed the boy onto the cliff and looked down at the village. The village didn’t look like she had seen pictured in her Youngster’s school history books. The village had average sized clay house and stone roads. She noticed children were running around freely without adult supervision. The women of the village were weaving and talking to each other-as if they were family. But she didn’t see any men….
“My name is Chal.” The boy suddenly said, breaking her out of her thoughts.
She blinked about three times in a row before finding her voice again
“I’m Maureen” She introduced shyly pulling her sleeve over her mark.
Chal didn’t seem to notice as he led her into the village.
Maureen stiffened slightly, noticing the stares from the villagers that seemed to pierce her soul like a knife. The women and children all started whispering around her, and pointing, at what Maureen sincerely hoped to be her clothes.
It was times like this Maureen wanted her mother….but she knew that wouldn’t be possible. Maureen’s mother had died a few years ago…at the hand of Prince Cyrus.
Acacia had been a musician and a talented one at that. No one had to look at the mark of the music staff going around her wrist to know that. She had gotten pregnant with Maureen…but no one knew who the child’s father was. Maureen often asked about her father and all her mother had told her was that he had no care for children, so that’s what Maureen grew up thinking.
One day, Acacia had written a beautiful piece of music to go along with an old story that she used to tell Maureen all the time. “The Tale of Shahrazad.” She practiced and practiced until it was perfect. But the night she played it for Prince Cyrus went horribly wrong. The prince didn’t like it. Not one bit. He ordered Acacia to write him a new piece and when she refused, he had her beheaded.
Maureen shook her head free of that memory. She didn’t want to remember anything about her mother. How her long dark hair fell in gentle curls. How her emerald green eyes sparkled with happiness.
Stop it Maureen told herself as her eyes pricked with tears This isn’t the time or the place.

Maureen was taken away from her thoughts when she felt a tug on her dress. Looking down she spotted a little girl with dirty blond hair that was grown down to her waist. The girl didn’t do anything at all just stared at her.
“Hello” Maureen said
The girl ran off to a woman that looked so similar to her, Maureen could only assume it was the mother. The woman hugged the little girl close to her waist as she too studied Maureen.
Chal eventually led her to a small house where the entrance was covered by a curtain. Maureen reluctantly followed him in where she saw a woman sitting cross-legged in front of a fire, ere eyes closed in concentration.
“Who’s that?” she asked Chal
Chal didn’t reply as he walked toward the fire himself and knelt on the opposite side. “Teacher,” he said “I have brought a girl from the forest.”
“What are her ailments?” ‘Teacher’ asked
“I can’t say for sure. She seems to have a heavy heart and a weary soul.” Chal replied
“Leave her to me.”
Chal nodded and got up going into another room of the small household. Maureen’s heart pounded against her rib cage. She didn’t want to be left alone with this strange woman, but when she opened her mouth to beg him not to go, she couldn’t find the words to say so.
“Don’t be afraid my child.” The woman said “Come. Kneel. Rest.”
Maureen felt herself moving. She knelt by the fire similar to how Chal had done.
“I am Kyna” the woman said
Maureen froze. She had heard that name before. As Kyna reached to grab a bowl beside her, her long, draping sleeve lifted to reveal a heart shaped mark.
“You’re marked!” Maureen suddenly exclaimed
Kyna laughed a throaty laugh and Maureen flushed, embarrassed.
“Yes, I’m marked. I had to leave Reform 1 on circumstance that should have never happened.”
“What happened?” Maureen asked, before she could stop herself
“I was helping the Dictator’s wife deliver who you now know as Prince Cyrus. The child was coming out feet first and the mother would surely be in pain if she delivered naturally.” Kyna explained. “She had been in labor for nearly two days. When I told Dictator Barrow what was happening and that his wife would need a C-section, he refused, saying it was no way for an heir to be brought into the world. The child eventually came but the mother was so weak she couldn’t eat or drink anything and eventually died. Barrow blamed me of course and ordered the guards to find and kill me under charges of the murder of his wife. I ran to the forest and eventually found this village. I’ve been living here ever since.”
Maureen’s eyes widened at Kyna’s story. She had heard of the story of the healer that killed Prince Cyrus’s mother but she had never thought she would meet her

Meanwhile, back in Reform 1, Faas was in the most secure part of the prison. He was thinking of Maureen. Was she dead or alive? Had she been captured? Were they keeping her from him to torture him even more then he already was?
He looked up as the sound of shoes hitting the pavement got closer and closer. When they reached his cell, they stopped.
“Hello Faas.” Came the sneering voice of the pretentious little brat. Prince Cyrus.
“Hello your bratship.” Faas replied back, smirking
Cyrus didn’t share the smirk, just scowled. “I wouldn’t do that in the position you’re in” he snapped
Faas didn’t even flinch at that. He didn’t even frown.
“Well, if you’re position doesn’t frighten you, perhaps this will.” Cyrus said
That’s when Faas’s heart pounded against his ribcage. He must’ve flushed because Cyrus laughed a little too loudly for comfort. After that, he pulled his arms out from behind his back, revealing a tablet that was beeping.
“We’ve found Maureen. Whether she’ll be brought to you alive…I can’t promise.” Cyrus faked a yawn “Now if you’ll excuse me, I must retire.”
Cyrus walked off leaving Faas’s shocked face behind him.

Cyrus went up to his private quarters. He needed some time to think. As one of the servants put his robe on him, he contemplated how he would get that blasted Maureen back to Reform 1. He couldn’t say he wouldn’t press charges for what happened to his father. That would be too easy, and Cyrus never liked it when things were easy. He wouldn’t dare give up the rules of his kingdom for that. Admit he hired Faas to kill his father? No. That would give him away. As soon as he thought of Faas, an idea came to his head. If she thought her precious mentor was in danger…oh this was going to be fun.
“Larina!” he barked at a nearby servant girl
“Y-Yes?” Larina stammered out
“Fetch my carriage and fastest horses. I’m paying a little visit to the uncivilized part of the country.” Cyrus said, smirking a smirk that was a little too unsettling.

Larina left the quarters, trembling in fear. Ever since his father’s death just barely a few hours before, Cyrus had seemed to grow crueler. It reminded her of how she had been treated in the St. Bonnie’s Home for Girls.
Larina had been born with no mark. She didn’t know who her real family was and she didn’t care. She knew in the world she lived in, if you raised a child born with no mark, you were ridiculed and if you continued to raised the child you were executed or exiled.
She reached up and clutched the clear quartz necklace around her neck. It had been the one thing she had been permitted to keep in the orphanage that had been hers. Her parents had left it to her and because of it she had always thought they had been gypsies.
What Larina didn’t know is that her family was of nobility. Her mother had given birth to her on a stormy night, praying that this child wouldn’t turn out like that accursed gypsy had predicted. Unmarked. But unfortunately, she had. Her mother wept in despair as she reached for her baby as the midwife carried the wailing child out to be checked. Moments later, her father had tucked into her blankets a necklace he had been planning to give to her on her tenth birthday. Larina was taken to St. Bonnie’s that very night.
Larina soon came upon the stables where whinnying and snorting could be heard. She soon came upon a stable with a chestnut colored horse in it. The horse looked at her as if knowing where it was going.
“It’s okay girl. “She soothed it as she pet her muzzle. She felt sorry for the horses, having to do their bidding for the cruel boy that was not much older then she was. She continued stroking the horse’s muzzle.
“We don’t have all night girl!” came a guard’s booming voice.
Larina jumped and turned. The guard was glaring at her with a stone cold glare that would’ve scared a normal person, but Larina was used to it.
“Yes, sir” she said, grabbing the bridle, and the saddle. She opened the gate and listened as the horse clip clopped on the wooden floor as it was led to the guards.
The guards led the horse out as Larina stood there, watching as it was hooked up to the carriage and Cyrus got in it. She hoped whoever he was after knew what was coming.

The next morning in the Village, Maureen rose from her place on the floor. The night before Kyna had rolled out a mat for her to sleep on and it had been more comfortable then she expected. She stretched, but a moan beside her made her stiffen. She turned to see Chal asleep on his own mat, his shaggy hair falling in his face. She hadn’t expected him to be there. Getting up quietly, she left to go find Kyna.
Kyna was just outside the house, bent in front of an oven, pulling something out.
“Kyna?” she said curious at what she was doing.
“Good morning, Maureen.” Kyna said a bright smile on her face. “Would you like some bread and something to drink?”
“Um-sure. I guess” Maureen wasn’t hungry, but she had been taught to never refuse an offer of something to eat.
Kyna nodded, took a knife out and cut a small slice of bread. Once it was handed to her on a plate, Maureen tore a small piece off the slice and popped it in her mouth. The taste was nothing like she thought it would be. It was warm and buttery.
“This isn’t like the bread back home.” Maureen said, curiosity entering her voice.
“That’s because the bread in Reform 1 is manufactured by machine. This bread is made by man.” Kyna explained
Maureen was just about done with her slice of bread when Chal came out, yawning. His shaggy hair was sticking out in all directions, and now that it was morning and better light, Maureen noticed for the first time the scare above his left eye.

Chal seemed not to noticed her stares as he sat down cross-legged in front of the fire. He had gotten used to people staring at his scar. Kyna had offered to heal it but he had refused the offer. It was a reminder of what had happened to his family. He had only been ten…
He had been outside the tent, playing hunter, Father was talking with the Council, and Mother was inside the house with the baby. He hadn’t been playing out there very long when he saw his father barreling toward them, the look of fear in his eye. Chal didn’t have time to question him before he was scooped up and taken inside. His father hid him quickly as his mother questioned what was happening. The answer came all too soon. Some men dressed in clothes Chal had never seen before. They ripped the baby from Mother’s arms and when she tried to get the baby back a shot rang through the air. That’s when Mother fell and laid too still. His father let out a cry of agony and anger as he charged himself at the people. They fought for a good long while before he too was killed. The baby let out piercing cries as she was carried out. When Chal had fought to get the only living member of his family back, he had been struck in the face with a sword. That was the day Chal planned to get revenge.

Rynn sat at her vanity, sighing as she tucked a lock of golden hair behind her ear. Picking up the brush, she dipped it in the red make-up liquid. She delicately began painting a tiara on her wrist. Rynn did this every morning. No one but her family knew why. According to her father, she had been born with no mark. Rather then been shamed by the citizens, he covered her wrist until she was old enough to learn how to paint the tiara herself. Now that her father was gone and her brother was Dictator, she didn’t know what would happen to her.
A knock interrupted her thoughts.
“M’lady?” said a servant outside the door
“Yes. Come in.” Rynn said
The servant stepped inside the door and revealed herself to be Larina. Larina was just a year or two older then her but she always viewed her as her only friend-her best friend. She knew Larina had been born without a mark as well. When Larina was assigned jobs at the palace that involved her, she would help her to the best of her ability. She didn’t dare say anything in front of Father and Cyrus but Larina was in all other terms-her sister.
“Your breakfast is ready.” Larina replied, politely as she had been taught.
“Thank you Larina.” Rynn replied, though she hardly felt like eating right now “I’ll be in the dining room shortly.”
Larina gave a simple nod and left the room. Rynn made her way to the dining room. She didn’t want to go for reasons other then having no hunger. She knew her arranged fiancé, Romanov, would be waiting for her. She hated everything about that man.
Romanov was at least ten years older then her. He had the mark of someone who worked for the Royal guard. He lost his temper often and had been known to sleep with dozens of women.
Rynn gulped as she entered the dining room. It went quiet as she entered so the only sound that was heard was the sound of her shoes hitting the floor. Rynn sat down obediently next to Romanov, who looked at her with an evil glint in his eyes. He reached over and squeezed her thigh. She fought a squeak of fear as she reached over grabbing her glass and taking a dainty sip of her water. Her thoughts were with her brother. Where had he gone, and, most importantly, what was he up to?

Maureen looked up as she heard people screaming. The village women were grabbing young children and darting into tents. She gulped as a horse rode up to her…the horse who happened to hold the new dictator.
“Hello dear sister.” He seethed at her. Maureen opened her mouth to say something before a scream got her attention. She turned and noticed Chal’s eyes had widened to the size of saucers before they flashed with anger.