The Marked: Prologue

The only thing Hattie could remember was being trapped under a bed, praying that the roof wouldn’t collapse in on her.

She opened her eyes to see that she was in a small metal room, with only one door and no windows. She looked at the walls and saw hundreds of thousands of small blinking switches. Her head was pounding and it felt like she had a few broken ribs. Even though the pain was horrible, she racked her brain for information.

She couldn’t remember anything. Nothing. She could barely remember her name. Besides that, all that came through were those five measly seconds, of her waiting to die.

She tried to stand up but she found that she was chained to the floor. Already feeling defeated, Hattie laid back down for what seemed like an eternity before she heard the voices outside her door. She picked her head up off of the ground and squinted at the door, trying to decipher the noises.

“Are you sure she’s the one?”

“One hundred percent. She has the Mark.”

“And she can help us?”

“That’s what we’re hoping.”

“But what if she can’t? What if we’re wrong and her Mark means nothing?”

The footsteps stopped. “She is the right girl, we haven’t made a mistake. And if you doubt me again I will be forced to relocate you. Am I understood?”

A moment of hesitation. “Yes.” The footsteps picked up again and stopped right outside of the door.

The door unlocked and the men walked in. The first man was tall and lean, he had very dark hair and wore a lab coat and glasses. The other was shorter but equally as scrawny. He was blonde and had a bright green notepad in his hand.

The first man walked toward her with a smile on his face.

“Good, you’re awake.” he said. “I am Dr. Stevens, but you can call me Tom. I am here to figure a few things out about you. It should only take a minute.”

He turned to the wall of switches and flicked a few of them. A small drawer popped out of the wall and he grabbed a few things from inside. Hattie squinted, trying to see around him. He turned around and she could finally see what he was holding.

A syringe and a knife.

She scrambled farther away from him, not wanting to find out what they were for.

He began walking towards her, his smile still plastered to his face. “We just need to run a few tests. It’ll only take a moment.” He said, like he knew exactly what she was thinking.

He came toward her with the syringe that was filled with a bluish liquid. She tried to back away but her chains only went so far. The doctor dove on top of her and shoved the syringe into her arm and injected the serum. She cried out and fell to the floor.

“No this next part is going to hurt.” The doctor said as he grabbed Hattie’s hand. She tried to wriggle her arm away, but to no prevail, his grip was like iron. He opened her hand and sliced her palm open. Hattie screamed out and pulled her arm out of his grip.

The doctor stood and turned away, walking towards the switches. He flicked another one and a cabinet opened and a glass vial popped up. He grabbed the vial and stooped down, filling it with the blood.

He stood again and put the vial in, what looked to her like a dumbwaiter. He closed the door to it and sent the bottle away. He turned back to her, his smile returning.

“Just a little blood sample.” He said, turning to the other man motioning for him to follow, before walking back to the door.

“Just a blood sample! Who do think you are!” Hattie yelled, hugging the hurt hand to her chest.

The doctor’s smile finally fell. He walked quickly toward her and picked up off the ground.

“Do you know why you are here?” his face was inches from hers, she felt spit splatter onto her face.

She opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. Honestly, she didn’t. But she wasn’t just going to give him what he wanted.

“Do you know!?” he screamed. When she didn’t answer, he dropped her to the floor, and she made the horrible mistake of using her injured hand to catch herself. She cried out and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Pathetic.” he muttered as he walked away. He reached the door and held it open, prompting his companion to go first. When the other man had left he glared at her.

“I still have no idea why he chose you of all people. You are the weakest specimen we have ever had.”

He left, leaving her alone in the dark.

Hattie waited as the footsteps faded, and as soon as they were gone she lifted up her shirt sleeve to reveal the Mark. She’d only had it for a few days, and during that time, it had grown from a tiny little spiral, to covering almost her whole forearm. Even though she had searched the internet and quite a few libraries, she had never found out what it meant.

She groaned and slumped against the floor, and laid there for a while thinking. Then she came to a conclusion.

She was going to escape. And when she did, she was going to find whoever did this to her, and she was going to make them pay.