The Mark

A small child sat in an open window on the second floor. Her long midnight black hair was blowing in the wind, her sapphire eyes shinning with tears. She was watching the scene below in the front yard.

A young man with the same dark hair cut short was being held by his upper arm. The man holding him was wearing a soldiers uniform in black with silver trimming. He had blonde hair cut short in a military style and a very clean shaven, strict face. He was talking to the boys parents who were standing with their back to the girl. The women was clinging to her husbands arm so tightly her fingers were turning white.

The boys blue eyes met the little girls. ‘I love you.’ he mouthed to her in silence. She blew him a kiss before the older man pulled him towards a black SUV with tinted windows sitting at the end of their driveway.

As the parents headed back to the door of the home, the girl left her room and ran down the stairs to meet them at the door. The mother came inside with tears streaming down her face and her husband behind her with an expressionless face. Her mother gave her a kiss on the forhead and headed to her room where shut the door without a word.

“Come here, sweetheart.” Her father picked her up. He looked down at her with her same eyes and smiled. “It’s just us now kiddo. Finn has to go away to school now.”

“Will we see him again, Daddy?”

“I don’t know sweetheart.”

Unless you were lucky to be born into a high power family or showed a strong power early, there was no telling where the government would place you, but you did not get a say in it. If they were lucky, in a few years, when Finn finished with his training, he would be able aloud to come see them again or even move back to the same town. There was just as much of a chance of him being sent to war and them never seeing him again. Even at 5 years old, Wrynn knew she may not see her brother again. She laid her head aginst her fathers chest as he carried her into the house.

Her brother Finn had just recently turned 18 and most marks showed up around then. He had already been training in combat for two years so he could stay locally in their town and help the people. That’s all he wanted to do, help people. The chances of him having a mark with two unmarked parents was so slim no one thought anything of him preparing for one. Then, 5 days after his 18th birthday, his mark had shown up. He awoke the morning before with a beautiful blue flame on the back of his right shoulder. This morning, the soldiers from Polis Academy showed up at the door asking for him. No one knows how they know, but if you get a mark they find you and take you away from your parents to train your powers.