Once upon a time in a land far far away... ok well it wasn't really all that far away. It's kind of where I am now. And it was not upon a time, it was like 20 years ago.
And that sounds way too fairy tale ish for this, it's slightly more of a horror story. But anyway, let's get this over with.
Years ago a kid went nuts. And when I say nuts I mean full on psycho. Bad. Like explode a freaking mall bad, with a hundred people in it. Not very fun, not cool.
He was a savant, like me, like hundreds of others. When the Savant net took over as it was their people, they noticed something very odd.
A mark was on the boy's chest, about the size of a orange. It was black as though burned into his skin, circular in shape with large swirls around it. It almost looked like the tattoos that people have in weird sci-fi movies where they want to make it look like they are marked by aliens. Now as far as we know, life is not a sci-fi movie. If there are aliens anywhere in this world, we don't know about them yet...
I guess that mark kind of confused them but they kind of went, screw this and threw him in jail. Sucks for him but not really important.
What is important is that mark. Because it wasn't just a poor tattoo choice. It was very important.
Because it popped up again. On a savant that killed his entire family. The exact same mark was branded on him, except across his back.
So after this the idiots over at the Savant Net freaked and started running tests on the two boys. Brutal tests, ones that involved holding them underwater to see how long it took brain cells to die, forcing them to run until they passed out, seeing how long they could take it.
Sick right?
Anyway the conclusion was this mark increased everything. Speed, strength, stamina, and the power of whatever gift they had. Basically there were almost no limits to how strong they could grow. As far as they knew anyway.
And naturally, the savant net was terrified by this so they called for a general roundup of all those with this mark. They created a new division of the net to deal with this new problem and gave them increased powers like the power to kill on sight. As long as someone had that mark, they could be shot without a seconds thought.
They were that terrified. It was considered the Devil's mark and whoever bore it was a minion of hell.
Sounds stupid but it was believed by absolutely every savent. People gave in their brothers and sisters, even sons and daughters. If they bore the mark, they weren't human anymore, they weren't able to feel and they couldn't be allowed to live.
That was the advertising about it, tons of posters urging people to turn them in. These people, with this mark, were shipped off to a research facility. All I'm going to say is the lucky ones were shot in the head the second they arrived.
The unlucky ones survived for months, until a "experiment" finally killed them. Well they say experiment. I say torture but who really cares what I think. After all I'm one of the marked. We get no say in anything not even in the matter of our own life and death.
Evantually the paranoia died down but that division of the Net still exists. And they are still out there, still killing people who are labeled as less than human due to a mark on their skin.
The mark manifests when a savent child is 10 years old. It burns it's way onto their skin, but they will feel it's effects long before the mark actually appears.
It is impossible to remove. You can try to cut it off your skin, burn it off, tattoo yourself over it, none of it works. It will always be there.
It is said that this mark removes you of your ability to feel, robs you of any empathy towards others. People with this mark have no soulfinders because their soul has been so marred it cannot be fixed.
It condemns you to death.
They will find you, you are constantly looking over your shoulder in fear that one day, they will come and you will be dead. You're entire life will be spent either running or hiding. It's basically the worst game of hide and seek ever. The only problem is they are way better at seeking than you are at hiding.
Your family will either be told the truth or told that you got in an accident or committed suicide. Depends on how high up they are in the Net.
But the second that mark appears you are as good as dead. The worst part is that it isn't something you can control.
It can affect you if you've been a world class serial killer or Mother Teresa.
The mark claims its victims, and that's just it. The second it appears you're better off to leg it out of there.
Take off and never look back. Maybe you can out run them. If you can do that, kudos to you.
I was never strong enough to leave. Or maybe I was too strong. The easiest way to describe this is if you are cornered in a dark alley, will you fight or run. People say we are separated into two catagories, fight or flight. I've never been a flight kind of girl though and I guess that's what got me into this mess.
My name is Aria Benedict and I was marked for death at the age of ten. I am 16 years old and I will survive.