Marked

Chapter Two

She watched as Ruth folded her body into the fetal position, arms cradled around her head like a cage, and tumbled over sharp rocks and branches and debris with nothing to break her fall except for the hard-packed earth at the bottom

"Look guys, we've got one up ahead!" Someone shouted.

Glancing over her shoulder, she could see the car clearly now.

Four men were mounted on it, clinging to side bars as they idled toward her.

Rachel tore her eyes from them and saw that her mother had reached the bottom.

For a fleeting second, she thought she must be dead but then Ruth pulled herself up onto her hands and knees and yelled, "Rachel, you stupid, stupid girl! Jump!"

But it was too late.

The men were mere feet away now and all Rachel could do was stand there like a deer frozen in headlights.

"We can have us some fun with this pretty one!" A poacher cackled, one finger pointed at her. "She looks brand new."

"I call it first!" Another chimed.

"Hey, there's plenty to go around. We'll take turns."

Rachel reached for her pocket knife and felt it's comforting blade flat against the side of her skirt.

Whatever monstrous things they planned to do with her, she would not go easily.

Death over Mark, that had always been the mantra.

But she found that mantras were difficult to hold on to when you were terrified for your life.

"Don't be afraid, little beggar." A wide, pudgy man purred.

"Yeah, we'll give you something to beg about," A second poacher jumped from the truck and landed on the ground, as the others cackled behind him.

He was a broad man with a red beard and he approached her as if she were a wounded animal he didn't want to startle.

Her erratic heart beat filled her ears.

It was all she could hear, the wild pumping of a heart that knew, perhaps better than her scattered brain did, that the end was near.

No.

This couldn't be it, she'd hardly lived.

She took a step backwards.

The open air was a tangible thing pushing between her shoulder blades, reminding her that below lay an open chasm, a tomb, or both.

Jump, she thought.

But the order would not reach her body.

The poacher drew closer.

She wondered what it would feel like to sink her knife into someone. Would the flesh be soft and yielding, like cutting through butter or would there be resistance? Could she really stand in front of someone and watch the life drain from their eyes?

Death before Mark.

Rachel spun for the edge of the clearing when a large, meaty hand wrapped around her wrist and yanked her back.

She collided with a hard chest that knocked the air out of her lungs.

A set of muscled arms wrapped around her waist.

He smelled of sweat and dirt and she could see the  mark over his forehead, a tattoo of consecutive black lines that formed a barcode.

The man lifted his arm slowly and stroked Rachel's face.

The men behind him cheered and she squirmed in his hold but it only tightened. He was so much stronger, she had waited too long to run and from here it was impossible to even reach her knife.

She could almost hear Ruth scolding her.

Stupid, you're so stupid, Rachel.

Just as the fear of dying began to make her wild and panicked, a flitter of movement from the forest's edge caught her attention.

Bane emerged from the cover of trees, one hand firmly pressed against the wound on his stomach.

Despite being pale from blood loss, on his face was a look of blind rage and determination.

It all happened so fast.

Bane reached the truck and yanked something cylindrical from the jacket of one of the poachers. They were too slow to pull their guns and Bane threw himself towards Rachel just as an explosion went off, setting the evening sky on fire.

A wave of heat scorched her face as she fell onto the ground, the poacher beside her.

"You filthy beggar!" With a roar, the red-haired poacher lifted his gun and pointed it at Bane.

"No!" Rachel shouted.

Her knife unsheathed and ready, she shoved it into his sinewy arm and he dropped his gun with a scream.

Just the , Bane grabbed Rachel and hurled her over the edge of the world and into darkness.