Destined

Chapter Ten: The Mark

The clinic is just as I remember. White beds line the walls, windows between each that hold the view of the clearing sky beyond. The landscape is white from the snow that had fallen the night before. Four beds are accompanied in the clinic, three of them the victims of the attacks and the other a girl named Daniella Cross- a girl Victoria occasionally gossiped about- who had tripped over the vines on the staircase and had fallen with minor cuts and bruises.

Rays of sunlight spill through the windows for the first time in two days now that the storm has passed. The light seems to make the white bed sheets glow. I spot Cora laying in one of the beds on the far left, deadly still, but it is a relief to see her chest rising and falling as she breathes. It means there is still life in her. I move forward to her bed, the sound of footsteps behind me reminding me that both Levi and Sophia have come with me to visit Cora. I know Cora has two older brothers, one in his second year and the other in his fourth, and I am surprised to not see them here visiting Cora.

Two days ago, after Cora was attacked, I had finally screamed for help when my thoughts had come back together. One of the professors had arrived and they took Cora to the clinic while others searched the halls, but the assailant had disappeared into the shadows like smoke. To everyone's surprise, classes had not been canceled for the week that would follow. When I had finally found Levi and Sophia, I had told them what happened to Cora, along with what she had told me minutes before she was attacked, and about our search to uncover the truth. Thankfully I was able to avoid Tommy, I didn't want to hear the I told you so, but he had been right. I will face him soon, but not now.

I sit at the edge of Cora's bed, staring at her peaceful, sleeping face. I think of ways I could have saved her, they had been circling in my head sense Cora had been attacked, that maybe I could have saved her, if only I was a few seconds sooner...

"Do you think she can hear us?" Levi's voice brings me back to reality and I glance up at him, the sunlight making his hair glisten gold.

"Maybe." I answer once I find my voice.

"They say a Coma patients can hear you, so it's a possibility." Sophia points out, sitting on the opposite side of the bed.

"That's true, but this isn't normal a Coma, this is something different entirely." I reply, taking Cora's pale hand in mine.

What if she can hear us? I wonder. What if she is in there, trying to tell us something, screaming the name of the attacker, yet no one can hear her? I want to say something to her, something reassuring, but my mind draws a blank. Instead I let my gaze drop to our hands, thinking of a ways that maybe she can communicate with us. A silly hope, but still hope.

That's when I notice something on her hand, partly hidden by the sleeve of her blue shirt. Levi had said something, but I have tuned out everything else. I pull the sleeve up and see on the back of her hand a burn, making a design that is bright red on her skin.

"What the hell is that?" Levi asks.

I feel recognition scratch the back of my mind. It seems so familiar, the circle, and the symbols on the inside.

"I've seen this before." I announce.

I search my mind for the answer, but only one thing comes to mind. The library.

"The others have them too." I hear Sophia say from a distance, and turn to see her standing over Ethan.

I stand up abruptly, determination like a fire burning inside of me.

"I know this mark, and I know it's somewhere in the library. I'll meet you there." I tell them, turning to leave the clinic.

"Where are you going?" Levi calls after me.