Marked

by Stephanie Arehart

  Does she somehow know I’m not at home? Her mother’s intuition is off the chart.

  Once in Chris’s car, she quickly sent a reply that she was out with friends and on her way back to the dorm at that very moment. It wasn’t a lie at all. Her mother sent an immediate response. Though it was hard to detect tone through mere words on the screen, she could tell that her mother was angry. Noah sensed that Jenna was becoming anxious.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he squeezed her hand.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just my mother. She’s worried about me.”

  The guilt was getting to Jenna as she visualized her parents loading up their car and following her back to school. They’d always put their lives on hold for their daughter, without hesitation. She didn’t like to feel self-centered, but it was something she constantly battled as an only child, and an adopted one at that.

  Noah took the phone from her hand before she finished crafting a reply to her mother’s latest question. He tossed it into the empty front passenger seat and pulled Jenna close to him. She resisted slightly, half-reaching for her phone, before ultimately giving into the moment.

  “So you guys are just going to make out all the way back? I’m feeling like a chauffeur up here.”

  They didn’t even acknowledge Chris’s comment, but instead they got even more serious, passionately kissing and groping each other. Jenna felt a kind of hunger she had never known was possible. It was as if she could never get enough of touching Noah, like she couldn’t possibly get close enough to satisfy her appetite for him. They were still kissing when Chris pulled up to the train station.

  “We’re here. Maybe you two can catch a train and get a room or something.”

  Jenna detected that Chris was annoyed, but she really didn’t know how to make it better. She glanced at Noah for help, but he didn’t even seem aware of the situation. Of course, she knew it could all be just in her own mind. Before driving off, Chris agreed to set up a meeting for them the next night to connect with someone at the Society.

  The train ride home seemed to chill Noah’s passion, which was fine with Jenna. It was fairly crowded, and she’d never been impressed with public displays of affection from others. Noah walked her back to her room, and said goodbye after declining yet another invitation to go up to her room.

  Vivian was already asleep, which normally would have pleased Jenna, but tonight she felt lonely. She longed for a friend, or just another human, to share girl talk with and get advice on how to reel Noah in completely. She was sure Vivian would know how to get Noah to take things to the next level.

  Even though it was approaching midnight, she decided to call her mother and apologize for earlier. She reached into her coat pocket, but couldn’t find her phone anywhere. After mentally retracing her steps, she recalled Noah leaving it in Chris’s car.

  After a small panic attack, worrying about her mother not being able to reach her for an extended period, she decided it was out of her control and called it a night. Jenna figured her mother’s intuition was probably telling her everything was fine right then anyway.

  Chapter 11

  Jenna awoke the next morning to hear Vivian rustling around, which was good, since she didn’t have her own phone for an alarm. Instinct told her she was late for class, causing Old Jenna to erupt in anxiety.

  “Where the hell have you been hanging out so late, Barbie J?”

  “I, um, was out with Noah.”

  “On a school night? You are really changing, aren’t ya, kid? Guess our little Barbie is growing up. Looks like somebody’s got a crush!”

  Jenna realized that Vivian wasn’t so much concerned about her well-being as she was being sarcastic, and that she was probably just jealous. It took all her self-restraint not to tell Vivian what she’d learned about her the night before, though Jenna wasn’t sure her ridiculous roommate would even care. She knew that Vivian never worried one bit what other people thought of her.

  Jenna got to class to find Noah with his head buried deep in a textbook. He barely looked up when she sat down next to him. Jenna couldn’t think of a logical reason he’d be giving her the cold shoulder, so she chalked it up to her own insecurities and paranoia.

  “Hey, I think I left my phone in Chris’s car last night. I’ve been freaking out without it. I hope he didn’t lose it.”

  Without looking up, Noah reached into his bag and pulled out her phone, setting it down in front of her on the desk as she rambled. Jenna looked down at the phone, completely baffled.

  “So you knew you had my phone all night and didn’t bring it back to me? Why would you do that?”

  “Relax. I didn’t realize I had it until this morning, so I just figured I’d give it to you in class, which I’m doing now.”

  “Are you mad at me or something? You’ve been acting really different.”

  Noah finally made eye contact. He looked somber, but he gradually smiled and relaxed a little. “Of course not. I’m just a little tired, that’s all. I could never be mad at you. You’re too beautiful.”

  His sweet compliments made Jenna feel better, but something still seemed off with him. When the professor came in, all attention turned to the front of the room. Jenna studied Noah watching the professor. He was even more attractive when he was engrossed in some intellectual activity. She stared at him, mesmerized by a vein pulsing in his neck, until he turned and looked at her.

  He smiled, but looked uncomfortable from her extreme attention. Jenna grinned back and turned to watch the professor. She locked on to him for the rest of the lecture, though she wasn’t processing a single word he was saying. Jenna was too busy thinking about the murders and Vivian and her own connection.

  By then, she was again feeling massive guilt over not doing more to stop it. She badly wanted to make sure there wasn’t a third victim, but she didn’t know how. It wasn’t as if she could tell any responsible adult what she had found out without getting into trouble and taking Noah down with her. The helplessness was frustrating.

  She decided that she could possibly find time to go by the campus police before class the next morning and raise their suspicions about her roommate. At the very least, they could just watch Vivian until they had enough evidence to apprehend her. Jenna knew she had to do the right thing, and prayed that Vivian wouldn’t manage to hurt her in the process.

  After class, Noah told her he had a few things to do, but asked to meet at their coffee shop around 7:00. When he said their coffee shop, Jenna felt immense butterflies. Once again, she was so consumed with all these different emotions. Between fear, guilt, and love, she was an utter mess.

  How can one person be expected to balance all these conflicting feelings?

  When she got to the coffee shop that night, Noah was already sitting at their table. He looked up at her and smiled. Things instantly felt better, even normal again, between them. After coffee, they left together and walked down the street, holding hands like giddy high school teenagers in love. As they rounded the corner at the end of the block, Jenna turned to go left toward the train station, but Noah’s strong grasp on her hand yanked her backward.

  “What are you doing? Train’s this way,” she said.

  “We’re not going on the train this time,” he answered.

  “Okay. Is Chris coming to get us or something?”

  “No. Actually, we’re walking.”

  Jenna was baffled. Either they were going to walk a long way, or the secret place was close to campus. Regardless, she wondered where Chris was and why he wasn’t involved in this clandestine meeting. Noah didn’t seem like the type to be immersed in the Sub on his own. Jenna began to question if there were other things she didn’t know about him.

  They walked down the empty streets, just a couple of blocks from campus by then. Businesses lined the entire block, but none of them were booming by any standard. It was the typical off-campus array of shops – bookstores, dry cleaners, more coffee shops, a t-shirt place and an art gallery. Appar
ently the art gallery was their destination, as Noah opened the door and motioned for Jenna to enter.

  “What are we doing? I thought we were going to the Society.”

  “Shhh! Keep your voice down!” Noah smashed his hand over Jenna’s mouth to keep her from saying anything else.

  The door slammed shut behind them, and they stood there in silence. Noah slowly removed his hand from her mouth, staring her down to make sure she kept quiet. Jenna scanned the room slowly. It was a small space with just a handful of paintings on the walls, but it was mostly stark and empty. Everything was white, like a hospital, but it had both a trendy and a fancy feel to it.

  A woman emerged through an opening in the back wall. She was a tall, lean girl with sleek shoulder-length black hair. Jenna guessed that she was in her late twenties. The woman was wearing a trendy suit skirt, and she had funky purple eyeglasses. As she seductively walked toward them, a purple sheen bounced off her perfect shiny hair.

  “Hello, can I help you?” she asked.

  “Heidi?” Noah inquired.

  “Oh, Noah, I didn’t recognize you. I’m so sorry, love.”

  They kissed each other on both cheeks, like Europeans.

  Or snooty Americans, in this case.

  Heidi’s entire stuck-up demeanor dissolved into a more relaxed version. “So, Noah, who’s your friend? What brings you two here?”

  “This is my friend Jenna. She’s looking for some info.”

  Heidi scanned Jenna up and down, as if she was trying to read something inside of her. Jenna shifted nervously from the intense scrutiny. Suddenly Jenna felt underdressed, and unprepared for being in such an uppity establishment. Without realizing it, she reached for Noah’s hand for reassurance. He squeezed it a little, injecting her with enough confidence to calm down.

  “What kind of info are you looking for, love?” she asked Jenna.

  “Um, I’m trying to find out why my roommate changed her mark,” Jenna answered.

  Heidi looked around nervously. Then she motioned for them to follow her. Jenna fully expected to descend down some hidden stairs to a big secret room in the basement. But instead, they walked through the opening Heidi had come from, into a larger version of the front room they were just in. There were a couple of men in this space, standing about ten feet in front of one of the paintings, studying it ferociously.

  Heidi ignored them and kept walking, again through a small opening in the back wall and into another room with more paintings on the walls. There were a few café-style tables against the back wall. Heidi approached one of the tables and took a seat. Jenna and Noah followed, and he pulled a chair from another table to sit by the two women.

  “Is it safe to talk here? Out in the open?” Jenna whispered.

  “Yes, this entire place is a safe zone.”

  Then why were people shushing me and looking around nervously?

  “Okay, so what is this place? Just a front?” Jenna asked.

  Heidi laughed, “No. It’s really an art gallery. We have to make money somehow, but we also have a mission to educate people.”

  She put a hard emphasis on the last two words. Jenna stared at her, wondering what made these bizarre people so credible. They appeared to be the epitome of pretentious and phony, though it did seem like Heidi was somehow reading Jenna’s thoughts.

  “Jenna, I know you’re wondering why you should trust us, how we know so much, what makes us more dependable than the entire government.”

  Jenna nodded slowly in agreement.

  “It’s up to you who you trust, what you ultimately believe. We believe in choice and free will for everyone. But I’ll say that you’ve definitely come to the right place. That is, if you want the real truth, not the hocus pocus about reincarnation and birth rights presented to you by our fearless government.”

  “I do want the real truth.”

  “The real truth is that you’ve been lied to your entire life. Everything you’ve been told, all the decisions you thought were made on your behalf, it’s all an elaborate scam to control people.”

  Jenna was less shocked and more insulted by Heidi’s blunt statement. “I’m not an idiot. I already know that some people don’t believe in the Registry. What I’m trying to find out, though, is specifically why my friend changed her mark.”

  Heidi continued with her speech, acting like she wasn’t hearing what Jenna was saying. She kept talking about conspiracies and vague theories. Though it piqued Jenna’s interest to some degree, she focused solely on Vivian’s back story and motives. Unfortunately, it seemed like Heidi just liked to hear herself talk. Cynical Jenna started to think that the Society was probably just a bunch of bitter people that felt like they didn’t get the luck of the draw with their own marks.

  One of the men from the second room appeared and approached their table. He was a male version of Heidi, which made sense after he introduced himself as her brother Kenneth. His mannerisms were a little more plastic and artificial than Heidi’s, and Jenna wouldn’t have been totally surprised to learn that he was actually a robot.

  “Jenna wants to know about Vivian now,” Heidi told him nonchalantly.

  “Yes, you’re the one,” Kenneth confirmed.

  “What?” Jenna asked. “I’m which one?”

  “We heard you were trying to find out about Vivian,” Heidi answered.

  Jenna seemed almost insulted by Heidi’s response. “Am I the gossip of the town or something? Or is Vivian famous? I mean infamous.”

  “No, we just had to check you out before you arrived, that’s all,” Heidi stoically replied.

  Jenna felt violated for some reason. She was definitely unaccustomed to people talking about her behind her back unless it was for something good, like her winning an award that others wanted. But she typically preferred to fly under the radar. “Okay, putting all that weirdness aside, what do you know about Vivian?”

  Kenneth was pleased to share his knowledge with Jenna. “We know someone who went to high school with her. Our source said Vivian’s a little on the strange side, always been a loner, but she’s not a murderer. She told everyone in her family and her school that she was going to change her mark as soon as she was old enough, that she wasn’t into anything related to theater or arts. She made no secret of her plan. This girl said Vivian always got the best grades, so it didn’t surprise anyone when she changed to a medical mark.”

  “Wait, so everyone in her school and her family knew that she changed her mark?” Jenna asked. “I didn’t think that was legal.”

  Heidi offered, “It’s pretty well known that people do it. I think it depends on what mark you’re trying to hide, as far as whether the police pursue charges for it. But they’re most likely monitoring her every move.”

  “Wow, I’m learning something new every day. I must have grown up in a perfect place with perfect parents,” Jenna said.

  “Yeah, I think you could say that,” Heidi returned.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I don’t know. You’re the one who said it,” Heidi shot back, not shying away from her original remark.

  Jenna was annoyed, and didn’t feel like she was getting any useful information from this weird duo. She was ready to leave, but didn’t want to come across as rude or ungrateful. Noah could sense her impatience, so he offered a distraction.

  “Heidi and Kenneth, we want to thank you both for your time tonight, for meeting with us and for helping Jenna.”

  “We’re happy to help, Noah,” Heidi replied. “Before you leave, we do want to discuss one more thing with you.”

  “What is it?” Jenna asked, growing tired of these people who liked to speak in riddles and dance around the main point.

  “Something reciprocal in nature. We were wondering if you’d do a favor for us.”

  Kenneth continued without allowing Jenna a chance to decline their offer. “It would be helpful if you could keep us in the loop with regards to Vivian’s activity. Just let us know if yo
u observe any unusual behaviors, if you see anyone following her.”

  Jenna burst out in laughter, echoing throughout the empty building. Everyone gave her serious looks that immediately conveyed their displeasure with her outburst.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that everything that girl does is unusual, and I’m a little confused. The message I heard from you tonight is that she’s just a normal, sweet girl who was too smart for her birthright, a victim of an evil system, someone who’d never hurt a fly.”

  Heidi spoke in a calm voice. “It’s fine. We just want to make ourselves available if you learn anything about Vivian and need someone to talk to. No obligations.”

  Noah stood, indicating it was time to leave, as he thanked Heidi and Kenneth one more time. Jenna pouted all the way back to her dorm. She was angry for some reason, and she didn’t know where to direct her strong emotions.

  “Are you okay?” Noah asked cautiously.

  “Yes, I don’t know why I acted like that,” Jenna said. “Did you and Heidi ever have a thing? I picked up a weird vibe between you two.”

  “No, we met at camp as teenagers. We’re just friends.”

  “Sorry, I just don’t know who to trust anymore,” Jenna apologized.

  “Well, you know you can trust me.”

  And with that, Jenna wasn’t sure she could trust Noah either.

  Chapter 12

  Jenna woke up Saturday morning feeling like a completely different person. This was her first day on her own that she didn’t have any classes to attend. She’d been considering the idea of getting a job, but wasn’t sure she felt like doing anything that responsible just yet. As Jenna sipped hot tea made in the small coffee maker her mother had bought her for the dorm room, she stared at Vivian sleeping. She looked more peaceful than usual.