Marked

by Stephanie Arehart

  Jenna tried to retrace her steps and determine how she got into bed, covered in blood, with a bandage on her hip. But her efforts were futile, since she remembered nothing after Noah left. She pinched herself hard for one final shot at waking up from the madness, then laughed out loud at how ridiculous she was acting.

  She slowly removed the dressing from her hip with her eyes closed, prolonging the mystery. Then she took a couple of deep breaths and looked down, not sure what she was expecting to see. There was a small, fresh tattoo of a pink heart, slick and bleeding slightly. She was shocked.

  At some point during the night, Jenna had managed to go to the Sub, get an illegal tattoo, and then do some unknown activity that resulted in her being covered in blood. And after all that, she’d somehow managed to put herself back to bed without ever waking up.

  How is that even possible?

  Her hip started to throb, probably just from knowing about the tattoo. She wanted to climb back into bed and sleep all the insanity away, but Noah was already texting her that he was on his way over. She tried to send him a message, but an alert was locking her phone screen.

  There was a lockdown on campus!

  Chapter 16

  Jenna looked out the window, but didn’t see Noah downstairs. In fact, she didn’t see anyone at all. It was eerily deserted out there, and she didn’t hear a sound coming from the hallway or the rooms next to her. She checked her phone again and saw that his message was from two hours earlier, so he must have changed plans when the lockdown started.

  He must be freaking out, with no way to reach me.

  Her phone screen was still locked, rendering her unable to make any calls, so she pushed the button to restart it. Jenna needed answers quickly, and right now she deeply regretted letting Noah go home last night. He thought he was helping her, but she didn’t do well when left alone.

  When her phone powered back on, she entered the password to unlock it, but still couldn’t get it to dial out. She tried a few more times before giving up. Her brain just wasn’t working clearly enough. Jenna turned on the television, hoping for some connection to the outside world. The campus station was airing a message about the lockdown, of course.

  According to the report, it was a mandatory lockdown. They were advising students, teachers, and parents to stay in their locked rooms until further notice. According to the report, police were currently combing the entire campus for a suspected criminal, for attempted murder. The police didn’t seem to have much information, so they were requesting tips from anyone with helpful information. None of that was especially comforting to Jenna, considering she was alone with no real way to contact Noah or her parents.

  My mother must be losing her mind!

  Jenna peeked out the window like she was afraid of being spotted by someone. Still, there was no sign of anyone walking around outside. She wondered where all the police were, since they apparently weren’t searching the campus like the news had claimed. Her stomach rumbled loudly, reminding her she hadn’t had so much as a Pop-Tart for breakfast. Upon inspection, she didn’t find much to eat in her mini-pantry, but she did manage to obtain a package of peanut butter crackers from her backpack.

  Thank you, Mom, for teaching me to keep emergency rations.

  She munched as she kept watching the television, mostly just commercials. Somehow, in the wake of so much disaster, she managed to relax again, enough to fade into a daydream about her future with Noah. A loud beeping noise startled her back to reality. There was a breaking news statement about the latest attack. They announced that the station had just received surveillance footage of the campus killer. Jenna’s heart beat all the way in her throat.

  The footage aired in a loop for a couple of minutes. It was grainy, but Jenna definitely recognized the area of campus where the attack had occurred. That was her favorite spot to walk, and she’d never seen other people cutting through there. She felt fear, thinking about how close she’d come to being killed, as she sat there, presumably safe in her room, watching the video of her own assault.

  How did they even know I was attacked? I certainly didn’t tell anyone. Who brought me to my room? Why didn’t they take me to the hospital? Wait, I wasn’t attacked. Whose blood is this?

  In the video, she could see someone mounted on another person, but it was impossible to make out details. She believed that the person on top was attacking the one on bottom. Then the aggressor got up and ran away. The victim looked like Jenna, an average college-aged girl covered in blood.

  On the next loop, she focused on the attacker, also a young girl who resembled Vivian. Jenna felt chills watching this experience, basically reliving the terror. Then the video paused and zoomed in on the assailant.

  The image was grainy, but Jenna could definitely tell it was a girl about Vivian’s height and weight. She was wearing a jacket like the one Vivian usually wore. But the assailant’s hair was long and blonde, the same length as Jenna’s, though unkempt and stringy like Vivian’s. She squinted her eyes and stared closely, only to find she was looking at herself.

  In a split second, her entire world crumbled. All this time spent investigating Vivian, thinking she was the evil one. Even seeing it there in video evidence, Jenna struggled to believe she was capable of doing such an awful thing to anyone.

  I don’t think I know myself at all.

  After what seemed like an eternity of soul-searching and a flood of grief over losing the person she always thought she was, panic returned. Jenna knew that if the police had any evidence connecting her to the other crimes, she was finished. She sat on the floor with her back against the bed and pulled her knees tight against her chest. Tears streamed down her cheeks onto her arms as she rocked back and forth. She started to hear activity in the hallway, and knew it was just a matter of time.

  Her throat hurt so badly from crying that it felt like she’d drunk acid. She rummaged through the refrigerator for a drink, flashing back to the night before, when she’d had a bottle of water before bed. Something inside her felt uneasy, and her mind returned to Vivian. Once again, Jenna had a strong feeling that Vivian could be behind everything bad happening to her. She refused to believe anything else.

  Maybe she drugged me so she could frame me for her murders. Why else would the attack have happened in my favorite spot? And how else would I have gotten back to bed without tracking blood all over the floor? And where is Vivian, anyway?

  Jenna’s head pounded from these realizations, but she didn’t know what to do about any of it. She frantically dug through Vivian’s desk, looking for some way to contact her or something to give to the police when they finally got to Jenna. In the drawer, she found a bunch of notes from class and some personal documents, including Vivian’s birth certificate and a copy of her driver’s license. At the bottom of the pile there was a piece of paper, with an address and appointment time for a tattoo session.

  This was from last night!

  She tried to think through the logistics of how Vivian could have managed to drug her and physically move her around enough to get a tattoo and ultimately commit a crime. There was no motive for the tattoo part. It was too much to figure out, but Jenna felt in her gut that Vivian was the key.

  Someone pounded on her door. Jenna froze. Again, somebody pounded on the door, announcing himself as police. Jenna knew she didn’t have any option to avoid confrontation. It would only be a matter of time before he got a master key and let himself in.

  On the way to answer the door, she threw her bloody clothes under the bed, as if that would be enough to conceal what happened. She put on a baggy shirt from Vivian’s pile before opening the door, just a crack at first to verify it was really the police. She could see a tall man wearing a dark jacket, holding a badge in front of his face.

  “Ma’am, I’m Detective Taylor. I’m investigating the recent campus crimes. Are you Jenna Andrews?”

  “Yes, I’m Jenna Andrews. Is something wrong, Detective?”

  She opened the
door a little more, but didn’t step back enough to allow him to enter the room. He seemed fine with staying in the hallway, and kept turning his head from side to side to scope the empty hallway. Jenna wondered why he didn’t immediately handcuff her and haul her away, but she was starting to get used to a constant state of confusion.

  “We’re just doing welfare checks on everyone. Are you okay, Miss Andrews?”

  “Uh, yes, I’m fine.”

  “Are you alone in there?”

  Jenna shifted uncomfortably as he looked past her and peered into her room. “Yes, it’s just me. I don’t know where my roommate is.”

  “When’s the last time you saw her?”

  Once again, Jenna tried to trace events of the past few days and genuinely couldn’t remember the last time she saw Vivian. The days and nights were bleeding together.

  “I’m not sure. It’s been a couple of days, I guess. I haven’t even seen her in class for a while. What’s going on?”

  “We’re just trying to confirm locations for every student. If she returns or contacts you in any way, would you please call me immediately?”

  He held out a card with his information on it. Jenna nodded as she took it from him. Then the detective thanked her for her time and reminded her to stay in her room before walking away down the hallway.

  He didn’t knock on any other doors.

  What just happened?

  Her phone buzzed non-stop, and she could see that her mother and Noah were both trying desperately to reach her. Jenna could view the notifications, but she still wasn’t able to get her password to unlock the phone.

  This is the absolute worst time for my phone to crash.

  In a fit of anger, she slammed the phone onto the ground, breaking it into several pieces. Her mind hunted for alternative solutions to get in contact with Noah and her mother, but she couldn’t think of anything. She should have felt calm, since the police had already come by without arresting her. She should have considered emailing her mother and Noah from her laptop. She should have stayed in her room, as all students were directed to do. But Jenna didn’t do any of those things. Pure animal instinct cancelled out all logic and reasoning. Jenna felt something switch deep inside.

  Like a frightened rabbit being hunted by its predator, she just wanted to run, to be free of her hideout. She couldn’t find any of her own clothes, so she settled for dressing in Vivian’s clothes and one of her hats. Then she grabbed a bag and stuffed more clothes inside, with no rhyme or reason as to what she packed. Jenna continued moving at a maddening pace as she left the safety of her room and dashed into the hallway. No one stopped her. No one was there to notice her.

  She blazed down the steps faster than she ever remembered running, only briefly glancing back over her shoulder. A few faces stared down blankly from their rooms, but no one looked like they were making any calls. Jenna ran in the opposite direction from her classes.

  She didn’t know where she was going, but she did know what she was leaving. Her goal was to run so far that no one would know her, and she could start a brand new life, one not built on lies. A life free of people she couldn’t trust. Her own life. She made it all the way off campus without encountering a single person directly, which astounded her.

  What kind of lockdown is this supposed to be, where someone can run away so easily without being seen?

  Once she was officially off the campus grounds, Jenna turned up the first business street she found, about four or five blocks from school. She ducked into a bookstore and headed for the security at the back. Jenna picked up a magazine and seated herself in an old, comfy leather chair in the corner. She felt relatively safe, as there were no windows at this end of the store. And even though people were out and about, the bookstore wasn’t that busy.

  She sat there for an hour or more, pretending to read a book, watching people come and go in the bookstore. A couple of workers approached to check on her, but neither seemed suspicious in the least, even with Jenna wearing a weird hat and sunglasses inside. She rummaged through her bag, trying to determine what her next steps should be. After several exhaustive searches, she confirmed that she’d left her own wallet back in her room.

  You’re going to have to do better, Running Girl.

  Jenna’s instinctive reactions were growing thin, with her cognitive abilities slow in resuming. She still wasn’t sure how to get out of her situation, especially after digging herself an even bigger hole by running away. Quietly, she got up and evacuated the bookstore, walking back toward campus. If she returned to her room to get her wallet, she’d be able to get some money. She needed enough to make it to the Sub for help with hiding until she constructed a better plan.

  As she rounded the corner of the line of small businesses at the end of the block, she immediately heard voices over a radio. Jenna stopped and peeked around the edge of the building to see several police standing in a huddle. She was hearing their walkie-talkies.

  Hiding there in the shadows, she strained her ears to hear what they were saying. From bits and pieces, she pieced together that they were still looking for a female suspect, matching her own generic description. Though the detective had been to her room without arresting her, she knew she’d be in trouble for leaving campus during the lockdown. With the heavy police presence, she obviously couldn’t go back to get her wallet, so she activated Plan B.

  Jenna turned back and walked briskly the way she’d originally come, with her head down, clutching her bag closely, her only real possession. She kept going like a woman on a mission, though she clearly didn’t have one, for several more blocks. Up ahead she saw a sidewalk café with a few people seated, all engrossed in their own conversations. She quickly formulated a scheme and slowed her pace just enough to rapidly study the customers closest to the sidewalk.

  Jenna managed to time her passing perfectly with a server stopping at a table of two older women, whom she gauged to be in their mid-fifties. She spotted a wallet inside a giant black purse slung over one woman’s chair back. Then the girl who’d never so much as littered bent down and smoothly snagged it as she passed. Though her heart accelerated a little, Jenna never broke stride or fumbled in the least. It was like she was born to be a thief, which made her giggle to herself.

  Who says I’m not learning new things at college?

  Once she was confident that she was far enough away from the scene of her latest crime, Jenna pulled the wallet out to check her score. Luckily, it contained a little more than a couple hundred dollars in cash, plus a few gift cards and a couple of credit cards. Once again, Jenna quit overthinking and allowed her instinct to kick in, driving her to jump in a taxi. She asked the driver to take her to a motel on the outskirts of town, one she remembered Vivian mentioning. Despite everything that had happened to her and how much she’d changed, Jenna seemed to have maintained her excellent memory skills.

  Using cash, she checked in with a fake name. She was suddenly Heather Burns, a popular girl from Jenna’s high school. The guy at the desk didn’t seem to care much for her details, barely even looking up at her during the entire transaction.

  Once Jenna was inside her rented room, she lay down on the bed and got still. It was already dark outside when she snapped out of her trance, so she knew it was night, but not the exact time. Her stomach rumbled, letting her know her priority should be food. She walked to a vending machine she’d seen on her way to the room, gathering a few drinks, chips, and cookies.

  Back in the room, she turned on the television, ready to face the latest update. It was after 10:00pm. She hadn’t spoken to her mother or Noah all day.

  Mom must be so worried by now, or maybe she still thinks I’m safe in my room on campus.

  Jenna didn’t immediately see anything about the story. Part of her hoped that she’d flip through all the channels, find nothing, and realize it was all just a long and crazy dream. But she ultimately knew what had happened was real, and she needed to come up with a long-term strategy for her new li
fe.

  She went through her bag again, neatly laying out everything she possessed on the bed. Other than clothes, she had the tattoo appointment address, Noah’s phone number, and the stranger’s wallet. Jenna was more than curious about how Noah’s phone number had gotten into Vivian’s bag, but she decided not to waste time thinking about things that didn’t matter. Vivian was gone forever.

  I wish I could bring Noah along in my new life.

  She reached over and picked up the motel phone, dialing Noah’s number slowly. Just as she entered the last number and heard the first ring, she hung up. A flood of memories of her whirlwind fling with Noah raced through her mind, from the first time they met through their memorable night together. He’d handled the news of her murder-mark past so well, yet something didn’t feel right, cemented by Vivian having his number in her bag.

  Maybe Noah’s been in on this whole thing with Vivian from the start.

  Jenna sat there for a few minutes, half-expecting to hear the phone ring back, but it never did. The suspense she brought upon herself was causing her respiration to quicken somewhat erratically. In her mind, she had two courses of action at this point. She could go to her parents, hope they’d truly be on her side, and pray to get her old life back as much as possible. Or she could go on the run permanently, finding someone from the Sub to help her go underground.

  Either way, she was going to lose Noah. No realistic option included him. The thought of never feeling those butterflies with him again caused tears to form, along with a deep aching in her chest. Then her sadness quickly turned to anger and frustration with him for daring to come into her life, giving her a taste of love just to yank it away. She wondered if she could ever fully erase him from her memory.

  Jenna cried herself to sleep again, not waking up again until the next morning. She knew it was daytime as she felt the light flooding through the window, even with her eyes still shut. For a couple of minutes, she wished as hard as she could that she would open her eyes and be back in her old room at home, or even in her dorm room. She set her expectations to avoid disappointment and slowly opened her eyes.