Chapter One

We were being taken to the building where everyone aged 18 would be scanned. I did not understand why they bothered with me since I did not have a Mark to scan. I could hear excited squeals all around me in the skytrain. Everyone wondering who would have a Mark exactly like theirs. Everyone was born with a Mark, a tattoo of sorts. Everyone had a different one. And someone, somewhere would have that same exact mark signifying them as soulmates. Apparently when we see our soulmates for the first time our world would flare into something called colour. Everyone could only see the world in black and white until then. I felt somewhat at peace since everyone my age saw the same as me but today I would stop feeling that way. All 18 years old would finally see their soulmates and get colour in their lives. I would not get colour or a soulmate since I wasn’t Marked.

The girl next to me was particularly quiet among all the excitement. She continued looking down as if sleeping. I glimpsed her Mark on her neck. It was a small bird.

The skytrain announced the arrival of the Mark Gate and all 18 year olds got even more excited. A few moments later I stepped out of the train and onto the main grounds of the building where we would be scanned.  I entered the building and felt overwhelmed by the atmosphere. Workers all rushed towards our group taking us to different rooms where we would be scanned and given results within an hour. A tall woman ushers me into the room whose plaque says 12-18. I step inside and she shuts the room. It is a stark clean room with cream walls. A chair that looks like it belongs in a dentist’s office lies to one side and a glass cubicle on the left. I wooden table and matching chair with loads of papers is also present. I can hear the tic-tac of the woman’s heels on the tiled floor. She turns to me.

‘What is your name?’ she asks me in a pleasant voice.

‘Daya Voltaire’ I answer her and she writes in down on her tablet.

‘Hello Daya, I’m Arsine. Can I see your Mark so that we can scan it? I promise it won’t hurt.’ She says and looks up to me.

I look down at the floor and then soullessly say the dreaded words to her.

‘I don’t have one. A Mark.’

Something registers in her face and understanding flickers

‘Aah, you’re the abnormality.’ I wince at the words.

She calls someone through her phone and tells them that Daya Voltaire is presently with her. She listens to something the person on the other line says and ends the call.

‘Daya, you stay here. Someone else will come here to deal with you.’ And with that she walks out of the door.

I sigh. A few minutes later, two people walk in through the door. A woman who looks like she is in her mid-forties and a girl in a wheelchair who looks like she’s about twelve.

‘Hello Daya, you must be confused. I am Miss Nina and she is Rias’ she gestures towards the girl in the wheelchair. I stare at them stoically since I know they are going to tell me I am exempted from the scanning and can go back home.

‘Well shall we get on with the scanning’ she says while putting on gloves and powering up some switches which cause the glass cubicle to light up.

My stoic façade slips off.