Though the living room in the penthouse was open to most of the space in the apartment, and though there were three adults in it, it was dreadfully quiet. The sound of Connor turning the page of the notebook he had been handed was deafening. It made Josh’s jaw clench like he’d been right next to a chalkboard while someone scraped their nails across the surface. And just like with Margot, Connor’s reaction to what he was seeing was subdued and frustratingly hard to read.

“I feel like you’ve just handed me a snuff film.” Connor breathed out the words as he dropped the notebook back in Josh’s hands. “And I can’t describe to you why that’s how I feel. But it is.”

“That makes sense.” Josh said with a sigh. “My dreams have been terrifying, but not in a way that I could tell you and you’d understand. It’s not a rational fear.”

“No it’s not.” Connor nodded in agreement. “And while I can say that… I’ve never actually seen this before. Neither of those marks look familiar. And that one, the room… I’ve never heard of or seen a mark go on like that.”

“I didn’t think you’d recognize them.” Josh said with a breathy voice. “That’s the one I see on you guys. That one is just… horrible.”

“It’s strange you say that. I didn’t think it was possible for someone like you to replicate what a mark looks like.” Connor raised an eyebrow to Sara, looking for some kind of reassurance that he wasn’t getting his information wrong. “I remember before I got my mark, I could see them and describe them in the moment but I could never attempt to recreate them if I wasn’t looking right at one.”

“Really? You couldn’t remember what they looked like for years?”

“I mean, it gets a little less foggy the more exposure you get, but yeah. It’s an alien thing that your brain isn’t used to seeing. And I think it’s also kind of like a defense mechanism.” Connor leaned back into a more casual position as he explained. “The less you can tell other people, the safer the people with marks actually are.”

The idea of marked individuals not being safe wasn’t something Josh had lingered on. It had passed through his head many times, more so after Margot had told him that there were some dangers, but she had downplayed it. Now, after the dreams, that danger seemed real.

“When you say safe…”

“Actually, what just happened with Kerry is a good example.” Connor indicated to his swollen eye. “When people that can’t see marks catch wind of them, it tends to go badly. There’s an instinct in the human mind to preserve sanity, whatever that means for different people. And When confronted with the choice between violence and insanity, people usually choose violence without really thinking about it.”

“But that’s it? Just normal people confused and unsure of what’s going on?” Josh wanted to make his question clear, because what Connor had just said and what Margot had said didn’t seem to match up. “There’s nothing… else?”

“There are other things too. Certain people that know about marks but can’t have them…” Sara started, but she looked uncomfortable talking. “Those people are jealous and they sometimes seek out people with marks and torment them.”

“But that’s part of a broader explanation of things.” Connor cut Sara short. “I swear we’re not trying to hid things from you, but given your situation you should really hear about all of this stuff from Margot.

Josh leaned back, away from both Connor and Sara. “What do you mean, my position?”

Sara’s face tinged red as she shyly tried to explain. “You’re not a normal person.”

“You’re different than the normal type of person that can see marks, she means.” Connor corrected. “Your mind has already adjusted like you have one, but you don’t. It’s like you’re getting side effects but no benefits.”

“Side effects?” Josh felt like he’d just had a bomb dropped on him, he could hardly give his words any volume.

“Having a mark makes you sensitive to a lot of things. Sensations get a little more focused, your mind gets a little easier to clear, and you can have dreams about… where the marks come from.” Sara had held up a hand to stop Connor from interrupting her. She was still uncomfortable explaining as she was, but spoke with confidence. “Not everyone has dreams though. And not usually when their… here… I can’t exactly explain that… but if you’re willing to wait out a better explanation, Margot should be back tomorrow some time…”

Josh couldn’t keep his thoughts contained. He was confused, and afraid, and frustrated. And he couldn’t stop himself from an outburst.“Why do you keep calling your mom by her name? Both of you do it and it’s weird.”

There was a long pause.

Sara had gotten so red in the face that it looked like she might be having a heart attack. She was like a tomato. A horribly embarrassed tomato. And Connor, though he also looked more uncomfortable than he usually did, was starting to chuckle quietly to himself.

“Dude, Josh. It’s a lot. For all of us. We’re still new to this stuff too.” Connor tried to sound comforting, but he couldn’t get rid of that hint of a laugh in his voice. And it got worse every time he looked at Sara. “We’ve known about it for years, yeah, but Margot didn’t really tell us the nitty gritty stuff till we got a lot older. “

“Yes, exactly.” Sara’s face lightened at the assistance from Connor. “We were ready to hear what she had to say because we grew up expecting it to be said. But you’ve just been thrust into all this later in your life…”

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“You make it sound like I’m old! I’m twenty-two!”

Connor pointed a finger in objection. “That’s about when most people start getting their imaginations crushed out of them.”

“You know what? I actually want to take this seriously so shut up for a second.” Josh held up both hands, palms wide, in gesture of submission. “How about I ask a question, and you guys give me a straightforward answer without getting sidetracked. And if you can’t or don’t think I’m ready for the answer, just say next. Will that work?”

“Okay.” Sara and Connor said in near unison.

“Okay.” Josh let out a deep sigh. “I like you guys, but sometimes you get really hard to follow. Alright. First question. Do either of you have dreams because of your mark?”

“Once, the night after I got it.” Connor nodded. “But nothing like what you described. It was actually really peaceful. I was in this bubble floating around an invisible pond like I was on a pool floaty, and it was warm and serene. One of the best dreams I’ve ever had.”

“Never.” Sara answered simply.

“Okay. I might come back to that Connor.” Josh turned the notebook to the page where he had written down everything that had happened in the first dream and put an asterisk next to the first line that mentioned the bubble. “Second question. Where do these marks come from?”

“Next.”

“Fine. Question two B. What’s older, human history or marks?” Josh knew he wasn’t going to get specific information, but vague information he could begin to draw conclusions from would be better than nothing.

“Marks.” Came the unanimous reply.

That told Josh more than he expected. At the very least that he was getting into something very old and very serious. It gave him a certain outline of the potential scope of the situation at the very least.

“Third and last question. What activates a mark?”

Connor looked to Sara in subdued alarm. He had been totally unaware that Josh knew that activating a mark was something that happened. But the look that Sara gave him filled him in enough that he had an idea of what had happened. But his roommate still looked uncomfortable to him, uncertain. She was, much like Connor, unclear what where the answer to that question would go and if Josh was ready to here it yet or not.

“Next.” Connor answered with an aimless gesture that indicated he had given up on deciding if it was something that should be answered.

“No. Wait.” Sara bit her lip as she thought about how she wanted to phrase her next words. “It’s complicated, but it isn’t that strange or abstract. A mark activates when you experience serious danger and the world turns its back on you. It’s a moment when you have to fend for yourself and the mark activates to enable you to do that.”

Josh leaned forward and watched the silent exchange between Connor and Sara. They were in disagreement about something. Worse than that, they were avoiding saying something specific. Josh could tell, they wouldn’t have been able to have such a complex conversation silently otherwise.

“I know I said that was the last question, but judging from the looks on your faces there’s more to it. What kind of danger are you talking about?”

“It’s a very specific kind of danger. One that really only marked people face. It happens…” Connor drew in a breath mid sentence and caught himself, as if he was deciding if he should actually finish the sentence. “It happens when someone important forgets you. It’s when you lose all chance of having an important role in their life and reality comes crashing down on you.“

“What does that mean?” Josh had grown frustrated again. “I understand the words your saying but they don’t make sense. You’re still leaving things out.”

“I can’t make it make sense.” Connor said with a sigh. “It hasn’t happened to me yet, so I don’t exactly know what all it entails either. Just that I’ll need to defend myself and seek shelter. And even then, that could be metaphorical instruction.”

“Like I said, it’s complicated stuff.” Sara had come to Connor’s defense before Josh could snap at him again. “You deserve real answers, but we can’t give them to you in a complete way. Margot… my mom, she can tell you what you want to know.”

Josh wiped his hand across his face and took in a deep breath. It was a long time before he let the air out again though. He needed to compose himself. The lack of information he was getting wasn’t their fault, Sara and Connor were just less in the know than he had hoped. He needed to know one more thing though. One more thing before he let his questions go and gave in to the growing need he felt to close his eyes and sleep again.

“Last last question then. Who is Margot? Who is she really?”

“She’s…” Connor struggled to vocalize the word he wanted to use. He knew it would sound wrong coming out of his mouth.

“She’s my guardian.” Sara said with a weak smile. “She’s raised me my whole life, but she’s not my mom. She’s barely even my adopted mom. Margot’s like a teacher whose job is to take care of me until my mark activates.”

As Sara spoke Connor found the proper framing for his answer. “In the terminology that marked people use, she is what is considered a master. Like a karate master, but for marks.”

Josh wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, and so he ended up saying the first thing that came into his head. The first thing that remotely resembled words at least. “So she’s just… some woman?”

“No. She’s my legal guardian. My parent. But she was assigned to me.” Sara said firmly. “My actual mother... doesn’t come around a lot. I’ve met her a handful of times, and she keeps tabs on me, but Margot is the one that raised me. She’s also just… not very confident when it comes to being a motherly figure. So, in private, she prefers me to call her by her first name. So, I think of her more like an older sister.”

“Okay, so how old is she really, then?” For once, the answers Josh was getting sounded reasonable. They raised a lot of other questions, but the answers he got made sense. “Because she looks our age.”

“Old.” Connor smirked. “Very old.”

“She doesn’t age at the same rate as normal people. It’s a side effect of having an active mark.” Sara tacked on. “But she’s not very mature in a lot of ways. That’s a side effect of being an outcast, not her mark.”

“So, marked people live for a long time?” Josh hadn’t heard about that part of being marked. It seemed there was a lot more to it than just getting unique special abilities, but those things had just been left out.

“Yes and no.” Connor tilted his head back and forth in a gesture like a scale trying to decide where the most weight was. “That’s a question I would actually skip. But short answer, before you get there, marked people aren’t immortal. It’s more like they get really good moisturizer.”

“Right… right...” Josh yawned. “I think… I think I’m getting too tired to ask questions.”

Sara looked at Josh with the most gentle smile he had ever seen. It was an odd cross between a motherly smile and kind of smile that dogs get when they’re at peace. Josh was so tired and entranced that he hardly heard her tell him to, “Get some sleep then. If you have another dream, get one of us and we’ll keep you company.”

There wasn’t much more that Josh could do. He nodded and closed his eyes to blink. But then his eyes didn’t open back up again. His body went slack and he crumpled backwards onto the couch in a mostly upright position. And the next time he opened his eyes it felt like he really had blinked. But it was morning when he came to. It was morning and someone new was sitting at the end of the couch near his feet. A very concerned woman that looked a lot like Margot.