The Fertility Mark (Book 1)

Dandelions

After making a quick stop to the gas station, we took two trips to grab everything from the car. Looking at the digital clock in the stove, I cursed silently and sighed.

"Can you eat cereal for dinner today? I need to go on my run before it gets dark."

"I know how to take care of myself," she huffed. "I can make myself food."

"No. Don't use anything that involves fire. I don't want you do burn the house down."

"Whatever. I'll be fine," I was about to open my mouth to say something but she beat me to it. "And I know, stranger danger. Don't open the door to anyone."

I kissed her forehead and laughed as she quickly wiped it away and went to my room to change into something more comfortable. Ten minutes later, I had my purple sports bra on, black short, my tennis shoes and the armband for my phone.

"Here," Ali murmured as she threw me a water bottle. I smiled a thanks to her and then walked out, stretching right in front before putting my earphones on and taking off.

I took my usual path down the block and then around the HUGE abandoned property that sat right in front of the neighborhoods. The only thing separating that single house -well I should more exactly say mansion- from all the other houses was a single road to the left that led to the main road. The right was a dead end and it just took you to some woods. Creepy woods.

And I would know about that because the woods were in the middle of my route -which meant I had to run through them. Just wanting to get them over with, I crossed the small street of my neighborhood and kept to the right, mouthing along to the words that were coming from my ears. I usually just kept on running, but before I could even take the dreaded right, the view of something made me completely stop.

The mansion..... It wasn't abandoned anymore.... And I knew that because the shiny black sports car that sat right in front of the doors has never been there before.

My gawking was stopped short when I noticed a big, burly man -that was all I could see from where I was standing- step out and stand there. For a short second, my heart began to beat faster, but I just told myself it was because of nervousness. A new neighbor meant new people, which meant I had to be even more strict with Ali and our birthmarks. No one could know about them according to what our parents had told us before they died.

Before I could even get myself depressed, I shook my head and tightened the lose hanging ponytail before taking off on a jog. As soon as my feet hit the woods, I hit play again and surrounded myself with music.

Ten minutes later, right as I was mere feet away from the end, I swear I felt someone staring at me. I even stopped, jogged in place and looked around me, not seeing anything but woods and the few squirrels here and there. I just shook my head and continued on my run, only stopping once throughout the rest of the thirty minutes to take a much needed drink of water.

"Oh man," I whispered to myself as the mansion came into view again from the side. It was slightly blurry -signs that I needed to eat now, or else I would fall flat on the floor- but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I just closed my eyes, took staggering breaths and continued as the wind started to arrive, helping me out.

Right as I was about to cross the street to get to my neighborhood, something caught my eye. I took a quick peek, only to do a double take and stop.

A patch of dandelions.

I slowly smiled and bit my lip as all the memories came flooding through my mind. Memories of me being a little girl and running around the park, picking up dandelions to make a wish on them. One day, I picked up a bunch and ran to where my parents were sitting but by the time I got there, all the seeds were gone and all I had on my hands were green stalks.

I laughed to myself and took a moment to think about it. Did I really want to go and grab one, just to have that little reminder of my childhood back? I would have to take a big risk, because the patch was located literally right in front of the gates to the mansion. It wasn't on the guys property, but I would look suspicious just standing right next to it, staring at some flowers.

"What the heck. Why not."

The dandelion that I guess caught my attention before waved slightly at me with the running wind and I slowed down once I got close. I came to a complete stop once I reached it and after taking out my earphones and chugging down some water, I went down to my knees.

The door to the house was closed, but I thought I saw a slight flicker of the curtains from the second floor move. I didn't really think about and slowly plucked one up before laughing as I held it without any of the seeds falling off with the running wind.

As the few strand of hair that escaped from their hold danced with the wind, I closed my eyes for a second, made my wish and was about to blow it when I heard a deep voice growl "Mine!"

My eyes snapped open at the same time I saw the same guy from before -well I think it was him- running full speed at me. From where I was crouching, he looked like the human version of hulk and his hands were clawed as if he was imagining having my neck in them. As he got closer and I started to get my first look at him, I could only think of one thing over my racing heart beat.

Dang. It was just a dandelion.

Hahahaha. How am I doing? Like I said, it's WAY out of my comfort zone so I don't know how I'm doing. Yeah it might seem like I'm going too fast, but I just want to get the meeting over with since there is too much to go through in the middle. PLEASE comment. I wanna know what y'all are thinking. Oh and vote!!! That's good too lol THANKS!!