The Marked

Briar (7)

I remembered falling asleep around ten or eleven. I didn't remember dreaming. Unless this was a dream, because it was far too dark to be my room, even at the darkest point in the night. This place was cold and pitch black. And I wasn't alone. I could hear others, at least two. Their breathing. Their soft snores. These people were still asleep, so if I was quiet, I could find a way out and not wake them.

I sat up quickly, reaching for something to grab. A pillow, or maybe a blanket. The only thing I found was another person's arm. I pushed it away from me and scooted back, but was stopped by the impact of a wall. I forgot about being quiet, too freaked out to keep my mouth shut. "W-What?" I managed to choke out. I felt the arm graze past the bottom of my shoe, and then a groan.

"Dude, if you wanted to hold my hand, you should've just said so," the voice mumbled. He sounded sleepy and relaxed, especially for the situation we were in. "Where are we?" I hardly even had the energy to manage a single word, let alone a sarcastic reply.

"Um," a different voice called out. Female, I was guessing. "Who are you guys? How did I get here? Did you- did someone kidnap me? I will call the police! I have my phone right-" she stopped mid sentence. "Crap, it's gone!" I heard her frantically searching the floor and her pockets, trying to find something she was probably never going to see again.

"God, shut the hell up!" That was a fourth person. There were four of us so far. "Someone find a damn door instead of acting like little babies!" He sounded like the type of guy who would be covered from head to toe in tattoos, or at least dressed in all black. He talked like he hated the world.

A small laugh from the other side of the room silenced the rest of us. "A door? Yeah, I've been awake for hours. I've come to terms with the fact that we're all going to die in here. I've walked around the room fifty times. I counted. I ran my hand up and down every single part of these walls. Nothing. No doors. No windows. Just forget it. We're all dying."

"I refuse to accept that," the female voice said. I tried to shrink even further into the corner, but someone grabbed my ankle and pulled me back into the open. "We can't die. We have to get out. I don't know any of you. I don't know your views on life, or if you even care about living, but I sure as hell do. I'm getting out of here."

I didn't object to the hand around my ankle, holding me hostage from getting away from the rest of them. I waited for him to let me go, but he didn't move. "We should get acquainted while miss hardass here is finding a non existent door," a new voice said. Great. Six of us, all in one small room with no light and no way out. Somehow, this didn't look like there would be a good outcome. "I'm Keith." It was quite for about a minute before Keith sighed. "Now it's your turn. Someone else introduce themselves."

I didn't see the harm in it, so I took a chance. "Uh, I'm Briar."

The guy holding onto my ankle gripped it tighter. "Clark."

"Calvin," the fourth person said, voice loud and confident. If we ever got out of here and I didn't see at least three tattoos on this guy's body, I would be really surprised. He seemed badass, and for some reason, I liked that.

"Why does it matter if we know each other's names or not?" the fifth guy asked. He was the one giving up, so of course he wouldn't care. "I mean, we're never getting out. There's no way we're going to live. We won't see our families again. My mom is probably already calling the police, but they're not going to find us. Our lives are over."

"Dude, you're so optimistic," I grumbled, which earned me a small chuckle from Clark. For some reason, that made my face hot. It didn't help that his fingers were still wrapped tightly around my leg, keeping me from putting distance between us. "If it doesn't matter, then just tell us your name."

"It's Isaiah. My name is Isaiah," he said finally, after a very long and awkward silence. There was some shuffling behind me, and I assumed it was the girl trying to find a way out, even though there wasn't one.

"What about you?" I asked, reaching behind me. My fingers lightly tapped her shin and she stopped moving. It was quiet for too long. "Come on," I prodded. "We all said our names. It's your turn now." She still didn't say anything. She didn't move from that spot either, but she was doing something with her hands. There was a loud thud, like something being hit.

"Guys, these walls aren't that strong. I think if we all help, we can knock it down, or something. Come on," she said, voice dripping with contained excitement. I didn't question her. If there was a way out, then I was giving it my all. I tried to stand up, but Clark still didn't let go. I even attempted pulling my leg away from him, to tell him I wanted to get up, but he didn't get it.

"Briar, right? Yeah, do you really want to waste all of your energy, your last days, helping some girl knock down a wall that probably won't fall unless we have some heavyweight champion ram into it? Why don't you just conserve it. We don't have food or water. If you help her, death comes faster. I don't want to be stuck sitting next to a corpse while I die too." Clark sighed and tried reaching for my hand to pull me away from the wall, but I jerked away from him.

"If there's a chance we can get out, then I'm taking it," I spat, kicking his hand away. I may have accidentally stepped on his fingers, but I didn't really care. I wanted to get out. "Where are you?" I called, reaching blindly through the darkness to find the girl. She met me halfway, wrapping her fingers around my wrist and then pulling me to her.

"Right here," she said, guiding my hand towards the wall. There was already a small dent. I nodded and began to punch and kick at the wall. The girl helped too, and eventually, after a few minutes, someone else joined in next to me, kicking the wall all the way in until a little sliver of light began to shine through.

"Hot damn," Clark muttered beside me. I tried to bite back the smile on my lips. So much for conserving energy, huh? "Briar, help me kick this out," he demanded, already delivering a blow to the damaged piece of wall. Soon, the others were next to us. Even Isaiah, who had been giving up on life not even ten minutes ago, was helping peel the already broken pieces away to reveal the sunshine.

The hole was soon large enough to crawl through. The girl went first, and then the rest of us followed. A couple minutes later, we all sat in a circle on the sand, staring at each other, trying to put names with faces. A kid with glasses and short curly hair looked at me and smiled. "What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry I doubted you, Briar," he said, and I realized it was Clark. And he was gorgeous. It was hard not to notice his features, but I tried not to stare.

"Hey!" the girl shouted. "It was my idea!" She crossed her arms over her chest and flipped her long hair back over her shoulder. It was a light brown, almost blonde color and reached halfway down her back and accented her blue eyes. She was small, so the fact that she kicked down a wall really surprised me. "He may have been the only one to believe in me, but it was my idea. I get credit," she complained.

"Fine, but you have to tell us your name," I said, and the other boys all nodded in agreement.

She rolled her eyes. "It's Erin. Now let's get the hell out of here. I want to go home."