The Forbidden Mark (Book 1)

Chapter 2

DEIDRE

In the morning, after they had arrived in their new town, Deidre went for a run. She ran exactly seven miles, before back home. Usually, she did not take any breaks, but this time when she passed a house, her feet faltered. It was a big house, bigger than most, reminding her of a castle. Large gates surrounded the place.

Butterflies went crazy in her stomach when she took too long to admire it. Something called to her, her feet drawing closer to a certain window. She could not possibly reach it since it was on the second floor, but she tried anyway. The gates were open and she snuck in, eyes scanning the stunning garden and she looked up, towards the slightly open window.

The smell of rain washed her nostrils and her heart clenched. Nobody seemed to be awake in the house, so she rested against the side of the home, eyes directed upwards, to the room she desired to be in. Her palm displayed over where her heart beat wildly. The scent drove her mind to the brink of insanity.

She stayed there for exactly ten minutes, until she heard a door opening in the distance, and then ran home. But she still looked back every once in a while, not able to look away. Her heart called out to her to return there.

When she got home, she showered, pulled on a pink dress, braided her hair and packed her backpack. She joined her family for breakfast. Her mother was in the midst of pouring the three coffee, her father read a newspaper, but his eyes flickered up at the sound of her footsteps. He offered her a bowl, poured some cereal into it, added milk and a spoon.

This was a repeated motion. Her parents did all for her. No independence. No doing stuff on her own. Truth be told, Deidre was not the least bit independent. And it was not her fault, entirely. They had taken this sort of care for her throughout all her life. How can a child have independence if she is not grown with one?

Her mother drank up her coffee. "Are you ready? We must leave now or you are going to be late."

Deidre eat her cereal quickly, put the bowl in the sink and finished her coffee. She said goodbye to her father before she joined her mother in the car. The car was silent for a minute until Fiona spoke, "Honey, did you go for a run by any chance this morning?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Did you go to the woods?" She said yes. Her mother sighed, disapprovingly. "Honey, the woods are dangerous, I have told you this before. Don't go there again. I will not tell you again. The next time – I can turn this car around, rearrange schools and you can go to an all-girls one again."

Go back there? She had gone to an all-girls school all her life, and she was tired of it. She wanted to go to a normal school, even meet boys. She had no experience with boys. She could not rememeber the last time she had spoken to one. She wanted to meet boys. The girls at her old school had spoken about them, constantly, and their adventures with them. Whenever she asked about those adventures, what they meant, they just laughed in her face and she was left alone, again.

What was so interesting about boys that drove girls crazy and mean?

"N-No! Mom, it is okay. I will not go to the woods anymore." Except for that house with the amazing scent. "I need to make friends. At my old school, the girls were mean and obnoxious. I have the chance to meet new people, good people, from both genders."

At the narrow of her mother's brow eyes, she shrank in her seat. "Sweetheart, no boys. We have talked about this. Boys are not good for you. They are bad and can hurt you, badly. Do you want to get hurt?"

"No, but they can't all be the same–"

Fiona stopped the car abruptly in the middle of the road, the cars behind them honking loudly. "Oh, my God! Deidre Cordelia Thompson, are you out of your mind? If you come to me with this sort of talk again, then we are going straight home and I will home-school you myself. I will not have my own daughter become the whore of the town."