Sirens blared.
Blinding lights surrounded her.
And three lifeless bodies lay sprawled on the ground before her.
Enor ran.
Her skin was drenched in cold sweat… or was it blood?
There was no time to find out. Her life now hinged on how far she could run.
She had barely reached the back courtyard when the school flooded with authorities.
Cries of panic echoed through the halls. Shouts, gasps, questions. Everyone was focused on documenting the scene.
"That powerless girl did this!?"
"Where were the Academy forces when this happened?"
"This is what happens when we let those cursed ones live among us!"
"Monsters!"
"How was she even allowed into our school in the first place?"
"This is horrific! She took innocent lives!"
The accusations kept coming, and Enor kept running.
Somehow, she had managed to slip past the Academy troops now swarming the streets.
But for how long?
She didn't know where she was going, had no plan, no safe haven.
Home? Impossible. It was surely surrounded by now.
"Enor! This way!"
A familiar voice cut through her thoughts, pulling her back to the present.
"Ar!? What are you doing here? How did you-"
"Saving your life. Now move."
Unlike her, Ar didn't look panicked.
His voice was calm, steady. His eyes scanned the surrounding alleyways with precision.
"Let's go."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward a narrow side path.
They ran in silence, the sound of helicopters and sirens roaring above them.
Was this unfamiliar? Not at all.
Enor had seen scenes like this before, marked ones hunted down in the streets, captured one by one.
She had watched it happen. Many times.
But the difference now?
She was the one being chased.
And she had never even learned how to use her powers.
When had she even gotten them?
Her whole life, she had been classified as a rare case, marked but powerless. No threat.
Aside from the usual discrimination, she had blended in with the general public just fine.
Never once had she imagined she would be running for her life, hunted by the Academy itself.
You might wonder how it all began...
Who are the marked?
What is the Academy?
And how did they end up like this?
The answers lie just beneath these words.
So read carefully.
***
It began just a few decades ago.
A strange phenomenon swept the world: children were being born with peculiar traits, striking red hair, mesmerizing violet eyes.
At first, people were fascinated by these unique features.
But that curiosity quickly turned to fear.
These children, it turned out, were different.
They possessed powers...
Unnatural powers...
Impossible abilities that defied every law of science and physics humanity had built for centuries.
Some viewed them with awe.
Most with suspicion and fear.
As their numbers grew, so did the incidents.
Marked children began losing control of their powers.
Chaos followed.
Fear spread.
And society began to demand action.
In the midst of rising unrest, a renowned scientist stepped forward with a bold proposal:
Create specialized academies to train the marked.
Help them control their abilities.
Teach them to use their powers responsibly... for the greater good...
The idea was widely accepted.
And soon, the academies were built, symbols of hope and promise for those born different.
But hope doesn't last forever.
As the first generation of the Marked reached adolescence, everything began to fall apart.
Some used their powers for selfish or violent purposes.
Fearing for public safety, the academies began to change.
They stopped being schools.
They became prisons.
Under the very scientist who had once inspired hope, the academies turned into isolated fortresses.
Inside, brutal physical and mental experiments were carried out under a strict and oppressive regime.
The academies became the ruling authority over all things related to the marked, holding power over their futures, their bodies, even their lives.
And the marked?
Most of them were still just kids.
The oldest among them no more than twenty-two.
Too young.
Too inexperienced to fight back.
Some escaped, choosing lives of hiding and fear.
Others were captured, subjected to experiments, and crushed beneath the weight of cruel laws and tighter control.
And now, Enor who had never even asked for her powers,
was at the heart of it all.