Chapter 3 — The Marks

Morgan stared at Tanji.

“The last Demon Lord was a rough one.”

The words hung in the room.

Morgan slowly leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms.

“What happened?”

Tanji looked around at the other students.

Nobody seemed particularly surprised by the question.

That bothered Morgan more than anything.

“What happened?” Morgan asked again.

Tanji sighed.

“We lost.”

Morgan raised an eyebrow.

“You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that, kid.”

Tanji scratched the back of his head.

“The last group of heroes fought the Demon Lord. They won, but…”

He paused.

Morgan waited.

“But what?”

“Not everyone made it back.”

Dre leaned forward from the bunk.

“Back where?”

“To their world.”

Morgan's expression hardened.

“So some of them died?”

Tanji shook his head.

“No.”

Morgan frowned.

“They survived?”

“Some of them.”

The room went quiet.

Morgan looked from Tanji to the other students.

“So you're telling me people have been summoned here before, fought a war, survived…”

He pointed toward the door.

“And then they just stayed here?”

Tanji hesitated.

“Some did.”

“And the others?”

“They went back.”

Morgan stared at him.

“Then why the hell are you all acting like this is normal?”

One of the students near the back spoke up.

“Because it is normal.”

Morgan turned toward him.

The boy looked younger than Morgan had originally thought. Seventeen, maybe eighteen.

He shrugged.

“We've done this before.”

Dre stood from the bunk.

“Yeah, you've said that.”

The student frowned.

“You don't understand.”

“No,” Dre said. “I don't.”

He walked toward the center of the room.

“You're telling me that you and these kids have been dragged into another fucking world before, fought some demon lord, and now you're doing it again.”

The student crossed his arms.

“Yes.”

“And you're okay with that?”

The student didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he looked around the room.

At the other students.

At Tanji.

Then finally back at Dre.

“No.”

That answer caught Dre off guard.

Morgan noticed it too.

The boy continued.

“But it’s our duty, we were chosen. So were you.”

Morgan's eyes narrowed.

“We've already been through this. We know how this works.”

Morgan pushed away from the wall.

Morgan took a step toward him.

“What do you know?”

The student looked Morgan directly in the eyes.

“That if we don't cooperate, people die.”

Morgan stopped.

The words hit harder than he expected.

The student continued.

“Last time, there were people who refused to fight. They thought they could find a way home on their own.”

“And?”

“They disappeared.”

Morgan's jaw tightened.

“Disappeared how?”

“I don't know.”

Morgan looked at Tanji.

“You know?”

Tanji shook his head.

“No.”

“Convenient.”

Tanji's expression hardened.

“I said I don't know.”

Morgan studied him for a moment.

Morgan turned away.

His hands curled into fists.

He caught it.

It was brief but it was there.

A small smirk that was quickly hidden.

Something is off. 

For now though.

Morgan thought about his family.

Macy.

His son.

His daughter.

The baby he hadn't even gotten to meet yet.

He closed his eyes.

One year.

I have to play along.

“Im going to bed, im not helping this country, thats Yalls duty not mine.”

Somewhere in Kentucky

The house had never felt this quiet.

Arthur sat in his room.

A notebook was open in front of him.

Beside it was a laptop.

He had been searching for anything he could find.

Missing persons.

Strange disappearances.

Government experiments.

Anything.

He opened another search result.

Nothing.

Another.

Nothing.

He leaned back in the chair.

“Come on…”

He rubbed his eyes.

“Dad would say theres always a hidden truth…”

Maybe he was looking in the wrong place.

He started searching different combinations of words.

Blue light.

Disappearance.

Symbols.

Missing person.

Then he stopped.

His fingers froze over the keyboard.

There was an old forum post.

The website looked ancient.

The post itself was over a decade old.

He almost closed it.

Then he saw the title.

“Did anyone else see this?”

He clicked it.

The post was short.

Someone claimed that a family member had disappeared from their home.

No struggle.

No explanation.

Just gone.

The original poster mentioned something else.

A strange pattern left behind where the person had disappeared.

His son leaned closer to the screen.

“What the…”

He scrolled.

The original image was still there.

Low quality.

Blurry.

But visible.

A strange collection of markings on the floor.

Arthur stared at it.

He pulled out his phone.

He took a photo of the marks.

He zoomed in.

His heart started beating faster.

The markings in the old photograph weren't identical.

But they were close.

Really close.

He opened his notebook.

Then he began copying the symbols.

One by one.

He stopped halfway through.

His eyes widened.

“No way…”

He looked back at the computer.

Then at his notebook.

Then at the photograph.

Something was there.

Something he hadn't noticed before.

He grabbed another sheet of paper and started writing.

For the first time since Morgan disappeared, there was something other than fear in his eyes.

It was confusion.

And maybe hope.

“Dad might not be missing.”

“I think…”

He swallowed.

“I think someone took him.”