The Marked One

Mara looked at him and realized, for the first time, that he was scared too. He just hid it inside orders. For a second, she almost felt sorry for him. The rain outside got heavier. Something metallic dragged across the roof. “Did you hear that?” Cal asked. “Like somebody running upstairs.” A cracked mirror in the hallway trembled in the wind. When Mara walked toward it, she did not see her own face. She saw the radio room window, the lake beyond it, and a man standing in the shadow of the tower, his back to her. He was lifting an old cassette to his ear like he was listening to the future. She stepped back fast. The mirror snapped back to her own pale reflection.