When they left the playground, a squat little man wearing ridiculously vibrant clothes joined them. His head only reached about as high as the first Searcher's elbow, and he smiled cheerily when he caught sight of Sienna.

"Good catch!" the man exclaimed merrily. "This one's got a fine mark, doesn't she!" The Searchers, of course, din't answer, and he had to jog to keep up with them.

"Who are you?" Sienna asked, her voice cold.

The man clapped his hands together and did an exited little hop. "I am Romeo Cooper, herald of the esteemed Searchers!" He shot Sienna another grin, making her want to punch him in the face.

She couldn't comprehend how this... Romeo could act so happy about sending hundreds of innocent kids to their deaths.

"Why are you doing this?" Sienna inquired. This time her facial mask slipped, revealing her desperation and fear, but Romeo either din't see, or pretended not to.

"Because Marked children are a curse to us all!" Romeo spat on the ground, his earlier cheerfulness gone. "They destroy everything they set their hands on! Beasts like you and your brethren don't deserve to live, so justice must be served to protect actual decent folk!"

Now Sienna positively shook with rage. "Just because some Marked children hundreds of years ago went mad doesn't mean we all will!" she shouted, spittle beginning to fly from her lips. "I'm not crazy, and I don't have supernatural abilities like they did! YOU DON'T HAVE TO KILL ME!" She slumped against the side of her prison, spent. "Please," she whispered half-heartedly. "Please."

Romeo stared at her, his face devoid of any emotion. He looked about to say something, but the Searchers suddenly stepped onto a crowded street, drawing tons of people. Sienna curled up into a ball, having never seen so many people in her life. She stared at the purple floor, which reflected an image of her frightened back at her. The mark that'd caused her to hide from most of humanity was clearly visible, its silver tendrils branching along the left side of her face.

It was rumored that hundreds of years ago, a group of Marked kids with supernatural powers had gone crazy. destroying whole swaths of land and taking many thousands of lives. Ever since then, Searchers had tracked down the Marked and disposed of them before they became a threat. It was exceptionally rare for a Marked child to reach Sienna's age, since the Searchers were remarkably efficient in their gruesome work.

Every year when Searching day rolled around, the black-robed assasins took every child, no matter how young as long as they bore a mark, and they were never heard from again. Sienna has survived eleven Searching days, but her twelfth had ended in disaster.