“Did he have any more episodes?”

“Yeah, he said it happened again last night. And he messaged me pretty much right after it.”

“And he saw the same thing?”

“Yeah. But bigger this time.”

“Bigger?”

“Like it was covering every surface around him.”

“Oh… that’s unusual.”

Josh listened to the conversation around him as he woke up. He had opened his eyes enough to see Margot sitting next to him, but then closed them again when he realized that she was talking about him. It wasn’t clear if they knew he was awake yet or not, but Margot and Sara—it sounded like she was the other voice—were talking like he was still asleep. Without a way to properly explain why he had feigned sleep, Josh opted to just wake up again.

“I know you just woke up, but I’d like to talk to you.” Margot said as soon as Josh sat up. “It’s important.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Josh was still drowsy, his body still heavy with sleep, but he felt awake enough to talk. “Is it about the dreams? The test?”

Margot bit her lip, uncertainty clear on her face for once. “Do you want to talk about this privately?”

The room was mostly as Josh had left it. Connor was on his computer in the study area and Sara was sitting where she had been the last time Josh had been awake. Nothing seemed wrong. It took a moment for Josh to realize that he had slept without dreams, but when it dawned on him he couldn’t help but smile. For the first time in days, he felt comfortable and safe.

“No, this is fine. I told Connor about it and Sara already knows.”

“I caught up with someone I know…” Margot began, still unsure. “Another marked person with an activated mark. They’re much more experienced than I am, so I trust them and their knowledge. And they know of two other individuals that have had similar experiences to yours. One saw the mark in a dream and was able to recall it before they had received it. The other was able to see the different mark that you described, but didn’t see it in dreams.”

“Was? Are they not around anymore?” Josh knew now that marked individuals aged more slowly, so it must have been a very old marked individual who had passed away. Or so he assumed.

“No…” Margot’s expression grew sad, as if that had been the question she hadn’t wanted to answer. “She never never received a mark. During her exposure to marks and marked individuals, she identified two individuals with that mark and soon after dropped contact with her mentor.”

Unsure of how to interpret the information he had been given, Josh could only scrunch his face in confusion.

“I don’t know what that means, but my friend sounded pretty grim. They think that other mark is a bad omen, but they think that being able to see these marks”—Margot touched her own arm gently—”through dreams and visions, is a good omen. That you’ve experienced both is new, as best as any of us can tell. There are older stories about both the dreams and the other mark, but no one around who knew the people those stories are about. At least, no one I could talk to.”

“That’s… intimidating?” Josh wasn’t sure if that was the word he was looking for. “Overwhelming maybe?”

“It’s a lot.” Sara nodded in agreement.

“It is.” Margot completed the circle of agreement. “Which is why, if you’re willing, I’d like to keep a closer eye on you. I don’t want you disappearing in the night, or who knows what. I also want to know understand what it is you’re going through. So is there anything else you haven’t mentioned to anyone yet?”

For a moment, Josh began to shake his head no, but stopped. There was one thing. One thing he had kept out of his retellings and written account of what he experienced. He had been afraid that acknowledging it would make it more real, and he wasn’t entirely sure he had been awake when it happened. Or rather, he hadn’t decided to believe if it had happened while he was awake or not.

“There was something else. From the last dream. It happened just before things went really bad.” Josh took a deep breath before backtracking. “In the dream, initially, whenever I looked for something it disappeared. And there was a point where I looked down at my arms, and my left arm was replaced again. And the mark was there, but I was able to peel it off. It kept bleeding back to the surface of the skin like ink on paper, and really fast, but I was able to peel it off like I was peeling foil off a piece of candy. And then when I had woken up, it was still there. Not the whole arm, but the blotchy test result looking version. A little more defined than when we actually did the test, but still incomplete and like a rash. But it didn’t fade. It was on my arm for nearly an hour. I had to peel it off like dead skin on a sunburn to get rid of it.”

Neither woman responded immediately to what Josh had said. Sara looked intrigued, but not worried. Margot looked bewildered. Her eyes had narrowed and she almost seemed like she didn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I need to go back.” Margot stood without a warning and started to make a break for the door. “I just get here and I need to get back. I need to ask about that. That’s not normal.”

“You just got here!” Sara protested. “Josh’s problem can wait for a bit, right?”

Sara’s eyes met Josh’s for a moment, pleading for him to agree with her. How could he say no. “I’ll be fine. I just had a good night of sleep with no dreams, so I should be okay for at least a day.”

The words of her daughter seemed to be what slowed her down, and Josh’s agreement stopped her with her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll just see if I can’t get through on a call then. This is still a big deal, so I should at least try to report in. Do you still have the emergency phone I left here?”

“Yeah, it’s…” Sara fumbled for a moment. “It’s in the… spice drawer in the kitchen, I think.”

Without further direction, Margot walked quickly to the kitchen. She fumbled around a drawer next to the fridge, Josh heard it slam shut, and Margot made her way towards the bedrooms. She shut first the door to the hallway and then Josh and Sara heard the door to a bedroom close as well. Whoever she was calling, she wanted it to be private.

Of course, the first response Sara had was “Do you want to listen in?”

She wasn’t mischievous as he words might suggest. Sara didn’t mean listen in in the way that little kids listen in on their parents talking about Christmas presents. It was the sort of listening it that little children did when they were trying to learn if their parents were going to get a divorce. It was a somber suggestion, and one that Josh easily could have said no to. But then as he wondered why Margot would bother with closing two doors to make a phone call about him, after they had already established an understanding of mutual trust… his interest in the matter became overwhelming.

“Yes. How do you want to do that?”

Sara was already up and walking over to the door that led to the closed off half of the apartment. She gave a silent nod for Josh to follow. It suddenly occurred to Josh that Connor, who had been silent this whole time, was still watching what was happening. As Josh made his way over to Sara side, he looked over to Connor. He was watching carefully, but not saying anything or reacting in a significant way. It made Josh nervous, but he didn’t fully understand why. As Sara opened the door slowly and quietly, Josh thought he saw Connor shrug out of the corner of his eye.

The hallway beyond the first door was dark, but Josh could see light coming out form under the far door on the left side of the hall—the door to the spare bedroom in the apartment. And from the furthest side of the hall they could already begin to hear conversation. But Sara crept closer and beckoned Josh to follow her. By the time they made it past the first bedroom door, they could hear Margot clearly.

“Negative. I told you I need to speak with Gul. Yes. Gul. I know they’re not with you right now, send someone to ask if they can come out and talk. I have something that I need to… yes, I can stay on. Just get them on the line.”

There was a long pause. They could hear Margot start pacing the length of the bedroom as she waited for whoever Gul was to get on the phone. When she began to speak again it was sudden and direct.

“Hey, Gul, I know I just checked in with you… Yes. Sorry. I know you don’t like to… it’s urgent. I know I told them no one is in immediate danger, but it’s still urgent. That kid I was talking about, the unmarked. He had another dream and he had part of a mark on him when he woke up.”

There was a long pause in conversation where they were sure Margot was listening to Gul.

“No, he said it lasted this time, no fading. He peeled it off. In his own words, like dead sunburned skin. And the mark was more defined.”

Another long pause.

“Yes, the same skin oddities too, exactly like I told you before with the test I did. It’s like he’s already marked and doesn’t know it yet. More than that, it’s like he’s already active and reset. But he’s not marked. If I had to put it into words, it’s almost as if his mind knows that other mark is dangerous and is protecting his sanity by manifesting a mark unprovoked.”

Josh thought he heard a second voice briefly, though he couldn’t be sure what it was saying or what it even sounded like. The primary sound was phone static.

“There was something else, yes. The mark, the other one that he saw in his dream… it was bigger this time. It covered a whole room, and there were more hands. He said…”

There was another short break as Gul interrupted Margot. Whatever they said to her had made her uncertain again. Her voice was definitively nervous when she spoke again.

“I’ll ask, but I don’t think he’ll agree. He’s not a people person… yeah I know you aren’t either. He’s not exactly thrilled about being able to see marks either. But I’ll ask.”

There was a click as Margot ended the call. Sara had a rapid realization that they needed to get back to the living room and began to slink rapidly back down the hallway. But she only made it to the door to the living room, with Josh close behind her, before Margot’s voice stopped her.

“Don’t bother, sweat pee. I know you’re listening.” Margot called out through the bedroom door. “You open doors like a bull in a china shop and apparently Josh can’t tip toe to save his life. Get in here, both of you.”

“Called it!” Connor said loudly from the living room.

Shamefully, for Sara thought she had been very quiet, both Josh and Sara made their way to the spare bedroom where Margot was sitting on the bed waiting for them. The scene quickly became a lot like it had been before when the three of them had sat in that room and talked about what Josh’s dreams meant. But the tone now was very different.

“I left the living room as a courtesy. Both to you and my friend. They don’t like being overheard, and I didn’t want to pull you in further than you already were, Josh. And explaining why I stepped out would have done about as much damage as letting you listen in anyway, which is why I didn’t present the option.”

That confused Josh. He wasn’t sure what about the phone call had been involved enough to put him at risk of irreversibly learning about marks, but he didn’t question that part. He hadn’t heard the full phone call after all. Though know that he thought about it, he didn’t see the cell phone Margot had brought in with her.

“But you listened in anyways, so you at least heard some of what I was saying.” Margot said with a sigh. “You probably didn’t hear my friend, Gul, though.”

“No, just most of what you said once they picked up the phone.” Josh didn’t see the point in lying about it if she already knew they had been listening in.

“Well, they want to talk to you.” Margot raised an eyebrow as she spoke, as if testing the waters of Josh’s response. “In person.”

“Okay…when?”

Josh was wary but open to the possibility of talking to another marked individual. If anything he would get a better sense of what other marked people were like. But there was still a risk. A risk that he might finally cross that threshold of not being able to turn back and forget everything he had learned thus far. Though there was a part of his mind, and he wouldn’t let the rest of it admit as much, that realized that point had already come and gone.

“Sunday.” Margot said firmly. “Tomorrow.”