ᴍᴀʀᴋs ᴛʜᴇ sᴘᴏᴛ

There's no difference when she touches it, but he still feels a small thrill at the contact. One delicate finger at the back of his neck, one more inch of her closer. He'd wanted to show her the mark sooner than this, but he had to know she would stay. She's been through an initiation of sorts the past few months, and maybe it's been juvenile to only give her bits and pieces, but what can he say: he loves feeling mysterious, and she seems to like uncovering each new piece of him that's allowed like the world's most interesting puzzle. It's almost affirming: he's special. she's special. they are special.

"Did it hurt?" Lina asks as she peers closer.

"I don't remember." He had been too busy being enthralled and vindicated to care. "S'cool, though, isn't it?"

Lina doesn't know. She lightly traces the mark and wonders if The Operator she's been told about is the kind that should be looked at so positively, but she still answers, "Kinda," because it's the first concrete piece of evidence beyond just shadows and disturbances that something else lies beyond them.

"Kinda?" Jack scoffs and tries to glance at her without moving his head. "A demon freakin' marked me! That's metal as hell." And his enthusiasm about it is so genuine that Lina can't help but chuckle.

She slides her hand up the back of his neck and scratches his scalp, smiling to herself as he leans into it like a cat. "But what'll you do when it comes back to collect?" she has to ask nonetheless. "Demon deals aren't exactly good things."

He shrugs. "Hasn't come by in years. Maybe it forgot." He doesn't believe his own words and wouldn't want to anyway. "You have to meet it, though, if it does."

Her scratching pauses.

"I dunno if--"

"I know it sounds scary." He turns his head to face her and takes her hands. "But we've been doing fine so far. And I'd be there, okay? Whatever happens to us, I'll be there."

"T'do what?" He makes it sound like somehow he'll be a knight, and it's hard not to tease him about the dramatics. "We're just highschool kids, Jack," she tells him not for the first time. "Maybe this isn't something we should be digging into too much right now." (Just right now; he's convinced her for the future.)

"This is more important than school," Jack insists. "I know it is, and so do you. There's a whole world of them out there, Lina, they're not going to wait around."

She sighs and squeezes his hands, an attempt to stop it now before they really get engaged. She knows how easily fired up about this he can be. "Just promise me you won't go and google some Satanic ritual to summon it or something, okay, metalhead?"

He snorts with amusement and retorts, "Like I need one, right? They know where to find one of their own."