Drama watched the students from beneath the gym as the steps resounded throughout the catacombs. She watched always. Her amber eyes glowed. She would watch, and after the last bell rang she would emerge from her tunnels to Mark someone, or perhaps two or three someones. And she would often see the Hero as she sat alone at lunch and looked on toward Stanley and Jess and the other Marked that had gathered together. Homework was what she focused on, and that was what Drama knew to be her comfort. She was busy; she could not hang out anyways.

Drama often contemplated what had taken place when the Hero had entered her tunnels. She remembered what had happened, and how she, Drama had lost to a power stronger than herself: reason. And courage, she found. There was no small amount of courage as well. Drama could not touch the Hero, not ever. No matter whether or not she went to the Marked and stayed near them, no matter whether she dared to return to Stanley and Jess; both the Seconder and the Dependent seemed to have forgotten what had happened. But Drama knew that the Hero had not. She could see her eyes even from so far away, eyes that had seen the absurd and dangerous and yet overcame. The monster respected the student; the Hero was not only a Hero, but also a destroyer of her own self. A rescuer of those who should not have been rescued. The herald of death who called to Drama whenever she saw the student.

And soon the Hero was the only one left who was not marked, and she watched the Marked from afar. Tensely. And yet there was a hunger for them, as well. A hunger to forget what had happened and the drama that was woven throughout them. To go to them and become a Seconder. To forget.

But she couldn't. As soon as the last student other than the Hero was marked, and Drama wondered what to do next. She had to move on to another school, or to another group of people, to spread drama throughout the world. The Marks were spreadable, she found; even over phones and computers they spread. The world would bow to Drama soon; they would show her on the TVs, and the news, and acts of theater.

When Drama watched the school of Marked, her eyes landed on another of the humans. An adult. Her eyes glowed yellow.

The teachers...