The Birthmark
The car hit a small bump as it drove down the highway in the middle of nowhere, making 16-year-old Selena jerk and draw a long black line across her diary.

“Ugh! You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered under her breath.

“What?” asked her 12-year-old sister Aubri.

“Nothing,” Selena replied.

Aubri went back to listening to her iPod. She mouthed the words and tapped her foot to the beat as she listened. In the driver seat was the sisters’ father Harry Redman. He was a focused man who didn’t like engaging in conversation too much. He preferred to keep to himself. Next to him was his wife Dawn, who was your typical stay-at-home American mother.

“Selena, is everything okay?” asked the concerned mother.

“Yes mom, everything’s fine. Don’t worry,” Selena replied, not once looking up from her diary.

The Redmans were taking a road trip from California to Montana to visit Grandma Luna. They have been driving for three hours and the rest stop was another two hours away.

“Dad, why did we have to take a stupid road trip to visit grandma? We could’ve just taken a plane and saved ourselves so much time, you know,” complained Selena.

“Well, I thought this road trip would be a nice, new experience for us. Plus, I don’t want to take the chance of flying after that Flight 77 incident last week,” answered her father.

Selena let out a loud, annoyed sigh. She stared out the window at the moon and her hand wandered through her long, brunette hair and down to her crescent-shaped birthmark on the side of her neck. Every time she touches it, looks at it, or even thinks about it, she always gets a strange feeling deep inside her stomach. It makes her feel out of place, like she doesn’t belong wherever she is. But, it also gives her a special feeling. Like she could step outside and take out all the wrong-doings of the world. Her finger gently ran over it as she lost herself in thought. Then her hand slowly went lower and down to her lap as she dozed off.


When Selena woke up, it was daytime. She had a pounding pain on the side of her temple and her face, arms, and legs had cuts from shards of glass. The car was on its side and Selena saw droplets of blood on her dark blue shorts and yellow hoodie. She was laying sideways her head right next to a fairly large pool of blood. Her sister wasn’t next to her. She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. She went to the front window and found the front seats splattered with blood. Selena went to the other side of the car and saw a trail of blood in the short, yellow grass. She started following the trail and almost a mile later, she saw the body of her father. He was decapitated and had no arms or legs, but she recognized him from his clothes. Her gray eyes widened and she let out a piercing scream. Immediately, Selena bolted back to the car and grabbed her phone from the back seat. She tried calling 911 but it was no use. There was no signal. She tried walking around with her phone held high, but she was in the middle of nowhere with now source of communication. Her knees sang to the ground and she started slowly sobbing. When she looked up, she saw a road ahead. Leaving her phone in the grass she got up and started running towards the road. When she reached it, there were no cars driving by. She decided to walk along it to see if something will show up along the way. After walking a couple miles, she gave up. There was no sign of civilization anywhere. It was almost sunset and she knew she needed to find some place to stay. Her hand went up to her forehead to wipe off any sweat, but instead she felt a sting of unbearable pain. The was a deep cut across half of her forehead. Tears filled up her eyes and made their way down her cheek and fell to the ground.

“This is it,” she thought. “This is how I die. My whole family is probably dead. Now it’s my turn.” Then a thought occurred to her. Why her? Why was everyone killed? And why was she spared? Why? She kept asking herself this until she blacked out.


Three days later Selena came back to her senses. She tried opening her eyes but everything was blurry so she shut them again. She moved her hand up to her forehead and there was a bandage wrapped around her head. Once again, she tried to open her eyes and everything was still blurry. After blinking a few times she could see normally. She was laying down on a hospital bed, but she was in no hospital. She was in a small room and the bed was the only thing in it, other than the monitor that checks her heart beat. The only sound was the beeping of the monitor and her breath. The door was made of raw metal and had a small square window enough for one face to peer through it. Selena looked down at herself. She was wearing a hospital gown and her legs were bandaged from her heel to her knees. She lifted up her gown a little and noticed a few small cuts on her thighs. They looked almost healed. Then she looked at her arms and they were, too, bandaged from her hand to the middle of her forearm. A conflicted collage of emotions ran across her face. She was almost about to get out of bed, when the large metal door swung opened. In walked a tall woman in a nurse outfit. Her red hair was in a tight bun with only her bangs left out. In her hand, she had a tray of food. As soon as the smell hit Selena’s nose, her stomach growled noisily.

“Sounds like you’re hungry,” said the nurse, setting down the tray next to Selena. Selena nodded. “Well,” continued the nurse, “three days without any source of nutrition will do that to you. Go ahead and eat up.” The nurse had a motherly voice and she seemed quite friendly.

“Umm— ”, started Selena but the nurse shushed her.

“I know you have a boat load of questions, but you’re asking the wrong person. The doctor will be in here shortly and he’ll have all your answers. Now hush and eat up. You need to strengthen your body if you want to get out of this bed,” said the nurse, and then she left.

Selena looked down at the tray. There was a plate of spaghetti with three meatballs on top. Next to that was a small slice of chocolate cake which had strawberry filling. Added to that was a glass of water. Selena dug in to the food and did not leave a single bit of anything. Not even a drop of water. While she was wiping her mouth, a man, who she assumed was the doctor, walked in. He looked at her plate and then at her. He smiled.

“Aren’t we a little hungry?” he chuckled.

Selena just gave a small twitch of her lip, which was meant to be a smile. She watched as the man wrote something down in his notebook. He was wearing a blue striped button-up shirt with a plain white tie and black office pants. He had brown hair, a little darker than Selena’s, and looked quite young. Maybe in his early 30’s. He finished writing and walked over to Selena. Putting out his hand, he said, “I’m Dr. Lawrence.”

Selena hesitantly shook his hand. “What happened?” she asked him in a small, weak voice.

“You are in the Celestial Renovating Facility. Our men found you lying on the ground a few miles away and rushed you over here. You were in a coma for three days. You are very lucky to have woken up so quickly. You didn’t have too many critical injuries, but you won’t be able to leave this place until tomorrow morning. We still need to run some final tests on you,” explained Dr. Lawrence.

“My family… where’s my mom and sister? Are they alive?” asked Selena.

Dr. Lawrence talked in a quiet voice. “No, I’m afraid we haven’t found them. The only two people we found were you and your father. But we couldn’t do anything for your father because…” he broke off.

“Yeah, I know. I saw him,” Selena replied, the gruesome image coming back into her head. She shook it out.

“Don’t worry, everything else will be explained to you tomorrow morning. You just rest for the night and we’ll run some final tests on you in the morning. If everything looks good, you can leave,” said the doctor.

“But, where will I go?” asked Selena.

“Don’t worry. We have that all sorted out. Now just rest,” Dr. Lawrence smiled and walked out of the room.

Selena laid on her side, but she couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking about her mother, her sister, and her father. None of this made sense. All she wanted was her family back.

The next morning…

“Selena, wake up. Selena…Selena, wake up.”

Selena opened her eyes and blinked a couple times. She saw Dr. Lawrence and the nurse staring down at her. She was in a different room now. There was a strange machine across the room. It was big enough for a bear to fit and it had sliding doors with two circular windows. There was white and yellow blinking buttons outlining the machine. Selena sat up.

“Good morning, sweetie,” said the nurse. “Hope you had a good night’s sleep. We’re just going to get you in that machine there and it will scan your body and tell us if you’re ready to leave, alright?”

“It’s one hundred percent painless. Just a really bright light but nothing more,” added Dr. Lawrence.

Selena nodded and carefully got out of the bed. The nurse guided her to step inside the machine and gave her black goggles so she won’t be blinded. “This will only take a few seconds,” she said.

Selena looked through the goggles as the door closed. All of a sudden, a big, bright light beamed at her. Even looking through the goggles, Selena had to squint. A green bar the circled the machine ran up and down. About ten seconds later everything was dark and Selena took off the goggles as the doors opened. She saw the nurse and Dr. Lawrence flashing big, white smiles at her. Finally something good happens, she thought.

“Congratulations, Selena. You can now leave our facility. You will be going with General Iah. We don’t know where he’s going to take you, but you’re safe. He is the general after all. He will answer any and every question you have to ask. When you exit this room just follow the hallway to the left and it will lead you to a lobby. General Iah will be waiting for you there. Good luck and be safe, Selena,” Dr. Lawrence said.

“Wait, what about my clothes? I’m not going to walk around in this all day,” Selena said, pointing to her hospital gown.

“Of course not. I have your clothes right here. You can change and then you’re on your way,” said the nurse. The nurse then left the room. Dr. Lawrence shook Selena’s hand and followed the nurse.

Selena noticed that her clothes looked brand new. They didn’t have any blood on them and the torn parts were sewn together. She slipped them on and looked in a mirror on the wall. She still had small cuts on her face. A new bandage was tightly wrapped around her head and her messy hair flowed roughly down to her elbow.

“You aren’t supposed to look like a princess after coming out of the hospital, Selena,” she told herself. After one last glance she walked out the room and the large metal door shut behind her. Without looking back, Selena walked down the hallway. When she reached the lobby, it looked like just any old lobby. Except the windows were blacked out. She saw a masculine-looking man in a navy blue army uniform with a crescent- shaped badge on his chest right above his heart. She got that strange feeling again and her hand wandered to her birthmark. This must be General Iah, she thought.

General Iah looked up and noticed Selena staring at him. He smiled, got up, and walked over to her. He was about six feet tall. His posture was perfect. “Hello, you must be Selena. I’m General Iah. Nice to meet you,” he spoke in a deep voice and held out his hand.

Selena shook his hand and replied. “Hi.”

General Iah chuckled. “You don’t talk much, do you? That’s alright. We’ll get to know each other pretty well and you’ll see that I’m not as scary as I look. Come one, let’s get out of here. You look worn out.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m going to take you to our secret government facility. It’s a very nice place.”

“Government facility? Why do I need to go to a government facility? Can’t you just take me home?”

“Don’t worry, Selena. Everything will be explained real soon.”

“Everyone’s been telling me that everything will be explained later. I don’t have until later. I need an explanation now!” Selena started raising her voice.

General Iah remained calm. “I understand. But I’m not the right person to explain this to you. If you come with me, you’ll find someone very close to you. Trust me.”

Selena took a deep breath and nodded. She followed General Iah outside and saw a helicopter waiting for them just a few feet away. In the helicopter, Selena looked out the window and gasped. The ground was a sea of forest. There were a couple rivers snaking through the trees, never stopping. Always flowing. Throughout the whole trip, it was thick forest. Then all of a sudden, the trees stopped and there was a huge building. It could be about three acres at the least. There were soldiers everywhere, walking around like ants. There were even some on the roof of the building. The helicopter started landing and Selena turned her head from the window.

“Where are we?” Selena asked General Iah.

“We are on the island of Celestia. It is not on any maps. We are very secretive and only a handful of people have left here. But, to leave, you need to have a very high status in the government. You see, many years ago, a war raged between the Celestians and the rest of the world. They wanted our land, but we did not want to give. Back then, the Celestians had the most advanced technology and weapons. Thanks to that, they won the war and isolated from the rest of the world. But when we won, we also lost our most prized possession. Our power source. We get all our energy from the moon. But, the world stole a device that stores the energy that the moon gives us. Now, we can only work once every two weeks, when the moon is at its most powerful, when it is a crescent. Most people believe it is the full moon, but they do not know that the most power is stored in the smallest of things. But, we want revenge. We want the only thing that keeps us alive back. So we have been working on many new weapons to get back what was ours. And with only so much power, we haven’t gotten anywhere. That is, until we found you. You, Selena, are the one who is that power. There’s a story behind that crescent- shaped birthmark of yours. But I’m not the right person to tell you that story. So follow me, and you will meet someone who you know quite well,” explained General Iah.

Selena and General Iah hopped out of the helicopter and walked up to two big metal doors. In front of the doors were two security guards. They wore white jumpsuits and black helmets. The had a utility belt with a gun on each side.

“Identification card,” said one of the guards to General Iah. He pulled out a card from his back pocket and the guard examined it for a couple minutes. “What about her,” the guard said, gesturing towards Selena.

“She’s with me,” stated General Iah. The guard studied Selena, then nodded for approval. General Iah and Selena walked up to the metal doors and General Iah put his hand on a scanner. After that, another scanner scanned his eyes. Then, the doors opened. Inside, there were thousands of weapons, from simple guns to huge war planes. Thousands of soldiers and guards walked around, each with a job to do. General Iah led Selena to a room in the back which looked like an office. Selena was instructed to take a seat on the sofa next to the window and General Iah sat across from her. A few minutes of silence later, and old, short lady walked in.

Selena’s eyes widened. “Grandma Luna?”

“Welcome, Selena. Oh, you have grown so much since I last saw you,” said Grandma Luna.

“Yeah, what are you doing here?”

“I am here to help you with your training.”

“Training?”

“Yes, Selena. Training. You were destined to be the Celestian warrior.”

“Why me?”

“Because I was the Celestian warrior in my day. It was destined that my oldest granddaughter will be the next warrior and your oldest granddaughter after you.”

“But what is a Celestian warrior? Can you just please explain everything to me, grandma?”

“A Celestian warrior is the leader of our army. She is the one who gets the final say in everything. I assume that General Iah told you that there is more to your birthmark? That is how we know you are the Celestian warrior. Since the moon is at its most powerful when it is a crescent, the crescent is much cherished. You have the crescent-shaped birthmark, making you cherished in significant to Celestia. I have the birthmark too.” Grandma Luna moved her head to the side, revealing her crescent-shaped birthmark in the exact same spot as Selena. “Do you know what your name means, Selena? It means crescent. It is no coincident that is your name. I gave you that name because I knew you were going to be the next Celestian warrior. Just the same as my grandmother naming me Luna, which means moon.”

“Wait a minute. Why are mom, dad, and Aubri dead? Who killed them and why?”

“Yes, I knew you were going to ask about them. You see, not all Celestians are good. Those people have their own territory. We call them buggers. They tend to leave people alone but I assume they went after you because they knew who you were. It is illegal to harm the Celestian warrior straightforward so they’re way of harming you was killing your entire family. The buggers are traitors. They believe that if we get the moon device, we will take over the world. What they don’t know is that all we care for is making sure our people thrive. We believe in the right of each man owning his own share. So, Selena, we need to train you and strengthen you so you can bring back what is ours. These are your true people. You want to help us, right?”

Selena thought for a moment. This was all so much. So much pressure on one 16-year-old girl. The fate of all of Celestia was on her shoulders. She thought about her birthmark. How it makes her feel out of place but special. Maybe I feel out of space because I wasn’t doing what I was destined to, she thought. Maybe this is my duty in life. To save Celestia. She said three small words, that couldn’t have given bigger smiles on Grandma Luna and General Iah’s face. “I’ll do it.”


A brief walkthrough of Selena’s training:
She was given a white, glowing jumpsuit with a silver crescent on her chest and a black belt with a crescent on it. Her hair was put in a high ponytail. She was put through weaponry training, martial arts, the tactics of war, and techniques that could surprise your enemy. How long did all this take? Six months. But that was all the Celestians had. They couldn’t hold up any longer with the power source they were getting. It was time to attack.


The moon device was being held in a secret government facility on a small island off the coast of Hawaii. Selena thought it best if they dove from a helicopter and swam to its shore. The security guards might believe they are scuba divers. After they reached the shore General Iah did a quick check for any cameras or guards. The coast was clear. Selena and General Iah moved on stealthily through the trees, avoiding all the cameras. So far, so good, thought Selena. While they were walking, they both hit something and fell to the ground. They got up and looked around for the object.

“It’s a force field. You can tell because if you look closely, you can see little squiggly lines,” said General Iah.

“How do we get through?” asked Selena.

“Your suit. If you press on the inside of your wrist, a special laser pointer pops out. We guessed there would be some type of force field so we designed that laser to be able to cut through. But it’s temporary. You have only five seconds to get through after you cut the hole,” replied General Iah.

Selena cut a big enough hole for both her and General Iah to make it through. After getting through, they both ran off to the side of the building. Two security guards were at the front entrance. Selena looked at General Iah and gave him a questioning look that asked the obvious. How do they get in?

“According to the map, the vault that hold the device is underground. Something that is underground needs and underground entrance. If we dig deep enough we can dig back up to the center of the vault. Your shoes can dig through if you push that black button on the side of the heel,” whispered General Iah.

Selena dug through and slowly went under the ground as the shoes dug. General Iah followed her. Since General Iah had the whole map of the island memorized, he told Selena when they reached their destination. She used her laser to carve a hole on the ground of the vault and jumped through. Then she made the hole again for General Iah. Surprisingly, the moon device had no source of security around it. Maybe they thought that all the Celestians were extinct so no one would want to take the moon device back. Selena swiftly grabbed it and carved a hole and jumped through, quickly followed by General Iah. When they got back to the water Grandma Luna was waiting for them in a submarine. The two jumped in and took off.

On the way back, the submarine was full of celebration and excitement.

“Why did I have to go through so much training if all I needed to know is how to sneak into places?” Selena questioned.

“It’s always better to be safe than sorry. We didn’t know how much security there would be and how they would react,” replied Grandma Luna.

Two hours later, they reached Celestia. All the Celestians were invited to celebrate the placement of the moon device on the roof of the government facility. There was a special small room built for it so it couldn’t be stolen again. After its placement, the room plus the moon device will be invisible unless you are the Celestian warrior. Selena placed the moon device right away and a beam from the moon hit the device. The calculator that tells how much power there is started rising quickly. The beam disappeared when it was at one hundred percent. Everyone cheered and laughed for the rest of the night. Selena had decided that she liked it in Celestia. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay because her grandma refused.

“If you come to Montana with me, I promise we will visit every two weeks. I have a jet under my house. You’re old grandma has more skills that you know,” Grandma Luna had said.

Selena happily agreed. She finished school in Montana and even went off to college. But even in college, she did not miss one visit to Celestia. Also, ever since fulfilling her destiny, her birthmark felt like a regular old part of her skin now. No more strange feelings. Selena thought that even when she has grandchildren of her own, she will always be the Celestial warrior at heart. Even though her granddaughter will rightfully take her spot.

Every night, Selena dreamed of Celestia. Celestia was now a part of Selena. A part of her that will stay with her, even in the afterlife. You cannot lose something you cherish and love that much so easily. Celestia will have the spot right next to her parents and sister in her heart. It will remain there, always and forever.


THE END