Diana was a perfectionist.

And it wasn't the mind set.

It was her species.

It was her life.

The Perfectionist's were a supposedly perfect race. One with no mistakes, no war, no battles.

They were perfect in every way.

And how to you make a species this way?

They call it, New Years Resolution.

Starting at the age of five, a child is expected to say one of its flaws, the flaw is burned into their skin as a tattoo. Over the year the child works to destroy that weakness. As the flaw is destroyed, the tattoo fades.

But if the tattoo is still there at the end of the year. The day before the new year the child is killed.

The survival rate is 21%.

Diana has made it through thirteen New years.

She is sure her fourteenth will be her last.

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Diana hated that tattoo. She glanced at it yet again and scratched it.

Go away. She told it mentally. No one likes you there.

It's dark brown contrasted with her light skin perfectly. It still shone as dark as it had when she first got it.

She had one month to get rid of it.

She read the words on her forearm and bitterly wished she had chosen a different weakness.

Love.

That's what her arm said.

Love.

Love was a flaw, it was a weakness. It was strictly not allowed. It made people do irrational or even and wrong things. But Diana's opinion how could something so wonderful be so wrong? To her love was a wonderful thing. She had loved her brother. And she loved her mother and father.

But at the time she couldn't think of another flaw.

"Thinking about New Years?" Her mother asked. Diana looked up to see her mother. Her mother smiled gently back.

"Perfection isn't really that hard once you reach it you know." Her mother assured her. As her mother was thirty nine, she had long stopped getting tattoo's. At age twenty she became perfect. And she never had to worry about her flaws again.

Diana didn't think she could make it.

"One month." She told her mother, careful not to whine. She had destroyed whining and complaining long ago. Along with disobedience and hate. "I have one month to get rid of Love. I haven't known anyone else who took this long to get rid of it. Let alone have it completely."

Her mother sat down and joined Diana at the table.

"I heard of person who got rid of her weakness in under a month." Her mother reassured her. "I'm sure you could do it too."

"Thanks mother." But Diana wasn't convinced. She was sure her mother had made the story up to comfort her. She bid the usual good byes and walked out of the hut and into the garden. She pulled on her work gloves from the shed and began weeding.

Immediately she relaxed. One of her strengths was gardening. She loved it and was very good at it too. She pulled out more weeds.

"One month." She muttered. Diana had never been so close to death before. Sure she had had some close calls, but this was more than close. She was practically at deaths door.

She remembered her first New Years Resolution. Even though she was only five when it happened she could remember it perfectly.

At five, Resolutions had been an honor, not a curse. She had had a new dress to wear on that day. They had taken her to the markers temple. She had proudly announced her New Years Resolution as lying. The moment she had spoken the words the markers hands began to glow.

One of the grabbed her arm and wrote the letters with his finger, her arm began to hurt but after he took his hand away she had seen the glowing runes in her forearm. Then they went away. And she was left with some brown marks. She hadn't been able to read them at that point in her life. But she destroyed lying as a weakness six months before the deadline.

The next year was harder. She had chosen whining. But she made that in eight months.

The next year, hate. In ten months she had gotten rid of that.

And the next year she had done it in eleven.

Last year had been her closest yet. The mark had been barely legible the month before the New Year. But thankfully it disappeared before New Years.

Her village number was growing. Making it one of the more successful villages. But Diana was afraid she wasn't going to be able to watch it continue to let it grow.

The fear of death was all too real. Her best friend Rachel had died the year before. She failed to give up laziness. Since then, Diana had not made friends with anyone else.

Diana tugged on a particularly stubborn weed. She gritted her teeth and pulled it out with all her might. It popped and she tried to regain her balance, but only fell on her back.

"Owwwww." She muttered but stood up.

"Looks like the marked girl can't keep herself from getting hurt!" A snotty voice sounded from the side. Diana turned to see Megan. Possibly the meanest person in the village. She was known as the sweet little girl in the markers eye's. But she never marked her snottiness yet. So she always spited another girl when she had a chance.

Diana happened to be her favorite target.

"Go away Megan." She told her. But Megan wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"No I don't think so. After all, I love watching you embarrass yourself." Diana frowned at Megan.

"Maybe this year you should mark your snottiness." Megan shrugged.

"That's what my parents said. But," Here she walked right up to Diana and poked her nose.

"That means I gotta get as much fun out of the marked girl as I can. You have only one month to get rid of that mark. Meanwhile mine is all gone." She showed her left forearm which was completely blank. "But you, you are a failure and you are going to die." She grinned evilly and walked away.

Diana felt the tears course through her eye's. Sadness wasn't really a Flaw. But if you continued to be sad you would be in trouble.

Diana didn't want that because she knew she was going to cry for a long time.

So she ran. She didn't have to worry about being tardy because school was gone. And she could go wherever she wanted for the moment. Diana ran the whole mile to the forest on the other side of town.

Once there she leaned against a tree and cried. She sobbed in her arms and still she cried some more.

"You okay?" A voice asked. She swirled her head around to see a boy. She had barely caught a glimpse of him before she saw a look a horror cross his face and he turned around and began to run.

"Hey!" She yelled at him and began to run after him.

"Who are you?" She yelled at him again.

The boy didn't answer and only ran faster.

She doubled her own speed and ran right into the boy. She knocked him to the ground and pinned him there. He struggled for a few seconds then gave up.

"What's your name?" She asked him. "Cause I don't know you. And I know everyone from around here." She examined him curiously. Only the Markers ever really came to the village. No one else. Not even traders. They were that small of a village. But here was a new boy. Diana wondered where he had from.

The boy looked about fourteen and had brown hair and green eyes. He wore a short sleeved shirt made of wool and long trousers made of Cotton. He looked terrified.

"Let me go!" He screamed. Diana did so. A habit because she had destroyed disobedience the year before.

The boy scrambled to his feet and began to run again. Diana watched him go deeper into the forest and disappear.

She sighed and walked back to her house. There was her curiosity getting the better of her again. If she survived this year she should get rid of it next time.

But something made her stop. Because she just realized something important.

The boy had only been a few months older than her. So he couldn't be at perfection.

But he still had his mark as well.

On his forearm there had been marks. As clear as day. Just as clear as hers.

Diana turned round and ran right back into the forest. She stopped at the point that the boy had run away in and stopped and stared at the ground. She thanked the gods that it had rained the night before.

Diana had learned to track animals by her brother. But he had died two ears ago. But she kept in practice and figured out a few things on her own.

She found his foot prints easily and began to follow them through the forest. It was much easier than she thought it would be. But then, for no reason, the footprints stopped. She looked in a ten foot radius but she didn't find any more.

So she looked up.

She noticed right away that a few branches were snapped. He had begun climbing a tree. She climbed up and could see his path easily.

She climbed from branch to branch until she came to a river. It was ten feet wide but flowed at a moderate pace. She couldn't see the bottom and had no idea how deep it was.

She knew this river and she had never been across it before. She had never farther from the village than that. After all it was the village border. She hoped that he had not crossed it. But she saw the footprints on the other side of the river.

Diana hopped down from the tree and stepped into the river. She gasped as the cold water ran through her thin leather boots as if they weren't there.

But she stepped farther and farther in. Wondering if she was tall enough to cross that dreadful lake. Then she thought of being able to ask the boy, of how he had a mark like hers, and she stepped deeper.

But at the middle the water only went up to her knees. She laughed and splashed the rest of the was across the water. She once again followed the the footprints in the wet mud. Suddenly Diana heard voices. She slowed and carefully crept up to the sound.

She soon saw a clearing about one hundred feet in the distance. In the clearing there was a camp. The footprints led up directly to the camp.

Diana froze.

There had been many rumors going around the village that bandits were in the area. Perhaps this camp was the bandits, and the boy was from the bandits group. That would explain a few things. Except the tattoo. Bandits didn't take the tattoo.

Diana frowned, something didn't add up.

She climbed a tree and went from tree to tree until she could see the camp perfectly. But the people in the camp would have a hard time spotting her in the leaves. She looked over the camp. Expecting to see evil looking men with knives and swords.

But she saw a few fires, women in dresses and men in normal trousers and shirts. There were many children running around.

But there was one thing different, one thing wrong that Diana noticed.

They all had markings.

From the older men to the youngest children had markings. They all had markings.

Diana frowned. The adults shouldn't even have markings. They should of stopped getting them when they were twenty.

Then she realized who this group must be.

They must be outcasts.

They were barbarians that separated from the society and lived on their own. They were rough and crude to everyone. Even their own kind.

But as she looked at the camp, she did not see cruel, she saw people caring for each other. She saw people watching out for watch other and smiling.

Did this mean the society was wrong?

Before she had much to think about it, she heard a loud CRACK! Then another. The branch she was crouching on started dipping dangerously. Diana tried not scream as she tried to back off the branch. But it broke before she could and she fell ten feet onto the ground. She screamed unnecessarily but managed to land on her feet.

She looked up.

Every person at the camp was staring at her.

Diana  turned around and began to run as fast as she could. Behind her she could hear screams of, 'Get her!" and 'We can't let her escape!'

She ran faster and finally came to the river. This time she didn't hesitate and ran right across. But half way through the water she tripped on a tree root. As she tried to get up again arms began to pull her up and back.

"NO!" She screamed and kicked and struggled against the arms. But they held her tight and dragged her back to the camp. They sat her down and tied her to a tree.

"Let me go!" She screamed. She struggled more against the ropes but they were bound tight.

The camp stared at her coldly. Finally one women stepped forward and said,

"How did you find our camp? We concealed it with magic."

Diana frowned. Then she spotted that same boy in the audience.

"I followed him." She nodded at the boy with her head. The boy looked horrified.

"But I shook you off!" He insisted. "I couldn't see you anymore!" Diana shrugged.

"I tracked your foot prints. Then when they stopped I followed the trail of broken branches." He paled and said,

"I apologize for causing this." The women put her hand on his shoulder and said,

"You did the best you could. It it not your fault."

Diana frowned.

"Who are you people? Are you Outcasts?" The women looked harshly at her.

"I am sorry. But we do not like the name Outcasts. We prefer Marked." She held her wrist out to Diana. She saw the marking's meant 'curiosity'.

"I chose curiosity for my marking thinking I made a good choice. But the more I tried to get rid of it, the more I seemed to need it. So I left the village because I didn't want to die. I was eighteen at the time."

"That's just like me!" Diana blurted out. The women stared at her curiously. Diana blushed. "Well, umm, I chose Love, mainly because I couldn't think about anything else at the time. But the more I try to get rid of love the more I want and need it. I don't see how anyone could get rid of it. I still have my marking and there is only one month left. I guess I'm going to die. Because I really want to keep Love."

The women turned and checked Diana's arm, to see if Diana was telling the truth. She then turned to the rest of the group. They talked quietly among themselves for a few minuets. Then the women turned around.

"I, Catherine Blackbird, give you permission to join our group. If you do not we will wipe your mind and send you home."

Diana's eye's widened.

"I'm afraid that you only have one hour to make the decision. Because of your discovery we must pack and move on. But we are willing to take you with us. You may not, however, go back to your home during that period of time."

Someone untied her wrists and Diana saw that it was the boy. He smiled sheepishly at her. Diana rubbed her wrists. Two of the stronger men stepped forward and simply watched her.

"I won't run." She assured them.

They both kept on staring at her.

The rest of the group began to pack. They took down the tents and extinguished the fire. Meanwhile Diana just sat there.

Would she join them, or not?

---------------

Diana's mother watched the setting sun. Her husband stood beside her.

"Where is Diana?" He asked her.

"I don't know." The mother answered honestly. "She went outside and I haven't seen her since." They both waited for a few more minuets. Then the father said,

"Then we can only hope for her to come home." They both walked inside their hut.

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Diana trotted up the hill with the pack the Marked had given her. As they climbed one of the higher hills, she turned round to look down.

She saw her village miles away, but she could still barely see the dots of moving animals and humans. She knew that she would never see this town again.

"Good bye." She murmured.

"Come on Diana!" A voice behind her called. Diana turned around to see the boy waving at her and gesturing for her to hurry up.

"Coming!" She called and followed the rest of the group.