The Living Tattoo

Ryan was finishing packing up my things. He had laid out a fresh set of clothes on the bed. “You don’t seem too particular.” He said as he glanced down at the sheet wrapped around me. “I mean you’ve been walking around with just a sheet on for a while now. Funny thing is, no one has mentioned that.”

“I think rising from the dead trumps the wearing only a sheet, in terms of gossip.”

Ryan nodded. “I think you are right.”

Both Ryan and Ant stepped out of the room while put on real clothes. There was a full length mirror on the door and I stood in front of it staring. The scar on my chest was gone. I ran my fingers down where I knew it had been and it wasn’t an illusion. The scars were gone. The one on my cheek, my forearm. My leg…I turned to look at my back and it too was perfect. I didn’t recognize the skin in the mirror.

It was also the first time I really grasped the complete nature of the tattoo on my body. It wasn’t just on my arm, it covered my whole body. It seemed to breathe out of my skin. It grew and thickened with each passing moment. There were flowers dotted along those vines. I didn’t know any of them. Some were open and others were closed. The open one on my forearm where the vampire bite used to resided looked like it had fangs, I ran my fingers across it and I felt sorrow and happiness and a lot of confusion. It mimicked what I felt from Ant before.

There was another flower similiar to it down on my left knee. I touched it and I felt a similar shudder of acknowledgment like I had when I had grabbed Sage’s thread in my mind. But that wasn’t Sage it was death that returned the call. Another vampire?

Most of the others were closed. The vine twisted around my body, my legs, across my abs. There were three near identical flowers over my heart. I brushed my fingers over each one. The first felt electric, like I’d been shocked and it quivered under my touch. Another one felt tight, like it was keeping everything inside. It didn’t want to let it out. Whatever it was it was trapped inside the petals. I wondered if it opened at all. The third purred at my touch. Unfurled and I knew it was connected to Dev. It was all the proof I needed to know that each flower was a personal connection. I didn’t have time to explore them all. There were too many.

I pulled the clothes on that Ryan had left me and stared at my hair. It had grown back perfectly chestnut brown. I sighed as I opened the door. It would have to do. I would survive without my look for a little while.

Ryan looked at me from his post at the door. “Don’t we look positively normal.”

“I feel strange.”

Ryan laughed. “Everyone is waiting for us at the shadow room.”

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