I dug myself deeper into the blankets, trying to force the screams away. A Checking sometimes went like this but this time it was my neighbor. Light flashed and made my room brighter; my window had been opened to reveal the flames from the house next door.
"Gwyneth, wake up. Wake up, I need your help." I leaped from my bed and into her arms
"Ella what happened?" I couldn't stop the tears.
"Today was my sixteenth birthday. I've become a Tattooed." Her words hung in the air, my tears seeming to stop mid-stream. I knew that's what happened but it didn't hit home 'til then.
"Don't leave me Ella!" I buried my face into her jacket, she smelled like smoke.
"Gwyn, you've got to be quiet. I'm only going to be gone 'til your sixteenth birthday. It'll only be seven years and then we'll see each other again, I promise." She pulled me away from her body and kissed my forehead.
"But Ella what if I'm not a Tattooed?"
"You'll still see me." Footsteps came pounding up the stairs ", honey I've got to go." She kissed my forehead one last time and then was gone. The door burst open behind me and Checkers rushed my tiny room.
"Where is she?" A tall man jerked my sobbing body from the floor.
"She...She's gone." He dropped me into a small convulsing heap on the floor, they left.
Becoming a Tattooed was a death sentence but it's not like it's by choice. Tattoos are different, they're alive. You only become a Tattooed if you are one of the unlucky few to have a spike of Others blood in you. Others, the creatures that flew from the sky and rose from the ground. Mom called them Angels and Demons.
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The Tattooed | Completed | ✔
Teen FictionAt first, it was a great honor, now it's nothing but a curse. Each Different, Each Deadly.
