Descendants of the Dragon, Book One: The Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 3: Tattoos and Superstitions

The next five days melded together into a muddled and depressing blur. The freak lightning strike had made the news so many times that Sam had to restrain himself from hurling the remote at every TV screen that played it. The news reporters always used the same words, like "tragedy" or "disaster", but they were just words really. The words might carry pity, but the reporters' faces never flickered or showed signs of true sympathy. He knew they were just reading text off of a screen. To them, it was just another day of news.

The world was spiraling out of control, or so it seemed whenever he turned on the TV. Just yesterday a tsunami had just hit the coast of China near Shanghai, killing thousands and displacing millions. When added to the earthquakes and continent-wide flooding in Asia, it was clear that the world was not at its best. So Sam knew he couldn't really blame the news stations for not being too invested in a local misfortune, while massive worldwide catastrophes were going on, but it still hit a bit too close to home.

Twenty-five people, not including Sam, had been sent to the hospital. Nine had died within the first day. Three of the deceased had been classmates of his for years—old friends who were now gone forever because of some slip in nature. Six had been released from the hospital. Ten were still in intensive care. Four of the ten were looking like they'd soon be joining the nine.

Martin was one of the six who had been released. He hadn't escaped unscathed. Of all the medical babble the doctors had spouted off, "high-voltage burns" had stood out the most to Sam. Martin's back, while almost fully healed, would forever be covered in ugly scars that twisted down his spine. His eardrums had been also been severely ruptured from the electrical shockwave, but that would heal in time. The scars, on the other hand, would never go away.

Martin would also be on medication for a while. Possibly even for the rest of his life. He had chronic headaches now, and although he tried to hide it, it was clear that he was suffering from insomnia, because of the constant ringing pain in his skull. They hoped that the medication would assist with healing his eardrums, but it was very possible that the acoustic trauma he had suffered would prove to be permanent.

Sam sat up from his bed. Even though his bed was much more comfortable and safer and warmer than the hospital bed, he couldn't lie around and mope all morning. He had to get up sometime. His school had been cancelled for the week, because many of the kids who'd been killed or injured by the lightning strike attended, or rather had attended there. It was a temporary holiday.

Sam glared at his sock drawer. Some kids were probably happy that all this had happened, because now, they had an extended weekend. He reached to open the drawer with his right hand, then immediately winced when his palm touched the handle. He turned over his hand to glance at the swirling, black serpent that seemed to stare back at him, like it was mocking him. It kind of reminded him of a few of the statuettes from the museum his dad curated for.

He gingerly ran his thumb over the mark. It was still sensitive to the touch, and he still had no idea where it had come from. Any other time, he'd probably be freaking out about it, but there were too many important things going on in his life to have time to worry about a stupid tattoo.

Perhaps it was some kind of prank. Maybe someone had drawn it on there with a permanent marker.

Really, really permanent marker.

Sam shook his head. That was crazy and paranoid. A doctor had suggested that he could be suffering from amnesia, but Sam didn't think that was it either. He remembered everything that had happened at the beach, right up to the point where the lightning had knocked him out.

And right there was another mystery that had yet to be solved. Why had he been knocked out at all? The lightning hadn't struck close to the beach, and he had only been in knee deep water. Some swimmers who'd been much farther out into the water hadn't been shocked at all. So why had he been affected? Other than a sore palm, he was pretty sure he was absolutely fine. No burns, no nothing.