By Hazel, 9 April 2008
Chapter 1
I wish it never happened I wish I didn’t have to tell this story but I need to
get it off my dead troubled mind. My name is Kristi and this is the story of my
best friend and how I came to be… like this… It was yet another school day and as I walked to school I wondered what the new craze would be for today. My school had a huge craze about pierced lips only a couple of days back and all I had to do was a small countdown from ten today to find out what the next craze was. I met my best friend Jade in the playground. Everyone considered Jade very cool, she was always reaching for perfection. Basically if somebody got a craze started over high heels Jade would make sure she got REALLY high heels, higher than anyone else’s. I ran over to her and we walked around chatting and mingling with the popular crowds. There was a big crowd of boys over in one corner before I could say anything Jade pulled me over. Soon we were near enough to see that in the centre of the boys there was a guy with a small snake tattooed on his arm. Jade snorted. I gave a sigh thank god she wasn’t interested in this new craze! “What’s wrong with my tattoo?” said the boy. He was noticeably taller than Jade but she didn’t seem to notice or care. “I just that’s only one small tattoo. You can do sooo much better than that!” exclaimed Jade grinning. “Well I’d like to see you do better!” he retorted angrily.
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Jade turned round to me grinning like mad. I didn’t like the look in her eyes. It was the mischievous twinkling look she gave me quite often. I knew what it meant. “I’m getting one.” She said simply. That was it. Once she was doing something there was no persuading her out of it however much I tried. Then I realised something else quite important. “Jade, you’re going to need your mum’s permission.” I reminded her. “Oh that won’t be a problem.” She answered airily. But it was. She told me all about it on the phone. “I don’t believe it! She said if I wanted a tattoo that was fine. Then I told her what shop I wanted to try and she told me it was way too dodgy and she wouldn’t let me go near it! Even worse she told me to get a cute pink unicorn tattoo! How pathetic is that?” “Yes but why? She must have a reason. What shop were you thinking of?” I asked. “I want to go to Teenz Tattooz. They are supposed to have a five star rating.” she replied. “You
WHAT!” I
practically screamed into the phone. The Teenz Tattooz shop was a very
dodgy place, nobody I knew had ever got the nerve to go in there. “She
said one of her friends got a tattoo from the same place and a couple of days
afterwards she disappeared completely.” “Then
she has a very good reason and you should listen!” “I
am listening.” She replied agitatedly. “You
mean you aren’t going?” I asked relieved. Page 2 |
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“No.
I listened to her and decided I was still going to go. I can always forge her
signature if I have to and if anything bad happens you’ll be there to protect
me!” she laughed. I
felt sick. “Jade
no! Don’t you get it? I’m not coming! I’d never get permission and besides
I’d rather risk my life than go in there!” “Don’t
be silly! You’re my friend right? Friends stick together.” She said
forlornly. I
knew that she was just play-acting but deep down somewhere I was beginning to
soften. I hated it when she did this it was almost impossible to resist
sometimes. This was one of those times. “Fine!”
I whispered down the phone and hung up. Chapter 2
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saying Teenz
Tattooz. I was so scared. We walked through
the rusty door and heard a voice coming from behind the counter. It was a deep
but mysterious voice and I tried hard not to shudder. “What
do you want?” the voice asked rudely. “This
is a tattoo shop right? I want a tattoo, duh!” retorted Jade. “Oh!”
the voice immediately sounded sweet and sickly. ”Do come into the back
room.” A
hand rose from behind the counter and gestured towards a dimly lit door. When I
saw that hand I took several steps back in shock and knocked over a skull behind
me, I gave a short scream. There was a skull in the shop! Then I looked back at
the hand. Long curling but sharp fingernails spurted from the ghostly white
thing. I went even further back. It was coming to get me. I felt the hard
grip steering me towards the door the nails sinking into my arm. Jade was just
walking happily beside me. Why couldn’t she feel it? “Jade…”
I croaked. “What?
What’s wrong Kristi? You look awfully pale.” I
could barely hear her. The walls were closing in on me. I panicked. “Don’t
say anything…” said the voice into my ear. I
nodded frantically. The grip lessened slightly. I could just see Jade coming
over to me. She was checking me over, examining me. “Jade…I’m
fine…” Why couldn’t Jade see the man behind me? The walls were closing in so tightly I could barely breathe, I was being squashed to a pulp. Now I couldn’t see
anything. I heard a faint bang but that didn’t matter all I had to do is get
out of the shop. Then I didn’t feel anything.
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What
was that? I could feel cold hands slapping my face. I opened my eyes to see Jade
looking down on me. She gave a nervous smile. “Rise
and shine!” she said. I
wasn’t fooled by her cheeriness. She had been shocked. Realising that I was on
the floor I slowly got to my feet and then guessed what had happened. I blushed. “I’m
sorry. I’m being a big baby.” “No
I should have never dragged you into this.” She admitted. “Well
I’m in here now might as well stay put.” I
looked around the room it was pitch black, I couldn’t see a thing but
gradually my eyes adjusted and I could see the tattoo equipment and a special
chair for Jade to sit on. I was a bit surprised to see that there were nothing
that could light up the place, it seemed all the windows had bars across them.
Jade hadn’t noticed at all. Soon I could see our deep voiced host. He was a
thin greyish man with lanky black hair and he reminded me of an old horror movie
I’d seen once. It was his hand that
had grabbed me. I looked him in the eye. He stared back at me. I looked away
feeling silly but somehow even more afraid. He had coal black eyes, the kind of
the eyes that made you feel cold just by a glance. “Please young lady do come and sit on this
chair.” He said nodding at Jade. His voice was way too goody goody he was definitely putting it on. All the same Jade went over and sat on the chair. The man pressed
a button and the chair rose backwards. I pulled up a chair for myself near Jade
and took her outstretched hand.
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“Just like the dentists!” she whispered. I smiled. “They have some very odd methods here.” I was about to tell her what had happened as I had
been going into this room when the man came back and asked Jade if she had
decided what design she wanted. “Of course! I want that cool skull tattoo I saw
back in the other room. On my hand please.” The man dabbed some ointment on Jade’s hand and
then examined it carefully. Jade closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see what
the man was doing to her hand, I didn’t either but I was here to protect her
and I didn’t trust this man to operate safely on my friend. I kept my eyes
peeled throughout the whole thing. All I found was that it was a disgusting
process. I was about to give up and closed my eyes when the man looked about
himself nervously. I pretended to be asleep. He walked over to a cupboard and
picked up a small bottle. I
pretended to roll in my sleep at an attempt to see what the label said but I
couldn’t quite see it. I panicked and was about to get up when he poured the
bottle’s contents on top of the tattoo done so far. The contents came out
blood red and then melted into the tattoo. He gave a grim smirk and put the
bottle back. I was frozen with shock. “Done. You can open your eyes now.” He added. Jade sat up and examined her hand precariously. “Perfect! You may have some odd methods but you do
five star tattoos!”
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She gave the man the money and then we left. I tried
to tell Jade what I’d seen but she was too busy admiring her tattoo. All the
said was: “Not now Kristi! You can tell me later.” I thought glumly there might not be a
later. Chapter 3
It was a Monday, a school day. When I got to school
I couldn’t see Jade anywhere. Then I noticed a huge crowd of people, curious,
I went delving into it. I had loads of practice at it with Jade so I got to the
centre of the trouble fairly fast. Jade was showing off her tattoo. It was the
first time I’d seen it properly. Everybody thought it was ultra-cool and even
the boy who inspired Jade was impressed. But to me I was just puzzled. The
tattoo, I thought, was a bit bigger. But it was probably just my imagination.
Growing tattoos indeed! I
was so stupid. I should have told her no matter what. You have no idea how much
I regret it now. When Jade finally shook off
everyone we walked into class. The day went a treat and I was beginning to feel
ashamed of myself. “It isn’t your fault! You’re just a bit of a
silly billy sometimes. Now what was it you’ve been meaning to tell me for the
last couple of hours?” she asked. “Nothing.” I replied. I
was such an idiot. She’d had a great day and I didn’t want to spoil it, what
did I care that telling her that might save our lives? “You sure?” “Yes! Now, can I have a look a your tattoo?” “Sure.” |
She held her hand up to the light. I let out a small
gasp which I quickly stifled as Jade looked anxiously at me. The tattoo had got
bigger. The next day I sprinted towards Jade and grabbed her
hand. The tattoo had grown, I was sure of it. That lunchtime as I looked
nervously at Jade’s hand she asked me what was going on. I tried to convince
her nothing was wrong and that was when I saw it. Something flickered on her
tattoo. When I blinked I saw the end of a forked tongue coming out of the skull. “J-Jade?” “Not now!” The next day I met jade outside my house, we walked
to school together. When we got there I was instantly bombarded with people and
questions such as: Did you watch? What was Teenz Tatooz like? What was the whole
process like? They just never stopped bugging me throughout the day and I only
remembered about Jade’s tattoo when she was leaving and had to run down the
street to catch up with her. I took her hand and stared at it hard. Two entwined
snakes bodies were coming out of the skull. I swallowed hard and tried not to
look scared about anything but it was not too easy. The next day after school
Jade invited me round to her house. I played and tried to look carefree and
happy like Jade while inside I was feeling just the opposite. We now had the
weekend and mine was a very quiet one. Most of the two days we were at home
relaxing. The next day my worries came back just as clear as ever though. I went
to school, found Jade and found that there were now five snakes entwining and
inching up her arm. Even Jade was slightly worried, not about the tattoo though. “I heard a voice last night.” “You WHAT!”
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Hearing voices wasn’t very good at all whether you
had a growing tattoo or not. “Then I thought I saw…blood in one of my
dreams.” “PASS ME THAT TATTOO NOW!” I shouted urgently. I knew it must be connected to the tattoo somehow.
Entwining snakes had covered her whole arm and were now reaching across her
chest and over to her fingertips. This time Jade looked at it as well. She gave
a huge scream which I’m sure could be heard on Mars. “How did this thing get so big!” she shrieked. I explained what I saw at the shop. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME!” I looked back at her thoroughly annoyed. “Why didn’t I tell you? Well maybe I’ve BEEN
DROPPING YOU HINTS FOR THE LAST FEW WEEKS! MAYBE I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO FEEL
SCARED AT THE SUPPOSEDLY BEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE!” She instantly understood. “Oh. Well at the weekend we’re going back to
that shop!” “FINE.” I shouted at her and stalked off. That night I had nightmares. Some of which I still
have now or at least remember. Jade was in the school completely covered in
tattoos, dying. “This is all your fault!” she screamed at me.
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A huge whirlpool of blood was coming from her and it
began to flood and kill all my friends or people I even knew. I begged for mercy
but it just kept coming and then a huge tidal wave of it came heading at me. I
woke up breathing heavily. The next morning I was shocked to find that the
tattoo had stretched across her chest, gone down her other arm and made another
skull on her hand. I was even more shocked when I saw what happened during gym.
Jade was about to do a jump off a stall but somebody shouted and distracted her
in mid-jump. I watched distressed as her feet tangled up in her now undone
shoelaces, and made her struggle so much to sort them out that her falling path
veered off course and she headed towards a metal bar which was part of the
ladder that the caretaker had placed nearby. Her head hit the rung hard and she
sank into unconsciousness as the rest of her body hit something. The teacher and
me ran over to her and attempted to carry her to the nurse’s room. When she
awoke the first thing she did was look down her shirt and beckon to me. “It’s got bigger. It’s gone down my sides.”
She whispered. “Did you get those blood visions again?” “Yes more vivid than ever and the voice at it’s
loudest.” It was a while before Jade could get out of the office, somebody had called an ambulance along with some professional doctors to take a look at her. They had agreed not to take her to hospital but had decided they had the right equipment where they were. |
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When she could finally get out Jade informed me with a very pale face that it had covered her tummy. A sickening feeling developed in my own tummy as I heard this news. “This is it! We are going back to that
shop…TONIGHT.” At first Jade was a bit surprised at my suggestion
as she usually suggested dangerous random things but agreed with me immediately. Chapter 4
As
soon as school finished we headed off to the shop. At first the journey was fine
but as we got to the high street Jade began gasping for breath I had to support
her the rest of the way. It was as if she had a disease and was becoming scarily
delirious. At one point I’m sure I saw the whites of her eyes flash deep red.
Now she had started babbling about blood and I had to keep shaking her back into
being like her normal self. I looked at her face and gave a start as I saw a
flicker of a snakehead appear on her chin. “We’re nearly
there!” I said trying to comfort one of us. Whether I wanted
to comfort her or myself it was hard to tell. “Just round this
corner!” We turned the corner and came to the shop. It was then that Jade collapsed at my feet. I checked her over frantically, we were so close! The snakes had got to the bottom of her legs and were beginning to cover her face. They were moving fast enough for me to see them now. They were smothering her. Infiltrating her body. |
“It’s too
late.” Cackled the vampire. I was about to
hurl myself at him but I felt a hand on my shoulder restraining me. I turned
round to see Jade staring at me. The tattoo disintegrated before my eyes and I
was left staring intro those bleak eyes. She looked a whole lot older than her
age and those eyes were staring at me as if seeing right through me. I was so
busy seizing her up that I didn’t notice the order: Kill her! Or notice what
she was doing. After that I felt no more. Now I am no more, than a ghost. Let
this be a warning to all of you if you ever go to a tattoo shop. Check out the
owner cause he just might just be a ... vampire. If anyone does dare go to that
shop I’ll be coming for you to give you the less painful death that you
deserve.
The End
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