Tattoo

• Rhedyn Duncan, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2009

The endless ticks of the clock echoed hollowly through my head. The sound seemed to be mocking me, rendering me helpless to the time I have wrongly spent locked behind these bland and dreary walls. No matter how hard I have protested or how long I have pleaded, my sentence hasn’t wavered. The evidence was too incriminating to even question. What lay silently in my locker convinced them all.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the narrow hallway, announcing someone’s approach. Mr. Banner, a broad set man with wiry, athletic legs and eyes as dark as a moonless night, slipped through the partially opened door.
“Ahh Ellie,” he said with a cruel smile playing on his lips, “It seems you have spent enough time cooped up in here, you may go.” Relief flooded through me and I almost smiled, but something about the cruel shimmer in his eyes hindered me.
“Oh and Ellie,” he said, “your mother called and she’ll be picking you up at the back entrance of the school.”
“Thanks.” I muttered as I began to hastily make my way down the hall way.
“Hang on Ellie,” Mr Banner called out to me. Reluctantly I turned around to look once again into his dark harsh eyes. “I was wondering if I may accompany you?” He asked with a sharp yet charming smile. “You see I have to lock the back door and turn off the lights.”
“I guess,” I replied, trying not to let my annoyance colour my tone. As I walked towards the exit with Mr. Banner trailing after me, an eerie silence fell - the sounds of our footsteps rumbled through the now abandoned building.

It seemed like an eternity until the green glow of the exit sign illuminated my gateway to freedom. Just before I could rush out the door and embrace my long yearned freedom, Mr. Banner called for my attention once again.
“I sincerely hope you’ll think twice before you pull another stunt like that?” He said in a disapproving tone. Just as I was about to uselessly defend myself for the hundredth time, he cut me off. “And you won’t want to be forgetting this will you now?” He asked as his hand slipped into to his pocket and revealed my phone - I hadn’t seen since it had been confiscated. As I reached out to retrieve it, I noticed a peculiar tattoo engraved across his knuckles. I stared at it in wonder, for I did not recognise the strange language splayed across his firm, pale knuckles. When he realised my attention was drawn towards his Tattoo, he pulled his hand back quickly - like a person confronted by a venomous snake. Taken aback by his strange reaction I slipped quickly through the cold steel doors - calling out behind me “See ya later Mr. Banner.”
“Yes,” Mr. Banner replied, as he closed the doors and locked them, “See you later.”

As Mr. Banner strode away down the hallway, the light flickered off behind him. The chilly breeze bit at my checks, blowing my hair out like a cascading waterfall down my back and making me shiver. The yellow beam of the only street light filtered through the descending mist. I pulled my phone out to see what was keeping mum. The words that light up the screen made my heart give a sudden frantic jolt and goose bumps rise on my arms.
“Please Insert Simcard”
Before I could even contemplate what this would mean, the street light suddenly flickered out, and I was left blinded by the impenetrable darkness. A bin tumbled over and clattered behind me. I spun around in the cocoon of darkness, unable to even glimpse the culprit. Over the deafening pounding of my heart, I heard a different kind of pounding that could only be defined as footsteps racing towards me. Before I could comprehend what was happening, I was flying down the street - the bitumen, a black blur beneath me. I ran as hard as I could - adrenaline coursing through my veins. The only chance of escaping my invisible pursuer - a reckless thunder shadowing my every step, was to cut through the marshy turf of the mangroves.

I had no time to slow down before the thicket of long treacherous roots and branches were snaking across my path. Ducking was pointless for I could not see the obstacles - only feel their merciless wrath as they stuck me. Behind me I could hear the shrieking slices of a blade as branches were hacked away. I felt as if I was trapped in a menacing nightmare.

No matter how fast I ran, slipping and skidding through the under growth, the bloodcurdling slicing always seemed to be drawing nearer - a deadly reminder of what was to come. Every ounce of energy I once possessed was dwindling from me. I was on the verge of collapsing into the boggy marsh, which would soon mark my grave. Suddenly I tumbled through the last of the mangroves onto the soggy plains of the marina. I was just about to gratefully collapse onto the dew tipped grass and wallow in my triumph, when the sound of a hair raising slice pierced the air, shattering my triumphant trance.

I stumbled to my feet - as a new wave of terror replenished my energy, and sped off into the still, misty night. After weaving through street after street, the silhouette of my house became visible through the dense moist mist. There was no sign of life. With fearful despair I realised no one was home. I staggered to the eaves where the key was hidden and with a trembling hand, unlocked the door and rushed in, dead bolting it behind me. I ran franticly around the house flicking on the lights as I went, checking that all the doors and windows were secure. Once satisfied, I snatched up the phone to call mum and was confronted with a sound that made my hair stand on end- the beeping of a disconnected phone.

The phone slipped through my unresponsive fingers as my body become paralysed with fear. The phone hit the floor with an ear-splitting crash, sending me fleeing to the confines of my room. I locked the door behind me and began backing away cautiously. All was silent - as if the whole world was holding its breath. Suddenly a loud pounding on the door made my heart skip a beat. My vision hazed and I began spiralling into the dark depths of unconsciousness.

I awoke with a gasp. Relief trickled through me at the realisation that it was all a terrible dream. A sharp pang of pain pulled my attention down towards my feet and I saw with surging panic, a gruesome mixture of blood and mud caked onto the soles of my feet. My clothes were torn and tattered and deep cuts crisscrossed my arms. All traces of the relief I once felt had dissolved - replaced by a heart hammering fear. An ear-splitting screech taunted my ears making me cringe back into my pillow. I looked up to see what was causing the ear wrenching noise. The silhouette of a man shrouded in black stood motionless at my window. Clenched tightly in his hand was a glistening, silver hooked knife and splayed across his knuckles was a strange yet familiar Tattoo...
Another ear-splitting screech filled the air - but this time it was mine.