"Always by your side"

The Tattoos

It had been a week after defeating the Old Ones that the tattoos appeared.

Five circles in the shape of a star surrounded by a larger circle and in the middle "5"

It was on a silent night when Richard was tending to Matt and Scott's wounds that he heard one of the boys whimper. Worried, he turned around to find Matt gripping his left wrist. "My wrist... it stings." he Cried. "It hurts." Matt's condition was predictable by his voice. So quiet and raspy. He sounded full of pain. Richard stood himself up and headed quickly to Matt with a worried expression on his face.

"Let me see it." Richard demanded, whispering so he didn't wake Scott . He grabbed ahold of Matt's wrist and turned it round to find a tattoo. Five circles arranged in the shape of a star guarded almost by a larger circle, and in it's centre...

"5"

Richard was taken back by what he saw in front of him.

Matt was only 15, too young to get a tattoo. "Matt-" He began "-where did you get this tattoo from?"

Matt looked just as confused as Richard was. "What tattoo?" He asked, his voice sounding even more painful than before. Matt set himself up on his bed, resting on his right elbow and having Richard support his back. He glanced at his wrist then faced Richard. "I- I don't know where it came from." he managed to get out before being interrupted by Scott. He had began to whimper himself, also clenching tightly around his left wrist.

"Wait here." Said Richard pouncing up again and hurrying over to where the boy lay.

Scott didn't talk anymore. When he recovers he'll have to go through speech therapy but at the moment he was so emotionless. It hurt Jamie the most, Scott didn't even talk to his twin brother telepathically anymore. "Scott, what's wrong?" Richard uttered before realising Scott couldn't answer. "Show me, where does it hurt?" he re-phrased his question. Scott lifted his tight grip off his left wrist and gestured it to Richard.

"What the actual shit is going on?!" Richard shouted furiously. There on Scott's left wrist, in the exact same location as where it was on Matt's, was the tattoo.

Richard felt it was mocking him at this point.

"What's happening in here?" Came a voice just outside of the room.

It was Scarlett. She had been at both of the boys sides most of the time, helping Richard treat their wounds, feed them, bathe them. She had only left because Richard had forced her to get some sleep.

"Scarlett go take a look at Matt's left wrist." He said.

She walked over to Matt who was lying down again, he didn't have enough strength to lift himself for that long. Matt lifted his wrist for Scarlett to see the bizarre tattoo. "Matthew!" She laughed. "Who told you that you where allowed a tattoo at your age!"

Matt smiled ever so slightly. "No one." he replied. "That's just it." Richard said.

"Come check out Scott's wrist."  Scarlett looked at Richard confused then began to get a look of surprise on her face. She grinned as she waltzed over to Scott. Then she saw the tattoo and began to laugh hysterically. "Oh my God! Scott and Matt have matching tattoos, that's so cute!" She giggled. But then she noticed the look of grimace on Richard's face. "What's wrong?" She sighed. "Oh don't be mad at them Richie, it's just a tattoo at the end of the day."

"That's not the problem Scar." Richard stated. "These tattoos came out of nowhere."

"Well yeah you've never seen them before." Said Scarlett.

"No you don't understand." Richard began to appear angry.

"I've never seen these tattoos before, not when bathing either of them, not when fixing up their bandages."

"Never before have I seen these tattoos on these boys" Richard had repeated himself and was beginning to shout. Scarlett could see the confusion, anger and upset in the man and was getting scared he was going to punch another wall and break his hand again. If anything bad happened to  his family he would punch a wall. But surely something as harmless as a tattoo couldn't cause him to get this frustrated?

"Richard please calm down." Scarlett begged.

"How can I calm down, they both gripped their wrist till they were practically bleeding, they were in pain Scarlett, this is some kind of Voodoo crap!" Richard had woken everyone in the house with his loud shouting. And now in the room stood Pedro and Jamie, they both looked tired and panicked. Richard glared at both of the boys.

"Everything is Hell at the moment!"

Richard began. He had stood up and was looking at the ground. Scarlett was ready to run up to him and give him a hug, it seemed to be the only way to calm him down when he got like this. "I mean look at us! Pedro is too weak to use his powers  so he can't heal Matt or Scott, Jamie can't contact Scott at all because of how injured he is, and I'm being absolutely useless in this!"

Richard spun around and swung his fist at the wall.

He was fed up with himself.

His fist began to rapidly bleed and it looked broken, like he had shattered all the bones in his hand. The walls had been cracked all the way up to the ceiling and crimson blood was trickling down. There was already a small puddle on the ground.

Scarlett ran up to him and grabbed ahold of his shirt and turned him round so he was facing her. She leapt into his arms and began to hug him.

"Don't you ever say that you have been useless in this!" She cried.

"You have done so much for us and the fact you haven't left yet means the world to us Richard!"

"It really does, okay!"

Scarlett could hear Richard breathe heavily as he began to cry.

She didn't let go, not until he was better. Richard found himself hugging Scarlett back not long after.

Jamie and Pedro decided it would be best to leave, they didn't want to make things worse.

There Richard and Scarlett stayed for 10 minutes before she heard his breathing return to normal again.

" Thank you " he sniffled.