The Devil Wears Yellow

17

The days went on of doing the fearful simulations. Eden hadn't seen Eric since the night she spent but she didn't mind. Most nights she just slept next to Al. It was a small bed but they just wanted to be close to each other.

When she had some free time after dinner, and Al claimed to be busy, she walked towards the tattoo shop to see Josh.

"Hey kiddo," he said giving her a hug. "How you doing?"

"The fear simulations suck," she said while laying on the tattoo chair.

"How many do you have? I had eight last time I did it."

"Five, but they're bad," she told him and he raised his eyebrows. "It's getting easier though."

"Yea. It's trying to teach you to deal with fears without any hesitation," he told her. "Do you want a tattoo?"

"Go ahead," she huffed and he smiled walking off.

"I actually thought of you when I drew this up," he said while handing her the panel. It was the word survivor written vertically with each letter underneath each other.

"I really like it," she said and he nodded.

"You don't get to choose the spot this time," he said while pushing her hair aside. He stuck the pad behind her ear and going down her neck.

"How bad will this one hurt?"

"Average. It'll only be a couple seconds though," he said and put the design into the computer.

"By the time I die, I'm convinced I'm going to be covered in spontaneous tattoos."

"Spontaneous maybe, but they're all good," he said and pressed the button to make the tattoo transfer onto her skin.

"I really like them," she said and he smiled at her. He peeled back the tattoo and held the mirror up. "You've done it again. I love it."

"Knew you would," Josh said with a smile. "But I have customers so you need to get out of here," he said and she frowned.

"But I'm bored," she said and he shrugged while pulling her off the chair.

"Not my problem. Bye kiddo," he said giving her a hug and sending her off. She huffed but walked out. It was getting late so she decided to just go back to the dorm. She noticed that Al wasn't there and she raised an eyebrow.

"Have you guys seen Al?" Eden asked Will and Christina.

"Not since dinner," Will said and she nodded while sitting on her bed. She pulled out a book and decided to read it while waiting for Al. Eventually she ended up just falling asleep with the book on her chest.

When she woke up the next morning she saw Al sitting on his bed with his face in his hands. She furrowed her eyebrows and walked over.

"Al? What's wrong?" She asked while sitting next to him.

"I did something terrible," he said quietly and Eden could hear that he was on the verge on tears. She grabbed his hands and he looked up at her. She saw the cut on his lip and the bruise on his cheek.

"What happened to you?" She asked while running her thumb across his lip.

"You're going to hate me," he said and she shook her head.

"I can't ever hate you," she told him while rubbing his arm. He sighed while looking at his lap.

"I've been doing really bad at the simulations. Bad to the point that I'm not going to make it through," he said and Eden frowned.