The Tattooed | Completed | ✔

Chapter 9 - Who Cares?

"Ryan?"

"Yes and you're Gwyneth." He stepped out from the branches. He was tall, shorter than both Jessie and Dimitri, but he was much taller than me. His shoulders were wider set than mine, he could easily take me in the state I was in ",No need to look so tough. I'm not here to fight or even steal away with you. I'm here to warn you."

"Warn me? About what?"

"Be careful who you trust. Not everyone is as they seem."

"What makes you think I should even trust what you say?" Ryan stepped closer, his face coming into view. His hair was a flame, red and orange. His eyes were a deep green and his torso was exposed. His tattoo not meant for him to be so far from steady ground, not meant for the steep stairs leading away from here.

"I don't expect for you to trust what I say but you'll see, I did."

"You're a fool for coming here. There's no escape for you if you try to fight. I could throw you over the edge."

"I'm no more a fool than you are. Running off in the middle of the night when you're in the condition you're in. You couldn't fight even if you tried." He stepped closer to me, grabbing my wrists before I could react ",There are people out there very worried about you, Gwyn. Just be cautious about who you trust." His lips pressed against my forehead and then he was gone.

I was left there standing, confused and not sure what to do. This strange man coming from the branches of my platform, to warn me of something that far beyond untrue. Telling me to be careful of who I trust and that there were people out there that worried about me.

There was no one out there that was worried about me, was there?

Leaving the platform, I raced down the stairs. The third level was crowded with Fuga born, it wasn't late enough for shops to be closed yet and with Holiday coming up, everyone was doing last minute shopping. I searched the crowds for Ryan, never finding him as I neared the stairs for the second level. He had picked the perfect time to leave me stunned on the highest level. There were going to be crowds of people on every level.

Fighting my way through all the people, I managed to finally reach my building. Thankfully with most everyone out I had no trouble getting to my apartment. The girl that lived across the hall was doing another cleaning session. She mentioned that her parents were coming in from another city and that they were neat freaks, where as she wasn't. She had been apologizing about the mess long before the attack and by the looks of the much smaller piles of things, she was nearly finished.

Getting around the piles wasn't all that hard. I slipped my key into the knob but it was already unlocked. I must have forgotten to lock it when I left earlier. The apartment was dark, moonlight came through the windows.

"I thought I left those open." I whispered. Crossing the floor, I reached out for the curtains.

"Leave them closed." The voice came from the couch, I knew that voice it had haunted my nightmares for years. I didn't turn, leaving my hands on the curtains, gripping them tightly.

"What do you want?" I snapped out.

"Nothing but to give my daughter a parting gift. I wouldn't want you returning to the Tattoo-less world practically defenseless."

"You are no father of mine and I am not defenseless."

"You're not?" There was breathing beside me, hot against my skin ",I could have killed you by now if I wanted to."

"Did your dog decide to roll in something, he smells terrible." My hands clung to the curtains, my knuckles were probably white from how tight I held them. A lamp clinched on from behind me.

"Feisty, just like your mother was."

"Don't you dare speak about her like you knew anything. You had nothing to do with her after I was conceived." Turning on my heel, I slung my fist out. How dare he act as if he knew her. He caught my wrist, pulling my forward until only the couch separated us.

"I loved her." His eyes burned into mine.

"That's why you killed her and nearly did the same to me!"

"I never killed her! I loved your mother and I'll be damned if I ever stopped."

"You tried to kill us on my tenth birthday." I jerked away from him.

"No. I tried to bring you back to my world, back to where it was safe. There are things out that neither you nor your mother knew about. There are people that would try to kill you, experiment on you, just to take and use what you have."

"You pushed the car down an embankment. I nearly died that night because of you." I stared at him, he knew what he had done.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you. I wanted you to stay away from all of this. I wanted you to stay away from these cities and their councils. They're corrupt, they only use Tattooed to get what they want. But your mother decided that I wasn't good enough to love, she fought back."

"Get out. Get out of my apartment, get out of here before-"

"Before what Gwyneth? You're hardly in any shape to harm me." He flung my arm away from him in disgust.

"Leave Gabriel."

"Here." He dropped a small box on the couch and turned, his dog vanishing ",A boy left you a message on the port. He seems nice." Gabriel walked to the front door and opened it "I loved your mother." Closing the door behind him.

I waited until his footsteps were gone and the stairs to the level outside creaked, once the building was silent I walked to the port. My father was right, there was a message waiting for me. It was from Jessie.

"Hey," His face was bright ",sorry I didn't ring you the night I got here. I know it was like four days ago but this is the first time they let me have a port. It's weird to wake up and not see you there, you know, telling me I'm going to be late or something." Jessie was blushing and a few guys in the background called out things about 'his girl back home' ",But yeah anyway, ring me back when you get this." Giving a small wave, he cut the message off.

"I'll ring him tomorrow." I whispered to myself. Clicking the lamp off, I headed to my room.

"Dimitri?"

"Yeah?"

"What's it like? Being a Tattooed, is it any different than being normal?" My wings dangled practically lifeless behind me. Dimitri was carrying me to my new home and by what he said we had a rather long way to go.

"It's different I guess. I mean you won't have any family or friends.You'll be starting all over with nothing other than what you packed."

"You're from there aren't you?" His arms tightened around me

"Yup. I was born and raised in Fuga."

"What's the city like?"

"Nothing I can really explain." His answers were short, nothing to go off of. He didn't want to talk I guess. He was going to make this trip highly boring and I was going to make it awkward with my smalltalk. Deciding to bit my tongue, I laid my chin on his shoulder and watched the clouds.

"Gwyneth are you okay? You haven't talked in hours."

"I'm concentrating on holding on." It was only a half lie, flying wasn't exactly my choice of travel especially since he came without either seats or seat belts.

"Sorry, we'll be there soon."