Aurora

Untitled Part 1

Prologue-JOYCE

For the first time in ten years, my tattoo burned. It was a very weird feeling, as if something was tingling on my neck and I rushed to the school washroom to check.

I rarely go to the school washroom, but this time it was an emergency. And what I saw in the mirror made me skip at least maybe four heartbeats, meaning it was that horrible. I don't mean the yucky horrible but; my tattoo was all red.

My skin seemed as if it got rashes, and then the burning increased. It glowed red.

I usually wear high-collared shirts and turtlenecks.

In short, I keep my neck covered at all times.

I had this tattoo when I was five years. An incredible age to get a tattoo was what my dad had told me that time.

My mum is an alcohol addict. She plays poker; actually, she lives to play poker and drink. She never even took care of me when I was young. My dad had homeschooled me all by himself until I was twelve years old and then he sent me to a private school as his personal secretary- Richard Gary had suggested.

I was expelled after two weeks.

There were a million reasons for my expulsion, my headmistress had said.

I loved my maths teacher. She was a sweet female. Always took special interest in me and it somehow freaked me out, cause my dad had told me that; if anyone takes extreme interest in you there's always a reason for it and usually a bad reason.

But then she was very sweet to everybody and she had even given me two golden badges for being the fastest calculator in the class.

Maths always seems to cool me down, and I loved the subject. There was only logic behind the subject, and always the same kind. You get the logic and the world is in your feet (world of math).

One day it was very windy and the children wanted to go out and play. So, the teacher after many pleas; let them out but I stayed indoors.

Bad weather was not my type especially black clouds and stormy winds.

But the teacher dragged me out and I was sitting on the highest point of the monkey bars, when my scarf stripped off my neck and I jumped to catch it. And then the kids noticed my tattoo and started yelling.

The other day I exploded the entire bottle full of maggots in the Biology Lab.

It was completely unintentional.

There were many other incidents and they happened every day.

My mom did nothing but only taunted my dad for sending me to school and mocked me all day long.

And then dad got a governess for me. She was Mexican, but her accent was richly Spanish, and so it was difficult for me to understand her English.

But then after the weird incidents at school, no one wanted to tutor me.

She taught me for three years and by then I was perhaps very intelligent for the kids of my age that no school approved of me. And then my dad travelled all the way from New York to Italy- Rome.

And a completely new experience began for me.

Hi, my name is Joyce.

I go to Duncan Hikes. It's a boarding school in a village in Italy.

It's an extremely weird village, totally cut off from the world. Even the weather cycle is weird. The atmosphere is weird and it's my second year in this school.

Weird is another name for this village.

My dad says it's weird because it is an ancient land.

By ancient land, he means it's Roman and the powers of the roman gods are different in Rome.

He's a devotee of the Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses.

My governess used to say that his belief in the two weirdest Mythical stories is dangerous.

Anyways back to the point so today is Thursday, and the weather is hot.

When I was five years old, my dad wasn't home he had gone to Australia for some business meeting.

And so I was home alone with my mother. This rarely happened, because my mother was usually drunk and my dad was scared of her.

My mom played poker the whole day and at noon she came to my room and said "Hey Joyce I'm going to this new tattoo studio, would you care to come".

If my mom were a normal mom, then I would have given a normal reply.

But my mom is not normal so....I gave her a poker face and she said, "It's fine if you want to stay home".

"No, I'll come" was what I didn't want to say but I ended up saying that.

And then like a regular mom she opened my wardrobe, removed a blue cotton frock, and started to change my clothes, humming a tune.

And off we went to the studio.

I offered to sit in the lobby, and watched Tom & Jerry when a man with a goatee and long hair walked towards me and said "Hey kid, how are you".

He was a stranger and so like an absolute normal kid I got up and sat in the other corner, where the receptionist could see me.

He sat on the same chair, and eyed me and then got up and walked toward me.

"How are you, it's been a long time since I last saw you, Joyce Aquila Diane Elizabeth."

"Who are you?" I asked curious. No one had ever used my complete name before.

His eyes were the same colour as mine. They were the same shocking blue and changed to shades of grey, like stormy grey. The way mine did when I was excited.

And his hair was the same colour as mine, reddish brown.

Same smooth texture, huge curls and thick as a horse's mane.

And when I looked into his eyes again, I felt a tug in my gut, I felt something trying to reach out, and a tear dropped from his eye.

"You are well taken care of. Just like he promised" said the man and took my hand and I walked along with him in to the room where my mom was getting a tattoo on her back.

"There you are Joyce, would you like a tattoo".

Any sane mother would never have asked a five-year-old kid of hers such a question, but my mom wasn't sane.

"Of course, she would love to," said the strange man.

And the next minute I was on the chair with this man tattooing my neck.

It was a weird tattoo, all around my neck like a neckband.

And today after ten years, it is burning.