The Tattooed | Completed | ✔

Chapter 17 - Time To Go

My chance came sooner than I thought. Dimitri didn't come home that night, leaving a message on the port. He was going to be gone for two weeks, to an island where the Government was trying to push out the Escaped settlement. I was happy he would be gone. He wouldn't suspect a thing about us, he'd be home in two weeks to find us long gone.

I contained my excitement and worry that morning when Eddy came downstairs, I wasn't going to tell her anything. She would just come home from school and then we would leave. I trusted Eddy but I didn't trust those around her. If she were to tell anyone that we were leaving, it could be bad. They could contact Dimitri and tell him we were going to leave. Then he would know, he would know that I knew about his betrayal.

Eddy was excited about her trip to the Inner Providence today. She had been looking forward to this for awhile, that's why were leaving afterwards. I wanted her to have one last moment of happiness before I dragged her away and back into a life of hiding and constant worry. The life we were going back to was one I wish she didn't have to live in but Dimitri wasn't her father and I wasn't her mother. I'd be the best I possibly could be, I've been doing good for the past three years so I think I can do good for the rest of her life.

I began packing our things, throwing all of our Escaped clothing into the bottom of duffel bags. Covering them in a thin layer of Central clothing, hiding away our secrets from my own eyes. No one would see them and no one would know they were even there, my mind would be at ease. I wanted to just curl in a ball and waste away in my room, my closet even, if it meant that I didn't have to drag Eddy away from her seemingly perfect life. I didn't want to bring her back into the world of Tattoos.

I needed a jacket, a coat, something to cover Eddy when I was flying. I'd have to use one of Dimitri's coats, they were hidden away in his secret closet, it'd be just big enough. My wings would be able to move freely even with Eddy tucked between the material and my skin. She could stay warm at the heights I would need to stay just so no one would see us. Dimitri' Escaped closet was identical to my own, hidden behind a wall in the original paneling.

Pulling away the boards that kept the room away from prying eyes, I stared at the dark wood covered room. Most of his clothing was still here but he'd obviously been here lately, it was in a mess like he left in a hurry. He left us in a hurry. He left his lies behind, for us to deal with and think about. I hated it, my skin was becoming flush with anger. My chest began to ache. It hurt to think, hurt to just have the simple thought that the man I was in love with didn't care about me, didn't care about the child growing inside me. He didn't care about the child he already had, the one that was unsuspecting about her father.

I lost it, my fist connected with wood. Over and over again, my fist hit the wall. Harder each and every time, I swung as if the pain would never go away like this was going to help. My chest hurt more than my knunckles did, it felt as if it had been ripped apart. Like my own heart had been torn from my chest and the only way I could make it stop was to keep hitting the wall. I felt the tears pouring onto my exposed arms, was it tears? My knunckles were connecting with the wooden wall faster and faster. I had to break the wall, I couldn't stop until it was nothing, until nothing but a hole was left. Nothing but the little pieces of broken family, the crushed remains of the hope I had to finally have a normal life. To have a real family to call my own.

Fire licked my calves, I felt the sickenly coldness that was my Tattoo. I smelt the burning cloth, my shirt being reduced to ashes around me. I wanted to laugh in that moment, here I was smashing a wall to bits and I was being covered in cold fire. What actual sense that made in life, I didn't know. But for a fleeting moment, the pain left my chest, just a moment and then it was back. Slamming into me like I was a child being thrown into a wall. I screamed, not caring if the neighborhood heard me, and screamed until my lungs felt as if they were on fire themselves.