The Three-Day Mark

The Mark

Walter Makin, the most antisocial person in the world has never met anyone as talkative as Louis Stewart. Just listening to Louis talk about how he found him was giving him a headache. He also noticed the small glances that Louis gave his newly tattooed arm, like he knew what the mark meant. The mark had a beautiful rose on it with three petals, but what confused Walter the most was the slight movement it made every now and then, like if was pulsing. Not only did this stupefy him but it also terrified him. From the information he gathered from his grandmothers old books about curses and symbols, this rose is for curses demons commonly used for attracting its victims. He also remembered coming across a photo of a similar looking rose that had a description that explained that the rose would have three petals. Each petal represented the amount of days you had to live. He hoped that wasn't the case.

"From the looks of it, ya seem to know what the mark's for." Louis stated after finishing his long explanation on how he found Walter. "Most people with that mark are usually as clueless as a rock until their time's up." He continued, "So why're different than the others?" Louis asked, raising a suspicious brow at him.

"I could ask you the same thing." Walter replied as coolly as possible, not wanting to reveal to Louis that he came from a long line of exorcists and that he came to the town because of the stupid parchment he received from a unknown tipper.

Louis let out a snort at his retort, "Okay, okay, your secrets are yours, don't need ya to be tellin me 'bout em. Least tell me if ya know 'bout the 'Merry' goin round."

"Merry?" Walter asked, the name was familiar but he couldn't pin-point where he's heard it from. Without warning, Louis let out a loud guffaw that made Walter jump in his chair.

"Ya mean ya don't know 'bout Merry?" Louis exclaimed, "Merry? The demon that marks ya then sends a shadow to kill ya? Ya don't know 'bout im?" Then it clicked. Walter did know who Merry was. He knew about Merry, the lower demon that feeds on your soul, using a rose mark that gives you three days to live. He also knew that Merry liked to send out a shadow of him to come eat its victims after the three day mark is finished. Merry's shadow, like every other shadow, liked to take the form of a human to avoid attracting exorcist's from exorcising it. From what Walter remembers, to get rid of them, he would have to draw a purifying circle on the ground of the place he got cursed then recite words that would purify the demon.

Suddenly, a flash of light came from his arm."What the-?" Walter glanced down at his arm to find that a petal of the pulsing rose was gone. A few minutes ago it had three petals how did the three suddenly drop to two?

Louis gave him an incredulous look, "Have ya forgotten the time already? By the time I found ya, it was already 10 pm. Took me 'bout an hour to wake ya, and we've been talkin' for the last 40 minutes too." He looked at the last two pedals remaining then looked up when Louis continued, "Well, one less petal in your life!" Louis laughed at his joke as Walter gave him a look.

"I'm dying from laughter." Walter replied dryly.