Black Tattoo

Happy B-Day

"What is it?" He asks, curiosity all over his face. He looks at the small green box in his hands.

"Dad would want you to have it, I hope you like it. But wait till it's dark to open it, okay?" He stays silent for a while probably thinking about Mom and Dad. He gave me a quick hug and said thank you before running off.

He shows the green box to Sokaku, they are getting really close...

Time flew by after that, we sang Happy Birthday, ate some cake. We had a lot of fun. Everybody was here, Alex, Sidney, Nadel, the twins. Even David was here and he got shot (by me) a couple of days ago. He is walking again.

"Mich! Come over here." Sokaku calls from the other side of the room, he is standing behind a table covered with all time of weapons. I can see different types of swords, hammers, staffs, knives, long-knives like my own, and even a bow with arrows.

I walked closer to the table, I wanted to see what was going to happen.

"Chose one." Sokaku says with a smirk.

Mich takes his time, he inspects every single one and tries everything.

In the end he chooses a staff, a wooden staff. It is two heads bigger than him and has Japanese words carved in the upper part.

"What do these carvings mean?" Mich asks.

Sokaku smiles.

"It says 'the will to fight'." He explains. Mich smiles, he jumps up and down with excitement. I look around and see faces with smiles all around. Mich has that affect on people, you see him smile and you just have to smile back.

That's when it happens.

Mich falls to his knees. The staff falls out of his grasp, stumbling to the floor. The hand that was holding the staff grabs his right shoulder, because of the pain. In seconds, I am on my knees next to him and a hand on his back moving in circles. When I look up I see Sokaku's worried expression.

"It hurts!" Mich screams. He has watery eyes and it hurt me to see him like this, in pain. I can't do anything to make him feel better.

"Just hold tight it will pass soon." I try to encourage him.

"What's going on?!" Sokaku asks, worried. He looks at me for an answer but I don't give him on. I don't get the chance.

"It happens on our 14th Birthday." David says. I turned to look at him, as everybody else does.

"David!" Kate yells, a bit angry. 

"What?! He deserves to know!" He says back. They start arguing.

"It is not our place to decided to tell him!" Alex voice instantly silences them. He turns to give me an encouraging smile. He is definitely the leader and if not they respected him like one.

"Kara, please tell me. I don't know what's going on. If I don't know what's going on how can I know how to help?" Sokaku asks. He isn't angry anymore, he is just sad and hurt.

He doesn't have anything to do with this. I can't just pull him into this!

"Kara, please." Sokaku begs, he never begs. It just isn't like him to beg for something, he must really want to know but...

"Fine" I whisper. I'm not going to like this.

"I don't know were to start" I say, laughing a little. I look into Mich's eyes, he is still in so much pain but the hardest part is yet to come.

"From the beginning." Sokaku says.

I take a deep breath.

"It appears when we turn 14, we get the tattoo." I smile at Mich. "The tattoo, well, it's not normal. It heightens our senses, makes us stronger and faster but it also gives us power." I say.

"It's called animal spirit." Alex explains.

"Yeah, it's called animal spirit, because it gives us animal powers." I leave that hanging in the air, waiting for Sokaku to answer.

"So this tattoo... gives you powers." Sokaku says. "What kind of animal powers?"

"Everyone of us has animal characteristics. This is really hard to explain, Alex help me out here." I say, it is a lot harder to explain than I thought. I guess, I kept it a secret for so long that I don't even know how to say it.

"Very well." Alex says. "We all have animal characteristics, yes. But from one type of animal. For example, my animal is an owl." He tells.

From the look on Sokaku's face, he doesn't believe him. "I am really trying to believe you guys but I just can't. I don't believe in fairy tails." Sokaku says. Alex looks untroubled about it and continues. "It seems you won't believe us until you see it with your own eyes." He starts taking off his white button up shirt.

Once his shirt is off you can see the tattoo in his right shoulder black as the night.

Suddenly, his eyes start glowing, they turn yellow. A pair of long gray wings stretch out on his back and his nails grew longer and sharper. The best part are definitely his wings, they look mighty and intimidating.

"What the hell?! That's not possible! It can't be!" Sokaku takes a couple of steps back.

"No need to be afraid, I have it under control." Alex says as his wings disappear, his nails go  back to normal and eventually his eyes do too.

"Wow! Will I be able to do that?" Mich asks in disbelieve. He stands up slowly still holding his shoulder. I lead him to the couch and make him sit down.

"Yes, you just have to find out which type of animal you are." I say. Mich smiles happily, it surprises me how well he took things. Sokaku on the other hand is trying to think of an excuse. Of a way to explain what he just saw.

"But but that's not possible! There has to be an explanation for this, I mean-"

"It is possible" I say. I touch his shoulder startling him out of his thoughts. He turns to look at me. I feel my blood going to my cheeks, I blush! This was not the time to blush!

"Can you do it too?" He asks quietly. For some reason it makes my heart skip a beat and makes my stomach tingle. I slowly nod.

"The power is passed down by blood, so just a few people have it." Alex says.

"Mom and Dad?" Mich asked, looking at me. 

"Yeah" I say. "Both of them had it". I walk over to him and sit next to him. "Does it still hurt?" I ask. 

"Yeah, but not as much as before." He says. There is a pause after that, I am thinking about the time I got the tattoo. It hadn't hurt as much, because I was in shock the whole time.

"I miss them, Kara, I really do." Mich suddenly says. I put my arm around him, his head resting on my arm. 

"I know, I miss them too." I say.

We stay like that even after Alex and the others said goodnight and went to sleep, even after Sokaku finally said goodnight. Although he was still in shock. We stayed like that even after Mich had fallen asleep and was dreaming of his staff.

But I didn't want to move. I felt like I was home.