Whelve

Chapter Sixteen

Ev

The comforting buzzing of the needle made me smile as Marcie started the second and -from the looks of it- the final session of my chest tattoo. I stared at the ceiling as the time passed, soft rock music -Marcie's choice- echoing in the room and kept my breathing very low. Now and then, Marcie would hum along with the melody or whistle and I was sure at some point she moved the needle alongside the rhythm.

I watched her as she took a different tattoo machine and then looked at the door that led to the front and smiled. Slowly I turned my head and greeted Colin, Marcie's brother, with a nod.

"Hey, there," he said back and stood next to a bed next to me.

"What happened with the case?" Marcie asked.

"We won," Colin answered and leaned over to look at my fresh tattoo. "That looks very cool. Did you design it?" he went on and Marcie stopped tattooing me for a moment.

"Yes," I softly said right before Marcie started up again.

"So, how are you doing Mar?" Colin asked her.

"I'm fine," she replied, her voice muffled by the mask she was wearing. I looked at her weird. Marcie wasn't one to lie often, meaning her lying voice was shit.

"What happened?" I asked, keeping my tone extremely low as to not move my chest.

"Broke up with Derek," she sharply said.

"Finally," Colin muttered with a quick roll of his eyes.

"Why?" I asked her and then gritted my teeth as the needle went over the edge of my collarbone, making me wince in pain.

"Cause he's a dick," Marcie all but barked and made it clear to me she was done talking.

I shared a look with Colin, who never stopped worrying about his sister and then went back to looking at the ceiling. I wondered whether Marcie had told her brother about the abortion. Maybe that had been why she had broken up with Derek. Maybe she had told him, and he had been a dick about it. To be honest, I was a bit relieved that she was done with him. Ever since the first time I had met him I had a bad feeling about him. He had always been too toxic to deal with and I couldn't help but wonder how Marcie had been able to deal with him for as long as she had.

Two hours later, I was on my way back home. My tattoo stung a bit, but it was manageable, and I was used to it by now. I wasn't sure how many more tattoos I wanted to get, I had always been open to getting more but with my chest full and my arms as well I was slowly starting to run out of space. At least for big ones. I still had my back free for something and I was sure my free leg would also get tattooed at one point, but I couldn't think of something to get just yet.

I opened the door and was immediately greeted by Omen. She came by my feet and rubbed her head against my shoes. Without saying anything to her I smiled and lowered to remove my combat boots, softly scratching the top of her head. I yawned and stretched my arms upward, ready to go and greet Daniel, who hadn't said anything to me yet and as my full apartment got into full-view I felt my blood freeze.

He wasn't there.

At once I swung open the bathroom door, that hadn't been closed, just drawn ajar and let out a quick exhale when I didn't see him. He couldn't have left. He couldn't have! I went back to the main room, Omen following me, distress clear in her meows. He wasn't there. He wasn't.

"Shit," I said under my breath and quickly put on my boots again. There was a slow drizzle outside, but I didn't think of grabbing anything to protect myself from it. Besides, I was still wearing my jacket.