The Tattoo

Heat opened the front door of his house and entered; it was dark when he got home. He turned on the lights in the living room, saw Riza sleeping on the couch and entered his room with a smile. When he turned on the lights, the smile slowly faded away. Dan, Debbie, Eli and Hannah were asleep in a mess made of all kinds of food.

After staring at the mess for a long while, all he could do was sigh.

Dan, who was sleeping on the floor woke up and waved his hand. "Riza gave us too much food."

"Because of you." Debbie said.

"The food was still too much," Eli said.

"Eli, keep quiet," Hannah said.

"Heat, I'm so sorry," Riza said as she rose to her feet, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. "They asked for more food and I guess I gave them a little too much."

"It's okay. I have a backup plan. Dan, Debbie, we're switching rooms tonight and by tomorrow, this place should be neat."

There was a sudden loud car honk.

"A van's outside," Heat said.

"Eli, Hannah, Aunt Miriam's here. Let's go."

Eli and Hannah got up and headed for the door with Riza.

"Goodbye," they said together.

A split second later, Riza opened the door. "Heat."

"Yeah?"

"How did you know it was a van?"

"Good guess."

Riza grinned. "Sure, a guess."

"What's wrong?" Hannah asked when they entered the van.

"It's just…he's been acting weird and doing weird stuff lately. Like when he returned today, it was like he was giving off some kind of aura or something. Didn't you notice?" Riza asked.

"Like smelly? I think he was too."

"Not that." Riza chuckled. "I can't explain it. It felt different….weird."

****

"BRNGGGG!!"

The school bell rang to signal the start of class. On his way to class, Heat met Ursus in the hallway. Ursus walked past like he never saw him.

Heat reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Ursus, we need to talk."

Heat could feel Ursus' arm becoming heavier.

"If ya don't want a fist in your mouth, ya will let go."

Heat let go of Ursus' arm but he grabbed it again, tighter this time.

"Since you care about my mouth, listen, I'm sorry," Heat said and walked away.

He wasn't sure why, but he knew he owed Ursus and apology. As hard he tried to remember, staying up throughout the night, he still couldn't tell what the reason was.

"Heat, you are exactly fifty seconds late for class," the teacher said as he entered.

"Sorry, I guess."

When lunchtime finally arrived, Heat remained in the class for a while, asking himself how to apologize for something he wasn't aware of. After realizing there was no one right answer, he headed to the cafeteria. At one corner, Aquila sat with a group of friends; he walked over.

"May I sit?"

The answer was a cold "no", which drew laughter from the group.

Undeterred, Heat bent over, placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered to her, ���I'm sorry, I don't know why, but I need your help."

She held Heat's hand to lift it off her shoulder, but when she touched him, she heard a voice say, "Supernatural idiots."

Annoyed, she stood up and looked him in the eye.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard it too?"

Heat's face brightened, overjoyed that he was able to ask that question.

"What?" Aquila was confused now. "Of course I heard it!"

"Ssshhhh." Beaming with joy, Heat tried to calm her down. "The voice said 'idiots', not 'idiot'—it was directed to the two of us."

"Follow me."

They moved to an empty table.

"What's going on?" Aquila asked.

"I have no idea, but I'm so glad I'm not the only one hearing the voice. I think it has something to do with my actions lately."

"Where's that voice from?" Aquila paused for a moment, "Wait, no one else has ever heard it?"

"Not until you just did."

"You could be infected with something, probably during battle. Have you told anyone else?"

"No, you're the first."

"Has this voice come up around Supido before?"

"I don't know. It occurs randomly."

"Supido is the one person I'll bet can hear it."

"I doubt. I think you heard it 'cause you touched me."

"Lunch is almost over. We should wait after school, I'll take you to captain Stephanie, I'm sure she'll have answers."

"I wouldn't recommend that, Heat."

That was the voice again.

"No Aquila, I don't think that's very smart. Please promise me that you wouldn't tell anyone," Heat said.

"Why? She's the best option, and she can keep a secret."

The bell rang to signal the end of lunch. Aquila and Heat stood up in sync with everyone else in the cafeteria.

"Let's talk later."

"Fine, till then, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks," Heat said as they both walked out.

As they walked through the hallway, a boy passed by Heat, "Nice tatt, man."

Heat paused, confused. He looked around to see if the boy was referring to someone else.

"Interesting," Aquila said.

"What?"

She held his right arm and moved his sleeve back. On his bicep, there was a tattoo of a lady who barely dressed.

"I must admit, I never thought you liked this kinda stuff." She spoke with obvious disapproval in her tone.

"Wait, what?"

Heat covered the tattoo and rushed to his seat in the class. He sat in a row nicknamed row 4.0. There were five seats on each row in the classrooms, and his was made up of the top four students in the entire grade: he, Zainab, Supido, and a boy called Keita.

"So, what does it represent?" Zainab asked.

"What?" Heat asked, knowing very well what she was referring to.

"The tattoo."

"Oh, this is…um-"

"-One of two things." Supido cut in. "Either my long-time suspicion of Heat's love for explicit materials is true or my already proven hypothesis of him being an idiot who has no reason for half the stuff he does is presenting another proof. I go with the latter though, it maintains that the illusion of whatever shred of pride he has is still existent. I bet he had that tattoo because he had a good dream." Supido and Zainab chuckled.

"...And that is one of the reasons why symbols are used." The teacher paused. "Can any of you three chatting, mention an example of symbolism used in our modern day?" he asked.

"Tattoos, to hold a memory," Supido said.

"Correct. Like what Heat has on your arm."

The whole class glanced at Heat's tattoo, many of them admiring it; few disapproving.

"That must've cost a lot of money, it looks so expertly made."

"Mr. Andani, can I use the restroom?"

He sighed. "Your lunch was over just about a couple of minutes ago."

"Yes, but this is a really serious emergency, because the class is about to become a mess."

"I'm too nice..." He looked at his watch. "You have exactly two minutes, go."

Heat walked gently out of the class and immediately transported to the restroom. He started at his arm the mirror. The tattoo was no longer just a half-naked lady; it was a tattoo of the same lady, only this time she was wrapped around by a snake. The tattoo looked like that of the alchemical cross (a cross with a snake wrapped around it), only that the snake was longer and there was a woman not a cross. Heat staggered back to the class, sat in his chair quickly and began panting like he was trying to catch his breath.