Monster

by Yolanda Olson

  The tide was definitely turning. It took over three years but I had found him. Oh he was going to pay and he was going to pay dearly.

  Most people would kill to be immortal, but not me. I didn’t want the kind of life where everyone you loved died around you. I didn’t want the kind of life where time moved around you and yet you were stuck in place, watching seasons come and go; being jealous of nature even because it could change more than you could.

  Even feeling envious of night and day because even though they always changed to the same thing at least they changed.

  Whatever.

  I could be bitter about something that I couldn’t change or I could just press on with my mission.

  “I’m ready,” Paige said startling me.

  Standing up I smoothed out my skirt and started down the stairs. I walked down the walk to the gate and went through.

  “Last one out, lock up,” I called over my shoulder.

  I heard the iron gate swing shut and her frantic footsteps trying to keep up with my pace. I had been thinking of getting some new ink for a while and I knew just where to go. Of course I wasn’t too sure they’d let her in the parlor, much left be able to control themselves with humans there. Which is probably why they’re a pretty exclusive parlor.

  “Hey, I’m gonna go get a tattoo. You can’t come with me. So, can you find something to do without getting into too much trouble? I’m not dressed to be a hero today.”

  “Um, sure. I guess,” she said struggling to keep stride next to me.

  “Do you want some money? Maybe you can go catch a movie or go to a lounge or something. Here,” I said pulling out a few twenty dollar bills from the money clip in my tank top.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Just stay out of trouble. I’ll come find you after I’m done. Have fun. If anyone gives you trouble let me know who it is and I’ll take care of them later.”

  I gave her what I hoped was a friendly smile. She smiled back and disappeared down the street toward the lively downtown Devils Lake area. Well as lively as it got here anyway.

  When I was certain she was safely around the corner, I turned around and started back towards the darker alleys of the area. Taking a left down the third alley back, I walked past the hobos and homeless people that were standing huddled in corners or sleeping in their cardboard boxes. If only they knew the danger that lurked so close to them.

  1...2...3...4...5. I silently counted the doors to myself as I passed them and pushed the fifth one in. I smiled when I heard the sounds of the tattoo guns in the building.

  Walking two doors into the next few rooms I pushed open one more door and heard sounds of laughter, loud rock music, and people joking. The sounds stopped as my footsteps approached down the hall. A door swung open and I saw a familiar face poking out.

  “Finn!” he yelled running over to give me a hug. “Long time no see kiddo!”

  Laughing I hugged him back, standing on my tiptoes to get my arms around his broad shoulders. Stepping back I looked up at him and grinned.

  “What can I say Ken? I haven’t had the urge for some new ink. Not until tonight that is.”

  He laughed and pulled me into the room by the hand. Everyone looked over and started waving and giving me hugs. This was the one place I truly felt like myself. After all, I was almost among like-minded monsters.

  Ken’s wide grin gave away a damning toothy smile. At first glance, not many people knew what he was because he very rarely smiled. But I knew what he and his employees were and I liked them all a lot.

  Kendrick Dane. Gorgeous man...er, monster. Spiky black hair constantly shaped up to a point. Kind of like a fake Mohawk. I think faux-hawk is what the kids are calling it these days. Beautiful emerald green eyes topped by thin black eyebrows. His face looked like it was chiseled out of marble; white, smooth, and very strong. He had an amazing body to match; a swimmer’s body. Toned completely with muscle etched into every part of him. Yeah, he was great on the eyes. The only problem that one might find with Ken is that he’s an immortal too, but of the vampire persuasion.

  Midnight Sun was his tattoo studio, and every last one of his vampire artists was fast, accurate, and a Rembrandt in their own way.

  It was true that it had been a while since I’d been there. The last time was when I had him work on my sleeves to get rid of that horrible monstrous mark.

  I remember the night I stumbled into the alley. He had been hanging outside leaning against a wall when he saw me. Coming over to me he gripped me by the arm and yanked me inside. For a moment, just a moment, I felt like he had some intention of killing me which I would’ve welcomed. Instead he had stepped back as if indicating that I smelled and took me to a back room. After I had some time to sit there he came over with a book of tattoo work he had done to show me what he could do for me.

  The rest is history. Graveyard designs, Alice and her rabbit, angels, demons, skulls, even a vampire. As a matter of fact the vampire tattoo was right on the mark and it looked almost like a self-portrait of Ken. Hell if I didn’t know any better it was almost like he had done that to protect me in some way from it.

  “Hey Finn,” called Drake Sellers, from his room. I could hear his tattoo needle going so I knew he was working on someone or something.

  “Hey Drake,” I called back.

  Ken brought me to the front of the parlor and sat on the couch, patting the space next to him. I sat down and crossed one of my legs under the other one facing him.

  “Hold on a sec,” he said heading toward the back of the studio. Two seconds later I heard the introduction to Outnumbered and giggled. I loved that song and I knew that he was playing that particular record for a reason.

  As he walked back with a mischievous grin I could hear Drake and Shane laughing loudly because they knew too.

  “So, what can I do for you tonight kid,” he asked sitting back down next to me.

  Bobbing my head to the beat I told him about what I wanted. A sea serpent winding slowly up my left leg with a shipwrecked scene behind it and the crew torn into pieces scattered in the ocean or swimming away to try to survive.

  “That’s pretty badass,” he said with a smile.

  “So can we get it done?” I asked him eagerly.

  “Yeah that’s not a problem,” he said distracted by something. Leaning over he grabbed my arm gently and raised it a little bit, “What happened here?”

  I knew what he was talking about. My skin hadn’t grown back from a couple of nights ago so the tattoo on my arm was missing a chunk of work. Of course the skin on my face hadn’t grown back either, but that was a smaller piece than my arm so I was able to hide it with powder.

  I shrugged and he grimaced. Somehow he knew how it happened, which made me kind of aggravated. How was it that all of a sudden everyone around me where these amazing know-it- alls?

  He stood up and walked back into his room. I sat there still feeling a little upset when he poked his head out the door. Obviously he was in his chair already because his head was only half the height of the door frame.

  “You coming?” he asked with a laugh.

  On my way back to the room I ran into Max who had apparently been sitting behind the counter the whole time. Funny thing about Max, he never really has much to say so you never know what he’s thinking. He’s extremely quiet too. He could probably sneak up on a shadow. The weird thing about him was that getting him to make eye contact was like pulling teeth.

  “Hello Finn,” he said quietly as I was walked past him.

  That was unusual. I never got more than a nod from him. I looked at him and saw that he was leaned over the counter sketching some things, which explains why I didn’t notice him while I was talking to Ken.

  “Hey there, Max,” I said leaning against the counter, “What are you drawing?”

  Handing me the sketch paper, I saw that he had drawn a beautiful winged human. Her hair was long and flowing, her eyes though void of color at the present time, seemed t
o be filled with such a light. Her face was friendly and her smile was welcoming. He had outfitted her in a long flowing dress, reminiscent of a Greek Goddess.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  I looked down at him and saw him watching me out of his peripheral vision obviously catching the appreciative look on my face.

  “You’re welcome. It’s very pretty and realistic too! She almost looks alive.”

  I handed him the sheet back and watched as he continued his sketch. “She was alive once,” he said.

  “Really? Well whoever she was, she looks like she was very beautiful,” I said looking over his shoulder.

  He put the pencil down and slowly swiveled his chair to face me. Then he did the unthinkable, he looked at me and straight into my eyes too.

  I gasped. I hadn’t meant too but it was impossible not to when I saw his eyes.

  Normally I only had a side view of his face, which was usually covered by his hand, as he usually rested his face on it. Or I usually only ever see his black cropped hair purposely tussled to look like a structured mess.

  This was an amazing treat if anything was.

  I had never seen bright violet eyes before, ever. They were hard but soft, cold but friendly, wide beautiful violet eyes.

  They crinkled around the corner so I knew he was smiling. This was also the first time I had gotten a full view of his face and he truly had the face of an angel. It was boyish but so strong. Deep dimples to go with his smile and a cleft in his chin, which I happened to be so fond of. His nose was a little different though. It came straight down to a point but turned down a little at the edge. That quirk made him stand out though and made his face even more perfect.

  I knew I was staring but I couldn’t help it and he didn’t seem to mind.

  “Yeah that’s the pretty boy here,” came Ken’s voice from his doorway.

  Jumping I turned and looked at him. He had a mischievous grin on his face. I looked at Max who was now leaned back on the desk next to me his arms crossed over his chest.

  “We were just talking,” he said quietly looking at the floor.

  “I know kid,” Ken said to him, “I was just teasing. Don’t take it personal.”

  “Show him what you drew,” I encouraged.

  Grunting, Max grabbed the paper and held it out to Ken who came over to study it. His face softened when he looked back at Max.

  “Does she know,” he asked him.

  “No.”

  “Are you ever going to tell her buddy?” he asked resting a hand on his shoulder.

  “No. Not tonight. Listen I’m not feeling well so I’m going to head out now. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  We both watched as he gathered his things and slid his jacket on. He walked over to his room and locked the door. Walking from door to door he said good-bye to Drake and Shane, then waved at us and left.

  “What’s with him?” I asked Ken as he led the way back into his room.

  Sitting in his chair he instructed me to lie down on the stretcher, slid on some gloves, and started to put his tattoo gun together. For a moment he sat there quietly pulling out colors and filling cups with them.

  “He had a girlfriend a few years ago. She disappeared. Messed the poor guy up. I mean these two were really in love with each other you know? It’s the classic story of vamp meets human, human falls in love with vamp, vamp gets attached to human, they live happily ever after, right? This time, not so much.” He paused for a second to place the stencil on my leg.

  “Check that out and make sure that’s where you want it.”

  I stood and looked at my soon to be new picture book story and nodded. Lying back down on the stretcher I waited for him to continue.

  “So then what happened?”

  I heard the buzz of the gun start and felt the first mild sting as he began to draw the story on my leg.

  “So one night he goes to see her. They always met at a park by her house so her parents wouldn’t be suspicious of the strange guy that kept showing up at her door. He waited by the swings as usual waiting for her to come.” Chuckling he said, “I just can’t imagine that kid sitting in a swing let alone swinging with a girl next to him.”

  “Don’t be mean,” I said chidingly.

  “I’m not being mean! It’s just weird to me that’s all. Anyway, the problem was that she never showed up. He knew that she hadn’t stood him up because they had some kind of weird bond.”

  He broke off for a moment to move the light a little higher up. I glanced down and saw that half of the outline and shading was already done.

  “What kind of weird bond? Like what do you mean?”

  “It’s hard to explain since none of us have ever had that bond with a human or any other type of creature for that matter. But he did explain it to me one day. He said that it felt like their hearts were intertwined. I know, he’s pretty much dead, how could that be, right? Well, the day that he saw her, he said that his heart started to beat again. Not a regular heart beat mind you, but he let us put our hands on his chest to feel it. Man it was bizarre. It felt like it was trying to come back to life and be the normal speed that humans get. I guess you can say he has an irregular heartbeat.”

  Stopping again, he switched the needles on his gun and grabbed some blue from the cups of color. Kendrick was insanely fast which made tattoos enjoyable at his place. As he started the tumultuous ocean that raged behind the sea serpent I mulled over something he just said.

  “Did you say has? His heart is still beating?”

  “Yeah,” he said in a sympathetic tone, “she’s gone and his heart still beats for her. Makes you get why he’s so reclusive and quiet now, doesn’t it?”

  “I guess so,” I replied suddenly feeling bad for Max.

  “So anyway,” he continued shaking off the blue from the needles and cleaning it, “he came to see me that night absolutely out of his mind. I’ve never seen anyone freaking out so bad and considering what I am, I’m used to those reactions, you know?”

  Chuckling he grabbed a brown color and began filling in the ship. I sat up to watch that part since it was on my lower leg. It looked almost 3-D the way he did the shading. It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes and this tattoo session was halfway over.

  “Is it safe to assume he never found her,” I asked watching the needle move faster than human eyes could fathom.

  “I’m getting there,” he said laughing. “There he was banging on my door, frantic because he couldn’t find her. I remember telling him that it was only one night and maybe she couldn’t get out of the house. He said that he didn’t believe that because she would always find a way to get out of the house no matter what her parents said to her. That was the only time I’d ever seen Max that scared about anything. That’s how I knew he loved her with everything he had left in him. So at that point, I suggested that we go out and look for. He followed her scent to a fairly local hangout for people her age and we looked for her but never found her. The anguish was clear on his face. If I had a heart, it would’ve broke for him. Ever since then he’s been the way he is now. Quiet and sullen. When I opened this place up though, he took a different turn. After about a few years of being open, he suddenly wanted to work here. I knew what it was; he had sensed she was near.

  Even been in here probably, but since I didn’t know what she looked like I couldn’t confirm my suspicions. I’ve never come right out and asked him, but when I saw that picture he drew tonight...” he broke off shaking his head.

  The story was fascinating and even though I was dying to know more, I didn’t want to pry into Max’s life. I didn’t know him well enough to do that, so I’d feel like a gossiper if I did.

  Instead we just sat there silently while he finished my tattoo. Another ten minutes and he was already bandaging my leg. I knew that with what he placed on the bandage it would be healed completely in an hour or so.

  I got to my feet and watch him put the stretcher away. I was heading to the front to pay him,
when he pulled me back into the room and into the seat he had set up.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him.

  Grabbing my arm and before I was able to get two blinks out, he had fixed the chunk of art that was missing from my arm design. Bandaging it as well, he looked up at me and grinned.

  “Now you’re done.”

  Laughing I started for the front desk again. I never did have to pay him monetarily for the work he did, so I never knew exactly why he wanted me to go to the front desk.

  I waited for a few moments while he cleaned up and sanitized his station for the next customer who was waiting in the front. A very pretty female vampire sitting there with what appeared to be her mate. She had curly, long blonde hair and venomous amber eyes. He had short brown hair and the same venomous eyes. At least that’s what I gathered from the way they were sitting there holding each other. It was actually kind of cute.

  A vampire’s eye color is based on what they feed on for sustenance. At least that’s what Ken told me once.

  She smiled at me when she saw me looking at them, and so did he. I smiled back and leaned against the counter again waiting for Ken. He emerged a couple of minutes later and assured his waiting customer that he’d be with her shortly.

  “So, what’s the damage,” I asked him when he sat behind the counter.

  He punched a couple of numbers and letters into his computer and waited. In a way he looked like a mad scientist waiting for the results to an experiment. The computer made a little chiming sound, and he turned the screen slightly so I could see it.

  RABBIT BLOOD

  I looked at him and laughed, “Be serious. What do you want?”

  Grinning he erased the fake answer he had brought up on the screen and looked at me for a second. Quick as a flash he grabbed a pair of scissors and sheared off a lock of my hair. He put a rubber band around the ends and then slid it into his top drawer.

  “We’re square now,” he said smiling. “Come back sometime soon. Even if it’s not for any artwork just come for a visit.”