Poison Ink

by Christopher Golden

  Sammi couldn’t keep herself from flinching. “Hey,” she said.

  “I know you wanted me to come alone, but Kat and I were out and about tonight. And two witnesses are better than one, right?”

  Kat? Sammi thought. Katsuko hated that nickname.

  Or at least, the real Katsuko did.

  “Yeah,” Sammi said with a nervous laugh. “You don’t even need a camera this way.”

  The tension in the studio continued to build. They were waiting for her to let them know how this was all supposed to go. But Sammi didn’t know anymore. Her pulse sped up as she tried to work the angles in her mind. The plan she’d come up with wasn’t much of a plan, really. Desperation had driven her to it. But it was all she had, and the only choice now was to go forward.

  “I brought out some drinks,” she said, stating the obvious. “I didn’t realize Katsuko would be here, so I’ll get another.”

  Barely able to breathe, she offered the tray to Zak first, praying that she knew these people well enough to have predicted correctly. When he took the root beer from the tray she felt herself exhale a little and then turned to T.Q., who studied the three remaining drinks too long for Sammi’s liking. She resisted the urge to try to influence the girl’s decision.

  T.Q. took the iced tea. She sipped it immediately, then tipped the glass back and drained a quarter of it, ice clinking.

  As Sammi offered the tray to Rachael, who took a lemonade, Katsuko stepped up and took the other from the tray, leaving Sammi without a drink.

  She glanced at T.Q., then at Rachael. “Let me just grab another lemonade.”

  “There’s a ton of sugar in this,” T.Q. said.

  Rachael frowned. “Sorry, I didn’t realize—”

  “You never do,” Sammi interrupted. “Rachael always overdoes the sugar. I kind of like it that way, though.”

  T.Q. said nothing, but took another sip. “You didn’t drag us down here for nothing, right? You’re really going to do this?”

  Sammi’s stomach twisted with nausea, but she smiled.

  “I said I would.”

  Katsuko sniffed. “You’ve said it before.”

  “I know.” Sammi glanced away, hiding her anger and anxiety, knowing they would think she wouldn’t meet their eyes out of guilt. “But there’s no turning back this time.”

  “No,” T.Q. said. “There isn’t.”

  Her tone frosted the room. Unnerved, Sammi glanced at Rachael. “You all set?”

  Rachael blinked, as if only just remembering what they were all doing here in her shop. She shot a look at Zak. “Almost. Sorry. Give me just a few minutes.”

  She stepped through the curtains into the privacy area at the back of the shop. For a second it looked as though Zak intended to follow her, but he must have caught the flash of panic on Sammi’s face because he stayed.

  “So,” he said, looking from Katsuko to T.Q. “Can I see this infamous tattoo?”

  Brow furrowed, T.Q. stared at him. “No. It’s personal. Sammi has the design if you want to see what it’s going to look like.”

  Of course you won’t let him see it, Sammi thought. It doesn’t look anything like the design anymore, does it?

  T.Q. drank the rest of her iced tea, swishing the ice around and drinking the last bit of melt at the bottom, even crunching on a piece of ice. If she wrinkled her nose at any bitterness in the dregs of her tea, it didn’t seem to trouble her.

  That’s right. Every last drop.

  “I hope you don’t think this makes up for anything,” Katsuko said, glaring at Sammi.

  “It’s a start, isn’t it?” she asked, then had to bite her tongue to keep from asking how they planned to make up for her broken fingers, for putting her in the hospital, for casting her out.

  What good would it do? The girl in all black with the severe haircut wasn’t even really Katsuko to begin with. Katsuko had been trapped somewhere deep inside.

  “A start,” she relented. “But not much of one.” Katsuko glanced at T.Q. “Should’ve done this at Dante’s. What’s the point, otherwise?”

  Zak threw up his hands. “Hey, Rachael knows what she’s doing. She’ll ink it in exactly the way it’s drawn in the design. Personally, I don’t know why the hell Sammi’s even bothering trying to placate you crazy bitches, but whatever.”

  T.Q. and Katsuko did not even flinch. They gave him blank looks, then turned to Sammi with Cheshire cat smiles.

  “She misses us,” T.Q. said, reaching out to stroke Sammi’s hair. “We’ve been waiting for her to realize just how much.”

  Sammi shivered. Gooseflesh formed on her arms, but she managed to smile in return.

  Katsuko took a sip of her lemonade, then set it down. She slipped off her long black coat and looked around until she found the rack of coat hooks on the wall, then hung it there.

  “Your girlfriend’s taking her sweet time,” she said.

  Zak scowled at her. “Whatever.”

  He looked at Sammi then with such disappointment in his eyes that she had to look away. Soon he would understand. When he did, he might be even more disappointed. For now, she had to just endure his anger and be grateful that he stayed with her, that he didn’t try to call the whole thing off right now. Rachael would be breaking the law by giving her a tattoo without parental consent. She and Zak were going out on a limb for Sammi, and she hadn’t even told them why, yet.

  Tense minutes passed. They heard Rachael moving around behind the privacy curtain. A metal pan rattled. The tattoo machine purred to life for a few seconds and then shut off again. The door into the storage room opened and closed more than once.

  Katsuko and T.Q. had been impatient from the moment they entered the shop. As Rachael stalled, they became increasingly more so, until at last Katsuko walked to the privacy curtain and yanked it open.

  “What the hell?” Zak snapped.

  But Rachael wasn’t there. Katsuko went to the door of the storage area and swung it open without knocking.

  “What’s the holdup?” she demanded.

  Rachael came out immediately, glaring at her, carrying a small container of black ink. She set it on the counter that ran along the back of the privacy area.

  “No holdup. I don’t rush my work and I don’t take shortcuts when it comes to art, or to the health of my clients. You’ve got a problem with that, no one’s keeping you here.”

  Katsuko didn’t get out of her way.

  Sammi held her breath, wondering how far the girls would allow themselves to be pushed before they pushed back.

  “You and your boyfriend ought to watch your mouths,” Katsuko said, glaring. As petite as Katsuko was, she had a few inches on Rachael.

  T.Q. stepped up beside Sammi and whispered in her ear. “You need a better class of friends.”

  Both Rachael and Zak were staring at Sammi unhappily now, waiting for some sign of what she planned to do next. Sammi felt her throat go dry. Nothing had gone as she had hoped. She glanced over at T.Q., who cocked her head and stared back, perfectly alert.

  Stomach knotted with dread, she looked at Rachael and forced herself to breathe. “Ready to go?”

  Rachael hesitated a second. Sammi had told her to stall, and she was prepared to do that. But now Sammi gave her a slight nod, hoping she would understand.

  Arching an eyebrow, Rachael gestured to the privacy area. “Whenever you are.”

  Sammi uttered a nervous laugh. That’s all right. It’s normal to be nervous, she told herself. Don’t try to hide it. That would only make them more suspicious. She gave T.Q. and Katsuko a sheepish grin.

  “Were you guys this nervous?” T.Q. crossed her arms. “We were all in it together, that night.”

  “Or we thought we were,” Katsuko said.

  Sammi swallowed, her throat constricted. “So, after tonight, you’ll stop twisting the knife on that, right?”

  Neither of them replied. Sammi looked at Zak and Rachael and hated the disapproval she saw there. But neither of them seemed
like they were going to pull the plug, which was good. Vital.

  She drew Dante’s design out of her back pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Rachael. “Here you go.”

  Rachael studied it. “Simple enough. Where do you want it?”

  Sammi had never intended things to go this far. She glanced at T.Q. Had her eyelids just fluttered a little? She did look tired, but had she looked that way when she’d first come in? Sammi didn’t know.

  “Um, I was thinking right here,” she said, pointing to the same place on her lower abdomen where Rachael had originally put her fake tattoo.

  “You sure?”

  Sammi thought about it. Whatever Rachael did to her now would be permanent. She’d never intended for the tattoo to be finished—she feared what that would mean. Originally she had wondered if it would give Dante power over her even if he hadn’t been the one to mark her, but T.Q. and Katsuko were going through with it, so she guessed she knew the answer to that.

  No way could she allow Rachael to give her the whole tattoo. But she needed more time. Another glance at T.Q., and she thought the girl’s eyelids looked heavy. T.Q. stretched, as though exhaustion was setting in.

  Sammi had to have Rachael start somewhere it wouldn’t show later, but she needed to be able to keep an eye on the girls as well.

  “Yeah. I’m sure.”

  “Pants off, then,” Rachael said. T.Q. laughed softly at that. Zak cursed quietly and looked away as Sammi unzipped her pants. Katsuko applauded slowly, watching in almost salacious admiration as Sammi took off her shoes and then slid out of her jeans.

  “Up here,” Rachael said, patting a padded table much like the one in Dante’s studio.

  The drapes at the front of the shop were drawn so no one could see through the front windows. The privacy curtains were left wide open as she hopped up onto the table in only her shirt, socks, and a pair of blue panties.

  “Zak, it’s fine,” Sammi said. “It’s not like I’m naked. Just pretend we’re at the beach.”

  He surveyed the room for a moment before meeting her gaze. His eyes were dark and grim, but he didn’t look away again. Instead, he searched her face. Sammi knew he was looking for some sign as to what would come next, but she dared not try to give him any warning.

  Rachael cleaned the area where the tattoo would go with an antibacterial gel, then put down paper around it as though Sammi were about to have surgery. The young tattooist was meticulous.

  The tattoo machine whirred to life. T.Q. and Katsuko stood at either end of the table, watching as Rachael picked up the tattoo needle, tested it, then returned it to its slot. She went to the counter where she’d left the black ink she had brought from the storage room and started to open it.

  “This will hurt, Sammi, but not very much. It stings, but you’ll get used to it as I go along.”

  With the ink open, Rachael reached for the tattoo needle again.

  “Wait,” Katsuko said. The word had been a command.

  They all looked at her. She moved back across the shop, fished in the pocket of her long, black coat, and retrieved a small, sealed plastic container similar to the one that Rachael had just opened.

  “We’ll use Dante’s ink.”

  Rachael stared at her, but instead of anger, Sammi saw suspicion in her eyes. “Why would I do that? I have no idea what’s in that.”

  T.Q. bent over the table and looked down at Sammi. “The whole idea was for the five of us to be bound together by this thing, right, Sammi? I mean, it’s like a ritual. If we’re supposed to be sisters, if this design marks us forever and ties us to each other, then the tattoos should be exactly the same. That means the same ink.”

  Only fear kept Sammi’s face blank. She felt herself go pale, and a chill spread all over her body. They had planned this all along.

  “When did you get that?” she asked.

  Katsuko cocked her head. “T.Q. picked it up before we came here. Look, if you don’t want to go through with it, that’s fine. But this is the last time we let you waste our time. We’ve already been looking for a fifth girl to replace you.”

  T.Q. flinched and shot Katsuko a dark look.

  “Fifth girl?” Zak asked. “You’re, what, auditioning for a new friend? Why would you need to do that?”

  Katsuko stabbed a finger at the design that Rachael had hung from a clip above the table as reference. “Five waves on the ocean. Five spokes on the wheel of life. Five girls.”

  Once more they all looked at Sammi. She steadied her breathing, covering up a fear unlike anything she had ever experienced. It glistened like tears at the corners of her eyes and trembled on her lips like a scream unvoiced.

  Forcing herself to be numb, she looked at Rachael. “Go ahead.”

  Rachael didn’t like it. Sammi could see that. But it no longer mattered. She felt herself inside a strange bubble, separated both from her friends and from the monsters the girls had become. Of the five of them gathered in the shop, only she knew what was really unfolding here.

  It made her alone.

  Just as with her parents—her absent father and her confused, withdrawn mother—she was alone.

  Rachael took the ink from Katsuko and set it on a tray beside her. She opened the container and put the fresh ink into the proper slot in the tattoo machine.

  The machine whirred. Rachael picked up the tattoo needle again, lifting it to make sure the cord was clear of any obstruction. She gave Sammi a glance that said, This is your last chance to back out. Sammi wanted to hug her for it. Instead, she just nodded, urging Rachael to get started.

  Rachael glanced again at the design. Sammi did not. She never wanted to see it again. She wondered how much of the ink would have to be in her skin before it tainted her. Surely the whole design would be necessary to control her, but how much ink to scar her forever?

  Just a dot, she felt certain.

  The needle touched her, and she flinched.

  “Don’t move,” Rachael said.

  It stung, just as she had promised. But Sammi clenched her jaw and watched as the artist began to do her work. As Dante had, she began with the central circle, the hollow at the core of the world. Her hand was sure and careful. When she had airbrushed the same design onto Sammi’s skin, Rachael had not taken it completely seriously. It was temporary, after all. But Sammi could see that this time, she was far more careful.

  Sammi laid her head back. As Rachael worked, she watched the others watching her. Zak looked full of regret, maybe wishing he had never gone along with this. Katsuko wore a sneer. T.Q. had a kind of lazy smile on her face that made Sammi think she might succumb at any moment to the pills that had been powdered and mixed with too much sugar in her iced tea.

  But T.Q. only watched.

  Long minutes passed. Before Sammi knew it, she glanced down and saw that Rachael had done the outline of the outer circle and begun to fill in the heavy black between inner and outer. Another ten minutes and she would begin the waves that swept up from the circle, from the wheel.

  And then what? Sammi asked herself.

  A terrible understanding settled upon her heart. This isn’t going to work. She would have to call a halt to it. The girls would know she had lied to them. Then they would be lost to her forever. Dante would continue to destroy their lives, to tear them apart, to be master of their souls. And there was no telling what they might do to her this time.

  Almost in the same moment as this realization, Sammi glanced over at T.Q. and saw the redhead’s eyelids flutter. She swayed a bit.

  Then T.Q.’s knees buckled and she went down hard, reaching out to try to catch herself but instead crashing into Zak before collapsing in a sprawl of long limbs on the floor.

  Zak swore, backing away from her. Rachael started to stand, holding the tattoo needle up as she turned to stare.

  “T.Q.!” Katsuko called, and dropped to her knees beside the muttering, disoriented girl.

  Sammi started to sit up.

  Katsuko whipped around to sta
re at her, sudden understanding etched upon her face with an ugly hatred.

  “You—” she started.

  Sammi grabbed the metal tray Rachael had been using, knocking its contents to the floor, and swung it as hard as she could. Katsuko tried to turn and managed to get an arm up in time to partially deflect the blow. The tray struck her in the head.

  Sammi fell on her then, driving her to the floor on her side. She swung the tray a second time, and a third, and this time Katsuko couldn’t reach to interfere.

  The metal thudded against her skull.

  16

  S omething had snapped inside Sammi. She screamed a torrent of verbal abuse at Katsuko as she hit her. The girl tried to buck her off. Sammi hit her in the face with the metal tray. Katsuko twisted under her, throwing her off balance, and struck her across the temple with a backhand.

  “Sammi, stop!” Zak shouted.

  Rachael tried to pull her off Katsuko, but Sammi shook free and tried to hit her again with the tray. Her plan would be ruined if Katsuko left right now, if she knew what Sammi had done to T.Q.

  Zak grabbed Sammi’s wrists, and Rachael tugged the tray out of her hands. Panic shot through her.

  “No!”

  “Bitch! I’ll kill you!” Katsuko screamed, and again she bucked.

  Sammi spilled off her, dull pain flaring in her ribs. Scrambling, she got to her feet, but by then Katsuko had risen. Zak reached for her, trying to prevent the vengeance that burned in her eyes. Katsuko went to kick him in the balls. When he twisted to avoid the attack, she grabbed his hair in one hand and scratched his face with the other, drawing blood. Zak roared with pain and lashed out, knocking her away.

  But Katsuko had wanted that.

  She spun toward Sammi.

  “Quit it! Just stop! You guys are insane!” Rachael screamed.

  Katsuko lunged at Sammi, slammed into her, and took her to the ground. Her nose bled from the blow Sammi had delivered to her face with the metal tray. A small rivulet of blood dripped from her upper lip, and a drop fell onto Sammi’s cheek.