A Short Halloween Tale

Today was the day.

You had your design all planned out with your artist, checked it over with a few friends' opinions, went back, made changes and today was the day you were going to get it done. The tattoo you had always wanted but never got to it, until now.

The sky was clear of gloomy clouds, temperature just the way you liked it. You had your breakfast at a small peaceful corner cafe, got a takeaway drink before you made your way over to your final destination.

The tattoo studio had a black vintage theme and was furnished with comfortable sofas as waiting seats, a corner pantry for all to use in the back and a small chiller to keep drinks chilled.

Upon hearing the door open, Briar, your tattoo artist, appeared from the back of the studio and greeted you with a charming smile. Briar was an attractive person, personality as well as appearance wise. It was one of the main reasons you decided on this shop. Of course you had also seen designs posted online from the same studio and was very much satisfied with them.

Briar showed you to a curtained off room for a semblance of privacy and brought out your final design again to ensure you were satisfied with it.

"This is the design you have decided on. Any last changes before it becomes permanent?" Briar asked, tone warm and inviting.

You reaffirmed your contentment with the design and removed your shirt with little hesitancy before laying face down on a black lounge chair placed in the middle of the curtained off area as directed.

"I hope you've eaten, cause this will take quite a few hours."

You heard sounds around you, which you assumed was Briar doing the final preparations before starting their work on you.

"Yea I grabbed food on the way here so I'm good. Thanks Briar."

You made yourself comfortable, fiddled with your phone, chatted with friends, excited about finally getting a tattoo. A shadow loomed over you which made you glance up in question. You paused there as your eyes met intense grey ones staring straight into you, then traced over your facial features which made you shiver under their scrutiny.

Suddenly, the iris within the grey eyes shifted into slits and you propped yourself up on your arms to get away. It was at that exact moment, you felt something sharp prick the skin of your thigh causing you to flinch away from it but found that you could not as a hand was suddenly pressing you down into the lounge chair preventing any further movement on your end.

You look down sideways to see a syringe emptying a blood red liquid into your thigh. Panicked, adrenaline filled you enough to go against the hand on your back and pluck out the, unfortunately, empty syringe from your thigh.

Briar donned a wide grin, 2 pairs of pearly white canines peeking out from behind them.

"What the heck was that?" You ask as the effects of the red liquid began to take effect.

The room appeared to be spinning.

"What are you?"

You asked as you were shushed and pushed back down against the chair with mock gentleness. Your quickly weakening body is unable to resist the force and eventually falls back down onto the lounge chair.

"Nothing for you to worry about honey." Came Briar's lilting voice.

You tried to struggle against the hands that held you down as the edges of your vision darkened.

"It'll be long over before you know it . . " Briar whispered in your ear while a hand caressed your face.

Just like that, you were pulled under the blanket of darkness. The last thing you saw was Briar's charming features twisted into dark amusement.

Briar smirked at your unconscious form and kissed the skin over your jugular vein before baring fangs.

You woke up with a start in your own bed, beads of cold sweat covering any skin that was exposed. The room was dark and you were dressed in the same clothes as you were that morning.

Was that all a dream?

You sat up and immediately felt a stinging pain on your lower back. Your phone which was right beside you on the bed read just after dinner time.

You dragged yourself out of the bed, into the adjoined bathroom and examined yourself in the mirror. Looking for any noticeable changes before turning around to check why the heck your lower back was stinging.

Immediately, you spot a darker patch on the lower back of your black tee where you felt stinging. You lift the corner of your shirt to find the design you wanted inked into your back in the exact position you wanted as discussed but there was something else as well. The tips of your fingers touched it only for you to flinch away in pain as blood stained your fingers.

What on earth was that? You try to get a closer look at it but it was in quite the awkward spot and the mirror was far too high to bring your lower back to.

You go to get your phone back in the room and take a picture of the injury as you could not see it.

Zooming into the picture, you came to a horrific conclusion. There was a bloody word carved into your flesh. It sends shivers throughout your being, leaving you numb as a wave of none too pleasant emotions hits you.

' Briar's ' Read the word.

Suddenly you feel something cold grab your chin, forcing you to turn to look into glowing grey eyes.

You are frozen to the spot in fear.

"How was your sleep sweet?"

Briar smelled the juncture of your neck and shoulder.

"Why?"

You managed to ask albeit fearfully, hoping to grasp an understanding of what was going on. Why was this happening to you?

Briar simply laughed, sending a shiver down your spine.

"What a perfect face for the night of Halloween."

Fangs pierced the skin of your neck and all you could hear after was your own blood curdling scream piercing the silent night.

Nobody ever found the source of that scream, and it was soon simply forgotten . .

- The End -