Life as I know it

Right there on my chest was a tattoo, a freaking tattoo of the amulet, a flame enclosed in an emerald heart. I never got it tattooed heck I didn't go anywhere last night after I showered.

"This is crazy" she muttered

"you think?" I sighed "sorry I didn't mean to be sarcastic, it's just I don't know what to do anymore, at least before I could ignore it and pretend that it's the stress of my first semester that's getting to me and it's all psychological but now I can't pretend it's that not when I freaking have it stamped on my chest."

Marie came closer to have a clearer view of it before looking at my face, I don't know if she saw the hysteria lurking beneath but she pulled me in for a hug and the dam broke, I cried into her shoulders because of a mixture of different things, the confusion, panic, worry and doubting of my mental health and the fear of the unknown.

"Don't worry Brenda we'll get through this" I smiled through my tears knowing that she was probably more confused than I am but still trying to make me feel like everything would be under control in a bit. "Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"The tattoo, does it hurt?" she drew back to look at it again probably noticing the lack of redness and inflammation around the tattoo. It looks like it has always been there , I even scrubbed the spot over and over again while having my bath before calling Marie over asking her to bring ice cream on her way.

"no it doesn't, I don't feel different, if I hadn't seen it in the mirror I probably wouldn't even notice it." I folded the legs beneath me and smile at her in embarrassment at the damp patch on her top, she laughed at me before sitting next to me on the bed while adopting the same posture.

"Well that's good, at the very least it's not hurting you so we can focus on how to solve whatever this is, do you think you can get it removed?"

"You mean like laser surgery for normal tattoos? I'm not sure seeing as this is not a normal tat, Mars I don't know if I should tell my parents and Brad about this"

She kept quite for a while before saying " I think we should get some facts first before telling your parents, but you can tell Brad 3 heads are better than 2 and he'd kill me if he found out that we're keeping something from him especially when it involves you."

Brad is my elder brother by 2 years who's currently dating Marie and they've been together for more than two years now, growing up it was just us two so we were pretty close, with me copying literally everything he did like a mirror and hanging out with his friends all the time to his chagrin, so he was proper glad when Marie came into the picture and cured me of my tomboyish attitude at age 9 somewhere along the lines that gratitude turned into something more and he managed to get her to reciprocate his feelings with help from me of course.

Brad has always been protective of me and can read me like an open book which equated to me having almost no secret he's not aware of. And the fact that he's dating my best friend means I'm more in his presence than not so I decided against getting into the same college as the both of them. Over the past few weeks he's been suspecting that something's wrong with me but I brushed him off blaming it on stress and being away from home and everyone.

"can you tell him for me cos I don't think I can repeat it" I looked at her imploringly, I went through a tub of Rocky road ice cream just to tell her, if I had to repeat this process again then an increased waistline will join the list of problems.

"I'm meeting up with him later this afternoon I'll tell him then"

" thanks you're the best"

" Of course don't you forget that"

Marie stayed on for the next few hours till she had to leave for her meet up with Brad, talking about anything and everything but the tattoo and dreams. When she was leaving I gave her a couple of sketches to show Brad, mostly the ones that weren't replicated and the one from today

"This should help you in your explanation"

" We'll come back here after I inform him, today's your free day right?"

"Right, don't worry I will be here when you get back, I don't think I want to leave my room today and I don't have a shift today."

I saw her to the door of the room, we could hear my dorm mates voices from the common area where the girls were watching something on the TV, I watched her say her goodbyes to them and heard Cynthia ask if I was ok since I haven't been out of my room all day, I shut my door not bothering to listen to what she replied with.

I went back to bed and grabbed my cellphone from the stand considering if I should cancel my shift for tomorrow at the restaurant before deciding against it. I don't know how long I laid there for before I stood up. I am stronger than this, I can't keep hiding in the room, I think to myself before grabbing the tubs and walking out of my room. Samantha, Sam for short was the only one in the common area which was like an open plan living and kitchen area working on her laptop.

"Hey"

"Hey, you good?"

"yes, you?"

"I'm fine, just trying to download something, the Wi-Fi here's stronger than in my room" I noticed that too.

I walked over to the recycling bin to chuck the tubs in before asking about the others to which she replied that they steeped out. I didn't stay for more than 5 minutes so I was more than surprised that my room felt totally different upon getting back. I looked around and everything seemed ok so I headed to the bathroom to wash my hands but this time around when I came back to the room I received the greatest shock of the day so far there was someone in my room.

Not just any someone it was 'Him' the man from my dream and sketches standing there in the flesh, I had a sense of déjà vu, when he started walking towards me and my mind was still in shock probably why I couldn't command my feet to run or my mouth to scream all I know is that when his warm hands touched my head I felt like I was being pulled into a vacuum and the last thought I had before blacking out was 'life as I know it is probably over'.