Tattoo

Its as if time has stopped moving and ticking forward around me. Its like the universe itself has brought me an opportunity to go forward with my fake marriage with that asshole.

"Mother?"

"I don't care who you marry. Marry a beggar for all I care. Just don't come home until you are married. And if your father asks, we never had this chat."

"Why, why do you hate me so much?"

"I am not asking you to marry anyone because I hate you. Because to hate you, I would have to feel something for you, Erna. I don't. I am asking you to marry someone because that's the only way to save your life."

"If you don't care about me, why go to such lengths to protect my worthless life?" I ask as tears threaten to fall from the corner of my eyes.

"Because what I do care about is my life. My power. My reputation."

"Is that all?" I ask, eager to get off the phone.

"For now, yes."

I cut the call as soon as she finishes speaking. An image of her looking distastefully at the phone in her hands flashes through my mind, but this time I don't let it hurt me. I have gone through this enough times for her to let me affect me badly. But the sting, the sting of not being loved by the one person who is supposed to unconditionally love me, will always stay there in a dark corner of my heart.

I look around the empty room and realize that Kal left long ago. The absence of the warmth of another person suddenly hits me and I have suddenly never felt so alone in my life.

Its been a few hours since my call with my mother and another few since the mystery fiance left. The doctors visited me and took blood samples and asked me rest up. As if I could but they don't need to know that. So I just nodded and agreed. Sleep feels like a luxury I might never reach at this point. I toss and turn for what feels like an eternity when a nurse enters the room.

She looks up at me to find me staring at her and backs a few steps. I frown, why does she look scared of me?

"Hi." I call out to her, to ease her jitters.

"H-hey." she replies meekly.

"Is there something on my face?"

"Uh- no no." she shakes her head furiously. "I just… I just thought you were asleep."

"Oh." I smile at her."The thing is I couldn't sleep."

"Sorry about that."

"Its fine, you don't have to worry about it." I say and she looks down. "Listen, are my test results out?"

"No, they aren't."

"Then why are you here?" I ask her, confusion lacing my voice.

"To give you an antibiotic." huh, that doesn't make sense. I should not be put on any of those medicines until my test results are out which means she is lying. But why?

"Oh? Did the doctor say that I needed one?" I ask skeptically.

"Y-yes." she stutters and my suspicions are confirmed.

I nod and motion for her to give me the injection. She hesitates but steps forward anyways. Once she is next to me, I can literally smell garbage dump on her which means she has just come from outside. Probably a back door or something because nurses smell like disinfectants and chemicals all the time.

She grabs my arm roughly and I notice the callouses and the snake tattoo peeking from under the sleeve of her white coat. Nope, definitely not a nurse.

I make the decision in a split second and before I have even thought of more than 2 steps, I am already grabbing her wrist that is holding the injection and bend it backwards.

The snap of a wrist breaking fills the hollow room which is soon followed by an agonizing wail. I get out of the bed, throwing the sheet to the floor and clasp one palm over her mouth and the other to hold her good hand behind her back. We are locked in an entangle of arms when I hear the door open behind me.

"What the fuck are you even doing, Erna?" Kal shouts at me from behind me.

"This nurse…" he cuts me off.

"Just because you want to leave early does not mean you can harass the nurses of this hospital." Sometimes I actually loathe Kal, like in this instance where he won't listen to me and just believes the assumption he has made.

"Kal. Hear me the fuck out." I say loudly and assert enough steel in my voice that catches his attention.

"Fine, what?" he asks exasperated.

"She is not a nurse."

"I might believe it, when I don't see you trying to kill her."

"Kal, she is not a nurse. She tried to kill me." I defend myself against his accusations.

"No. I didn't." The nurse says with a muffled voice through my palm and I tighten my hold on her body making her groan.

"Not yet."

"Erna, let her go. The poor woman is going to piss herself to death." Kal is being totally unsupportive and I wanna smack his face for that.

"Kal, she is an assassin. Come here and look at her hands, they are fucking calloused. Smell her and then scan the contents of the injection she was about to give me." when I see Kal opening his mouth to refute, I stop him with an ice cold glare. "Just do it."

He does what I tell him to and says. "But who would…?"

I cut him off and point to her arm with my chin. "Look at the tattoo on her sleeve."

He untangles the stuck cloth from our limbs and pushes the sleeve up before he lets out a gasp.

"This…"

"Exactly."