Marked

Marked

                "Check out my new tattoo!" bubbled Jim excitedly. Jim was an unusual man, in that both bubbling and being cutely over-excited seemed completely natural for him. It had actually taken someone else point it out for Rick to even notice. The someone in question had suggested Jim was gay (wrong, but whatever) and then that being gay was bad, so Rick had clipped them over the ears. Which had led to a fight.

                "Are you having a flashback again, dude?" asked Jim. When Rick shook his head, Jim's over-excited smile returned.

                "Good!" said Jim. "Check it out!" He rolled up his sleeve, and showed Rick his shoulder. On it, surrounded by slightly red skin, was a deep blue tattoo of... Something? It looked more like a symbol than anything else, but maybe it was a snowflake? Or some pop culture thing.

                "What is it?" asked Rick.

                "Cool, isn't it? Apparently it means something like 'I choose a path of peace' in an old pagan religion," said Jim. "But mostly it's cool!"

                Rick did have to admit that it was pretty cool looking, whatever it was. He peered at it closely. "Definitely cool. Are you sure it means what you think?" he asked. "You didn't just get it on a whim or something, you researched and-"

                Jim gave him a look. A mix of 'really?' and 'you know me'. "Well, at least you didn't get it while drunk this time," said Rick.

                "It was Alis's idea," said Jim. "I got one at the same time as her. Her boyfriend has one and he talked her into it, and I thought it was cool enough to get one too when I was giving moral support. I guess she probably checked it up, actually, or her boyfriend knows this stuff."

                "Well, someone in this chain of cool-tattoos has to know what's up. Anyway, what we're here for: have you figured out whether you're going to see the second part of the Halfling with Erisabelle or not? 'cause if not, we're watching that, if so, we're seeing-" said Rick.

                "Cops and Sharks 3: Blue Revenge. Halfling with Eris, CnS with you, turns out she reads JRR so," said Jim.

                "Ace," said Rick. "Let's get a bite to eat."

                A few days (and one amusing low budget film) later, Rick's mobile started ringing. At the time he was lounging around in his bedroom with his laptop, so it took him a few moments to get to where he'd left it charging. That was long enough for the phone to suddenly stop ringing and fall silent.

                Weird, he thought. A glimpse at the 'missed call' message let him know Jim had tried to ring him, so he rang back. Better not be a butt dial. Or a sex dial.

                Rick listened to ringing noises for twenty seconds, then got sent through to Jim's voicemail. Must be nothing, thought Rick. He plugged his phone back into the charger, and went back to his laptop.

                A few minutes later his phone began ringing again. Once again Rick shunted aside his laptop and grabbed it. This time the caller was Erisabelle.

                "Hey Eris," said Rick.

                "Hi. Listen, um. This sounds weird, but Jim kind of just. Folded in on himself and disappeared. He said he was feeling weird, and his phone says you just tried to call him - I guess when it was starting, since he didn't answer. Did he call you from the bathroom?" asked Eris.

                "What? Are you on acid or shrooms or something?" asked Rick.

                "Did Jim just call you?" asked Eris.

                "For five seconds or so yeah, but then the call stopped. Are you okay?" asked Rick.

                "My boyfriend just disappeared in front of my eyes, so no, not really. I don't know if he's dead or what," said Eris. She sounded shocked. Rick wondered if she'd actually hallucinated what she thought she saw. The girl was a bit of a weird one. Actually fond of her weird name, and especially the 'Eris' part.

                "Okay. How about I come around and look for Jim? He can't have gotten far if he left his phone behind," said Rick. Maybe he could ask Jim why he tried to call? ... Hopefully it wasn't about Eris going crazy.

                "I just - fine. I'll show you where he disappeared. His clothes are still here," she said.

                "Um. Did Jim take something hallucinogenic too?" asked Rick. "You should probably call the cops if-"

                "We didn't take anything, Rick!" yelled Eris. "Oh, this - I can't watch it. He recorded it on his phone. I'll show you when you get here."

                And with that, Eris hung up. What the hell, thought Rick. I guess I better check it out before I get people searching for a high, tripping Jim in the streets.

                He closed up his laptop and got on his way.

                Rick arrived at the unit Jim was sharing with Eris ten minutes later. They'd only been dating for three months, but they'd lived together a few years before and found the arrangement to their liking. When their previous leases had run out, they'd moved in together (and pretended that they'd been going out for a few years, too).

                Rick knocked on the door, and a sober-seeming Erisabelle opened the door. "Thanks for coming," said Eris. "I - I rang you 'cause you rang Jim, but I want someone else to make sure I'm not crazy before I start calling everyone."

                "Sure," said Rick, heading inside. Eris closed the door behind him. "So where'd Jim disappear?"

                "Bathroom," said Eris. "But this is the important thing." She held out Jim's phone - it was at the start of a video of Jim standing in the bathroom.

                "Kay," said Rick, taking the phone. He tapped it, and the video started to play. Jim set it down on the sink and pointed it directly at himself. A ringtone started to play as Jim backed up from the phone - the one he used for Rick's calls.

                "I'm about half a foot shorter than I should be right now," said Jim. "I don't know why, but - argh!" Jim bent forwards. Upon righting himself, he was half a foot shorter. And less wide, too. Rick barely noticed the ringtone stopping amidst the weirdness.

                "Weird," muttered Rick.

                In the video, Jim coughed. "Not sure what's going on, but-" Jim said, pulling up his sleeve, "-this thing is glowing." Jim moved his tattooed shoulder near the camera. It seemed a lot brighter than Rick remembered it, but it didn't look like it was really glowing.

                "This is-" began Rick, stopping suddenly. On the video, Jim's arms had just shrunk ridiculously. Tiny mini-arms poked out of his shirt.

                "Holy fuck!" yelled Jim in the video, suddenly looking very worried.

                "Jim?" came Eris's voice on the video. "Are you okay?"

                "I'm - gurg," said Jim, his voice cutting out as his neck did the same thing as his arms. Behind Jim, Eris opened the door.

                "Jim! What-" she began. She stopped talking as Jim's legs started to shrink rapidly, causing Jim to tumble back against the wall. His head and shoulders were barely in frame as Eris rushed in and tried to grab him, only for his head to shrink - and then completely disappear. There seemed to be - something? It was blurry, but there seemed to be something solid where the base of Jim's neck should have been.

                Eris reacted with shock and stumbled backwards, and moments later what remained of Jim disappeared from view. The rest of the video consisted of Eris crawling forwards and saying 'Jim!' a few times, his empty t-shirt in her hands. The video stopped abruptly at the three minute mark - Rick was pretty sure it was the default time limit on this kind of phone.

                He pressed a couple of buttons. The video had been recorded about fifteen minutes before, by the phone. If it had been edited or copied over it would be somewhere else, so...

                "How'd you do it?" Rick asked. "Those are some crazy effects."

                "Effects?" asked Eris, incredulously. "Go look in the damn bathroom!"

                Shaking his head, Rick headed into the bathroom. It was obviously some clever trick - probably some new thing Jim had found on the internet. Jim had done similar (though less seemingly complicated) stuff before, mostly because he knew Rick wouldn't over-react.

                The bathroom was, of course, empty except for a pile of Jim's clothes. They were in spots that seemed to match the video. Rick crouched down and took a close look. "Well, Jim's definitely not in here!" he called out. "Boy, he must have completely disappeared, just like in the video!"

                "Stop being a jackass!" yelled Erisabelle. "Fuck it. I'm calling my friends. You saw the video so I haven't lost it."

                "Sure," muttered Rick. This prank was a bit... long for one of Jim's. Maybe Erisabelle wasn't in on it? "Aaah, doofus."

                Rick started poking through Jim's clothes, checking for some kind of 'gotcha' card. Moving the t-shirt around caused a few tiny blobs to fall out with a clatter. Still, holding the shirt, Rick stared at them. They were small chunks of metal; two were normal metal colours, but one looked golden.

                "No fucking way," said Rick softly, setting the t-shirt aside. He picked up the small gold piece of metal. Inscribed in it was a tiny pair of letters - OM. They were the initials of the fancy 'dentist' Jim had gotten his gold filling from. The shape of the chunk matched the diagram Jim had shown Rick when he was getting the filling - the whole process had been extravagant and costly. A Jim sort of thing to do.

                Okay, thought Rick, holding the filling gently. Even Jim wouldn't go this far. This thing cost a couple of hundred bucks, and making a replica might even cost more. Money and time Jim doesn't have.

                Rolling the filling back and forth between his fingers, RIck said, "Hey Eris? I, um, think I believe you know."

                Eris had rung a few of her friends - especially the 'weirder' ones - and a couple were coming around. She hadn't mentioned Jim's disappearance, wanting to avoid the potential social storm so she could focus. Instead, she'd just said that she needed their help.

                While they waited, she and Rick mostly sat in the lounge silently. Rick had found another unusual sign in Jim's clothes - patches of ink roughly where Jim's other tattoos had been. After being shown that and the fillings, Eris had just said, "If that's the proof you needed."

                At one point, Rick asked Eris where she thought Jim was. Her response began with a predictable, "How the fuck should I know?", but then she said something more interesting.

                "I don't know if he's even alive. He was coughing while his body was shrinking and he sort of... collapsed in on himself. Can people survive that?" she said, worried.

                Rick didn't have a response.

                The two friends Eris had asked to come around arrived together, one having given the other a lift. "What seems to be the problem?" said the first through the door. He was a big guy, with a bit of a swagger and a face covered in tattoos. His arms - mostly exposed by the t-shirt he was wearing - were strangely tattoo-less.

                Behind him came a woman who had hidden half her face beneath a featureless mask. "Hi Eris," she said, almost whistling as she said the s.

                "Ben, Stone; this is Rick. He's one of Jim's friends," said Eris, introducing everyone.

                "Good to meet you," said Ben.

                "Same," said Rick in response.

                Stone just gave a little wave and said, "So what do you need help with, Eris?"

                "Watch this video," said Eris, holding out Jim's phone. "I'm hoping you guys might have some idea about what happened."

                Ben and Stone watched the video in silence. Unlike Rick, they showed no sign of disbelieving Eris. "Is he - are the clothes still in the bathroom?" asked Ben when the video had finished.

                "Yes," replied Eris. "We found his fillings, too - they're on the bench over there."

                As Ben made his way to the bathroom, Stone said, "It's obviously the tattoo that's doing this. Where did he get it? And are there any good pictures of it?"

                "I don't know where, but he got it a couple of days ago," said Eris. "We don't have any pictures because his mum gets pissed whenever he gets tattoos."

                "He, uh, got it with Alis, Eris," said Rick.

                "Really?" said Eris, a little bit of anger in her voice. Jim had recently been foolish enough to admit that he had asked Eris out in an attempt to make Alis jealous, at first.

                "Yeah. I'm not surprised he didn't tell you. He got one when she did 'cause he thought it was cool. Um, I don't know where they got the tattoos, but I'm sure she'll know. Or her boyfriend will - I think he recommended the place they went too," said Rick. Alis had said something to that effect on her social profile.

                "Ah!" added Rick. "And there's a photo on Alis's page of hers. And her man has one too, but it's older I guess."

                Eris already had her phone out, and was poking around. "Rick, can you please ring Alis for me and see if you can visit? I'll come with, but don't tell her."

                Rick pulled out his phone. "What if I don't get an answer?" he asked.

                "We go there and see if the same thing happened to her," replied Eris.

                Impatient worry made Rick tap his fingers on his phone as it dialled. Luckily, after a couple of rings Alis picked up. "Heey Rick!" she said. "What's up?"

                "Hey, um, can I pop around for a bit? I want to ask about the tattoos you and Jim got," asked Rick. He stuck a finger in his other ear to block out the sound of Eris and Stone trying to search for tattoos similar to the one proudly displayed in Alis's social media picture.

                "You think it's cool too? Brad's really the one to talk to about them, you know. Are you just looking for an excuse to visit me? I haven't seen you in weeks!" said Alis playfully.

                "Maybe," said Rick. "May I experience your hospitality tonight?"

                "You may! Brad should be home - actually, he should be here already. He's probably tied up at work or something. But you can ask him about the tatts," said Alis.

                "Cool, I'll see you in ten minutes?" said Rick. "Well, if I can get my shit together fast enough."

                "Haha, sure. Toodles!" said Alis.

                "Bye-bye," said Rick, hanging up. Alis was flirty and almost as bubbly as Jim.

                "Alright," said Rick, "We can head around. I told her ten minutes - anything you need to get ready?"

                "Let me grab my coat," said Eris. "Keep poking around Stone."

                "I'll check on Ben," said Rick and headed for the bathroom.

                The bathroom door was closed and locked, so Rick gave it a knock. "Are you alright Ben?" he asked.

                "Sorry," came the reply, "Had to shit. This crap is whack, man. And, uh, not the crap I'm doing."

                Rick chuckled, despite the situation. "Alright. Stone's searching the net for the tattoo, so I guess you can help her with that when you're done. Me and Eris are off to see Alis," said Rick.

                "Gotcha!" said Ben. Then he grunted.

                "Rick?" came Eris's voice.

                "Coming!" he called out in answer.

                The pair arrived at Alis's house almost right on the ten minute dot. She'd partially inherited her grandmother's house a couple of years back, and had bought out the one fifth shares of two other relatives. As majority owner, she paid a small amount of rent to the other two and hoped to eventually to own it fully.

                "Time to get some answers," muttered Eris as she and Rick hopped out of his car. Rick had considered getting Eris to drive them, but he was the one who knew where Alis lived, so.

                "I don't know why she'd know any more than we do," said Rick. "Alis is a nice girl. She doesn't know anything about any weird stuff."

                "We'll still find out where they got those tattoos. And if her boyfriend's here we'll get some proper answers," replied Eris.

                Rick shrugged in agreement, and rang the doorbell. Alis opened the door moments later, the light behind her making Rick blink a few times to adjust his eyes.

                Alis looked terrible. She seemed on the verge of tears, and her eyes and nose were red from crying. In her hand she held a handkerchief. "Rick!" she sobbed, just as Eris stepped in the doorway. Alis caught sight of her and looked scared - Rick felt like picking her up and saying everything would be okay.

                "No, not you. Are you here to torment me?" asked Alis.

                "What happened?" asked Rick, as Eris muttered a 'huh?'.

                "Oh god RIck I rang Brad and he's with another girl," said Alis, rushing forwards and hugging Rick. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. She continued between sobs, "And then, he tried to deny it but then said he wouldn't be seeing me again!"

                While Alis spoke, Rick had been manoeuvring her inside. Eris shut the door behind them. As they moved, Alis pulled her arms inside of Rick's hug. "I'm sorry," said Rick. "Eris is just here because we wanted to ask about the tattoos you and Jim got."

                "Really?" said Alis. "I'm going to get rid of mine as soon as I can! Fucking Brad!" She lightly punched Rick's chest to emphasise her anger, then sobbed some more.

                "Did he say anything else about you disappearing?" asked Eris. Rick looked at her curiously.

                "Huh? No, he just hung up. He said I was his stupid ex! We were together only hours ago!" yelled Alis. She put her hands over her face and sobbed into her hanky. Rick figured it was an appropriate time to release his hug, so he did.

                Eris gave Rick a look. It was something she'd picked up from Jim during the time all three of them had been hanging together. This look said 'tell-her-about-jim' and 'I-can't-do-it'.

                Rick sighed. "Alis," he said. "Something's happened to Jim."

                "Wha - what?" stammered Alis, looking at Rick in fear.

                "We think it has something to do with the tattoos. It's, um, better if we show you," said Rick, taking the phone Eris had conveniently proffered. "Here."

                Alis took the phone. "Did he hurt himself?" she asked.

                "He disappeared. Watch the video - I don't understand it myself," said Rick. Alis tapped Eris's phone, and the video started to play.

                Alis exclaimed a few times during the video; 'What the hell?' when Jim started to shrink, and 'Oh god' when he started to disappear. "What was that?" she asked when the video finished.

                "We don't know," said Rick. "But we're trying to find him."

                "And you think the tattoo did it?" asked Alis.

                "Maybe," said Rick. "Or maybe the ink? His fillings and other tattoos... got left behind. Except that one."

                "You - you have to ask that bastard Br-" said Alis, bringing her hanky up for a sob before she finished saying Brad. "The tattoo parlour was his idea too. OH GOD, you don't think - think that he wanted me to disappear like that?"

                Rick opened his mouth, but had no idea what to say. Honestly, it sounded like Alis was right on the money.

                Eris did have something to say. "Probably. And because he got that tattoo with you, he got screwed over instead," she said. "Do you have any idea where that bastard is?"

                "I - maybe. He was with some other girl, maybe he's where we went on our first date? He said he took all his first dates there," said Alis, "Un - unless it's not their first date." She sobbed. "And Jim's-"

                Rick looked at Eris. "We may as well check it out," she said. "Where might Brad be taking his date, Alis?"

                "Distance," said Alis. "It's on-"

                "It's okay, I know where it is," said Eris. She put a hand on Alis's shoulder. "Thank you."

                "Th - that's okay," said Alis, sobbing again. "Are you guys gunna-"

                "Go, yes," said Eris. "I need to know if Jim's okay."

                "Rick," said Alis sadly, stepping forwards and hugging him again. She sobbed on his shirt.

                "You'll be alright, Alis," he said. "But - I think we should do something about your tattoo."

                "Huh?" said Alis.

                "He's right - you might still disappear or something," said Eris. She went to pull up Alis's sleeve, causing her to flinch slightly. "Let me see it, at least."

                "Okay," said Alis. Eris lifted up the sleeve.

                It looked just like Jim's had. A cool symbol, in deep blue ink. Seeing the ink again made Rick realise just how light the tattoo in the video had been - almost sky blue instead of the deep ocean blue colour Alis's was.

                After peering closely at it for a while, Eris said, "I think this one is slightly different."

                "Really?" asked Rick, taking a closer look. He couldn't tell any differences, but he hadn't given Jim's tattoo a super-close look or anything.

                "Yeah," said Eris. "Especially here." She tapped the bottom of the tattoo. "It looks like there's one less line."

                "If you say so," said Rick. "Hey, that bit there's kind of an x. Actually, it looks like-"

                "Roman numerals," said Eris.

                "What?" asked Alis.

                "Yours says twelve. I think Jim's was thirteen," said Eris, looking thoughtful. "I wonder why?"

                "Brad's has one less line than mine," said Alis. "I asked him about it and he said it meant that mine was later than his. I didn't realise that Jim's had a thirteen." She seemed calm for a moment, too caught up in memory and thought.

                "Maybe Jim got taken because his was the thirteenth?" said Rick. "So Alis would be next, then Brad."

                Eris twitched with anger. "When we find Brad, I'm getting the truth out of him," she said.

                "So - so are you guys going to do anything to mine?" asked Alis.

                "I don't think we need to," said Eris. "If Brad wasn't expecting to go 'poof' with number eleven, Jim - Jim's - you shouldn't need to worry."

                Eris, however, did sound worried. I guess she noticed that if Brad's avoiding it, it's probably bad, thought Rick.

                "Okay," said Alis. "Can - can you guys come back later? Rick?" She took a step back from him.

                "Sure. But you should probably ring someone else. I don't have any clue how long this is going to take," he said, "Even if we find Brad at Distance."

                Alis nodded. "You're right. I'll call my cousin," she said, and took a deep breath. "Good luck."

                "I'll come around tomorrow regardless, alright?" said Rick, hoping he was reassuring.

                "Okay. Bye!" she said.

                "Seeya," said Eris.

                "Catch you later," said Rick. The pair of them headed out the door, Alis waving them off.

                As they hopped in the car, Eris said, "She's probably going to start crying again now."

                "I know," said Rick, "But she'll be alright. This isn't her first breakup. And... she's blaming Brad for it, not herself, now. I think. But seeing Jim go-"

                "Let's drive," said Eris. Rick turned the ignition before he made her worry any further.

                Distance was a fancy restaurant just outside the centre of town - and as such twenty tense minutes away from Alis's home. On the way Rick thought about what was going on. Why did Brad have the tattoo if it did - whatever had happened to Jim? Likely he'd been tricked into it too, but by whom? When? Had he been avoiding disappearing by getting others tattooed?

                Rich also thought about Alis. Should they have damaged her tattoo? It sounded like a good idea, but the only way Rick could think of doing so involved cutting it. Mutilating Alis's shoulder was... extreme. He hoped it wouldn't come to that.

                For her part, Eris was silent the entire time. Rick was unsure what he could say to help alleviate her worry about Jim. He was worried too. Conversation about the possibility Jim might be gone - Rick didn't want to have it. So although he felt bad about it, Rick left Eris to her thoughts.

                The rear parking was better at Distance, so Rick pulled in there. It was pretty full - a dozen cars around the back of one middle-sized restaurant; tons more out front. It was obviously a busy night.

                After hopping out, Rick spotted a very good sign. "Oh yeah," he said. He pointed at a blue ute. "That's Brad's car."

                Eris smiled slightly, for the first time that night. "Good," she said. It wasn't a happy smile, really. It would probably be best described as 'slightly victorious'.

                They made their way in through the back entrance, the counter keeper letting them pass after Rick said, "Our friends had a booking, we're a bit late." and Eris flashed a fake smile. It was one of the creepiest things Rick had ever seen her do, though only really noticeable because he knew her.

                The inside of the restaurant was packed; dozens of people on the ground floor and a lot of noise coming from above. Eris and Rick scanned the room, but neither of them saw Brad so they headed upstairs. Once there, they spotted him immediately. He was at the far end, at a window seat table for two. His date was absent, but her (or his, Rick supposed) jacket had been left over the chair.

                Rick made his way through the customers and tables with Eris close behind. "Hello Brad," he said, coming up from behind.

                "Huh - whoa!" said Brad, turning around. "You and - you... No, I don't think I've met you. Are you one of Alis's friends?"

                "I'm one of Jim's," spat Eris.

                "Oh, that guy. Well, listen. Whatever reason you guys have for showing up here-" began Brad.

                "Jim disappeared. Where the fuck did he go?" asked Eris angrily.

                "Well - what? Jim disapp - Alis is still around?" said Brad. "Fuck yeees! This date was going awfully after she rang. But I've got three more months!"

                "What the fuck are you talking about arsehole?" said Rick.

                "It's gotta be the tattoos," said Eris.

                "Oh, you've got it figured out? Good for you. If you want to find out more go to the tattoo parlour. They'll give you the whole damn story," said Brad.

                "How about you tell us the whole story?" asked Eris.

                Brad grinned a little. "Well, two years ago I - being a horny idiot - wound up at this tattoo parlour with this bangin' chick. She had this amazing tatt on her shoulder, and thought I should get one too. Great idea when you're drunk, right? So the next day I get told 'someone else gets one within the next three months or you're toast!

                "The chick was all apologies, but I could tell she didn't really give a shit. So I did what I had to - got some dupe to get the tatt. Has to be willingly, but yeah. That's the story," explained Brad.

                "Didn't you try to figure out how to stop it?" asked Rick.

                "I want to know why he just believed it instead of winding up dead," said Eris. She glared at Brad.

                "There's no way to stop it. You're marked means you're fucked. And I believed it 'cause they had what was left of the last guy. That chick'd tricked him into it the night before, just in time. A video and the screws that had been holding his broken arm together was plenty of proof," said Brad. "Then later I watch someone go myself."

                "How are you getting away with this?" asked Rick.

                "Where do they go?" asked Eris darkly.

                "Luck and lack of a body? Hah! And no idea, honey. The tattoo guys don't even know - they've got really low number tattoos, three and four I think," said Brad. "I'm eleven, which is crap. And it has to chain, so as long as Alis is around I can't buffer myself. 'course being her friends, you could tell her-"

                "Alis isn't that kind of person," said Rick, taking a turn at glaring at Brad.

                "Yeah, ah well. Gives me longer to groom the next one," said Brad. "Anyway, I told you fucks what you want to hear. Sod off so I can salvage this date."

                "You-" began Eris. "Your cowardice has - I've lost Jim because of you!" Eris's voice was rising rapidly. "You can rot in hell, you bastard!"

                With all eyes in the restaurant turned towards them - including the attractive woman Rick had seen heading towards the table rapidly - Eris flipped Brad's mostly eaten meal at him.

                He muttered 'bitch' and managed to wipe his face just in time to see the table following the plated. Rick stood there in stunned silence.

                "Let's get out of here," said Eris. "Get the tattoo place out of Alis."

                As they made their way out with Rick still shocked into silence, they passed the woman Rick had noticed. "What did he do to you?" she asked, concerned.

                "He fucked my boyfriend," said Eris. The woman looked shocked, and Eris didn't bother correcting the context of 'fucked'.

                Rick pulled in at the tattoo parlour about ten minutes later. It was a small, dingy shop on a suburban shopping district street. It wasn't much further from the town centre, though it was in a different direction. "Well, this is it," said Rick. "Even if they point us towards someone else, it's time to stop for the night after this."

                "Okay," said Eris, after a deep breath. They got out of Rick's car and walked inside.

                The tattoo parlour looked just like any other small operation. Pictures of tattoo designs all along the walls, two tattoo chairs, a few stools scattered around, a counter, and a door through to a back room. A woman gave them a half-hearted wave from the counter as they entered. "You guys don't look drunk or that into tattoos. Checking the place out for fun?" she asked.

                "A friend of ours - a couple of friends - got some tattoos here," said Rick. "We were wondering if you might remember the tattoos?"

                "Huh?" said the woman, raising an eyebrow. "Probably, to be honest. Just me and Fabian work here. What kind of tattoo?"

                "Mystic symbol with sequential roman numerals down the bottom," said Eris. She gave the woman a 'we-know-what-you're-up-to' look.

                "Oh," said the woman. "Well, you're not the first to come asking. I guess tonight is the night. I've started to lose track after all these years."

                "That's nice," said Eris. "My boyfriend just disappeared. Where the fuck is he?"

                "I don't know," said the woman. "The person with the highest numbered tattoo-"

                "Disappears every three months. We've talked to Brad. Fine. Is there any way to break the chain? Say, killing you or Brad?" asked Rick.

                "You talked to Brad and - um, I guess he wouldn't say it in public. Ginny, the girl who got him to get a tattoo - he killed her to try that himself. Didn't work. He had some poor fool tattooed up already just in case, of course," said the woman. "Why do you care about that though? Isn't your boy already gone? Didn't know Brad was into men, actually."

                "My boyfriend got the tattoo at the same time as the woman Brad was dating," said Eris. "Rick's a friend of both of them."

                While Eris spoke, the woman rifled through some records in front of her. "Oh, here we are. Well, lucky Brad," she said.

                Eris slapped her. "Aww," she said, rubbing her jaw. "That was painful. Listen, we do what we do so we don't disappear. If you friend wants to stay around she'll have to do it too."

                "Where does the ink come from?" asked Rick. "And who gave you the tattoo?"

                "Fabian and I got them on our trip overseas. Another of our friends did, too - he had number five for a couple of months. This was about twenty years ago. The guy who gave us the tattoos was number two, and he said the number one had died long ago. Fabian and I... we killed him to see if we could break the chain. Brad never asked us, of course," said the woman.

                "The ink?" asked Rick. Eris sat down on a nearby stool and put her head in her hands.

                "It has to be a special kind of ink. We get it on special order from eastern Europe. As long as the plant that makes it deep blue is grown in the right soil it works," replied the woman.

                "Listen, I'm sorry if this isn't what you wanna hear. But you two aren't the first people to show up here demanding answers. You can try coming after Fabian and me if you want, but I've got a bunch of licensed guns so you're not going to do any better than the last ones to try," she continued.

                Rick stared at the woman, then noticed something odd. "You said you got your tattoo twenty years ago, right? How old are you?" he asked.

                "Me? Forty-eight," said the woman. "I know I look young, but-"

                "You don't look older than your mid-twenties," said Rick. "Did you know that? How about the other guy?"

                "That's him on the wall there, two years ago," said the woman, glaring.

                "Well, he looks like he's in his forties. You wouldn't happen to be number three, would you?" asked Rick.

                The woman smiled. "Okay, you're the first one to figure that out. It wasn't so noticeable last time, though. That was in the noughties. Fabian certainly hasn't noticed it yet," she said.

                "Are you certain the number one is dead?" asked Eris, drawn out of her despair by Rick's insight.

                "We saw his body. The number two looked like he was in his thirties, but I poked around a couple of years ago, he was way older," said the woman. "At least in his sixties."

                "So you're reaping the advantage of being the lowest number and not aging, while everyone else... Could disappear?" asked Eris.

                "I might disappear! I'm not taking the risk. Staying young is just a bonus," said the woman. "And everyone else would have to disappear first, anyway. If they want to live, they do what they need to."

                "This is sick," said Eris.

                Rick nodded. "How about this then: what happens when you damage or remove the tattoo?" he asked.

                "Damaging it does nothing, and removing it makes you disappear immediately," said the woman. "Six different people have tried that one."

                Another thought occurred to Rick. "Since you're being nice... You wouldn't happen to have pictures of you from twenty years ago?" he asked.

                "Nice?" said Eris, incredulous.

                "Yes, I do," said the woman. She started poking around the desk.

                "She's answering our questions, and I really want to see the photos," said Rick.

                "On to something else clever, are we? Here," said the woman, holding out an album. "I haven't been on any holidays since, and the book's meant to be for design inspiration. A good picture of the tattoo is in here."

                "Thanks," said Rick. He started to flip through the book quickly. Most pictures were of exotic animals, or luscious locales.

                "Hey," said the woman, noticing Eris giving her and Rick curious (and, to her, angry) looks, "I'm wondering what he's up to as well. I mean, he managed to figure out what bloody Fabian's too blind to notice."

                Rick found what he was looking for pretty quickly. It was a close up of the woman, twenty years younger. He stared at it closely, then at the woman herself. She didn't seem to be wearing any makeup in the picture, and in real life she was certainly wearing none.

                "If I had to guess, you're a couple of years younger than in this shot," said Rick, turning the album around and pointing.

                "Really?" asked the woman. "I can't tell."

                "Maybe a year and a half," said Rick.

                "I don't get why-" began the woman.

                "Holy crap. The people who cut off their tattoos!" exclaimed Eris.

                "Yeah, I think so," said Rick.

                "Wait, what?" said the woman. "So I'm actually - wow, that's awesome."

                "You're not going to like what I say next, though," said Rick.

                "Why?" asked the woman.

                Rick didn't actually say anything. He just punched her in the face really hard. She fell to the ground, and fell unconscious while trying to get a hand into position to lift herself up.

                "What - why?" asked Eris.

                "This might kill her," he said, "But I need to know. You wouldn't happen to have a knife handy?"

                Eris stood and retrieved her pocket knife from one of her many pockets. "You think she won't disappear because she's being rejuvenated whenever someone disappears?" asked Eris. "If you're right, though, Jim's..."

                "I - think I might like to be right. If I am and we take the tattoos off in order, everyone else gets to live," said Rick. He pulled the woman's loose shirt up and exposed her tattoo.

                It looked just like the ones Jim and Alis had, except it lacked the roman numeral X. Eris looked on in silence. What Rick thought was happening - what everyone else thought was happening - that would mean Jim was almost certainly dead. Rick knew it had to be tearing her up inside. But she was a sensible girl, from what he knew. She wouldn't stop him just so she could cling to hope.

                The three inch blade of Eris's pocket knife was more than enough to slit the entire tattoo off in one bloody go. Realising that he needed something to cover up the wound, Rick looked around and settled on a tea towel that was - for whatever reason - sitting on the counter. He tossed the bloody scrap of flesh aside and focused on staunching the bleeding.

                Her tattoo was gone, but the woman didn't show any signs of disappearing. "I wonder if it's not instant?" said Rick.

                "No, I think... I think you might have been right," said Eris, stepping backwards. When she reached the wall she leant against it, then slide all the way down. For the first time that night, she started to sob.

                A couple of minutes later, the woman woke up. After a couple of seconds of groggy blinking, she shrieked. Her hand grabbed the spot where Rick was holding the bloodied tea-towel. Rick jerked out of the way, and she ripped it off.

                "No!" she yelled, her face looking pained and panicked at the same time. "Where is it?"

                "It's been a few minutes already," said Rick, picking up the tea towel. He pointed at the sliced off tattoo.

                The woman looked at it in horror for a moment, then started to laugh. "You were right!" she said. "Why didn't I - I guess I thought that might be the case, but the risk..." She held the tea-towel on her wound. It wasn't bleeding much, considering its size - there weren't major blood vessels in amongst the skin cells.

                "Do you know everyone else who has a tattoo?" asked Rick. "We need to cut them all off in order."

                "Yes. I know. Oh, I'm free. Haha! I can go on holiday again! I can-" said the woman.

                "And Jim's dead!" yelled Eris, looking up. "And - and others." She went back to sobbing.

                "I'm - I really am sorry. But - I'm sorry," said the woman. The lives that her cowardice had cost - some of them probably quite directly - were hitting her. She put a hand over her eyes, a few tears creeping out.

                "Fuuuuuck me," said Rick, lying back behind the counter. "I think I'll cry now too. It's all ended as well as it could, y'know. But Jim's dead." Rick sobbed softly. "I'm - I'm gunna miss you, buddy."

                Of all those with the tattoos, Brad was the only one who had to be forced to remove it. He figured it was a trick to kill him, even though the tattoo-less tattoo artists were there to reassure him. After that, Alis's was sliced off as well - not with Eris's pocket knife in a dingy tattoo parlour, but at her home with a scalpel, and by a surgeon called Aditya. The surgeon in question had been the number five since the late nineties.

                "All done," he said, "And I guess we're all free now." He smiled. "This shit has been hanging over me for a decade and a half. Thank you both."

                "Jim's the last," said Eris. "No-one else."

                "Yep," said Fabian. "I - I've regretted starting the chain for more than a decade. As I've grown older, I've realised... my life isn't worth killing even one other, let alone dozens."

                The woman nodded. The group had learnt her name - Violet. "Hopefully there's nothing else like this out there. Your memorial was clever, Rick," she said. Rick had made an online memorial for Jim, complete with a picture of Alis's tattoo at the bottom. Clicking on it would direct you to an account of what had happened - just in case it was happening to someone else.

                "Thanks," said Rick. "We're holding a wake next week for the few of us that know he isn't coming back." Despite a week of efforts, the police (and Jim's parents) were certain that he was just missing. It wasn't surprising; they'd decided against explaining the full situation to avoid seeming crazy and thus being suspected of murder. Given the number of missing person cases Brad (and others) were linked to, it was probably a good idea.

                Eris shook her head. "I always wondered if magic or something beyond the mundane was real. I thought it would be amazing," she said. "But when I finally find out that it exists? The love of my life dies."

                "I'm sorry," said Alis, staring worriedly at the small spot of blood that had gotten through the binding on her wound.

                "Don't worry about that," said the surgeon, "It's normal."

                Eris sighed. "I'm going to get some air," she said.

                "We may as well call it done," said Fabian. "If anything unusual happens, we have each other’s' numbers."

                Rick nodded. "Yep. Thanks for handling the removals," he said.

                "No worries," said Aditya. "I ... never had someone die directly for me, but I did put this horror aside and allowed it to continue." Aditya and his wife had gotten tattoos at the same time - she had been the one who convinced others to get them. "I'll be off then - if there's trouble with any of the wounds give me a call!" He left to a chorus of byes and seeyas.

                "We should be heading off now too," said Fabian. He and Violet carpooled to get to Alis's house.

                "Yeah," said Violet. "But one thing first."

                She stepped up close to Rick. "Wanna go out some time?" she asked him.

                "Uh," said Rick. Violet was quite attractive - especially when she smiled - but she'd let dozens die out of unfounded fear. "No. I want to put some distance between myself and this stuff."

                "Oh well," she said with a smile. "I'll see you around!"

                After she and Fabian had made their way out the door, Rick said, "I hope not."

                Alis, the only other person still inside, nodded her agreement.