Chapter 4 – The Tattooed Mistress
You may have heard of this kind of woman in your neighborhood or in the news. The kind of woman that seduces men to do her bidding and who could be mistaken for a witch or a succubus. There is a legend of a woman with tattoos all over her body that is this kind of woman. She would seduce men and women to walk with her then she would tell them to do specific things for them or she would just kill them. It is said that her tattoos come to life and that they help her give her the most appealing look to her victims. Because of the legend of this woman, many witches have tried replicating her but failed. There are even a few people that tried to dress up as her some of which were beaten due to the fear of this legend. Despite people distancing themselves from women like this, the legend is still kept alive and this woman continues to seduce people to do her dirty work.
Roger and his circus are taking a break after encountering so many folklore legends. Monsters such as wendigos, La Segua, Gumiho, Azatoth, and various Western and Eastern legends have tried their hand in destroying the circus and failed, but this doesn’t mean that lives weren’t lost. Veterans and newcomers alike have lost their lives defending their home and passion.
Zackary and Zoey are two twin performers who put on a special show that make their tiger and elephant respectively do different kinds of tricks and acts. Right now, they’re walking through town while running a couple errands.
Zackary says, “I wonder if Roger is okay. I wish we could do more for him.”
“Me too but what can we do that the others aren’t doing for him?” Zoey asks.
“We could get something for him. You know how he likes toy elephants.”
“He likes toy elephants because his daughter loved elephants. I’m not sure if they’ll make him feel worse or better. I remember back in the day when she rode the elephants with me and even pretended to be one.”
“Don’t make me sad as well. We’re supposed to be taking a break.”
“Sure, but I think Roger deserves it more than we do. He blames himself for the people we lost because he’s supposed to be our leader.”
“And what have we done for him? We left him when things got bad for him even though he took us off the streets and yet we have the nerve to rejoin as if nothing happened.”
“You know what he needs is another wife and kids to replace the ones he lost.”
“Are you volunteering?”
“No, what I’m saying is that we find him a good wife.”
“You can’t even find me a good wife, nor can you find yourself a good man.”
“Oh shut up. I still think it’s a good idea.”
“I think it might be a better one to just get him a toy elephant. If he doesn’t like it, then we can just say that we’re going to bring it to his daughter’s grave. Maybe that’ll help him let go of her death.”
“I guess you’re right, but let’s not forget our main reason for being out here.”
“Yeah, let’s get back at those creeps for putting us on the streets.”
“Do you remember the plan?”
“Kind of.”
“Good grief, just follow my lead.”
The twins head to their house to find it in a worse state than it was before.
“These people don’t learn,” Zackary says.
“Well, we were the only people who cleaned the house. What else would’ve happened?” Zoey responds.
Their father walks outside the house with a suitcase and a woman they have never seen before.
“Who is that?” Zackary asks.
“I don’t know. Our parents were never loyal to one another. It’s not like they actually knew how to love a person,” Zoey says.
They start to follow them.
“But this woman looks weirder. She seems to be beautiful, but there’s also something off about her.”
“Don’t tell me you think that woman looks good. Do you see the tattoos on her?”
“What tattoos?”
“You don’t see them? Do you need your eyes checked?”
“No, I honestly don’t see them.”
“That means we could be dealing with another folklore legend.”
“At least she’s going after someone who deserves it.”
“Let’s just see what happens. Maybe we can still get a piece of him.”
There’s a large crowd in the streets tonight so the twins follow their father and the mysterious woman by traversing the rooftops. The “couple” appear to be enjoying each other’s company. Their father looks around and gives other people dirty looks as if to say that the woman is his. They enter a house with flowers and roses decorating the outside with statues of attractive looking women and men.
“I wonder how many brothers, sisters, and cousins we have because of our parents.”
“I don’t even want to know because it means that they’re suffering like we were. I think to myself sometimes that we picked a few of them up because the circus feels like my true family.”
“I like to think that too.”
“Let’s see what they’re doing in the window.”
Climbing to the window and looking in, the twins catch their father signing documents and giving them to the woman.
“Is he signing over his possessions to her?”
“I knew he was easily coerced by women but this?”
Their father turns around and the woman’s true appearance is made clear to Zackary. Her tattoos come to life and eat their father. The twins gasp in horror and almost break a flower bed outside the window. After giggling to herself, she sees that the twins are watching her. Knowing they’ve been found out, the twins climb to the rooftop and quickly run back to the circus so Ebony can help them. They avoid running on the streets so no one else gets involved with their problem, but the woman uses her charms to get other people to chase them. Some of their pursers even take makeshift weapons with them like canes and wooden planks while some even use guns. The twins do their best to evade their attacks but get grazed by bullets. They attack their pursuers and knock them out by using their acrobatic skills and by using the weapons they’re attacked with.
The woman then leaps onto the roof and personally pursues the twins. The tattoos on her body come to life in the forms of snakes and birds and knock the two off the roof and into a trash bin. The twins quickly recover since they’re used to falling from practice and hide inside a nearby store. They watch as the tattooed bird and snake search for them. The twins then see the store they’re in and see that it’s a toy store.
“Are you two okay?” the cashier asks.
“Yeah, we’re fine. Do you have any toy elephants?” Zackary awkwardly asks while looking for one.
The twins buy a pink toy elephant decorated with rainbow decorations. It has to have rainbow decorations on it because it was Roger’s daughter’s favorite colors. They then quietly and carefully go back to the circus while avoiding detection. This works out until they are blocks away from the circus. The two get chased until they are close to the circus to call out to Ebony. She quickly heads out of Roger’s tent and deals with the tattooed woman. All of the woman’s tattoos come to life so that multiple monsters start to attack the people around her and Ebony roars in response.
Ebony’s little squeak of a roar gets the woman’s tattoos to recede back into her body and warp it from the inside. She then continues to roar until the woman blows up. There’s nothing left of her but the tattoos she had that just slowly fall to the ground and decorate it with its many designs and animals. Not wanting to take any chances, Ebony stomps on them to completely erase them. Zackary and Zoey profusely thank Ebony before going to Roger who has just exited his tent and give him their gift.
“What’s going on here?” Roger asks.
“We uh, got chased while running a couple errands but here! We got you something you might like,” Zackary says as he shows him the pink elephant.
There’s silence for a few seconds as Roger holds the toy.
Zoey, feeling the awkward silence, tries to save the situation by saying, “Uh. If you don’t like it, we could always bring it to your daughter.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.”
“I told you getting the toy for him might do this!” Zoey complains to Zack.
“Well, you didn’t have any better ideas!”
“No, no! It’s a great gift. I honestly got rid of all of the elephants my daughter had and I regretted it ever since. Thank you so much.”
Roger hugs the twins. The other workers and performers talk to themselves about what to get Roger while a couple of them thank the twins for getting Roger a good gift. Ebony goes up to Roger and uses her truck to try to touch the elephant. Roger smiles and hands it to her. Ebony smiles and makes playful sounds as she plays with it.
Roger says, “Even Ebony seems to like it.”
“You see? I had the better idea,” Zackary boasts.
“Shut up.”
“What was your idea, Zoey?”
“I was going to hook you up with a woman. You know. Someone who is always by your side.”
“You’re not volunteering, are you?”
“No-I mean-I mean-I’ve never really thought about it and…” Zoey says as she gets flustered.
“I was joking, Zoey. Calm down. Besides, we just got a new recruit who wants to be my helper, Tomiko. She should be around here…there she is!”
Roger and the twins walk up to Tomiko and introduce themselves. Tomiko is an eastern-looking woman with a small beauty mark underneath her eye.
She smiles and says, “It’s nice to meet you too.”
No comments:
Post a Comment