Alma Cackle couldn't believe her eyes. Speechless. She had long accepted that her daughters had grown into their adult figures, futilely disapproving of Agatha's provocative attire and her long stride, that arrogance that she brazenly wore like a crown. But this, this was too much.
'A tattoo!' She screeched, after she'd recovered her voice. She'd walked in on her daughter stepping out of the shower and nothing had prepared her for the sight of the image of a snake entwined around Agatha's thigh.
'Mum! You can't just walk in on people!'
The stupid girl hadn't locked the door, Alma reasoned with herself. But it was hardly a comfort when she'd seen what lay under her daughter's inappropriately tight dresses.
'When did you get that!' Alma demanded, heart thumping in fury.
Agatha scoffed.
'Whenever I wanted to' she replied belligerently. She started rubbing her wet hair with a towel, shamelessly revelling in her mother's shock.
'Get out mum and stop gawping at me like I'm a performing monkey.'
Alma was incensed by the rudeness. She'd never brought her up like that. It had taken her far too long to realise just how out of reach her rebellious daughter was.
Agatha coolly accepted the rage aimed at her, disdainful at the attempt of her mother trying to claw back control. She was planning to get a lot more decoration in the future and didn't need permission for any of it.
'Mummy dearest, I really don't care' she said, focusing on tweezing a stray eyebrow hair. 'It's not on public display, is it? If it was, that would really embarrass you. And we wouldn't want that, would we?'
She waited for the barrage to simmer down but it seemed that Alma had got her knickers in a twist about everything today. She shook her head forward and wrapped the towel around it nonchalantly, giving her mother a peek of her other side. A scratching black cat etched on her ribs. Alma almost spontaneously combusted and Agatha grinned nastily until she was called as good as a prostitute and then the fight really began.
Agatha refused to be called that.
Ada ran into the house at the sound of her mother's shriek, expecting her to be confronted with a maniac with a machete. Found her mother and sister shouting at each other in the bathroom. Stark naked. Tattoos on full display.
Oh dear.