The Reason Why
Chapter Three
Erol had to force himself not to run as he was strapped down to the cold metal table to receive the markings on a Krimzon Guard. The steele was like ice against his naked skin and goosebumps rose up everywhere on his skin. There had never been a time in his life that he had wanted a drink more than now.
"This will hurt a bit." The artist who would be tattooing his skin for the next few hours used the classic understatement like it was the truth, making Erol laugh. He didn't even look at him as he looked for the marker to draw the guidelines for the tattoos Erol would wear for the rest of his life.
The marker was cold on Erol's skin and he was reminded of the time he had let her paint on him when they were still only friends at school. He almost always had a new painting or drawing on him like an ever-changing tattoo. He wished that she could be the one doing this now instead of some strange man that was bored already. Boredom always led to subpar results.
As the needle began to purr, Erol's heart quickened. He'd never gotten a tattoo before and he had no idea how much pain to expect. He wished that they would have numbed him before. The pain was probably some sick form of training he decided.
When the needle first began to mark his skin with the sapphire ink of all Krimzon Guard tattoos, the pain didn't bother him all that much. But as the minutes passed, it became less and less tolerable. Two hours into the process, Erol was crying out in pain. His flesh was angry and red beneath the relentless needle, already beginning to puff up. How had so many men before him handled this? How had they not gone insane as they lay on this very same table and undergone this very same thing?
"Halfway done," the man said as he stopped to rest his hands. He walked over to a stool and sat down, cracking his knuckles.
"Halfway?" Erol repeated the word as a question, not wanting to believe it. "How can you only be halfway done?" His voice was hoarse from his screaming and he hated the sound of it. It triggered another memory of her. This one of when he had gotten sick and she had nursed him back to health. It was during that time that he had imagined their lives together and realized that he truly cared about her. After he got well, he took her out on their first date. That had been before the city had gone to hell...
Lost in the memory, he didn't realize that the man was continuing his work until the needle began abusing his skin once again. As the minutes passed, the needle came closer and closer to his face. Erol wanted to scream in pain again as the ink began to taint his neck, but he had already lost his voice. He thought he was going to black out as the sharp point of the needle tortured the soft, sensitive skin of his neck.
Just as he thought the pain could get no worse, the needle that had been bringing him so much pain for so many hours brought him even more. Slowly, the artist fill out the lines on Erol's face that he had made earlier. It was now impossible for Erol to cover up these marks. As sapphire ink mixed with blood, Erol became a Krimzon Guard in body, but not in mind or spirit.