Chapter 4 The strange tattoo-like mark.

I hadn't noticed him at all before then, which made me wonder, how long has he been there? Then I noticed the stain of paint he had on his hand and I tried to stay calm as I put the pieces together.

Taking a deep breath.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't-I didn't mean to come in here" As much as I tried to stay calm I was still shaky, my voice refused to come out normally. "I got lost...I just..."

I stopped talking. The old man wasn't saying anything and he only stared back at me. "Did you... Did you paint this?" I tried again but he still kept staring back at me and I wondered if he couldn't talk. His somewhat dead blue eyes looked weird and his stare was beginning to give me the creeps. "I guess I'll- leave now. Sorry to bother you".

I started to walk past him without waiting for a reply when suddenly, he grabbed my wrist and his voice gave me the shock of my life. "Alex".

"Ohmygod!"

I yelled as I turned to look at him in surprise at the fact that he knew my name, not knowing I was in for a different surprise. I froze as I was now staring into a pair of black eyes that had swallowed up the previous blue.

"Alex. You're finally here. I've been waiting for you." he rushed to say in his croaked voice. "You need to listen to me, we are running out of time, you need to find the others and leave immediately."

"What?" My voice quivered and I could tell I was at the brink of tears. "I'm sorry. You have the wrong person, I-I don't even know you."

Who the heck has a plain black eyes?!

"You're running out of time Alex, you three must set off on the journey immediately before the heart awakens." he continued hurriedly, completely ignoring my denial to knowing him. His grip tightened around my wrist and it really hurt.

"Let go of my hand!"

I winced and tried to push his hand away with my other hand but it was useless. I couldn't break free.

What the heck are they feeding this old man?

I was panicking but he just went on talking. I wasn't listening to anything he was saying anymore, I was just bent on getting out of his grip and out of the freaky room.

"You must protect the second mark from the heart. Find the five gems and restore it to the gate." he grabbed my other hand and I gasped in fear as he pulled me in closer "Find Kathryn and..."

I couldn't take it any longer. I lost it. At the top of my lungs and as loud as I could, I screamed.

"AHH! Aunt Beatrice! Aunt Beatrice! Help! Someone help me! Help me! Please someone help me!"

I was now stamping my feet on the ground as I kept on screaming for help.

How wasn't I so surprised when the weird old man didn't stop talking. It got me thinking, that stupid fortune cookie really has me good. Remembering the fortune again made me fall to the floor and begin to cry in frustration.

This summer really isn't my time, I thought.

"Alex?" I heard aunt Beatrice call my name.

I jumped up immediately "Aunt Beatrice?! Aunt Beatrice, help me please!"

"Alex! Oh my god. Mr. Westley please let go of her!" Aunt Beatrice said in shock and tried to get his hand off mine but she also couldn't. I watched as three other nurses came in and I looked back at the man to notice his eyes had gone back to normal.

"You..."

"Do you have it?" My Aunt's voice asked one of the others and they nodded before taking out a syringe.

The other two held him down as the lady with the syringe tried to inject him. It was quite the struggle. He was way too strong for his age and my wrist unfortunately had to suffer part of it in the struggle. Aunt Beatrice had to help hold him down.

"No! No! I still need to talk to her, we don't have time again. Alex you need to get to Kathryn!. She'll tell you what to do. You must stop the heart, get to my grandson, he has the third mark. You must find him and all leave immediately! Alex!, Alex listen to me!" he went on.

Then I realized his voice sounded familiar.

The way he called my name, it was just like...

My eyes widened as I realized something I hadn't a long while ago. I wasn't completely sure, but I definitely knew it sounded just like the voice from the foggy faced mirror. My hand flew to my mouth and the needle finally went in as he was injected. His grip finally loosened and my wrist was free.

"Alex, are you okay?"

"No I'm not! He scared the living soul out of me" I cried again and she hugged me.

"How on earth did you get here?" She asked.

"I-I'm not sure. I was - I was on the phone a-and the next thing I-I was here. He suddenly appeared and...and..." My voice was really shaky.

"Its okay. Come here, I'll take you home."

I was so glad to hear that. This was too much for me to handle in less than two days. I looked at him again as he was now quiet, his dead eyes had been put back in place and he laid back against his wheelchair. As much as I wanted to know if he was related to the foggy mirror, I also wanted to get as far away from him.

*****

As my Aunt drove me to her new house, she told me about Mr. Westly. He was dying from a motor neuron disease. He had been admitted into a different hospital but he ran away from them and came over to her retirement home. When she had found out, they took him back to the hospital but the next day, he was back

in that room. She wasn't sure how he got there without being noticed but apparently this went on for a long while, until they decided to let him stay and receive his treatments from there.

Now that's just typical crazy!, I thought.

"So, what do you think?" she asked as we entered her new house.

"It's pretty, and also better than the last." I said, knowing just what she wanted to hear

"I know right, I've got a good eyes for this things," she bragged but I couldn't agree less with her. She took me up the stairs and opened a door. "Here, I had this room specially prepared for you. Do you like it?"

"Yeah." I said without giving it a thought. I'm not exactly the picky type.

She frowned at me "That's all?"

I gave it a thought at what else she wanted to hear from me and then I said uncertainly "Thank you?"

She sighed and said with a pout "I'll get lunch ready."

"Don't you have to get back to work?" I asked.

"Its fine, I already took the day off." she flashed me an excited smile and left.

I sighed with the shook of my head but I wasn't worried. After all, she is in charge .

I had almost forgotten how great aunt Beatrice cooking is and how fun it was to be with her. After we had lunch, we played the word board game, she's a great player but as usual, I always end up with the win. we left that and then we spent hours talking... more like she did most of the talking and I simply listened as she told me a lot that's happened at her workplace.

Once, they had gotten a guest who was a pyromaniac. She wouldn't stop burning anything she saw and it became quiet a problem for them. After she set things on fire she would go around screaming "I got that one good."

So I concluded, basically she's been involved with crazy people.

"It gets so lonely around here." she whined with a sigh.

I furrowed my brows and said "Then get married!"

Aunt Beatrice wasn't married, and sometimes... Did I just say sometimes? I mean every time I wonder why she still hasn't gotten married. She's a different case from aunt Mille. She's smart, really beautiful, still got her young and hot look, cooks well, has a job, pretty fun, I could go on about what she's got going good for her so why isn't she married?.

She ticked her tongue and said "They're all just nothing but crazy people out there."

Just then her phone rang out, she reached out for it on the table and I could make out the name Dylan.

"Excuse me," she said to me and took the call "Oh hi Dylan... Yeah, I'm fine... Yeah... I know right, its too bad...

Of course not- okay maybe... Its just for a little while..."

I stared at my aunt as her actions at the moment was a total other side to her last statement. She was smiling and blushing all over her face and I sighed. There really are only crazy people out there but it seems she's met her perfect crazy person.

After she hung up the call, she looked at me and cleared her throat while trying to erase the blush from earlier "sorry about that."

"Oh, its fine" I said and stared at her as she was still smiling "so who's Dylan?"

Her smile wiped off and she acted uninterested but I could see through her like a transparent bag. "Oh-uh, he's just a friend from next door. He's an optician, who got transferred here a while after I moved. He traveled a day ago and he just, called to say hi".

"Just a friend." I repeated

"Yeah, wow look at the time, we should get dinner going." she stood up totally ignoring my eyes.

"Is he married?" I asked as I walked behind her.

"No he's not." I heard a little glimpse of excitement "I mean- why should I care if he is." she added and this made me smile.

After we made and had dinner it was pretty late. It was dark outside and then Aunt Beatrice suggested we watch a movie. I took her up on it and sat on the couch as she fiddled around for the movie, when she held up her pick I got up immediately and began to head up to my room.

Did I forget to mention that aunt Beatrice is also an horror movie freak?

I totally don't get what's so good about seeing a man being cut up or tortured, or a ghost hunting people and taking over their bodies, or a doll being possessed. But aunt Beatrice and Erica were just so into it. who are they, princesses of Transylvania?

"Come on Alex, this one's not so bad you know."

"No thank you. You enjoy yourself, I'll be in my room taking a nice nap after a nice bath." I replied her without looking back and I closed the door behind me.

The bath was nice and refreshing as ever. I came out in my bathrobe and went to the drawer where my things had been set in, then I bent for the last drawer.

Suddenly, I felt a really sharp pain at my back very close to my neck.

"What the-" I hissed and groaned in pain as the pain got sharper. I pressed my hand at the point where I was feeling the pain but it was useless. It kept piercing at my skin. "Ah!"

I arched up with a wince and limped to the floor mirror as the pain was taking its toll on me, the pain seemed to be spreading and so I backed the mirror and lowered my robe to my waist and peered over shoulder. My eyes lit up both in surprise and fear as something in an orange light was engraving itself to my back.

"Ah," I gasped out in pain as it hurt like hell.

It was so painful I wanted to scream but the pain was too overwhelming for me to let out a proper scream. I winced and groaned until I felt the pain slowly fade away. I was now breathing hard as I took one more look at the strange tattoo-like thing on my back.

For the first time in my life I actually wished I was just watching an horror film.