Pellentesque

Pellentesque

Synopsis:

Justin was born May 16th, 2023, he is currently 24 years old. Justin is one of the best in his field, which is tattoo reading. On a day to day basis he reads people’s tattoos and tells them what to expect to happen. He is bright, and has had hand to hand combat training, due to past experiences. Most of the time he has good concentration and focus, and is an honest man, he would never lie to his friends.

“Hey Alyssa, what's up?” Said Justin

“Ah, nothing much, got this new ink” replied Alyssa.

“Let me have a look” he said.

Justin examined Alyssa’s tattoo, it contained a circle inside another circle, and some animals around it. On the top right there were what seemed to be a bird holding a book, and on the top left there was an angel with a book too. On the bottom corners there were two winged animals, both with books as well. On top of the circles there was a phynx figure holding a sword. Justin took all of 2 seconds to identify the tattoo as The Wheel Of Fortune. This tattoo symbolizes that luck will soon come to the bearer.

“It's the Wheel Of Fortune, go buy a lottery ticket or something cause you're about to get lucky.”

“Seriously? Alright.”

As Alyssa turned the corner to leave Justin’s little blue and grey shop, where he sells all sorts of things, like pills to speed up the appearance of Pellentesque tattoos, and stuff to cover them up; he felt a new tattoo appearing on his left shoulder blade. He looked up to tell Alyssa, but she was already gone. He went in the back room, where there was a repurposed dentist chair and a big mirror. Justin pulled off his shirt, revealing the newly formed tattoo. It was a skeleton, dressed in what looked to be knights armor, mounted on a white horse. The skeleton was holding a black flag with the roman numeral thirteen on the top left. There was some sort of circular symbol in the center of the flag. The background contained a sunset, and in the foreground there were people dead, along with what looked to be people begging for their lives.

“Death, s**t”

So, someone was going to die, but who? Justin brought this problem to Tom, a friend and a member of the precrime organization. Tom has stopped many crimes from happening and Justin is hoping that he could stop this one.

“Yo Tom, I gotta problem”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“I got a death Pellentesque tattoo.”

“And you're certain it's a murder?”

“No.”

“I can't do anything unless it's a crime, sorry. Find out whether or not it's a murder, and we’ll see from there”

Justin returned to his little shop. He went in the back, and sat down on the old red dentist chair. Justin needed to prove a murder, before a murder evened happened. He decided he needed to find out the victim first. Justin, quickly hopped to his feet, he had found an idea. He ransacked the cupboards looking for Pellentesque Pills. He pulled out a tinted dark blue pill bottle. There were two pills in it, both half white and half red. These pills, when ingested, induce a method of somewhat clarifying the Pellentesque Tattoos. The downsides are that it could decrease the likelihood of the tattoos actually becoming a reality. It also could have a small chance of causing bad memories to reappear in dreams. Justin really did not want to take the pills, needed to though.

When Justin woke up, he felt all groggy. He checked his watch, it had a crack running down the middle, and the time had stopped. It read “10:43 pm”, the time he must've been knocked out. He quickly looked around for a clock.

“s**t, it’s seven, I’ve been out eight hours, what was I doing?” He said

Justin stood up.

“Ughh” he let out a small moan

Justin grabbed his lower rib cage in pain.

“Crap, something must be broken”

He stumbled around towards the door, clueless of where he was. He got outside of the little booth he was in, it was a train station. The train station was deserted and almost completely empty. He heard a couple of voices, two guys, and some people crying. He started walking towards the noises. Once he got close enough, he realised that the two men had guns, and the people crying, were his family. Justin hid behind a couple of barrels in the middle of the walkway. The gunmen had his family down on their knees, as if to execute them. He started panicking, he looked around for something to help him. He didn’t have his phone, or anyway other way of getting help. He looked over to his right, there was a body, a man of average height just laying there motionless on the floor. Justin saw a little shine come off of something next to the body’s leg, it was a gun. The only problem is the weapon was out of cover, he needed to run to the gun, pick it up, fire at both gunmen, before they shoot him or his family. He prepared himself.

“Becky!, Jo!, Eva! GET DOWN!!!”

Justin sprinted towards the gun, picked it up, and fired towards the gunmen. The first one dropping to the ground with a lucky fatal blow to the heart. The second one guman promptly lifted his gun and wounded Justin in the hip. Justin fell to the floor in pain, the gunman removed his gun before he could shoot.

“Thought we killed you, oh well, looks like you get to see your family die instead”

“Wait… What’s… What’s your name?” Justin asked

“Why does it matter?” the gunman replied

“So… So I know who to kill”

“Jonas Malum, but you’re dead after them smartass”

Justin watched as Jonas shot down his wife Rebecca, then his son Jonathan, and his daughter Eva. Just as Jonas aimed the gun at Justin, the cops arrived, Jonas fled. There were lights everywhere, the police officers’ flashlights blinded him.

“Justin!... Justin! Wake up!”

“Wha… What happened?”

“It’s Alyssa, Justin you were knocked out for so long” said Alyssa

Justin’s eyelids were heavy, his breaths long, and his head full of confusion. It took him sometime to recover, but once he did, he described what happened to Alyssa.

“I took those pills, the ones that are supposed to clarify the tattoos. I just saw that moment again, the one where… where my family died”

“Maybe that was the insight into the tattoo, who’s still alive that you remember in that memory?” Alyssa said trying to help

“Ummmm, a guy, named Jonas. Jonas Malum I think”

“Find him, maybe he’s the one that’s supposed to die” replied Alyssa

“I don’t care if he dies, luckily for him I didn’t do it myself” Justin proclaimed

“What if he changed? What if he has a wife and children, do you really want those kids to live without a father?”

“Fine, I’ll do it because you want me to”

Justin started his search. First off, he searched the name online. He went through people’s social media account, pictures, everything, looking for that familiar face. He went days without finding anything, just when he was about to give up, he got a message.

“I heard you’re looking for someone. I can help. -- A_T”

Justin wondered who this “A_T” person was. It could’ve been a nickname, an abbreviation, or something entirely different. But Justin was indeed looking for someone, so he responded.

“Yeah, I need some help, but who are you? And how can I trust you?” Justin replied

“I know you’re looking for a guy named Jonas Malum, I know you like the colour red, I also know that your best-friend’s name is Alyssa, shall I go on?” A_T sent

“I get it, you’re a stalker, help me find this guy or the cops get involved. A name would be nice though”

“Name’s Atlas. I’ll find Jonas for you if you do me a favour. I assume you already agree so here are the details. I’m gonna need you to install a USB drive onto your friend Tom’s computer at the PreCrime HeadQuarters.”

“Should I ask why?” Justin questioned

“No, just remember I’m not the bad guy”

After Atlas sent the last message the chat read “Conversation ended”. Seconds after Justin placed his phone back into his right pocket, the doorbell rang. He went to the door and opened it.

“Package for Justin Ashford, sign here”

“Atlas?” Justin asked

“Who?”

“Nevermind, just give me the package”

After Justin returned back inside, he opened the parcel. It contained the USB drive he needed to intall at PreCrime. With haste, Justin went to see his friend Tom.

“Hey Jus, so, is it a murder?”

“No, umm, sorry, I have no idea actually” Justin panicked a bit

After he regained his composure, they continued.

“No, but I have a name, Jonas Malum, can you do some research on him?”

“Let me get my buddy in here, he’s better at these kinds of things”

As Tom left the room, Justin quickly moved towards the computer. He found the USB port, and plugged the drive in. As he turned around, Tom and his friend walked into the room.

“Justin, this is Phil, he might be able to help” Tom said

“The guy’s name is Jonas Malum, that’s all I know. Oh crap, I gotta go, I have a lunch meeting now.” Justin hastily replied

“With who?”

“Alyssa” Justin shot back

He swiftly left the room, feeling guilty about lying to his friend. He texted Atlas.

“Installed the USB, now what?”

“The Stantos Apartments building, floor 7, room 32” Replied Atlas

Justin had no idea if the tattoo had already taken place, or if it was still going to happen. He went to where Atlas said Jonas was, we waited at the door, scared of what waited on the other side. Just as he reached for the door, his phone buzzed.

“Hey man, I got recruited to be a tattoo reader. That must be what the tattoo was referring to, not winning the lottery, but still fun.” Alyssa sent him

After reading the text, he put his phone back into his pocket, and continued on in. When he opened the door, he saw Jonas, standing there, facing the window.

“I knew you’d come for me, I got one of those tattoos” Jonas said

“It doesn't have to be like this though, you don’t have to die”

As Jonas turned around, he looked Justin dead in the eyes. He lifted up a Beretta M9.

“You’re right Justin, it doesn’t” Jonas said

Justin kept his concentration, he didn’t panic. He hastily scanned the room for a way out of this scenario. He saw an unopened wine bottle on his right side, sitting on top of a white desk. Justin quickly grabbed the wine bottle, and threw it with as much power as he could, towards Jonas. Justin ducked in the process, which dodged the shot Jonas had let off in an attempt to injure him. Just as the wine bottle hit Jonas’ head, it knocked him back, into the window. The window cracked, and then shattered sending bits of glass everywhere and Jonas falling down 24 meters. He hit the ground, leaving a puddle of blood.

“Well, turns out the tattoo did come true” Justin said with disapproval

Justin returned home, knowing that the cops were already on their way. He entered the door, poured himself a glass of scotch, and said down. Justin leaned his head back, and released a sigh, hoping it was all over. Just as he settled in, he heard a knock on his door.

“Hey, what’s up Alyssa?” Justin responded with

“What happened, I heard someone died on the news”

“Here come in”

The two sat down.

“Oh, there was this envelope at your doorstep, here”

Alyssa handed Justin the envelope, he opened it up. He pulled out a black piece of paper, with a couple of words in the middle. It read:

“Sorry about this. -- A_T”

Justin started looking around, and just as he did, a gunshot came flying through the window, hitting Alyssa.

“NOO! Alyssa”

He quickly dialed the cops, but the wound was surely fatal.

Explanation:

Alright, so, you might be confused. The pills Justin took in the beginning, they could cause “bad memories to reappear in dreams.” So when Justin took the pills, and was knocked out by them, he had one of those bad memories reappear, not the “method of somewhat clarifying the Pellentesque Tattoos”. Alyssa woke Justin up, and made him believe that it was the clarification. So he went on his way, and ended up killing Jonas, who had nothing to do with it. Alyssa was the one that died, because the “clarification” on who was going to die, was Alyssa waking him up (because how did Alyssa get there). So, quick recap, Alyssa waking Justin up was the world/pills showing him Alyssa was going to die. The bad memory was just a side-effect. Also, the USB he planted at PreCrime stopped them (PreCrime) from knowing Atlas was going to kill Alyssa.

Pellentesque: is latin for futuristic

Malus: is latin for bad