Born With His Tattoo

Reasons and Lies

Evangeline's POV

We were back to the first home I knew, the beasts. I felt like I had all the answers I needed, for right now anyway. Wyatt and Asa followed Kevin, Nate, and I back home making sure we arrived safely. Nate didn’t want to stay there but wanted to get to know Asa a little better so Kevin allowed them to stay.

“Evangeline, are you okay?” Kevin questioned. His voice forced me out of my thoughts, focusing on Kevin I begin to rethink his question.

“Yeah, I guess I am.” His eyes lingered on me slightly longer than normal before he turned away. I reached out to stop him. “I don’t think you have shown me around yet.” 

A smile made its way onto his face before he pulled me along. I was slightly confused about where we were heading, he noticed this. 

“You wanted to look around. Well, we have some different houses and places over here.” 

I relaxed and followed. You got to live life to the fullest, so why not do it now? The trees were beautiful but we only passed a few until we met a town. 

“I didn’t know this was back here,” I spoke out, bewildered.

“Not many outsiders do, but since you are the Luna I think you kinda need to know.” 

Kids rushed around the playgrounds laughing and screaming of happiness. Teenagers sat around talking and laughing, freedom away from school. 

Adults just sat around watching their kids and caught up on memories. My guess, talking about their kids. 

I looked around noticing everything around me, nothing seemed out of place. It was perfect, and a bright smile made my way onto my face.

That was until my eyes fell onto a simple boy, no older than eleven. My heart ached as I notice the tears that fell from his eyes. My legs had a life of their own as I made my way over to him. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked as my voice was barely above a whisper. 

The boy looked up in a panic, whipping away the remaining tears. He went to get up mumbling something under his breath but stopped once I pointed back. 

“It’s stupid. I shouldn’t even worry about it.” 

“Even the smallest things seem to make the biggest difference.” He seemed to hesitate before opening up and just like that, I could see myself in his eyes. 

“Well, it’s this thing.” He stated pushing away his long hair to reveal a tattoo on his neck. “I was born with it.” 

“My hair, it’s a different color. I’m made fun of it. My eyes, and just everything.” He continued before I was able to realize what hit me. 

“So, you’re being bullied? What’s wrong with all the things that define you?” I questioned. 

“I’m ugly.”

“How old are you and what’s your name?”

“I’m Vic and I’m ten years old.” 

I didn’t know what to think, a ten-year-old was telling me he hated herself. A ten-year-old! It made me realize that this was not just a human problem. 

It went beyond humans, it was everyone’s problem. It made me realize that this wasn’t just a girl problem, but also a boy. 

“You are ten years old and you are worried about what you look like? Your hair is such a beautiful blonde color and your eyes are the prettiest brown I have ever seen.” 

I pushed my hair from my shoulders, pulling my shirt down enough to show my tattoo. 

“That tattoo that you hate now, one day you won’t. That tattoo that you carry, that I carry is proving something. It proves that one day, you’ll be a leader. One day you will be the voice of hundreds of others. You don’t have to be a leader, but you get too.”

He sat back and listened, being very respectful. He didn’t understand life right now, heck I didn’t either.

“Your tattoo is what’s unique. It makes you special and what’s wrong with your looks? I can’t find one flaw.” 

“I’m ugly, I don’t look like others. I wished I could change my looks.”

“You want to be perfect?” I questioned not seeing what he meant or what he may be seeing.

“Yes.”

“What’s perfect?”

The simple question seemed to send him into endless thoughts. He opened his mouth but closed it once he realized that he didn’t know.

“I don’t actually know.”

“Vic, perfection doesn’t exist. It’s a belief made-up in your head. You are perfect just the way you are, you don’t need to change for anyone.”

Pretty soon, his mom came over to check on her son. She thanked me before both of them left. The one goal I had in mind for as long as I can remember will always be my goal. To make a difference and I think I just did that.

“Are you sure you’re a human and not an angel?” 

Kevin questioned causing me to jump slightly. His hands placed on my shoulders for a moment as he sat down right next to me. A laugh escaped my lips as I thought of his comment, an angel?

“Please, if anything I’m the devil.”

“You would make for a very kind devil.” 

“Technically, I’m a rare vampire. Who’s destined for a beast but lived in a human world. So, I really don’t know what I am.”   

I received some chuckles from him, he never gives up. I rolled my eyes before watching the woods as if something would come out of it.

“You know what I just realized.” I thought out loud. I find myself doing that more and more often nowadays. 

“Yeah, what’s that?” 

His hands simply pulled me up before going on the walk he promised a long time ago. We passed families as well as trees, finding the same peace in both.

“Perfectness.” 

“What about it?”

“It starts at school. Don’t get me wrong or anything but it’s not the kids that make us ashamed of who we are-it’s the rules that the teachers are forced to follow.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. Growing up, guys can wear just about anything. Never really got dressed-coded. It was always the girls. We couldn’t wear too tight or loose clothing."

Kevin cut me off right there before I could even finish putting his point of view out there. 

“The clothes you girls wore though, were distracting. Plus we had dress code rules.” 

“You don’t think that most of the time what you wear, wasn’t distracting? Yes, you had a dress code but never got called out. Did you guys ever get reminded to keep your hands to yourself?”

“No.”

“Point proven. Now as I was saying before, we weren’t allowed to wear leggings and if we did we would have to wear a shirt over it. No spaghetti straps, tank tops, colored bars. It was a crime if the strap of the bra showed. Jeans with holes pasted the fingertip length, shorts above the fingertip on the side. Certain colors like red or black we weren’t allowed to wear.”

I paused to think about more, as I let Kevin catch up to where I was. 

“We weren’t allowed to wear hoodies or certain dresses. It’s sad because when I passed apps on my phone, I got so angry. They were apps that changed how you looked. Like you could make your butt look bigger, or your face to look clearer. I hate the media so much because of it.”

He stopped suddenly once again before looking at me. His eyes glossed over, before figuring out that I was right.

“I didn’t realize how that affected you guys. I knew of the apps, but didn’t give it much thought.” 

“Also on the subject of school, I need to get a job and finish high school.”

I caused him to come to a careless stop once again, as a frown made a way to his face. He didn’t understand my mindstate, and I didn’t expect him to either.

“You have a job, being a Luna of this pack. You don’t need to finish high school either, the diploma is useless here anyway.”

“I know, I’m Luna and everything. I just don’t feel like I’m doing as much as I can. I feel like I can work more. Having a diploma is becoming a rare thing nowadays.” I paused for a brief moment. 

“Especially in bigger cities but I still want to be a graduate. In this world, if you don’t have a diploma you’re nothing. Plus, I only have a week of classes left anyways. I don’t want to stop now.” 

He simply nodded, I knew he didn’t agree with me but at the end of the day it didn’t matter. It was all about communication. As long as you could talk to your best friend than life is good. 

“Alright, we can look into it.” 

We ended up inside a random coffee place causing my happiness to spike up. I ordered mine while he simply got a lemonade drink.

“What is something you have never told anyone?” 

Kevin questioned. I had to think, it wasn’t every day when you were asked personal questions. After a few moments, I chose a story from my past. 

“Well, I used to feel like an outcast in my family when I was younger. Turns out, as we know now I was. I made a story or a so-called past.”  

He listened on as I continued to talk after taking a drink from my iced coffee. 

“I dreamed that I was kidnapped and placed into the family I was born into. That I wasn’t commoner, but actually a princess.” 

“What? A princess?” 

“That’s not the worst part. I imagined that my parents hired a witch to curse my parents to age faster, and my brothers to try to get me to run away.”

“If your parents hired a witch to cause the others to age twice as fast, that would make no sense. Why wouldn’t they hire a witch to track you?” 

Kevin questioned, I laughed because I already thought everything out. Even down to the single detail.

“I imagined that my parents wanted me to live a normal life until like age twenty. Then and only then, they would find me.”

“You ready thought of everything, didn’t you?”

I simply nodded because that’s who I am. I overthink and rethink the same thing over and over. Half the time, I make myself sick because of it. Through the flaws I know and the flaws I have yet to discover, I wouldn’t change for the world.

“Well, you weren’t completely off. They searched from sea to sea, looking. Around the world, and hired witches. Although, they never did cast a spell to make your fake parents age more. They didn’t hire fake brothers to drive you away either. Close, but not that close.” 

“Well, what about you?” 

“When life got hard, I just acted like it was a dream. That no matter my reaction, in the morning it wouldn’t matter. Half the time, it felt like I was six but in my dream twenty.”

A few moments passed as laughs broke through. It made me happy that I wasn’t alone. Lately, it made me realize a lot about life. 

Like no one’s ever alone, they just haven’t met someone who’s been down the same path.

“I guess we have a lot more in common than I thought.”

“Kevin, an Alpha, wants to be common?”

He simply rolled his eyes with a smile plated on his face. 

“Believe it or not, I want to have something in common with the person I’ll spend millions of years with. If it’s just imagination than so be it.”

He paused for a moment taking a big drink. Forcing my focus on how much he went through it already. It was only half full. 

“Can you ask a question?”

“You just did.”

He softly glared at me as he became serious. Making me realize that he was always serious. 

“Fine.”

“What were you really running from? All that time you spent planning your escape.”

“Beasts. You guys were forcing me to stay here, and I don’t like being told what to do.”

“Evangeline. I don’t think that’s the reason.” 

“Fine. I don’t open up to people very much. When I do, bad things happen. I’m just pretty cautions, and didn’t want to get hurt.”

“You mean you don’t open to love?”

I frowned spinning around my coffee, making sure it didn’t fall. It was a habit I always had when I didn’t want to look or think about a certain person. I sighed before getting out of my set, holding out a hand for him to take. 

“I want to show you something.”

“What’s that?” 

He questioned has his hand found mine, I simple aching discomfort started in my head. Black dots in my vision disappeared as soon as they reappeared. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing. Just probably moved too fast, human problems.” 

I took a few more steps, as it cleared up. The aching discomfort turned into a bigger awful burning sensation in my head. Still, I walked forward, pulling him to my dream destination. 

“Evangeline?”

The burning sensation turned into bigger black dots making me fall to my knees screaming in agony.

“Evangeline!” 

The last thing I heard before the darkness took over, leaving me to wonder what happened.