The Dragon Tattoo

I woke up to the sun streaming through the blue-grey linen curtains, and groaned as I raised my hand to block the light. I rolled over in an attempt to fall back into the nice sleep I’d been having, snuggling deeper into my warm blankets and nuzzling into my pillow. I knew that once I was awake, I was awake for the day, but I still tried, futilely, to succumb to the gentle darkness of slumber. I switched positions, searching for a more comfortable way to lay, before sighing in discontent and sitting up. My pillow fell to the floor and as I groggily reached for it, I glanced at the clock. As I looked, 7:57 changed to 7:58, and I let out yet another groan. It was too early for this.

My muscles were stiff from the night of disuse, and I stretched to bring them back to life again. A yawn escaped as I did, and my stomach rumbled slightly. I decided that there was no better time to have breakfast than when I had awoken prematurely, so I climbed wearily to my feet and made my way to the kitchen. I caught a glimpse of the horror that was my bed head in my hall mirror, and resolved to shower and clean up after my morning meal even as another yawn passed my lips.

Breakfast was the usual affair with the eggs I cooked and the toast I’d popped in the toaster. Easy, and most importantly, simple. Things had to be simple for me to even attempt them at eight o’clock in the morning on my first day of summer break from college.

The news was nothing different than usual. I watched it as I ate, wondering what happened to all the people who went missing nowadays. It seemed that there were more disappearing than ever before, but, oddly enough, it never worried me. Things like that don’t happen to people like me.

At least, that’s what I’d thought.

I finished breakfast and switched off the annoying buzz of the morning news, slowly finishing my coffee before I stood and made my way to the bathroom. The hall mirror revealed to me, yet again, that I looked like crap in the mornings, and I ignored it as I pushed open the bathroom door and slipped inside. The mirror in the restroom, however, was inescapable and I clearly saw the fading bags under my eyes and the normally fairly pretty and long tresses of my black hair going every which way. The blue eyes that I possessed seemed to send shivers down my spine, they seemed so icy and cold. They were a very pale shade of blue, and I liked them. However, seeing the overall state of disarray in which I found my appearance, I sighed and attempted to smooth my hair down a little and failed, so I turned on the shower and undressed in order to climb under the soothing heat.

Once that was done and my unruly mop of hair restrained, I lounged around for a few hours on the couch. I watched the third Harry Potter movie because it was on, and I watched a few cartoons. I could have been more productive, but I didn’t care at the moment. I didn’t have to work, so I decided I’d just be lazy. Until about eleven thirty, when my friend Hannah called me up and said we should go to a nearby Chinese buffet for lunch and I agreed.

“You need a boyfriend, girl,” was the greeting I got from her when I arrived, and I just snorted.

“Hello to you, too,” I replied dully. She laughed and we went in the buffet together.

“I’m not kidding, Dawn,” Hannah pressed once we’d gotten our first plate and sat down. “How long has it been since you kicked Daniel to the curb?”

“It’s been over a year now,” I replied, knowing that she’d just keep bugging me if I didn’t give her the answer she was searching for. I had had experience in that area before, and I didn’t really want to repeat the annoyance that it had been.

“See!” Hannah cried triumphantly, as though the mere fact that I hadn’t had a boyfriend for over a year was cause to go gallivanting about to find a new one. “You’ve been on the market for that long, but you haven’t been showing it! You’ve got to wear something less blah,” she gestured at my casual jeans and teal tank top.

“I like what I wear,” I shrugged as I speared a piece of sesame chicken on the fork I was using. I was an absolute klutz with chopsticks, so I’d resolved long ago to just not even try anymore. “It’s practical and comfortable. And who says I need a boyfriend now? I just need to make it through school and get a good job, Hannah. Then I can start to worry about a boyfriend and whatever else.”

She rolled her eyes at me, but she grinned to make sure I knew she was playing.

“Sometimes I wonder why we’re friends,” she joked.

“Me too,” I grinned, using the same teasing tone that she had used against me.

We fell silent for a while, before the hyperactive and talkative Hannah felt the need to break in and say, “I do know a cool single guy who works at—”

“Hannah!” I couldn’t help but to laugh at how persistent she was. “I don’t need you to try to hook me up with some random guys! I’ll find a new one when the time is right, no earlier. Jeez.”

“I just want you to be happy,” she pouted. It was the pout that got her boyfriend of two and a half years to buy her new clothes at least once or twice a month. “I know that if we find the right guy for you, he’ll make you happy and he’ll get you things and he’ll be the perfect gentleman and—”

“Hannah,” I said, cutting her off.

“Well, it’s true!” she said indignantly. Again, we kind of both lapsed into a bit of laughter.

After we finished with our buffet, Hannah having eaten two plates to my three, she decided to drag me off to the store. When Hanna made decisions like that, it was usually pretty foolhardy to go against her, so I let her pull me along as I listened to her excited chatter about what she was going to make me get.

“I’ll even buy an outfit for you,” she told me excitedly, “and I’ll make you wear it out of the store and all the way home.”

I groaned good-naturedly, but I was used to her doing things like this. I’d been putting up with it for six years now, having met her at the beginning of eighth grade when she’d moved to my hometown. We’d decided to go to the same college, but chose not to be roommates. We’d heard so much about being roommates tearing friendships apart that we decided not to risk it. Coincidentally, both of our roommates left to go home for the summer, so we were left to pay for our separate apartments completely on our own.

*

“Come on out, Dawn!” came the sing-song voice of Hannah almost an hour and a half later, as I stood looking at myself in the sundress she’d picked out while still hiding in the dressing room.

I sighed and did as she said, asking, “Well?” in as bored a tone as I could muster.

“It’s kind of cute,” she conceded, “but not quite your style. We’ll find the right one, yet!”

She was dead-set on getting me a sundress, or a skirt at the very least. It couldn’t just be a sort of decent pair of jeans and a t-shirt or dressy shirt or something with her. It had to be some sort of skirt or dress. Even a pair of flats or short heels were often thrown into this deal.

And so it was about three thirty when we were finally done with her mini shopping spree and she had to book it to get ready for work at 4:15, so I was left walking home through the bad side of town in a formfitting red graphic tee and a dark blue jean skirt. If I had to give Hannah credit for something, it was her taste in clothes, because the outfit was pretty cute. And I was never one who liked dresses or skirts very much. At least this time she’d had the decency to pick a modest little pair of black and white flats rather than heels. My feet wouldn’t quite die on my walk home.

If anyone had told me that at about 3:52 PM I would be hit by a running tackle and fall into a deserted alleyway underneath some man that I couldn’t clearly see, letting out a yelp in surprise as well as slightly in pain as I hit the ground, I would have laughed at them. Nothing like that happens to a person like me, even if I do look like I’m dressed like I’m heading out on a date. So, yes. I would have laughed like a crazed maniac and thought you were just some sort of conspiracy theorist trying to get money off of people. A thing like that would be highly improbable, so I would have shrugged it off with ease.

I wouldn’t have believed you if you had said anything of the sort…until 3:52 PM had come to pass and I lay on the hard concrete, pinned down by a man whose face was hidden in shadow and who was considerably stronger than I myself was. I couldn’t even scream for the fear clogging my throat.

It took a considerable effort on my behalf to choke out the question, “What do you want?” rather than let the scream I was suppressing escape.