Decoy (Rex)

9: The tattoo

I wrote this while watching the new Little Mermaid movie.

It's amazing.

So good.

Tw: Mentions of child abuse.

Ranov'la sat on the balcony, staring out at the busy city. She pulled up her sleeve to stare at the tattoo that rested on her wrist.

A cage, with a symbol inside it.

She idly traced it with her thumb, thinking back on when she'd gotten it.

"No!" Eight year old 981 screamed, pulling her arm away from twelve year old Lucian. "Don't do it!"

"Shut up!" Lucian hissed, pulling her to the chair. "You don't have a choice."

981 screamed, using her other hand to hit Lucian.

Lucian hit her back.

981 froze as her face stung, and Lucian pushed her into the chair, strapping her down.

"No! Please!" 981 begged Lucian as her wrist was grabbed and the needle was lowered to it. "Lucian!"

He watched as the shape was inked onto her skin, and held his own wrist out to have a matching pattern on him.

They were nearly identical, except hers had a flower in the middle, while his had a dagger.

"See, you're fine," Lucian said.

981 sobbed as she took in the redness around her tattoo, relishing in the fact that Lucian was suffering as she was.

Her life belonged to someone else now.

Ranov'la ran her finger along the bars of the cage, letting out a sigh.

"What's that?" 

Ranov'la flinched and pulled her sleeve down, hiding it from Rex's view. "Nothing."

"Are you ever going to tell me something?" Rex snapped. "Every time I ask you something you always evade my questions!"

"I can't tell you. Just trust me," Ranov'la said. 

"I can't! I can't trust you!" Rex exclaimed. "I've been blindly trusting you for a while now, and I can't take it anymore! So here's your options, you either finally tell me what you've been hiding, or I walk away."

Ranov'la pulled her sleeve up. "Fine."

He lightly touched it, examining the black lines. "It's just a tattoo, why'd you hide it?"

"Everyone has a different shape or symbol, but in the middle there's always a flower or a dagger," Ranov'la said, feeling like a weight was being lifted off her chest. 

"Other people have this tattoo?" Rex curiously asked.

"No one shares the exact some one. They're always slightly different, with a matching one on their partner. The Guardian has a dagger and the Nobody has a flower in the middle," Ranov'la told him.

"Yours has a flower," Rex noted. "That means you're a Nobody?"

"Yes."

"What's a Nobody? What's a Guardian?" Rex asked.

Ranov'la looked into his eyes. "This is a secret that you can't tell anyone. We could both lose our lives."

"I understand," Rex nodded. "Now, please tell me."

"There's an underlord named Pudico," Ranov'la softly said. "He runs an orphanage to keep up his public appearance, but the orphanage is a horrible place. He trains children to do his dirty work."

"Children?" Rex said in horror.

"And he gives them numbers," Ranov'la said, and as she spoke, it all just started spilling out of her. "And at an early age, he chooses whether they're Nobodies or Guardians. Only the Guardians are given names. He assigns Guardians to Nobodies, and the name of mine was Lucian."

"Lucian?" Rex echoed. "He's your Guardian?"

"Yes," Ranov'la confirmed. "And until about a year ago, I complied. I sold deathsticks, I did as Lucian asked, and I sat around and looked pretty. Until the day I snapped, and I ran away. I made my escape."

"What do Nobodies do?" Rex questioned, still confused about the whole thing.

"We do whatever we're told," Ranov'la grimly said. "We're always watching. We're Pudico's eyes and ears. We do his dirty work while he rolls around in the credits we earn him."

"What purpose do the Guardians serve?" Rex asked, still staring at Ranov'la's tattoo.

"They make sure the Nobodies follow the rules and don't rebel," Ranov'la said. "They're the most loyal to Pudico."

Rex took a deep breath. "Thank you for telling me. It couldn't have been easy."

"You're the first person outside of Pudico's gang that I've told about my problems," Ranov'la smiled. "Thank you for listening."

"Is Lucian nice at least?" Rex hopefully asked.

"Not really. He thinks that because we're... partners in the gang, that we should become partners otherwise," Ranov'la wrinkled her nose.

"Sounds like quite the charmer," Rex huffed.

"He tries," Ranov'la sighed.

Rex grunted.

Ranov'la rolled her sleeve back down. "That's enough questions."

Do you understand the whole Nobody and Guardian thing?

If not, feel free to ask any questions, I understand that it's difficult to have all this information thrown at you.