Chapter 27: The Wolf Tattoo

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Wolf Tattoo

Zoey stepped back, her expression shifting from playful curiosity to a look of genuine concern. She searched Iris’s face, looking for any sign of a prank. "You’re serious? You really didn’t get a tattoo? Like, in a moment of madness or a dare?"

"No, I didn’t!" Iris exclaimed, her voice cracking. "It’s weird... it’s just....there.... It feels like it’s part of me, but I didn’t put it there. It doesn’t even feel like ink on top of the skin; it feels like the skin itself just... changed color."

"I swear..." She slowly turned toward Zoey. "...I’ve never seen that before."

Zoey searched her face carefully. "You really didn’t know?"

Iris shook her head immediately. "If you hadn’t said anything, I really would’ve walked around all day without noticing it."

Her brows knitted together. "This doesn’t make any sense at all."

Zoey folded her arms. "Are you sure you didn’t get drunk enough with Alexander last night for someone to tattoo you without remembering... did you?"

Iris gave her an incredulous look. "Zoey."

"What? I’m exploring every possibility."

"I think I’d remember someone putting a needle into my neck. Regardless of how drunk I might have been, the pain from my skin being pierced would have snapped me from it."

"Fair point."

She leaned back into the mirror, staring intensely at the shape. The more she looked, the more the abstract lines began to coalesce into a recognizable form.

"It seems to resemble something," Iris murmured, her brow knitting together. "It’s not just a random squiggle. It has a structure to it."

Iris looked back into the mirror again. "It’s strange." She tilted her head. "It almost looks like..." She frowned. "I can’t quite make it out."

Then an idea struck her and she turned toward Zoey. "Quick, Zoey, go get your phone!"

"My phone?" Zoey asked confused. "Why do we need my phone right now?"

"To take a picture." She pointed at the mark. "I’ll be able to see it properly that way without having to twist my neck into a pretzel."

Zoey didn’t need to be told twice. She spun around and dashed out of the room, her footsteps echoing in the hallway. A few seconds later, she was back, sliding into the room with her smartphone already unlocked and the camera app open.

"I knew charging it overnight would finally pay off."

Iris couldn’t help smiling. "You and your dramatic timing."

"Okay, stay still," Zoey commanded. "Turn your neck just a bit more to the right. Perfect. Don’t move." Zoey raised the phone. "And move your hair."

Iris gathered her dark, wavy hair over one shoulder. "Like this?"

"Yes like that. Hold on a second." Zoey focused the phone camera focused.

...Chakam....

The shutter sound echoed in the small room. Zoey lowered the phone, "I think we’ve got it."

Her eyes already glued to the screen. Iris turned around quickly, almost tripping over her discarded dress, and reached for the device.

They both huddled together, their heads touching, staring at the high-resolution image on the screen. In the bright light of the digital photo, the mark was unmistakable. It wasn’t a smudge or a birthmark. It was a meticulously detailed rendering, a stylized image of a creature.

For several long seconds, neither of them spoke. The strange marking was far clearer in the photograph than it had been in the mirror.

Every line was sharp, every curve was deliberately done. It didn’t look random at all, and it wasn’t decorative. It looked... almost ancient.

Zoey was the first to break the silence. She squinted at the screen before slowly looking at Iris. "Tell me I’m not imagining this."

Iris swallowed. "What?"

Zoey pointed at the image and swallowed hard. "Is it only me, or doesn’t that..." She hesitated, trying to find the right words, her voice barely a whisper. "... picture look exactly like the head of a wolf?"

Iris felt a cold shiver race down her spine, starting at the base of her skull and cascading down her back. She zoomed in on the image. The wolf’s eye was a tiny, piercing dot of black, and the snarl of the lip was captured with an intensity that felt almost predatory. It wasn’t a cute drawing; it was fierce, ancient, and utterly alien to her.

"A wolf," Iris repeated, the words feeling heavy in her mouth. "Why would I have a wolf on my neck?"

"Maybe it’s some kind of reaction?" Zoey suggested, though she sounded unconvinced. "Like, did you use a new lotion? Or maybe you leaned against something in the club or in Alexander’s penthouse? Some kind of chemical stain that just happened to look exactly like a professional tattoo of a wolf’s head?"

Iris looked back at the mirror, then back at the photo. "Zoey, look at the detail. The fur, the shading... it’s too precise to be a stain. And it doesn’t rub off." She grabbed a wet washcloth from the sink and scrubbed the area with a sudden, frantic energy. "See? Nothing. It’s not on the surface."

Zoey watched her, her expression grim. "Okay, let’s think logically. When was the last time you slept? Or, more importantly, when was the last time you had a gap in your memory? Like, a ’where did the last four hours go’ kind of thing?"

Iris stopped scrubbing, her hand frozen against her neck. She searched her mind, flipping through the events of the past few days.

"But I think, this appeared only after last night." Zoey suggested. "Because last night when you came back from Jason’s and I was helping you get ready to go to the club, I didn’t see this mark on your skin. So it only appeared after, so they’re only two possibilities in front of us."

She raised one finger. "One, something that we don’t know of happened at obsidian last night, but..." She had a tentative look on her face. "It still doesn’t explain the wolf mark. I was with you throughout the hours that we arrived, we only separated when you were dancing with Alexander in the club."

She raised the second finger. "And another possibility is when you left the club with Alexander and went to his penthouse. Think carefully Iris....maybe something happened there that made you get that mark."

"I... I don’t know," Iris admitted, her voice small. "When we arrived, we only kissed in the elevator, then we went into his penthouse. We talked for awhile, then we kissed again and it ended with us in his bedroom. And then we had sex. After the sex, I fell asleep right after because I was exhausted. I’ve been so tired lately with all the jobs that I had to haggle, that I can barely remember what I had for breakfast most days. But I haven’t blacked out. I don’t think so. And after I woke up this morning in Alexander’s house, I came here here immediately. And the next person I saw was Jason, standing in front of the apartment."

"Hmph," Zoey hummed, her eyes returning to the photo. "It’s just so... specific. It’s not just a wolf. It looks like a specific ...kind...of wolf. Like something out of a heraldry book or some weird occult symbol. Do you remember seeing anything like this? In a book? In a movie? Maybe a dream?"

Iris shook her head, the movement making the mark shift in the mirror. "Nothing. I’ve never even been interested in wolves. I’m a cat person, for god’s sake."

"Well, your neck disagrees," Zoey said, though the usual sarcasm was missing from her tone. She looked at Iris, her gaze softening. "Are you feeling okay? Aside from the obvious ’mysterious wolf tattoo’ panic? Are you having any fever? Any weird headaches?"

"I feel fine," Iris said, though as she spoke, she noticed a strange warmth beginning to radiate from the mark. It wasn’t a burn, but a low, pulsing heat, like a distant ember. "Actually... it feels a bit warm."

Zoey leaned in, her hand hovering over the spot again. "I don’t feel anything. Maybe it’s just your blood pressure spiking because you’re freaking out."

"I’m not freaking out!" Iris countered, though her voice climbed an octave. "I am logically reacting to the fact that a predatory animal has spontaneously manifested on my anatomy!"

Zoey let out a short, sharp laugh....ha!....which broke the tension for a fleeting second. "There she is. There’s the Iris I know. Only you could turn a supernatural event into a vocabulary lesson."

But the laughter didn’t last. Iris turned back to the mirror, her fingers tracing the outline of the wolf’s ear. As she touched it, a sudden, vivid image flashed across her mind: a dense, snow-covered forest, the air so cold it felt like needles in her lungs, and the sound of a deep, guttural howl that seemed to vibrate in her very marrow.

She gasped, jerking her hand away as if the skin had shocked her.

"What? What happened?" Zoey asked, her hand gripping Iris’s arm....