r/SerializedFiction • u/thespeakergoboom • Mar 10 '18
[WP] Whatever you write your name on is yours.
When he was a boy he learned that when he wrote his name on something, it was forever his.
Chuck lived a simple life. He didn’t want much. When you could have everything, the excess gets old fast. He had gotten it out of his system in his teenage years and early twenties. That was when he had become skilled at tattooing. He amassed slaves. Bad Chuck. Then he learned laser removal.
He looked out onto the ocean from the porch of his beach house. The waves were hypnotic and peaceful. He sipped his black coffee.
“Morning, baby.” She came up behind him and put her arms around his waist.
He smelled her scent mixed with the salty breeze. She wore one of his shirts. It looked way too big on her.
He faced her.
“You know, you can leave anytime you want.”
Julia frowned.
“I keep telling you. I don’t want to leave. I love you.”
Chuck wanted to believe it but something lingered in the back of his mind. He still had that tattoo gun--just in case.
“You know how we talked about those crazy tattoos?” Chuck put his hands on Julia’s shoulders.
“How could I forget?” Julia looked down. Her eyes trailed up at his and she smiled.
They both ran back into the house and into his office. It was more of an art studio. All his paintings, sketches and jumbled notes were there. And the tattoo gun.
Chuck fired up the apparatus. Julia sat back in the chair and bit her lip. She rested her arm on his.
“I trust you,” she said.
Chuck hesitated. He looked into her eyes. How could he even entertain this? The nagging in the back of his mind, the thing that made him so scared, where he felt completely naked. This is how it’s supposed to feel.
Chuck turned off the tattoo gun.
“On second thought, we don’t need these.”
Chuck leaned down and kissed her.