The Cursed Tattoo - A short story by Maira Singhal
A pretty blue ink tattoo that would catch anyone's attention easily. But, the girl with the tattoo must never reveal the true story behind the tattoo. If she does, she will have a big price to pay!
In the early 14th century people believed in myths and that bad souls lingered around them. No one had proof though, but frightened of ghosts people used to sleep just before sunset and woke up just before sunrise. In the evening, one by one the candles were blown out creating darkness and as the ghost gong rang (the time when ghosts were believed to come) people would go to bed scared and anxious. To make sure everyone was in their house there were evening checks by watchmen. This was the most daring task. People say that some of the watchmen had even been poisoned by ghosts and had gone mad, so others had to replace them. Amongst the scared crowd were two strong women, Eleanor and Maud.
Both of them were friends and were abnormal humans. Their abnormality meant that they were not in the ghost’s radar of killing so both of them could wake up longer than the others as they couldn’t be harmed. No one in the village knew about their unique strength except the two of them. Since both of them were of the same kind they were close to each other.
One night Maud mysteriously disappeared. It so happened that on that fateful day Eleanor was staying over at Maud’s house. Later, she was informed that Maud had died. People suspected two possibilities for the sudden death- one a ghost had attacked her and the other more gruesome possibility that Eleanor had murdered her!
Maud was very dear to her parents and was their only support. Desperate to find the cause of her death, they hired a renowned retired detective with over 30 years of experience. Eleanor was questioned and to save herself she revealed Maud’s true identity which was supposed to be kept a secret. She told the detective that Maud was abnormal and that she was blue-blooded instead of red and that she was a descendent from another planet who had decided to explore earth. She went on to say that the night Maud went missing, a person from her planet had come to take her. Eleanor said that she had been awake and hence had been a witness to Maud being taken away. People those days used to believe in all kinds of bizarre stories related to ghosts, UFOs, etc (no wonder humans had made 0% progress in the study of ghosts till date) and hence they believed in this one too.
That same night Maud appeared in Eleanor’s dreams, angry and frustrated. She said, “Eleanor I trusted you but you did nothing but betray me! You told everyone what happened. Why did you that? I give you a curse! You will get a tattoo in blue Ink. You have to tell everyone that you lied to the detective whenever anyone sees this tattoo or else all your secrets will be revealed and your loved ones will die!” Eleanor was upset but left with little choice but to follow Maud’s instructions. The villagers were aghast and Eleanor was jailed for lying. Eleanor got punished by Maud who was checking the trust worthiness of people on Earth. It is said that there are many Mauds in the present and more to come. Betrayal is not taken lightly.