Sunday Scribblings #180

The thing with the tattoo was that it never stayed in the same place. Always roaming around on her body, surprising her with new locations and sometimes, new shapes. Often people would look at her in surprise and say "I didn't know you had a tattoo!" and she would have to try and pretend it wasn't real because she knew in a day or two it would be somewhere else, probably somewhere hidden, and explaining was just too hard.

One day something new happened. She arose at her usual hour and wandered to the bathroom to freshen up. Today the tattoo was plainly in sight on her left forearm and was in the form of a very lovely butterfly. As she inspected it lightly she felt a tingling in her arm around the outside of the tattoo. The tingling became more intense and warm as the skin began to pucker and then rise slightly as an actual butterfly took shape from her arm. The wings were so delicate and translucent in glorious colours. She searched her brain for what genus it might be but was at a loss. After some time, the tingling began to subside as the butterfly completely emerged from her arm, leaving only a faint imprint where it once was. It flapped its wings once and then lifted from her and headed for the open bathroom window. Something in her wanted to cry "don't go!" and she almost reached out her hand to it, but she thought better of it because she had noticed something new about herself.

She felt free.

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Just a little short story for Sunday Scribblings. The theme was "Tattoo". I guess you can figure out that the tattoo wasn't a tattoo at all. I wonder who can guess what it really was?