The Thirteenth Read Online Free

“Come on, where are my presents?”
    Mike and Susan looked at each other. “You had us scared, Val. Don’t do that again, OK? And why eat a kebab when I had left you dinner?” Susan clearly didn’t entirely believe what Val was saying, but it was Val’s birthday and at least she seemed OK now, and that was what really mattered.
    Within a few minutes, they were all looking at the many presents Val had received and, for now, she knew she was home and dry.
    “OK family, got to go, working girl and all.” Val kissed her parents as always and made a dash for the door. Mike unexpectedly grabbed Val’s arm and her heart almost stopped beating.
    “Give me a hug. You are still my little girl, you do know that, don’t you?” As he wrapped his arms around Val, the pain in her arm became torturous.
    “Don’t be late tonight. There is a lot to do before the party, OK?” Susan called, but Val was gone.
    She ran down the road with tears burning in her eyes. Wiping them briskly, she managed to compose herself. The last thing she needed was it getting back to her mum that she had been seen blubbering in the street.
    By the time Val got onto her bus, her arm had finally stopped hurting so much. She sat down, unable to watch the world go past today as she had other things on her mind. Luckily for her, the local vagrant didn’t feel like sitting next to her and moved a seat further down. ‘How thoughtful,’ she said to herself. ‘Now I can only smell him.’
    When she arrived at her stop, she leapt confidently from the bus. She knew exactly where she was going next. She ran across the road, then stopped when someone sounded their horn about an inch from her head. The driver of a red ford truck was about five feet away from her and glaring furiously at her. Val smiled and mouthed an apology, but kept moving across the road. “Focus Val,” she told herself.
    As she got closer to the tattoo parlour, she felt a pang of apprehension. Was she doing the right thing coming here, and what could he do to help her other than recommend a good plastic surgeon? It was already too late; her legs had carried her to the front door and straight into the arms of Shane Walker.
    “Hello again. Wow, two days on the trot. I will be thinking you want a tattoo if you keep coming.” He smiled but his expression changed when Val started to cry. “Hey, what’s wrong? Come inside.” For some reason, Val knew that this man, as enormous as he looked on the outside, was gentle on the inside. She walked in with him, crossing a black and white chequered floor, and sat down on the barber-style chair he offered her.
    “What’s so wrong that you have come to a stranger crying?” Shane asked.
    “This appeared on my arm last night.” Val lifted her sweater sleeve to reveal the tattoo.
    “Wow, that’s some seriously good art work, I have to say. I couldn’t do better myself. So, apart from being grounded for life, what’s the problem?”
    “I don’t know how it got there.” Val’s eyes filled up again. “It’s my eighteenth birthday today and I woke up with this.”
    “Well I have to be honest with you, you aren’t the first person to wake up with a tattoo on an important birthday.” He made drinking motions with his hand.
    “No, I wasn’t drunk. That’s not supposed to happen until tonight. This has just appeared out of nowhere, you have to believe me.”
    Val was so intense that Shane knew she believed what she was saying.
    “OK, let me have a good look.”
    Val lifted her sleeve once again to reveal her tattoo and Shane put on his gloves and looked at it more closely. “This is strange. Sorry, what’s your name?”
    “I’m Val. Sorry that was rude of me.” Val blushed.
    “Don’t worry.” He smiled reassuringly. “This is a normal zodiac circle, but I don’t recognise this symbol in the middle. Do you?”
    “No.” Val looked blankly at it.
    “OK, let me take a transfer then I will find out some more information for you if