He dived into the water. I took a huge swig of my cocktail. He was way hotter than I remember. We were childhood friends and he reached out to me to meet on this blissfully hot summer night. As he used his hands to push himself out of the pool, I couldn’t but help observe the markings on his body. Upon his legs, lines crossed around like the lines on a tree trunk whereby you can see how many lines correlated to how old the tree is. My eyes glanced at his upper body, now glistening wet in the moonlit sky. There the artistry was of skulls. Simple yet sad looking.

He is wiping off the water off his body and the alcohol might be hitting me as I feel like the markings on his body move. Maybe it’s the light playing tricks on me. I glare deeper and yet the lines seem to twist and turn harshly, the skulls are definitely moving and the emotions feel varying.

“Your… tattoos…” I stutter.

“Yes, I was marked by a priest when I was a child.” He looked down at the shifting imagery as if in shame. “They wanted to warn those around me of my potential.”

I gulped my cocktail. Eyes unmoving in contrast to what I was seeing.

“Each notch represents the year I have been alive on this world. Each skull represents each person I have consumed.”

I put my glass down and grasped my towel. I looked for the closest exit and unfortunately, I would not to be able to outrun him.

“I reached out to you to see if you wanted to join me.” He smiled albeit forced and strange looking, but revealing his fangs.

I saw no choice. I nod.