Chapter Six

The face was that of one of the thugs that were beating Jay. Except his face was different. He had more wrinkles and age seemed to have set in greatly. Not in the usual way though, people get laugh lines and crow’s feet, he did not have these. He had wrinkles and stretch marks as if he had his mouth agape screaming for years. His eyes were less vibrant as if he had lost some of his soul, some of his will to be here. He was noticeably smaller, like he hadn’t been eating right. But this was not the strangest part of his new appearance.
Starting from where his neck met his chest and going up he had a branding that definitely wasn’t here before. The symbol looked familiar but gave me the chills and made me feel uneasy. It went all the way up to just below his chin but it looked older, it already had healed mostly. The night with Jay was not that long ago at this point so I was very confused as to how all this could have change. None the less, I was still scared to death he would see me.
He looked directly at me and I locked his gaze. I thought to myself I’m dead, no one is here to save me; this is the end of my road. For a few intense moments I held his gaze but he wasn’t quite holding mine. It was like he wasn’t really seeing anything. Then he continued walking acting like nothing had happened. I let out a confused, yet thankful sigh of relief. Crisis adverted.
I then decided I needed to go home. I needed to be somewhere I knew and somewhere I wouldn’t run into anyone else unexpectedly. I retraced my steps as best as I could and quickly found a familiar street. I put my headphones back in and walked the remaining distance to my apartment. I couldn’t get the symbol on the thug’s neck out of my mind. I knew I saw it before. The symbol started with a triangle with three circles superimposed on top starting in the middle and getting larger. Then each point of the triangle had a circle on it, one empty, one looking like a pinwheel and one just a spiral. The connections of these simple geometric shapes seemed so flawless, it had to represent something. As I made my way up the stairs it hit me. The symbol was on the papers that Jade had given me. The papers that Jay took with him.
I need to talk with Jay.