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Alette's POV

The entire tattoo shop, STAMP, was blanketed with silence the moment we walked in. I saw multiple pairs of eyes on me and my heart did cartwheels in my chest. Tai cleared his throat from behind me pointedly, and most people began to slowly go back to their conversations.

Despite their eyes having been averted, I still felt my heart pound in fear.

Fear was a feeling that I had mastered. It consumed me and gnawed at me from the inside out.

There were at least twenty people in the room, and most of them looked like they were employees, clad in dark shirts and pants; there were a few customers scattered here and there.

Tai nudged me forwards a little and I looked up at him. He smiled at me and gestured with his head to begin walking. I took a deep breath and walked, my eyes darting to all sides of the big room. The inside of the store looked way larger than the outside, with artist booths placed in different places. There was a staircase leading to the second floor, which was a loft style, the overlooked the main floor. The entire space had an industrial look to it, with lots of metal and concrete.

"....over there?" I heard the end of Tai's question and I whipped my head to look towards him.

"Pardon me?" I whispered him because I evidently had been so busy checking the place out that I wasn't listening to him.

Tai chuckled, "I said, do you want to go over there? My workstation is there, I can show it to you."

I nodded and he started making his way towards a booth close to the stairs. I kept my head down and followed behind him.

"Welcome to where the magic happens," Tai grinned and gestured with his hands to his worktable and two chairs that were set up.

"This is so cool Bow Tie, I love it," and I did love it.

His artwork, and pictures of his work was hung around his workspace, and everything was squeaky clean. Classic Tai. I moved closer to his chair as he shrugged off his leather jacket and straightened out his heather grey t-shirt. He fit in with the colours that were in the entire shop. Actually, this was less of a shop and more of a warehouse. Or maybe a dungeon with the way it looked. A tattoo dungeon. I giggled to myself lightly and Tai raised his eyebrow at me.

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking of something funny," I told him, going to stand in front of his worktable.

Something shiny caught my eye and I turned my head to look at...the jackpot. Tai's tattoo gun. I looked out of the corner of my eye at Tai who was turned away from me, presumably on his phone. I slowly inched my hand forward to touch it.

"I've got eyes on the back of my head Bee, get your hands off the equipment," Tai said, still looking at his phone.

"Oh boo," I grumbled. I began to turn around when a loud noise made me jump.

I despised loud noises. Too many bad memories.

Tai put his hand on my shoulder and turned me around to face him.

"You're okay Bee, you're good," he stated calmly as my heartbeat worked in overdrive. I nodded slowly.

"I know I told you I would stay here with you, but I have to do something very quickly, and I'm sorry Bee, are you good with staying here?" Tai asked apologetically.

My eyes widened, this was suddenly not a fun time. Tai saw my expression and hastily said, "I'll take you to one of the room upstairs? You can wait there alone, away from the people, no one will bother you, and I'll come and get you as soon as I'm finished."

"Um, s-swear?" I asked him hesitantly.

"Cross my heart Bumblebee."

I nodded and he began to lead me towards the stairs, away from the loud noises and all the people. We slowly climbed up the stairs, and got to the landing, which wrapped around the entire floor. It was darker up here, with the only light coming from below, giving the place an ominous glow. Tai led me to one of the doors, and unlocked it with a silver key. We walked in, turning on the lights; there wasn't much there. A few tables, lined the walls of the room, with computers placed on them, and a few old school TV screens on the walls above them. There were chairs placed haphazardly around the room, and a big couch on the farthest wall away from the door.

What an odd little room to have in a tattoo shop.

"Is this like a security room?" I mumbled, asking Tai who was back on his phone. He looked up at me and swallowed.

"Uh, yeah, it's a security room," he said, scratching the back of his head. Double odd.

He cleared his throat and pointed at the couch, "I'll be back in like 5 minutes, have a seat, and I'll come grab you, okay?"

"Okay Tai, please hurry though, I wanna see more of downstairs," I told him, nodding my head. Tai ruffled my hair – rude – and left the room, the door clicking softly into place.

I sat down on the couch, folding my hands on my lap and looked around the room. Not that there was much to see, it was just kind of...plain. So I just waited, humming under my breath to keep myself occupied, and checking my phone.

Not that there was anything to check.

I waited for what seemed like hours when finally I heard footsteps outside of the door.

Tai was back! And I had survived!

I stood up and walked towards the door excited to get out of the boring room.

The door slowly opened, and I waited for Tai to enter.

But enter Tai did not.

Instead, the door opened and I was stood face to face someone else. Actually, it was more face to chest because he was tall. I craned my neck up to look at his face and my heartbeat quickened for the billionth time tonight. He had a perfectly carved face, with the smoothest, deep golden skin I had ever seen. He had dark shiny hair, and the most beautiful hue of dark grey coloured his eyes. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt with a long grey trench over it. He was beautiful. Even with his face emotionless.

I gasped as I realized I had been staring and moved my eyes down, suddenly interested in my shoes. I did have pretty interesting feet according to Josephine; she told me I should sell pictures of them online for easy money. Whatever that meant.

A monitor beeped behind me, reminding me where I was; the security room.

My brows furrowed as I put two and two together.

If this was the security room, then this man must be a-

I looked up at him, tilting my head sideways.

"Are you the security man?"

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unedited