#theunderlandchronicles

He walked straight to Lizzie and Boots who were still in each others arms.  They were the easiest to take comfort from.  Boots remembered almost nothing but knew she had been almost everywhere Gregor had.  Holding her was always the best for Gregor.  He had at least kept one person safe.

“It's beautiful outside.”  Their mom said, her voice cracking, “we won't need jackets.”

The siblings broke apart and wiped their faces, cracking small smiles as they compared puffy faces.

They walked out of their Virginia home and into the sunlight together.  The family walked through the grass so close together they kept bumping into each other, but no one wanted to put space between them.

It was a short walk to the field. Knee height grass surrounded them but a small dirt path led them to the memorial.  Boots wandered off the path to pick a few of the scant wildflowers that grew there.

The field was large, nothing but a wide open sky above them.  They stood hand in hand in front of the small stone.  It said simply, “Ares.  My Light.” in slightly messy script.  Gregor had carved it himself.  

The family stood in silence for a long moment.  Gregor hand in hand with Lizzie and Boots.  His parents each with a hand on his shoulder.  They all relived the war.  

His parents left first, both crying more for their children's pain then anything they went through in the Underland.  They walked back to the edge of the field and sat on a bench they had placed beneath a tree.  They leaned into each other and cried as their children's sobs echoed through the trees.

Gregor fell to his knees when he could no longer hear his parent's footsteps.  He hated breaking down in front of them.  Their pity only made him feel worse.  But here, with his sisters by his side, he let go.  Sure his parent's could hear him, but it didn't matter.  Not today.

Lizzie and Boots sat beside him, wishing there was something they could do, knowing they needed to just let him cry.  Boots placed the handful of flowers at the base of the rock and Lizzie pulled out a lighter to light the candles on either side.  She made a mental note to buy more, they were almost gone.

When Gregor's sobs quieted and they all sat there sniffling, Lizzie handed out tissues.  Gregor took a steadying breath and began talking.  Stories of him and Ares flowed from his mouth as they did every year, though there was always something new, small details he remembered or events that had become funny with time.  He talked of Ares' heroism, his strength, his loyalty.  How he hadn't met anyone else in the Underland he could ever trust as much.  

Beneath the tree their parents' eyes dried as Gregor's sobs turned to stories and soon their children's laughter traveled across the field.  They watch the wind travel over the grass and shared a sigh of relief.  

Lizzie and Boots walked back up the dirt path toward their parents, leaving Gregor alone.  He was alone as he had been in the cave.  Gregor look up at the sky.  It really was a beautiful day.  Ares would have had so much fun flying with so much room and racing through the trees.

He apologized, on his knees with a hand on the stone and the other over his heart.  He wanted so badly to go back to that cave, to find Ares' body and to bury it here, under the sky.

He stood up eventually and walked slowly through the grass.

“Breakfast, anyone?”  he asked when he could see his family.  They all shared small smiles as they headed back toward their house.  Gregor started some small talk to let everyone know it was okay and soon their tears were dry and they walked tall.

To his parents' dismay and Boots' excitement, Gregor chose for them to all get tattoos after breakfast. He didn't really have a concrete idea of what he wanted, and ended up sitting down with an artist while the rest of his family's art was underway.  

He explained that he wanted a tribute to his friend and made up some things to cover the parts she wouldn't understand.  He said his friend had died, but that he had really liked bats.  He had Lizzie write out the bond vow in code to add in as well.  He didn't really want everyone to be able to read it.

In the end, the artist came up with the whole thing, and surprisingly quickly.  A chest piece.  A black bat with a skeleton in black light ink, something Gregor didn't even know existed.  A banner floating above and below with the code on it. He loved it.  He made a couple changes to her initial sketch just to make the bat look more like Ares.  

His family's tattoos had been drawn by the time his was decided, and he watched them get their stencils placed and get started.  His parent's were both getting candles over scars they had gotten in the Underland.  Lizzie was getting a simple outline of a rat with an X shaped scar on his face.  Boots got a small cockroach on either side of an ankle, one would have a single, bent antennae.

“Alright!  Let's see if this size works for you.”  Gregor's artist showed him her drawing with a flourish and his mouth dropped.  It was amazing.  She cut around the drawing and asked for him to take off his shirt.  He hesitated for only a moment.  He wanted this.

“Oh!  Those are some scars!”  she said.

“Does that matter?”  He asked, suddenly worried.  He really didn't know.

“Only sometimes,”  she said, immediately moving closer and reaching out with her hand.  He flinched when she touched his chest.  She pulled her hand back, “Okay?”

“Yea!  Sorry,”  he replied nervously.

She let out a low whistle, “Some of these are pretty wicked, I doubt they'll hold ink.”

“Could we, um, work them into it? Or just, I don't know, kind of, leave them blank?  They're kinda, um, part of the whole thing.”

“Yea, sure!  Let me take a picture of them and I'll see what I can do, alright?”

She took a picture with her phone and Gregor called out to her as she headed back to her desk, “Hey, uh, thanks, for not, for uh,”

“Of course, man.  Everyone has their demons.  I'm glad I get to help.”

His tattoo ended up being the exact one she had drawn, but she cut it into sections and added extra shading to work in his scars.  The imagery was enough to make him cry.  His artist pretended not to notice.

Lizzie was done first and was the first to see Gregor's.  He was afraid to show everyone, but while he was on the table, he didn't have much a choice.  Lizzie was so shocked she forgot where she was, “Oh my gosh! It's perfect! The same claw that-” she cover her mouth with a squeak.  The artist only smiled.

It took three sessions in total, his skin was not taking well to the added trauma of the tattoo gun.  He never looked until the day after, because the blood on his chest was too much.  He hated how expensive this must be, but he loved waking up every morning and seeing Ares, right there over his heart.

His last session his artist who he could finally remember the name of, Ashley, sent him to the private room instead of her normal area.

“Alrighty, mister.”  She said as she put on her gloves.  “I like you and your family a lot, and I told them not to tell you I was doing this tattoo for free because I wanted to coerce you into telling me the story.”

Gregor was so surprised he sat up. “But, I, there's not.”

“Lay back down, man, and start talking.”

Gregor stared evenly at her, his heart pounding.  

“See?  That's not your normal teenager in there and these are no normal scars.  Lay down and speak up.”

He stared for another moment before he lied back down.

“I've never,”

“I know.”  she said, “Start with the words you don't want anyone to read.”

Gregor took a deep breath, what was the harm, really?  If she told anyone they wouldn't believe her.  And this was a very expensive tattoo.  And it would be nice to not talk to just his family.

The tattoo was so he always had a physical reminder of Ares, something more positive than a scar.  He had already healed so much, he was ready for more.  The past five years had been slow going, he wanted to be happy faster.  Maybe telling the story to a stranger would be the relief he wanted.  The weight off his shoulders.