Daily Flash Fiction Contest

If you love me...

If you love me...
by: Elycia Lee

"Don't be like that," Shin pleaded. "You know I love you..."

"What happened to the promises - that you will love me till death do us part?"

"I never said I didn't love you. I just said that I didn't want to do the tattoo..."

"If you love me, you will get a tattoo."

For the next few days, Shin found himself facing a cold war against his wife, Jasmine. She refused to cook for him and kicked him right out of the bedroom. He lay on the sofa in the living room every night, wondering why women were so hard to please.

One morning, Shin, who could not take the torture from his wife any longer declared:

"Okay, I'll do the tattoo!"

Jasmine's coldness suddenly disappeared. Her smile was brought back from the heavens and brought warmth to Shin's heart. Well, a tattoo might be worth it... save many more days of torture and probably a divorce, thought the triumphant Shin. This is what they always say, lose a battle but win a war. War strategy.

But whatever greeted him at the tattoo parlour was not what he expected. It was dark and gloomy inside. Shin swore he could hear spirits wailing. People probably died getting tattoos in here, he thought. Jasmine insisted that Shin was tattooed on his neck, where it hurts most. When it started, the pain was excruciating and for Shin who despised being in pain, he thought he had died and descended into hell.

When it was all done, he wondered if he would rather have a divorce than to go through the whole ordeal again. It was then Jasmine whispered sinisterly to his ears: “The next time you want me to give birth, remember that pain.”

Then a dawning came upon him.

(298 words)