[ WP ] Emotional pain can create tattoos as physical pain can create scars .

Every time I get into the shower I'm forced to remember those two words. 
 
 When I heard them, those two words threw themselves into my head and stayed there, burying themselves into my brain. They repeated the message over and over again, like I was hard of hearing. *You hear that, Nick? Did ya? She's dead. Need us to say it louder? She's dead, Nicky! You could n't save her. * 
 
 I took my phone away from my ear and hurled it at the pillow on my right, screaming in despair. My eyes gushed tears into my palms. I could feel a brewing bubble of guilt gnaw on my stomach. I had a chance to stop her from destroying herself, and I squandered it. As far as I'm concerned, I have blood on my hands because of it. 
 
 The gnawing turned into an intense burning. I only winced as I held back sobbing. After the diagnosis, I taught myself to anticipate it. It spread just above my bellybutton and crawled up in two paths. They shot up, curved, and met each other just before my chest. I could breathe a little now, the worst was over. The filler hurt too, but not as much as the outline. It swept across the shape the paths formed in a single, tormentingly slow swath. I was about to stand up when a sharp stab in the center sent me back down. It tore along the shape in a rhythmic motion, stopped, and continued in the same way on the bottom half. 
 
 I pushed my way out of the couch and headed to the bathroom. Removing my shirt revealed the disfigured Yin & Yang symbol on my forearm and my new scar. 
 
 A tombstone, plastered along my stomach, and a short epitaph etched in heavy, commanding lettering. 
 
 **Cassandra Renard** 
 
 **1996-2012**
