Hellandback 6

Silas followed Dean into the large room decorated with rock music posters, punk rock folk art, and the usual warning signs about tattoing. Dean broke the ice, rib cage, left side, rising phoenix, right? You have a picture or a sketch?" Silas removed his Superman t-shirt and sat down on the lazy boy chair. He answered, "Yeah, all of that. Here's the sketch I made. I filled in the color the best I could visualize. I trust you to , make it look a hell of a lot better." Dean looked at the paper and was startled. His emotional reaction was noticed by Silas. "What is it, you can't do it?" Dean recovered quickly and assured Silas, "Oh no, it's no big deal. I just had  a case of deja vu. I've seen something like this before." Silas frowned and said "aw man, it was a dream I had yesterday. I thought I had an orginal idea. Guess I dream the same stuff everybody else does." Dean responded, "no, it's a  coincidence. When I was in a band, a long time ago, we had a similar design for an album cover, then scrapped it at the last minute. It was just weird. Good picture." Silas smiled but didn't say anything in return. He didn't want to bombard Dean with questions about his past. As big of a fan as Silas was of Dean's musical work, he could tell Dean was more about the present. Before Dean could say anything else, Mallory bounded into the room. Nervous, she quickly said, "Dean I have to leave for a while. It's something I have to do, don't be a hard ass bossman about it, okay? I'll be back in a hour." Dean, worried but busy, only offered, "well, tell Kevin and Bonnie to cover for you and keep your cell phone on so I can make sure you are alright." Mallory rolled her eyes and sighed sarcastically, then walked away murmuring "whatever dad." Silas, wanting the break the tension said, "the stranger that girl is, the more I like her. You should use her television commercials." Dean smiled, put on his gloves, turned on his gun, and moved toward Silas chiseled rib cage. "let's bird your gut, music boy."

Mallory jogged out of the shop, clutching her little black backpack and fumbling through her ripped blue jeans pockets for her cell phone, She placed a call to her mother, it went straight to her voicemail. Mallory, foudn her car keys and unlocked the door to her ten year old Saturn and almost hit a pickup truck backing out of the Inkwell's parking lot. She started to shake and breathing became difficult. Her heart raced and she could feel an attack coming on fast. Mallory pulled the car into a McDonald's parking lot and turned her bookbag upside down spilling the contents into the passenger seat, She found a perscription pill bottle and took two white pills and swallowed them. Their effect would take a half an hour or so, but the piece of mind, held her for the rest of 8 minute drive to her mom's house. mallory found her mom's townhouse neighborhood and saw her mom's volkswagon parked next to a BMW. For a moment she wondered if Lark had gotten to her mom again. Mallory was relieved to get out of her car and discover that the BMW was her mom's boyfriend of the month. They were listening to music and smoking cigarettes on the back porch area. Mallory called out to her mom, "Are you and whatever his name is ok?" Her mother, blowing smoke from her the left side of her mouth, "Uh, yes, Mal. You scared us. You act like you've seen a ghost. What are you up to?" Mallory turned away from them and walked into the kitchen to grab a soda from the fridge. "Nothing, mom. I have to go back to work, I was just doing something for the shop. I was just checking on you." Mallory lived on her own and rarely stopped by her mom's house uninvited. Her mother, engrossed in her much younger boyfriend's playfulness ignored the obvious change in her daughter's behavior and said "Ok, lock the door when you leave." Mallory shuddered at what that meant and left the townhouse as quickly as she arrived.

Silas winced every 30 seconds or so as Dean began tattooing the unique symbol on Silas' abdomen. The new ink would be about 10 inches froma sun,moon, stars tattoo that Dean found amateurish. 'Where did you get that set up, Silas", he asked. Silas winced again, only this time it wasn't the needle gun poking him, it was the fact he hated the tattoo and it's nondescript story. "I was head over heels for a girl in a man. The romance lasted all of a weel. Tattoo I got is going to last longer than that," Silas confessed. Dean grinned and asked about his show later that night. As Silas distracted himself from the slight pain by talking about his burgeoning music career, Dean thought about the contract he wanted to show Silas to discourage him from getting involved with New York. As he finished the Phoenix outline, he turned the conversation, "Who is stalking Agent Tangelo to sign it's life away?" Silas answered, "Gotham Inc. I know, we might sell out to the man, but selling self made Cds to freinds, family, and freaks keep me from eating properly." Dean laughed and complimented Silas on his band's success. Silas continued, "tall, icey chick, named Lark McKissic has been on us for the last three months. Wouldn't be surprised if she's backstage tonight with an ink pen." Dean laughed again, not letting on how well he knew her or Silas' situation. "Ok, Silas Bane, time for color and shading. Don't move for about 15 minutes or you'll end up with a yellow and red pigeon."  Silas wanted to ask Dean about music but sensed the timing was off, instead, he asked, "i slept through lunch. I'm starving. There's like an Applebee's or something across the street. You want to grab something with me in a few minutes?" Dean's taken back by the invitation and but intriqued by the chance to see what Silas' musical mind might be, responded, "I have a couple of appointments but since you came in early, I could spare 45 minutes or so. I'm in, man." Silas swelled with anticipation of hearing about who Dean played and partied with. Dean asked, "tell me about this dream you had. This image is so striking. I'm guessing it was a hell of a night leading up to the sleep." Silas chuckled, and said, "yeah, it was. The dream was bizarre. I was like in the middle of a stadium, an arena, like where the Magic play hoops or something. Thus older guy, in like an immaculate black suit and creepy eyes meets me. He tells me I have a destiny, blah blah blah. Then the picture of this phoenix appears over our heads, lighting up the basketball court. Then some other stuff happened and I woke up and decided to not drink mescal for a while." Dean was mesmerized. The man in the black suit had reached Silas. It was all in motion. Dean stopped tattooing, and said "we are done. Want to walk over to the mirror next to you.?" Silas admired the professional artwork and smiled large. "Thanks Dean. That looks amazing. Exactly what I was looking for, I appreciate this. You sure $125 is all you want?" Dean started cleaning his instruments and said, "I'll take a caesar salad and an iced tea or two and call it a deal." Silas extended his right hand to Dean's and said "deal."

The pills were working and Mallory felt calm. Her Saturn's gas gauge was on empty and she decided to pull into a station. She looked over at her passenger seat and saw sixteen dollars and twenty three cents. Until Dean paid her on Friday, that was all the money she possessed. It would buy a few gallons of gas, a diet snapple, a bag of pretzels and lottery ticket. She needed to feel lucky, even though she was the least lucky person she had ever known. After pumping the gas and making her purchases, she looked across the street and saw Dean and Silas walking into the Applebee's. Curiosity got the best of her, and she drove across to that parking lot, parked, and walked into the restaurant. Mallory could only shake her head in disgust as Dean sat Silas down in Bee Gee's section. Mallory had to intrude. She had to. "Well Dean, I would rather you have taken Silas to the strip bar down the street, that would have been more honest and you could have seen Bee Gee in her natural habitat and that would have been more honest than this." Dean just glared at his rude, noisy, receptionist and said "we are eating and talking. I didn't know Bee Gee was even here until we sat down." Silas was enjoying the bickering, it reminded him of home, he asked the obvious question, "who's Bee Gee?" Then a bubbly, busty, flirty red head came over to take their drink order. The waitress' countenance changed when she saw Mallory. She frowned at Mallory then asked the men what they wanted. After the order, Silas said "am I just imagining things or does she has glitter on her boobs?" Dean and Mallory rolled their eyes in unison and Dean explained, quietly, our waitress is a girl we've known for a year or so. She came to our anti-Valentine's Day party at the shop. Apparently she has a night job at a gentleman's club down the strip and the glitter is part of the act." Mallory interjected, "Her name is like Kristy or Katie or Kelly, something whatever, but we started calling the guys in the shop called her booby glitter. I changed it to Bee Gee because it's wittier, duh. Have fun, you two disappoint me. I'm going back to work." Dean was happy to hear that, and shooed her away. Silas said, "Dean, you have the Motleyest Crue since Tommy Lee left the band." Dean laughed and briefly enjoyed the camraderie with Silas Bane. He knew the moment would be short lived. He was feeling a cold shiver again and losing his appetite.