No. No, this isn't how I wanted my 18th birthday to go. Why does my family always have to get involved in this stuff? Why does my family have to be so weird?

My mother was dragging me into a tattoo parlour while I struggled, not wanting to be there.

"Muuuum!" I whined,

"Carrie, you don't have a choice. This is a family tradition!" Mum exclaimed, stopping in the waiting room,

"Well, maybe I don't want to take part in 'family tradition'." I huffed, tugging my wrist out of her clutches. Mum rolled her eyes and went up to the counter,

"Hello sir, I would like to get a tattoo for my daughter,"

The tattoo artist eyed me, "Does she have her ID?"

I looked at my mom, who gave me a death stare, then fumbled in my pockets for my driver's license. I pulled it out and handed it to the guy.

"Happy birthday," He grunted before handing my ID back and leading me and my mum into the back,

"What tattoo are we getting today?"

Mum pulled out a paper, where a symbol called "Noah's Half" was drawn. Noah's Half was a portal with a question mark in front of it and a circle with a cross behind it. All anyone has told me about it is that its a family symbol and it's been tattooed for 10 generations.

The artist inspected the symbol, "Ah, I thought I recognized the name 'Philips'. Welcome back." He turned to me, "Hold out your wrist, this will hurt," he warned. He was right, and I definitely was not prepared for it. It damaged my pride to walk out of there teary-eyed.

I just wanted to spend my birthday hanging out with my friends, but nooo I thought angrily as I got in the car, Mum and Dad just had to INSIST on getting a tattoo!

My mum glanced at me as she put the keys in the engine.

"Don't be so down in the dumps, now you're a true Philips!" She insisted, pulling out of the parking lot,

"Maybe I don't want to be a Philips,"

"Oh, just you wait, you'll love being a Philips after your Dad tells you something," Mum smirked, eyes on the road.

Oh god, there's more?

Little did I know how much my life was going to change...