The Gleam of the Blade
Nikki found the old butcher knife, a long, heavy one with a worn handle, stabbed deeply into the countertop in the old, long-deserted shack on her grandmother’s property, down near the chicken coop and faded storage sheds. It must have been there for decades, ever since the shack was shut up after something bad happened when grandmother was just a little girl.
Since Nikki was only 14 and slender, it took some real work to pull it lose. But after she finally got the knife free, Nikki waved it around, letting the light from the single window bounce off it. It gleamed and glowed in the shaft of sunlight like something come to life.
Nikki began to feel different as she held the knife, and she gripped its handle tighter. The knife felt really good in her hand; heavy, dangerous, but right somehow. It made her feel powerful. And very sure of herself, for the first time in her young life. Her controlling older boyfriend certainly didn’t. Josh just forced her do things she didn’t want to do, sexual things usually, and she did them because, well, he was a senior, and Nikki was lucky to have Josh as a boyfriend, he constantly reminded her.
She walked out of the shed into the sunshine, swishing the knife like a sword, which in comparison to her size, it nearly was. Nikki felt invincible; it was like the knife was filling her with hot, raw energy. She liked the feeling. Nikki liked it a lot.
A marmalade cat slinked over and circled around Nikki’s bare legs, meowing for attention. Nikki reached down and cut the cat’s tail off in one quick slice. The cat shrieked and took off running, blood pumping from the wound where its tail had been. The tail twitched on the ground. Nikki didn’t feel bad about it. She knew she should, but she didn’t. Nikki just smiled and squeezed the knife handle tighter.
Then Bradley, the annoying eight-year old who lived across the road, showed up, saying, “You’re in trouble now, Sickie Nikki. I’m telling your grandma what you did; I saw you do it. You’re gonna go to jail, maybe juvie, for years, I bet.”
Nikki lashed out with the knife and cut Bradley’s nose off. He stood there stunned for a moment until blood gushed out of the hole in his face and spilled down his T-shirt. He screamed like a gurgling banshee and took off running home, a blood trail marking his hasty retreat. He ran from the back yard to the front, and then started across the road before collapsing to the gravel.
Nikki felt even better this time. Stronger. In complete control. Brimming with authority. The knife seemed an extension of her arm, of herself. She could hear it, feel it, in her head, praising her, coaxing her on, making her feel warm and happy. She liked how she felt.
An idea popped into her head, or maybe the knife voice spoke it to her. She found her bicycle and rode off towards town, just a half-mile down the road, still clutching the knife as she steered the bike. She would find Mrs. Handley, her earth science teacher, who gave Nikki a C last semester and kept her off the honor roll. Let’s see how well Mrs. Handley could demonstrate her stupid science experiments with four, maybe six, fingers missing
Then she laughed to herself at what she thought of to do next. Josh would never guess what she was going to cut off of him. But he certainly wouldn’t be forcing her to do sex things anymore.
Nikki realized that she had a lot of stops to make.