A Perfect Canvas

by Kevin Adkisson

  Chapter 34

  Paige saw Nicholas turn and head for the door to the house. She stepped over to the door to the kitchen, putting herself in what she hoped was the best position to attack him when he came inside. She pulled the throw blanket away from her body and tossed it behind her. She didn’t want to get tangled up in it. An arm’s reach from the door, she waited.

  Thank God, Eddie was still alive and Nicholas had decided to come into the house.

  She held the straight razor in her right hand, heart high, pulled back, and ready to strike. There were no lights on in the kitchen, the room was illuminated by the spillover from the floodlight outside. She heard her own heart beating in her ears, felt the rapidity of her breathing in the cuts on her chest. It was time for Nicholas to pay.

  She would only get one shot. When Nicholas pulled the door open, she would have to lunge in at him and hope she hit something vital before he realized she had a weapon. Against his size and strength it was her only chance.

  The sound of Eddie’s cries pouring through the house’s sound system had driven her into a rage. She hadn’t thought she could ever feel the depth of hatred she felt for Nicholas. A hate almost as deep as her pride in Eddie’s strength and courage. Despite being tortured, Eddie refused to allow her to take his place. She knew he wouldn’t. She’d heard his refusal. She’d seen his defiance. She’d do anything to take his place. She would give up her own life before she would see him hurt again.

  Nicholas pulled opened the door.

  Paige lashed out at his face with the razor in a savage search for flesh before he stepped into the room. But Nicholas was ready for her attack. He raised his hand up to fend off her attack and a thin blood red line leapt across his palm as she slashed at him.

  Nicholas jerked his hand back, eyes wide.

  Darting at him again, Paige flicked the razor at his exposed neck, striking like a viper. The blade made contact. Nicholas yelped. A stream of blood sprayed out from his neck in an arc spattering the wall. He quickly covered the wound with his hand.

  Paige lashed out once more with the razor. Nicholas brought up an arm in an attempt to fend off her blow. Another thick blood red line appeared, this time across his forearm. Nicholas yanked his arm back and pulled the door fully open. This surprised Paige. She’d expected him to retreat behind the steel door. Instead, he rushed through the entryway charging into the kitchen. His own razor flashed in his uninjured hand.

  Not wanting to give Nicholas any more room to maneuver than she had to, Paige widened her stance. Blood erupted from between Nicholas’s fingers where he clutched at his neck. Paige couldn’t see how wide and deep the wound was or if the blood was coming from his hand more than his neck, but she saw enough blood to realize Nicholas was badly hurt. His lips were parted, and his teeth were clenched. She hadn’t hit his vocal cords though because he said, “How did you--”

  And then he looked beyond her. “You,” he said.

  Taking a step back from Nicholas, Paige turned and looked behind her. Chris stood next to the dinner table, her arms folded across her chest. She looked at Nicholas with a rebellious childish expression that said, “What?”

  Paige turned back to Nicholas. She had never even read about a knife fight, much less been involved in one, but considering the amount of blood running down Nicholas’s arm and pattering onto the floor, she thought time was on her side. She could afford to back off, let him weaken.

  Nicholas took a probing step forward, jabbing out at Paige with his razor.

  The blood coated razor slipped in Paige’s grasp. She fought to keep a firm grip on it.

  “Help me,” Paige screamed at Chris.

  Nicholas took a step back from her. His eyes darted from her to Chris and back to her.

  “Come on, you ugly coward,” Paige said, wanting Nicholas to come forward, not turn and retreat into his bedroom where he might be able to dress his wounds and take time to recover.

  Chris took a step back from the table.

  Nicholas grimaced and came forward. He feinted in one direction and then thrust the blade with the other.

  Paige hopped to one side, away from the blade, but the feint threw her off. She stepped left when she should have stepped right. The move put her in Nicholas’s range. He lunged forward, sticking her in the abdomen and driving her backwards toward the table.

  She twisted her body away from Nicholas in an attempt to avoid being slammed back into the table. She thrust her razor out at his body, hoping to hit anything she could. The razor connected. But, as she twisted around, her foot tangled in the throw blanket on the floor and the razor flew out of her hand. She went down on her side, Nicholas on top of her. Paige heard a loud crack, saw his head hit the edge of the table before the weight of his body blasted her and her head knocked against the floor.

  The room went black and then came back into focus. She shoved her way out from underneath Nicholas, rolled onto her back. Looking down at her abdomen Paige saw Nicholas’s razor had penetrated her so deeply she only saw the handle of it sticking out. As she moved, tilting her head to look down at the blade, she felt it etching a spot on a something deep inside her.

  Paige reached down and quickly jerked the razor from her body without thinking. If she’d thought about it, she wasn’t sure she would have had the courage to pull it free. Blood pumped out of her.

  Nicholas choked and spit blood. He was dying. Paige had no doubt about that. She saw the wound in his neck now, and it was wickedly vicious. Within minutes, his heart would empty his life onto the floor.

  Chris stood over him, looking down at him. She squatted down and placed her hand on his forehead as if taking his temperature or performing the last rites.

  Paige sat up, grabbed the throw blanket, and pulled it against her abdomen, covering her wound. She pressed a hand against the spot, putting as much pressure on it as she could and tied the blanket around her. She stood up. The pain was excruciating. She limped to the door. Turning, she glanced back at Nicholas and Chris. He clutched at his neck with both hands. Chris said something to him, but Paige couldn’t hear what it was. Nicholas wasn’t looking at Chris. He was looking at her. He tried to say something but only blood and spittle escaped his lips.

  Paige knew Nicholas could not get up and come at her again like some Michael Myers or Freddy Kruger. This was not a horror movie. He would not cut anyone else again. Ever. He was finished. She stumbled out the door, out of the house, out to see Eddie.

  He was a bloody mess. There was so much blood Paige wondered if Nicholas had been in the process of skinning Eddie alive. As she drew closer she realized almost all the wounds were shallow cuts, intended to cause pain rather than kill. The wounds on Eddie’s ankles were the most serious. Blood covered both his heels. But if she could get the bleeding stopped she thought he would live.

  Paige staggered to the tree and dropped to the ground at Eddie’s feet. She picked up the shirt Nicholas had cut from his body and tore two long pieces from it. She wrapped them around Eddie’s ankles, knotted them, to slow his bleeding.

  “Are you okay?” Eddie asked her.

  “I’ll live,” she said, although she wasn’t so sure. She looked at herself. So much blood. What strength she had was quickly fading. She wasn’t a doctor, but the wound seemed devastating.

  “Where’s Nicholas?”

  “Inside the house. Dying. Maybe dead.”

  Eddie nodded.

  “Let’s get you down,” she said. But she’d left the razor in the house. She tried to stand back up, to go get it, but her legs wouldn’t support her.

  She collapsed.