Red Bows and Bare Knees (part 11 of 27)

a Non-Anime Fanfiction fanfiction by Shorttail

Back to Part 10
Living


Bells. Not just any bells. Church bells. Church bells of evil. A place 
of pain and suffering. But it was okay. The sound of despair. Just a 
sound. I shouldn't... No, I wouldn't let my fear for the church prevent 
me from getting to the other side. They were close, but not the same.

We walked out of the school hand in hand. The sun or whatever shone 
through the mist. The world was light. Echo had returned. The bus was 
still parked by the road.

A dog looked at us through a broken school bus window. It didn't do 
anything. It wasn't like the other one. Just to be certain I growled as 
I walked past it. It was a bad idea.

We ran. We all ran. The dog and the girl and me. It was fast. Way faster 
than the one we ran from before. Deadly fast. It wasn't like the one I 
hurt either. It was larger. The one I attacked looked like it had been 
run over by a car. This one was an ordinary, full-sized killer dog.

It tried to bite her. Again and again it bit at her feet. I pulled her 
closer to me and sped up. I was dragging her along. We were flying 
through the street and still we weren't fast enough. We couldn't outrun 
it. I wasn't fast enough.

A nasty sting got me. I stepped aside and it jumped past us. It stopped 
and turned toward us. It wanted to kill us. It wanted to hurt the girl.

I watched it jump into her. Paralyzed. She fought it on the road. Her 
hands around its throat. It kept trying to bite her arms and face. It 
was getting closer and closer and I couldn't help her. I couldn't.

Like a fish. Snapping for air. The fear had me in an iron grip. Her eyes 
and cries pleaded for help. It was killing her and I didn't do a thing. 
I had to vomit and rolled over. It was too much. I'd fail. I failed. 
He'd be...

Something shone in the mist. A message perhaps? Not like last time. 
There was something on the road. Something shiny. It couldn't be another 
trap. We were already trapped.

It had to be him. The girl was still keeping its head away. There was 
still hope. I crawled the endless distance. It felt like an eternity. 
Eons. I sobbed and looked back. They were still there. Both were 
screaming vigorously. If only I had that vigor.

The fear let go a little. I could crawl on my hands and knees now. It 
was a little faster. Just a little longer. I could see it. It was a 
knife. He gave us a weapon. No. It wasn't a weapon. It was a ritual 
knife.

Ebony grip with pretty engravings. A cat with a crafty smile looked at 
me. An equally sneaky snake was facing the ground. It was my ritual 
knife. Nobody knew where I kept it. They had been searching for it. 
Never said anything to me. They couldn't find it.

It said in the book that it was dangerous, but I liked it. They didn't 
know though. I had used mommy's scissors the first time. That's why they 
were suspicious. But they never found it. Never found out I made it.

It made no sense. Why had he given me that? I didn't even feel like 
using it anymore. Though it was tempting. I stared at the cutting edge. 
Longed for it. It had been my only friend.

Slowly I reached out for it. It was calling for me. Someone else too. 
She was. The girl. She called for me. I turned around and the dog 
knocked me over and clasped my arm in its jaws. It hurt. I screamed.

It bit harder. It couldn't cut through the magic dress, but it hurt 
anyway. It kept shaking me. I thought my arm would fall off. It was 
strong. The dog.

The girl was up already. She hit and kicked it, but its jaw was locked. 
There was nothing else to do. I screamed and told her not to. It was too 
late. The fine blade was already halfway through the neck. The girl 
pushed it all the way through.

A silent dog's headless torso ended on the road with a squash. A 
fountain of blood. She and I were covered in dog blood. It kept pouring 
out of the open neck and the decapitated head.

The girl pulled its jaws apart and removed the head from my arm. It 
stopped hurting. I stared at the knife on the ground. I didn't say 
anything. It wasn't the same. He had sharpened it. It had never been 
able to make deep cuts before. I shuddered. If I had used it I would 
have hurt myself. More than usual.

Onwards to Part 12


Back to Red Bows and Bare Knees Index - Back to Non-Anime Fanfiction Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction