Now You See Me

Fifty-Three: Bait and Trap

Time seemed to slow down for a long moment. I could feel a sting on my cheek where the blade had clipped me, but in the shock of such a close encounter, I barely felt it. The floor was suddenly whirling towards me; sound and heat filtered through my consciousness. A strong arm came out of nowhere and hooked me around the chest, pinning my arms to my sides. The other arm carried the blade, and pressed it uncomfortably tight against the skin of my throat.

"He'll get a red smile if you don't come back inside."

Rella's voice sent ice through my core, and I watched with dismay as Chris jumped back down off the windowsill. Glass crunched under his shoes as he approached, trembling.

"Good boy," Rella crooned behind me, but the knife didn't leave my neck.

"Let him go," Chris said, falteringly, "I'm here, aren't I?"

"I didn't say I'd let him go," Rella retorted, "Just that I wouldn't slit his throat. You get me?"

Chris fell silent, eyes darting between the knife at my neck and Rella behind me. For a long moment, we all waited for her to make a move. I could feel blood running down my throat and into the neckline of my shirt; Chris was a silhouette ahead of me and Mum was just a leg in the far corner of my peripheral vision. The roaring of blood in my ears and the crackle of the blaze in the hall, the stink of smoke making its way into my lungs, altogether were imprinting themselves on my brain as one of the worst defining moments of my existence.

"Are you going to come with me quietly?" Rella finally said. The smoke didn't seem to affect her at all. "It would be a deal less painful for all of us. Especially this one."

I hissed as she moved the knife away from my throat, only to bring it sharply down again across my cheek and split it. Wet warmth began to ooze down my face and chin; a split-second passed, and the pain came pounding in to set my stomach roiling.

"Don't!" Chris said. His voice broke, and he suddenly seemed tiny and childlike. "Please don't hurt him."

Rella laughed. "You're all idiots, you know."

But she had taken the blade away and was holding it down by her side, away from my neck again, and I was so relieved that it was only the incredible strength with which she was restraining me which was keeping me on my feet. In that respect I thought too soon, because moments later I was on my front on the floor, winded and bleeding, with several huge shards from the broken window shoved into my arm from falling on them.

"Damien!"

"Don't move." Rella's voice was like the snap of a whip, forcing Mum and Chris to stop instantly. I didn't dare move, either; I was frozen from the shock, head spinning. I could taste blood.

In the distance, I thought I heard sirens, but it could just as easily have been in my head.

A growl. I turned, and in the corner of my vision I saw Nell crouched in the doorway. The fire on the rug must have been put out for her to get there, but I could still hear flames. Perhaps she was immune. The thought sent shivers up my spine.

"What took you so long?" Rella muttered, almost unintelligible through the bandanna wrapped over her lower face. Nell snarled, and it was then that I noticed that her hands were bloody.

"Oh God," I heard Mum gasp. I knew her thoughts had turned straight to David, too.

Rella crossed the room at her own pace, wiping my blood off the knife onto her trousers as she went, and while her back was turned, Mum came over to me at a stooped run and urged me into a sitting position.