Knife Edge

Knife Edge - chapter 6

The first finger of lightning sizzled from a near black sky. The explosion of thunder, when it came, resonated along the canyon and ricocheted across the scrubland.

The lights of the Lincoln cruising the Interstate were the only bright spots in a stormy landscape until, far behind, other lights began to twinkle in the twilight. These lights merged and separated, indicating a group of fast moving vehicles.

The driver of the Lincoln was unaware of the distant lights behind. Thomas Startz leaned back with one finger on the wheel and glanced across quickly at Holly.

‘Alone and together,’ he said softly, ‘perfection.’

His sister smiled back. A soft sonata was playing as the wipers came on, swishing with a regular rhythm and somehow in keeping with the music.

‘You were bored, I could tell,’ she commented.

‘Did it show that much?’

‘Maybe you should call the whole thing a day. The franchise idea sounds good. You could sit back and watch the dollars roll in and let others do the nips and tucks.’

‘We, darling, not I. Don’t you want to be part of it?’

‘Forever, is that what you mean?’ Her amusement made him look at her, suddenly uncertain.

‘Isn’t that what you want, alone but together? And what’s wrong with forever?’

‘Don’t you ever want to get married, brother dear, and have kids?’

‘The very thought sends a chill through me. You know all I want is you.’

‘But we can never…I mean...it’s a game if you know what I mean?’

‘I know exactly what you mean. You know I only have eyes for you. And you know I’m not gay. And you know I take my pleasures seriously. But yes, of course I know it’s a game we play.’

Startz adjusted his driving mirror, then stared ahead where the lights of the city cast a starship-like glow over the horizon. They were approaching a cluster of hills and small valleys. The rain was beating steadily now although the storm was moving across the land. Lightning forks still burst like firebombs.

Startz winced as a sheet of light suddenly reflected from his mirror.

‘What’s up?’ Holly asked him.

‘Someone’s behind us. Come on, pass shit head.’

The car was very suddenly bathed in light as though it was being carried in the beam of a spot. Startz glanced over his shoulder and screwed up his eyes. Holly looked nervous as a wall of light separated into a group of individual beams accompanied by a roaring sound that, at first, had blended with the noise of the storm. It now took on a menacing, thunderous scream. Startz and his sister began to panic. The noise now enveloped them. Startz stared out the side window and his jaw set firm.

‘Bikers,’ he snapped.

Holly was just about to turn and say something when her side window shattered in an explosion of glass and rain. Startz yelled in sudden fear and turned his head; still gripping the wheel till his knuckles almost burst through his skin.Holly stared at him, unable to speak or utter a sound. Startz opened his mouth to scream but his voice was swept out into the pulsating night, lost in a cacophony of thunder and roaring engines.

A muddy axe was projecting from the side of Holly’s head. There was very little blood. Even in a state of mounting terror, Startz’s professional eye noted that the axe blade had not penetrated too far into Holly’s skull. His sister just stared at him wide eyed, instantly traumatised, her mind paralysed and locked away in the vault of her consciousness for self-protection.