Knife's Edge

Knife Wounds

Lissy walked down the hallway, hands closed over her precious books. Her maths, her science and her French books were all huddled closely to her chest. Their torn pages, blood splattered covers and bruised bindings were obvious against the pale girl's frail arms. Her glasses are cracked, but so is her pride. Her dignity. Her security.

She scurries around a corner, only to trip. She flings out her arms, the only thing protecting her from the fast approaching, reflecting tiled floor. Her arms jar as she crashes into the floor, immense pain flowing through her dainty joints. She flops onto her stomach, before sitting up slowly. She collects her books, jumping up and limping off, pretending nothing ever happened.

She reaches her locker and shoves her books in. Already so much pain, and the day has barely started. Lissy stops to catch for a moment, before gathering her English and social sciences books together. She carefully places them in her ripped back pack, wishing her parents would by her a new one. The one she had barely had one strap left, the zipper was broken and it was smeared with paint. She closes her locker, locking it with slight difficulty as she was barely tall enough to reach the lock.

Lissy leaves, head down, feet shuffling and arms holding onto each other for support. She thinks she'll make it to her classroom without running into them for once. She can see the classroom, its right there. Its barely ten metres away. She closes in on the door, unaware of her surroundings when she hears voices,

'There's the twat.'

'She almost missed her routine pummelling.'

'That would have been a shame.'

'She's such a bitch.'

'Never should've been born.'

'Real disappointment.'

Lissy choked down the comments, breaking into a limping run as she attempted to make it to the classroom before they could reach her. Alas, her actions were noticed by the boys, and they ran after her. They were much faster, much stronger, much larger than her. They grabbed her shoulder, and wrenched it backwards, reopening fresh wounds. Surely they would break something today. They threw her against the wall. Lissy heard a crack in her backpack. They must have broken her phone again. She was going to get punished by her parents again.

She didn't even try to fight back as she was picked up by the collar of her shirt. The boys had knives in their hands. Yes, this would be the day she would be put out her misery for sure. She waited for the white to come and claim her, but she never felt her neck being slit, or her heart being stabbed. Instead, she felt the cold metal slowly break the skin at the top of her arm. She felt the knife being pushed deeper into her arm, puncturing the veins and drawing blood. She felt him move the knife down her arm. Down to her wrist. She heard the maniacal laughter as the boys tortured her further, jabbing at her stomach, legs and hands. One of the boys lifted up her bloodied hand and sliced of one of her fingers, smearing the blood over her face.

Then one made a mistake. He was aiming for her ear, but his friend bumped in, and his knife sliced across Lissy's face, across her eyes. She cried out in immense pain and the boys backed away for her as she tried to stop her face from bleeding. One boy took a last jab at her and embedded his knife in her shoulder, running of with the rest of his group.

Lissy collapsed, writhing in pain. She heaved, spluttering blood and coughing up mucus. She rolled over onto her side, attempting to push up onto her her knees, leaning against a wall. Someone walked up to her, she could hear the footsteps, but they didn't help her. They pushed her back over again and she felt something inside her crack. It hurt to move, but could she actually move? She realised she could lift her legs. Her arms worked fine, but she couldn't walk.

Lissy laid still, in silence. She waited for someone to come, but no one did. She waited to hear the bell, but time just dragged on as she slowly bled dry. She took her last rasping breaths as she wished it hadn't been her. She slowly closed her eyes and gave in, joining her predecessors and lost family members. She found her younger sister, her older brother and her cousin. She finally felt at peace as they beckoned her closer. She was finally there, finally where she fit in, when she was wrenched from the ground and thrown into a pit of hell.

The pain was unbearable, and this time, there was no escape.