A Knife's Tale (ONC 2021)

Chapter Five

I awoke shirtless in the cave, strapped to the stone table. My arms and legs were stretched out as far as they could go, and I couldn't so much as wiggle anything except for my head, which still throbbed from the blow earlier.

A rat sat in the center of my chest, staring into my eyes. It waved its arms, making a show of the fact that it could move and I couldn't. To add insult to injury, it flipped over on its back and splayed its arms out to match my position. I wanted to grab its tiny neck and strangle it.

I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what was going on. Either Madame Estrella had a peculiar kink, or I was in deep shit. I naively assumed the former because I didn't think she'd ever do anything violent to me. She said we were here to talk, after all.

I was wrong.

Familiar laughter filled the room as Madame Estrella noticed me. She looked just as beautiful as before, and not a speck of dirt found itself on her pale yellow dress.

She held up my knight-in-training badge. "You were out for six full hours. I'd expect a knight to recover a little quicker than that."

My training didn't involve quickening concussion recovery times, but I didn't correct her.

"What's the meaning of this?" I asked while struggling against my bindings.

"There's something I've been researching for a while. And, since fate foretold it, you'll make the perfect test subject."

She found a kitchen knife in my bag and wiped it off with a cloth. I didn't remember putting it there, but with the pile of junk I usually carried around, it didn't surprise me. My heartbeat sped up as the realization that Madame Estrella wasn't quite right in the head sunk in—and watching her gently cleaning the blade didn't help at all.

A rat came out from the corner, sharpening steel clenched in his jaws, and he passed it along to Madame Estrella. She struck the blade of my knife against it with a few quick sweeps and then dropped it to the floor.

Sweat dripped down my forehead. There was no way. Madame Estrella had no reason to kill me. It was only a silly little fortune, not enough to murder over. At least, I hoped.

"Why are you sharpening my knife?" My voice quivered.

She grinned. "I think it would make quite the fitting host for my new experiment. It's not the sharpest or most impressive blade, but it's kind of like you. Hopefully, the ritual will work."

The words experiment and ritual rang my alarm bells, and I thrashed against my restraints harder than before. My wrists grew red and raw, but the ropes held me snug and didn't so much as budge.

"Don't be so feisty. You'll be alive after it's over—in fact, your life will become unending. Doesn't the idea of eternal life fascinate you?" She strode closer to me, but my eyes couldn't leave the knife in her hands.

"Can't we work this out? If you let me go, I'll never talk to you again. In fact, I'll be sure to never make myself visible to you again."

She'd arrived at the side of the stone table and looked me in the eye. "Now, why would I want to never see you again? That's not what the stars foretold—it would break fate."

I didn't care to listen to her nonsense about fate because the knife moved closer and was now pointed downward toward my chest. Tears streamed down my face—the last tears I'd ever be able to cry.

The pain of the blade cutting through my chest only lasted for a few seconds before I felt like a disembodied observer to my fate. She really did it! She fucking killed me!

I couldn't move by my will and simply floated in place above my body. Looking down at myself, I watched my blood collect into the grooves and channels carved into the table, slowly filling them. Clueless about what was going on, I listened as she chanted words in a language I didn't understand.

A powerful force compelled me forward, dragging me toward the blade still lodged in my chest. It grew stronger, and I felt like my spirit was being torn apart.

My vision went blank for a moment before everything turned red. This new place was much warmer than the cave, and my entire body was soaked. I still couldn't move, and I felt smaller than before.

Then, I looked down into what looked like a wall made of raw muscle. I wanted to try reaching out to touch it, but I couldn't feel my arms. Before I could explore the room any further, a soft hand wrapped around me and lifted me upward, with the strange sensation like the front of my body was slicing meat as I moved.

I looked down in horror as I realized that the room I had been in was the wound in my chest cavity. And that my body that she was moving was the damned knife. She'd trapped me inside the fucking knife.

Madame Estrella took the cloth from before, and wiped my blade with it, carefully avoiding the edge. "So, how do you like it?"

I had no clue how to talk to her since I had no fucking mouth. But I think any sane human would hate being trapped in a knife.

"I can hear you just fine. And, you'll find with time, that eternal life is worth far more than having a body made of flesh. You'll see. Plus..."

She took my bag and swung me into it. The cloth touched me for less than a second before I sliced clean through. My belongings—my badge, coins, various trinkets—littered the floor. It sank in that I'd never be able to hold anything in my hands again, and I'd no longer have use for any of my things.

"You're a special knife. Your blade is the sharpest around, you'll never dull, you cannot rust, and you'll never break." She danced around the cave while giggling, and it didn't surprise me anymore since she'd gone completely bonkers. She struck me against the cave wall with all her strength, and it hurt worse than getting punched in the gut. Over and over, she smacked me into the hard rocks.

"That fucking hurts!" I yelled in my thoughts, hoping that she could hear my tone.

She stared at my blade, smiling. "Not a single chip on you."

"Put me back in my body!"

"There's a minor problem with that. Can't you see that your body has a broken heart? I can't very well put you back when your soul will cross over the second I do."

"I don't care! I'd rather cross over like a normal person than be stuck as a knife for an eternity! And, if I have to stay like this, at least let me say goodbye to my grandmother!"

She ignored my pleas and headed out of the cave, her rat pets following behind.