The Nightmare's Return

Chapter 8

"My friend here is about to show us an amazing skill that he has." Mr. Tophat spoke out. "Now watch as he practices his accuracy."

The man with the knives took out one knife from the collection in his left hand, and pointed it at Akiko before bringing it back past his head and than throwing it forward, sending it flying her way. It flew through the air and hit half a centimeter away from the inside of one of her parted legs. Feeling the hard hit against the board and extremely near her leg, Akiko screamed. Mr. Tophat laughed, putting his hands together and clapping, getting the audience to cheer on with him, after some gasps and small screams emitted from the crowd after the first knife had landed. The next blade that was thrown landed near Akiko's thigh. She screamed again, trying to pull herself free from the board she was tied to, but only ended up screaming again and again, as more blades were felt hitting the board. When there was a longer pause after one throw compared to the other ones, Akiko's hope that the act was over started to rise, when she felt her blood run cold by the feel of another blade hitting the board, this one almost cutting into her scalp at the top of her head. The next blade after hit the board so close to her face, that Akiko would be able to actually feel it with the tip of her nose if she reached her head out a bit.

The last blade was the worst however. The blade hit so near Akiko's right hand that was tied just passed her left one on the board, that she felt that this last knife had actually cut her. A couple of seconds after she felt the force of the blade hit near her hand, Akiko saw a streak of red start to fall from it and slide down the board as the audience gasped again, at the large drop of red falling. Akiko screamed again, this time going into a panic, her body feeling the other knives that had been slung to the board, as she tried to wiggle free. They had all been thrown so near to her that just one extra struggle against the ropes got her body to feel exactly where all the knives were caught, as her body seemed to have been framed by all of them. Akiko felt close to passing out, feeling overwhelmed by the all the adrenaline and panic she had just gone through for the whole act. But before that could happen, she was being untied and taken down from the board. As she was being brought down, Akiko looked back at the board and could see that the knives had perfectly outlined her body. She looked down at her hand where she saw the blood fall from, as the two men who had untied her and brought her down from the board, held her still in one spot. She was sure she had been cut, but didn't see even one mark on her hand. There was also no blood on the board, no blood red drop, or streak on it either. Mr. Tophat went over to Akiko and lifted both her arms as he stood next to her.

"As you can see," He told the audience, "There is no harm that has come to the young woman. Isn't that amazing?!"

The audience clapped in both amazement and relief, as they saw that Akiko was completely okay from injury. Mr. Tophat let go of Akiko and let the men holding onto to her start to take her away to the backstage area, but not before he suggested to her, "Next time it would be easier, if you stayed just a little more still." He put up his left hand and used his thumb and forefinger to give Akiko a small example of what he meant by holding those fingers just half an inch apart from each other, his hand close to her face. The two men took Akiko through the dark backstage and to her cage in the red lit space just beyond where the others stayed, still stuck in their cages. They tried to ask her questions after she was put back into her cage, but Akiko just stayed looking at her hands, her legs, and than felt the top of head, thinking she might have some sort of injury. She finally blurted out, "Knives, sharp, blood?" The lack of even one full sentence from Akiko scared the group even more, especially Graham, who was now being taken out of his cage to be used for the next act. He shook his head back and forth saying, "No, no, no, no, No!" As no one could do anything but watch him be taken away, not knowing what awaited him with his turn out in the ring. Rachel still feeling guilty about all of their circumstances, closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to keep herself from panicking.