The boy gripped the knife in his hand tightly, knuckles bone white and the sweat lining his palms making his grasp dangerously slippery. The dull silver blade glinted harshly in the light of the full moons, and he could hardly hear the deep chanting of the men before him as they shifted from one foot to the other, swaying with such perfect unison it appeared almost as if each deep lean was lurching the world. Looking at him, you would see a young, wholly naked boy on the cusp of manhood, the stubble under his chin beading with sweat as he near-thrummed with tension, his stomach tightening as he lowered his arm.
He pressed his lips together and if the men's eyes hadn't have been covered with blindfolds, they would have seen the boy's slight frame silhouetted against the glowing night, seen his eyes go cold and dark as he dragged the blade across his stomach from and to each side of his waist. It sliced through the thin layer of skin and fat, baring an ugly yellow to the moons, and before blood had spilled over the lip of the wound, he repeated the strangely elegant sweep across his stomach – and chest – four more times. Not a sound passed his lips as, eyes still eerily calm, he crossed with shocking ease the distance to the leader, and grasped his face to remove the blind.
As the leader opened his eyes, the young man seemed to sag, stoic replaced with pain, and he immediately reached to support the young man's weight and press cloth to his torso. The perfect chanting ceased when the leader commanded their attention with a deep shout, but voices quickly rose again as blindfolds were torn off, and loud cheering and singing the of the wounded man's name took the place of the quiet of the night.
YOU ARE READING
Of An Alien Nature
Science FictionTwo planets, another dimension and science that looks like magic; if you can see it. Sol, a young man living in a secluded and segregated colony, forbidden to leave, doesn't know the world outside the shimmery border around his home and woods even e...
