Angel Dust - Terry Kuder III (best classic books txt) 📗

had committed some crime?
It was then that I was thrown another puzzle piece: she got up and pulled a dagger from behind her back bow. The blade of the dagger curved, splitting off at the tip in four different directions. The top of the hilt had a sapphire gem perched upon it. It glistened despite the lack of light around. The hilt itself looked to be masterfully crafted, showing emblems of some sort. I couldn't tell if it was made of wood or metal. I wouldn't have this question answered either.
"Wha....what is that for?" I asked, terror rising as of how the question would be answered.
She swiftly swung her arm forward and I felt the four tips pinch my skin. Before I could utter a gasp of shock, the rest of the blade slid its way into my abdomen cutting through my intestines. Blood spurted out, spraying her with the dark liquid. I understood why the tip split off now; it was meant to cause pain. Excruciating pain. It wasn't meant to slice through the organs, it was meant to
shred them. My eyes widened as I felt the dagger begin to ascend. It sliced through my left lung, taking the air from my throat. I gasped, but only in vain. The blade continued up through my sternum, piercing through my flesh, ripping it to shreds. I felt my sternum crack as blood ran down the hilt and onto her hands. The shock was too much to bear as a chill flushed through my entire body. The two guards held onto me tightly despite my apparent limpness. They weren't going to let me go. It seemed that they were there to ensure the job was finished. The final stroke broke through my collar bone, snapping it in half. I tried to scream out in pain, but couldn't. It came out as a wheezing gasp instead. My eyes swelled with tears from the pain. The guards let go of my body and I fell to the ground with a loud thud imprinting my body into the dirt. There was no resistance from my corpse. My face planted into the ground. I attempted to turn myself over but found the task thoroughly difficult. My arms laid limp at my side. Instead, I settled with lying on my side. I looked up at her as she knelt down.
"W...why?" I wheezed, sputtering blood onto her dress. I couldn't muster out anything else for lack of air. Tears trickled onto my face. Surprisingly, it was soothing. It felt cool. My body twitched and spasmed forcing my back to lock up with a knot. I winced, looking up at her waiting for her answer. Come to think of it, I shouldn't have asked for an answer.
She took the dagger and jabbed it into my right cheek. I gasped out in pain as my body jerked uncontrollably. I couldn't stop it despite my best efforts. Tears swelled up blurring her face. They rolled out the corner of my eyes, clearing up my vision a little. She dragged the blade down my cheek carving a line into it and breaking off a little of my cheek bone. Blood poured out covering my cheek in a red hue. I didn't fight it anymore. My body went completely limp and I just stared up at her with glazing eyes. She took the blade out and my breathing became a whistle through the hole in my cheek. She leaned down and softly kissed my lips. More tears feel onto my face. It was a pleasing way to go.
She leaned further down and whispered something in my ear. I couldn't tell if my lack of blood had blurred my hearing or if she really said what she said. At this point, I didn't care as my vision blurred and began to fade. So, this is what dying was like. I had thought about how I would have died numerous times, but I never thought my demise would be been so....brutal and not by her. She was the last one I had ever thought to be responsible for my death. I looked up at the sky and the stars looked down as if they were ashamed of me; as if they knew this was going to happen and that I should have too. My body convulsed a few more times before it settled down in the thicket of the forest wheezing its last few breaths. It finally laid still, left there to die in a pool of its own blood. Since then, I have concluded that she was my first love and that my first love became my first death. What a contradiction.

4

Paranoia

I had woken up suddenly, my body snapping up automatically. I winced as my back seemed to pop back into place. I rubbed my back, looking around at where I was. It appeared that I ended up in the bed of a small house. Weird. I looked around, searching for signs as to who had possibly placed me here. I looked to my left to find a little girl curled up in a chair sleeping, sucking her thumb. She must have been at least six or seven years old. Her light pink curly locks bounced with every little movement she made. Who was she? Did she bring me here? No, that wasn't possible. There was no way that she could have. She was too young.
"I see you have awaken." A young man said as he came through the door with a tray carrying a glass of water and some sort of food substance. "I'd have to say that it's about time." he chuckled. He placed the tray on the end of the bed and walked over to the little girl. "Azalia, sweetie. Wake up." the man lightly shook her. "Azalia, come on, sweetheart. It's time to get up."
She opened her eyes lightly, allowing them to gain focus. "Huh? Is it morning already?" She asked sleepily.
"Yes." the man smiled.
She looked behind the man to see me up. "MR. MAN!!! You're up! That is good to see! That is very good indeed!" Her excitement woke her up instantly. Her voice was high pitched, but not in an annoying manner.
"Now, honey, calm down. You don't want to scare the poor little fellow." I tried to speak, but found that my mouth tasted like cotton. It must have been dried after not using it for so long. I looked at the end of the bed and eyed the glass of water carefully. The young man looked at me and nodded. "It's for you, sir." I reached for the glass and began chugging away. It seemed like years since I had anything to drink. Within mere seconds I had emptied the glass out.
"Golly, you sure were thirsty, weren't you, Mr. Man?"
I licked my lips, wetting them so that I could speak. "How long have I been out?" I inquired in a raspy voice.
Azalia looked up at the young man. "Two months." He said lowly. "And we don't know how long before the time that we found you in the woods out there." He pointed in a general direction. "It's a wonder how you were even able to survive that long without any food or water. We couldn't get your mouth open. It was sealed shut. Every time we tried to open it, it would just clasp shut."
"You almost bit my fingers off too!" Azalia said, holding up her fingers to let me examine that there was some skin pealed off.
"I apologize about that." I replied as if I had any real power over what I did when I was unconscious. "Did I have anything with me?"
"Not that we could see. Although it did look as if you had gotten into a fight with an animal or something. Your clothes were in tatters, yet, there wasn't a scratch on you. Now, I don't get out too much, so you'll have to forgive when I say that it was the strangest thing I have ever seen." This certainly was strange. I wonder how long I had been out before they found me. It felt like too long to describe. Who were these two? Why were they helping me out? The questions came from a brain that hadn't been used in so long. The thoughts were jumbled up, blurred from a person with no perspective. They were more murky than lucid.
"So, stranger, what's your name?"
"I am...." I started. The question took me by surprise, not because he had asked it, but because I didn't know. Who was I? What had happened to me? I remembered....I remembered nothing. Everything was blank. I had been asking all the wrong questions about who they were and their purposes instead of asking about my own. How in the hell could I not remember who I was? "I...I...I don't know." I finally stammered. "I don't know who I am." Their glances of disbelief were equivalent to mine.
After a brief moment, Azalia began giggling. "Come on, Mr. Man. How could you not know who you are? He's just pulling our legs, isn't he?" She looked up at the young man. He looked at me skeptically. "He is, isn't he?" She repeated after he didn't answer.
"I don't know about that, sweetheart. He looks as if he is genuinely lost."
My head began to swirl, I felt dizzy. It wasn't as if I had memories flooding my head, I had nothing, emptiness, doing summersaults up there. I held my head in pain as a headache emerged. "What the hell is wrong with me?" I said out loud. I suddenly thought about what he had said and an image appeared in my head. Tattered clothes? Forest? Something had happened. Something awful. I saw the forest around me, the stars sparkling brightly above. Someone was there, wasn't there? I couldn't remember. The images dissipated as soon as they appeared. It was as if I had conjured up the images based off the little information that he had given me. Who was I?
"What was the last thing you remember?" He said interrupting my thoughts.
"I...I don't know. I remember waking up in this house."
"And nothing before that?"
"No." I was completely and utterly lost. My confusion brought fear in company. Paranoia seeped in instantly. I looked at both the young man and the little girl. What if they did know who I was? If they did, why wouldn't they tell me? I looked at the open doorway wondering if I should try to make run for it. The man started to say something, but I drowned him out with my own thoughts. Even if I did make a run for it, I had no idea where I