She was very quick, but not nearly quick enough. I could have avoided the blow, but I wanted her to see her best efforts fail. I needed her to feel desperate and trapped as I snatched her up and spirited her away from the tattered remains of her strange gang. When she saw me pull the knife from my arm casually and toss it aside, I was happy to see rage and terror dancing in her eyes. And before you think less of me, please understand that my desire for her to be afraid was not merely petty retribution on my part, though I must admit it played a role.

It would also make her blood and flesh potent for my sweet Jessica.

****

When the girl stood at the edge of our bed, my hand at the back of her neck, she looked down at my wife’s ruined corpse and began to laugh. I could sense the evil and insanity radiating off of her, and it took considerable will to not crush her neck to powder. But no. She was the one most responsible for sending Jessica to death before we were ready, and she would be the most apt offering to get her back. I just prayed that it was enough.

The first sign that it was working was the sound of the killer’s manic laughter changing. She sounded like an engine slowly dying as the tattered flesh and broken bones before her began to stir at her presence. The offering had been accepted after all.

Shoving the girl forward, I slit her neck just enough to start things flowing before easing her down into my wife’s embrace. The murderess tried to struggle and flail as her faded laughter was replaced by a high-pitched wail that might have been meant as begging for mercy. Such a foolish concept, and particularly futile once my love wrapped her arms tightly around the girl and began to feed.

Half an hour later and it was done. Jessica was smiling at me again, with a light in her eyes that now would never fade or go out. She gestured for me to join her on the remains of the vile thing that had tried to take her from me. I nodded eagerly.

“Just a moment.” I began to pull the plague doctor’s mask free from my head as I turned. “Let me just put these things away and I’ll…”

Jessica shook her head, giggling. “Nah, leave it on. Cosplay is cool.”

Chuckling, I pushed the mask back down and regarded her through the wavy glass eyes of the old death crow.

“As you wish.”

Knife Control