52. Taking Care of Her
Chapter fifty-two
Taking Care of Her
Julian
She lowers the knife and walks around me. For too long, I’m frozen, unable to believe she hasn’t stabbed me, yet. I turn around, dip my palms into the back pockets of my jeans, but stay put. I watch her step quicken as she gets closer to him, like a beautiful black panther who just saw her prey.
"What are you doing? Don't let him convince you to do this. Astoria, don't. I'm sor–"
She raises the knife and stabs his neck, not giving him the chance to beg.
"I told you not to apologize!"
His blood sprays out with the first stab. Then with the second, it gushes. She pulls it out. It’s a mess. His hand tries to cover the wound while he chokes, gurgling blood. Slowly, she steps back, still holding the knife in the air. I wonder if she realizes what she has done.He takes a step toward her and she screams but instead of cowering away out of fear, she stabs him again in the chest. He falls back from the force she uses.
At the site of him finally falling, she screams for the longest time, as if she’s releasing all her demons. It ends in puffs of sobbing. She's in shock. I walk up behind her, slowly and place my hands on her shoulders. She’s trembling. I caress from her shoulders to her forearms, then to her hands, and gently pry the knife from her. There’s no resistance.
“Come, Tory.”
“What have I done?”she asks then turns to me.
To comfort her I hold her gaze. “You saved the lives of children. That’s what you did. Look at me.” I wait for her to meet my gaze again. “I’m proud of you, pretty bird. Here, why don’t you sit down while I clean this up?”
She sits at the edge of the bed, looking at nothing, her face and chest coated with her father’s blood. I gather the body and clean away the blood as fast as I can so I can focus on taking care of her.