THE KNIFE CLATTERED ONTO the vinyl tiles, away from Elliot's reach. Jake landed a hard punch on Elliot's jaw, garnering a loud groan.
"Leave her alone," Jake demanded.
Scarlet scrambled to her feet, using the wall for support. Elliot grabbed onto Jake's neck in a chokehold, and she jumped into action. In hindsight, she didn't know what she was doing, but adrenaline controlled her actions. She found the discarded knife and aimed it at Elliot.
"Let him go," she said. Jake coughed up against Elliot's tight fingers around his neck. "Elliot, let him go or I'll recreate the scene you had me walk into with my mother."
Elliot scoffed. "You don't have it in you."
"Don't force my hand, Casselbury," her voice boomed. "Let him go now."
He turned to her, and then let go of Jake. "My love, you know you can't handle a knife. I do. That's why we work so well. I can protect you. And you can be mine forever." His hands reached out for her, shaky and desperate.
"Who do you think you are?" Jake swung, landing another punch on him. Elliot slammed into the wall. If she wasn't so scared of the situation in front of her, she would have found everything comical: here was Jake dressed as Romeo Montague with frills on his sleeves and a tight-fitted vest, beating up an unstable Elliot.
"You ruined everything," Elliot snarled and shoved Jake hard into the opposite wall. "She belongs to me." Scarlet choked on a sob, waving the kitchen knife at Elliot. It didn't rattle him. He gained on her and pried the knife from her fingers with ease. She thought he'd pierce it into her flesh, but instead he aimed it at Jake.
"No!" she cried and jumped onto his back. The knife fell from his grip right next to Jake as Elliot tried to shake her off of him. She held onto him, but he shifted and thrashed like an angered bull.
One last flail sent her flying to the ground. She collapsed into a heap. Elliot kneeled before her and grabbed her face with his clammy hands. Bloodshot amber searched her face, darting from corner to corner.
"You keep choosing the wrong one," he lamented. "But it's okay because soon all that will be over, my love." A hard sniffle followed his sentence.
Scarlet heaved as his fingers found her neck. She choked, clawing at his face to get him off. Jake scrambled from behind, but the backstage hallways brightened with the sudden switch of the lights.
"Arms in the air!" a familiar, commanding voice thundered. Elliot squeezed at her neck tighter. She tried to claw at his grip, hoping that he would let go, but her strength faded into nothing. The newly brightened hallway dimmed before her, and her eyelids drooped.
Was that how she would be embraced by death? With tight fingers around her throat?
Elliot let go, and she fell back gasping for breath. Jake ran to her side, pushing her hair back and asking a million questions she couldn't decipher. Her mind was elsewhere.
She found Elliot in the mess, running off in the opposite direction. A group of police officers followed, but she knew it was futile. She had cleaned and organized every corner backstage. There was no other exit for him to escape from. He was trapped.
"Are you okay?" Jake cried, holding her face to his.
She managed a meek nod when Sheriff Merlo came back with a restrained Elliot, a group of officers acting as an entourage behind them. One of the officers, Detective Faulkner, pulled out a small plastic bag from Elliot's back pocket, half-full of tiny, colorful papers.
"Is Casselbury on acid?" a voice rang from behind, Thomas still dressed as Mercutio. That was when she realized almost the entire cast, crew, and a few curious audience members sneaked backstage to witness the commotion.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Crimson
Teen Fiction"The vultures are disguised as humans." Scarlet Turner has her last semester of high school planned out: graduate as best as she can and take care of her sick mother. But when she's told she won't graduate because of the pile of tardies she's collec...
