Roses for Rachel

Chapter 19.

I stared into his soulless dark brown eyes. "What do you want?" I demanded.

The man grabbed a knife from his pocket and held it up for me to see. "I want to finish what I started." He said cryptically. "I don't know how you survived that dungeon, but I won't make the same mistake twice." He lifted his chin as if he was trying to build his courage. "I'll kill you myself this time."

He took a step towards me, the knife extended, but I jumped back out of the way, slamming my back against the golden doors. I hurriedly turned to pull on them, but of course the doors were locked. "Stay the hell away from me or I'll scream." I threatened.

"You'll have a hard time screaming with my knife in your throat." He whispered. "If you even look like you're thinking about it I will slit your throat and kill your friend anyway. If you just cooperate with me, she doesn't have to die."

"Leave. Her. Out. Of. This." I said through gritted teeth.

The man laughed. "Keep giving me demands and I will just pull out this phone of mine," He said reaching into his black pants pocket, and pulling out a small black phone. "And I will call my friend who has little Miss Greer locked up in her room, waiting for me to tell him the job is done."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked as he put the tip of his knife right in the hollow of my neck, pressing very gently.

"You took something from me, and now you'll pay for that." He whispered with a shake in his voice. "I'm not the only one, though." He paused. "It turns out there are quite a number of people who want to see you gone, that bossy little attitude of yours is making the prince weak, and that isn't good for him, or for you." He drew the knife back and just before he brought it back, stabbing me, he stopped when we both heard the sound of laughing echoing through the corridors. The man widened his eyes and looked worried. "Make a peep and I swear to god, your friend dies with you." He said in a hushed voice as he covered my mouth with one hand, and held the knife to my neck with the other.

The sound of girls laughing echoed off of the walls again, and a slow smile crossed my face. I'd recognize her laugh anywhere, as pleasant as her speaking voice is, when Greer laughs it has this hilarious nasally sound. The man had his head turned, looking behind him, so I took the only opening I had.

I quickly brought my hand up to cover my neck, and lifted my knee to meet his groin at the same time. He let out a huff and doubled over, the knife sliding across my hand on the way down to the ground. "You bitch!" He shouted.

We both reached for the knife at the same time, but I gave him an elbow to the face and beat him to it. "Guards!" I screamed as I pushed him down, holding the knife to his own neck. "Guards! Help!" I shouted and suddenly we weren't alone anymore.

"Rachel!" Calvin's voice boomed and I turned my eyes away from the creepy man to look up and see Cal and four guards staring at me in amazement.

The man bucked beneath me, but I held him down firmly, keeping the knife just far enough away from him to not cut him. "Well, is anyone going to help, or are you all planning on making me handle this guy?" I said annoyed and finally a guard helped me up off of the man and the other guards grabbed him up from the floor, securing his hands behind his back.

"Rachel, what happened?" Cal asked as he came to my side, brushing the hair that had come loose from my braid back behind my ear.

"That little bitch ruined my life!" The man shouted, and Cal's eyes turned black as he glared at the man.

"He's the one who tried to have me killed in the crypts and he just tried to kill me again!" I explained to everyone. "He threatened to kill Greer and he is the one who killed Fern!"