So shiny, so sharp, so right for what I want to do,” the Ragged Man said.J.P. braced himself for the pain that was going to come, but instead felt only a small pin sticking sensation below his chin.“Open your eyes or I’ll shove it up into your brain.”J.P. refused, keeping his eyes closed with all his might.“I’m not kidding!”J.P. felt the knife break skin and he felt a gooey wet tickling as small droplets of blood dripped down over both sides of his neck.“Open them!”J.P. opened his eyes wide.“That’s better. You see we can get along, you and me.”J.P. stared into the man’s steel eyes and saw nothing there. He thought of the under-the-bed monster that had caused him so many sleepless nights shortly after his father had left them. Nothing, he had thought, was worse than that thing that lived under the bed, but he was wrong, there was something worse and that something worse was staring into his soul, holding a gleaming Jim Bowie knife that was dripping his very own blood.His eyes must have held a question, because the big man reached out and ripped the tape off his mouth.
