I know it's nowhere near my best work (excuses, excuses; exams are draining) but you guys have been so patient with me, so I'm trying to update more often and regularly.
Alex shrunk back, expecting the dagger to rip across her throat or plunge into her heart in a second. But death did not come swiftly, and the dagger did not tear into her flesh. Peril continued talking.
"You distracted me, Miss Alex; it's rude to interrupt. Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners or social etiquette?"
"You do like the sound of your voice a hell of a lot. Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to dominate a conversation so?" Peril gently placed the flat blade of the dagger over Alex's mouth.
"Obviously she didn't teach you; women should be seen and not heard. You must be a very slow learner." The dagger snaked back and forth again restlessly like a malevolent spider spinning its web. Alex could see he was dying to drive it through her heart, but for some reason he held back. Composing himself once more, Captain Orion continued his lecture,
"Regardless, my little Papillion, you're sending me off on a wild tangent again. If you would care to return to our previous topic of conversation, I believe we were discussing merits and failures of ears… Where were we… Ah yes, incidentally, I once had a collection of ears." He continued blandly, using the blade of the dagger to push back the strands of Alex's blonde hair that had fallen over her neck. Her ear now exposed, Orion circled it thoughtfully with the weapon. "Yours is quite a handsome-looking ear, if I may be so bold."
"You can take it then, if it so pleases you." Alex snapped, "For it is doing nothing of substance save for listening to your blether. I can easily spare it." If he was going to kill her, she might as well get it over and done with. Alex felt the burning bite of the dagger as Captain Peril appeared to take her up on her offer. Eyes wide with shock, Alex felt the dagger carve what felt like a small skull and crossbones in the space between her ear and her cheekbone.
"Don't bump me or you will end up losing your ear." He scolded as if reprimanding a child for shifting whilst getting a portrait painted. The man truly is mad, Alex thought, her stomach dropping in horror as she struggled against the pain of the dagger searing her skin. "Now see, this is the root of all your problems." He murmured as he stepped back to regard his masterpiece; his etched signature mark on Alex's flesh. He considered it proudly as if he had painted an exquisite work of art. "If you didn't keep such a sharp and insolent tongue in your mouth, you would not offend important and powerful people as much as you do now, and things like this wouldn't happen to you so frequently."
Captain Peril circled with his dagger again, like a hawk circles as it decides on the calibre of its weakened prey. His mouth curled into a cruel smile like the curved blade of a deadly smictar, his eyes as dark as the sky at witching hour. Holding the dagger - as crooked as his smirk - poised and aloft once more, he continued, "Besides, it's rather unladylike to wield such a crude instrument." The dagger inched closer to her tightly closed lips, "On the other hand, your tongue can provide such entertainment, with all its jibes and jeers. It would be a shame to deprive the world of your wit." The wicked silver drew back once more, toying with her, the glint of the candle-light reflecting off its well-polished surface, showing a mirror-image of her wide eyes. "So decide, young Alex, on the fate of your beloved tongue. I can either cut the poisoned instrument out for you, or sharpen its point for you to wield with more proficiency. Consider carefully." He cautioned in a low breath, like the near silent but deadly hiss of a coiled asp. Alex seemed to take him at his word, contemplating his grisly proposal for several moments.
"The offer stands as before, my Lord. My ear, or nought. I make no middle-grounds." Again something flickered behind Captain Peril's cold expanse of dark eyes, and his tone and features changed once more. He smiled boyishly, disarming Alex even more. She didn't know whether he purposely acted the way he did, or if he truly was mad.
"A stubborn strumpet... Interesting. I like stubborn strumpets the best." He mused, his thoughts almost private and introverted, "They're more fun to wear down. They don't break as easily as the others, but when they do…" Peril snapped back to the present and flashed a wolfish smile at Alex that didn't extend to his cold, dead eyes, "Until next time, I bid that I, your most obsequious servant Captain Orion James Peril, may take my most humblest leave." He finished solemnly, clasping Alex's hand between his own and kissing it with a flourish like a courting lover. He gave a final, departing laconic bow and made for the door.
Once on the threshold, he turned back on his heel almost as an after-thought. "I bid you receive this token as a memoir of our heart-warming reunion." As he closed the doors behind him Alex saw a flash of flying metal, but by the time her brain processed what the object was, it was too late. The jewelled dagger that had tormented her just seconds ago sunk deep into her shoulder, causing her to gasp in pain and shock. Before the pain overwhelmed her and she lost her nerve, she wrapped her shaking fingers around the dagger and wrenched it out of her shoulder.
"I told you not to move." Orion scolded as he locked and barred the heavy doors. "I was aiming for your ear."
Long after the Captain had strode out of the room and down the corridor, Alex stared at the dagger, holding it aloft as blood trickled down her cheek and pattered onto the polished floor. She felt the wound he had carved on her face, the throbbing of her shoulder and tasted his name on her tongue bitterly, "Captain Orion Peril," Alex tucked the twisted dagger into her boot with narrowed eyes, "you throw like a girl."