Chapter 2- Swiss Army Knives
"You haven't broken or fractured anything, you should be fine…" Carlos explained, his voice serious but relieved that Nick hadn't gone too far into beating the shit out of Luke.
"Yeah… thanks Carlos." Luke replied, now sitting comfortably on the couch, holding an ice pack to his painful jaw.
Nick did throw quite a big punch, which caused slight discomfort on his right cheek, but Luke could live with it. He was more worried about Nick's state other than what Nick's state could actually do to him…
"I need to teach that boy a damn lesson! He can't go on like this!" Pete raised his voice catching everybody's attention.
Pete had come downstairs after he heard the bang of Nick's door echo through the entire cabin. Him and everyone else had crowded round Luke in the living room after he came through the front door, clutching to the side of his face in pain.
"Pete…" Luke tried to say, but he was gone. The loud footsteps up the stairs followed by a click of the door, soon after caused shouting and yelling making the entire group anxious and poor Sarah curled up into a ball on one of the couches next to Rebecca and Carlos.
Carlos and Alvin sighed, placing their heads in their hands; Rebecca lay back in her seat, hands protectively over her stomach and eyes closed, Sarah, of course was frightened by all the noise and grabbed her book from the coffee table and crawled over to sit beside her fathers legs, curling up next to him…
Carlos then let go of his forehead and soothingly ran his fingers through his daughters raven hair, relaxing her slightly.
Luke also had enough of the rivalry that took place between Pete and Nick. There was not much he could do as they were just having their 'family' problems, but he just wanted it to stop. He closed his eyes for a second, still holding the ice pack firmly to his cheek and waited and waited to hear who had won the argument…
A minute or so later, the yelling died down and Nick's door slammed closed once again, making the whole cabin shake. Luke opened his eyes and could of sworn he heard a faint cry come from someone upstairs.
Was one of them crying?
Soon after, Pete's heavy footsteps came thundering down the old stairs causing the group to look up anxiously at Nick's very distressed uncle…
"I'm… sorry." Pete said stressed, taking a seat next to Luke and rubbing his temples viciously with his pointer fingers.
"You should of just left him…" Luke said calmly not trying to put full blame on Pete.
"Look, I couldn't have the boy start attacking any of us… he already did it to you!" Pete raised his voice slightly looking up at Luke.
Luke exchanged a sad look before removing the ice pack from his face and to now start playing with it within his cool fingers.
"It was for the best, Luke… he could hurt any of us. I can't risk him getting near to Sarah." Carlos explained, siding with Pete.
Luke's head jolted up towards Carlos, expression angry and… hurt?
"Nick isn't going to hurt any of us! Nor Sarah!" Luke snapped back, feeling guilty for getting another argument started.
"He already hurt you! How long will it be until Sarah suffers the same?" Carlos shouted back, causing Sarah to flinch slightly. Rebecca leant forward and tapped her on the shoulder, in which Sarah got up and took a seat besides her, curled up in a ball while burying her face within Rebecca's shirt.
"Nick would never hurt Sarah!" Luke raised his voice, his hands now gripping the ice pack tightly.
"Please… stop." Rebecca tried to interfere, keeping her voice down as Sarah was beside her.
"Carlos, I will make sure my nephew doesn't get near to hurting your daughter, but Luke… we need to talk sense into Nick… Carlos is right!" Pete explained, butting in to stop further argument.
"Then talk sense into him! But no, you just yell and yell like there's no tomorrow!" Luke shouted back. He would never find himself shouting at Pete, but he did… for Nick's sake.
"I tried, Luke! He's the one who starts every screaming match but this time he finally gave in!" Pete snapped, going back to rubbing at the sides of his head.
"What? What do mean he 'gave in'?" Luke asked impatiently while the rest of the group but Sarah listened intently.
"I don't know! Kid started cryin so I decided to just leave him, be…" Pete explained, annoyed.
Luke looked at Nick's uncle in shock.
Never had Nick cried in front of Pete alone…
"He cried? So you just left him? You're stressing him out, Pete!" Luke answered back worried.
"Well he didn't want me there!" Pete explained, lowering his voice slightly.
There was silence for a few moments before Luke decided he had finally had enough.
"I'm gonna talk to him." Luke said, getting up out of his chair.
He threw the ice pack down on the couch, not bothering to place it back in the kitchen.
"Luke, we don't want another screaming match…" Alvin finally spoke up calmly. He voice was quiet but inside, he had clearly had enough of the whole Nick situation.
"I'm not gonna scream at him…" Luke replied, now walking up the stairs slowly, eyes fixed on looking forward rather than back at the rest of the group.
"Luke… get down here…" Carlos began to say with his eyebrow's furrowed.
"No, Carlos… just, just let him do it…" Pete interferes, also irritated by the whole situation. He placed his hands on his head and took several deep breaths before getting up to get something in the kitchen.
Leaving the rest of the group silent and nervous to what was going to happen next…
As Luke reached the top of the stairs he turned to head into his room, opening the door slowly and walking over to his small chest of drawers in the corner of the dark, candle lit room. He opened one of the small drawers to reveal some of his personal keepsakes and a red Swiss army knife. It was small and could easily fit into his pocket. Luke favoured this knife over some of his other belongings because he got it when he was young… Nick had a matching one in blue.
Picking up the knife, Luke placed it within his trouser pocket and headed out his room, shutting the door behind him. Already, Luke could hear mutters coming from downstairs and Sarah reading what sounded like a chapter of her book to somebody, most probably Rebecca or Carlos…
Glad that they weren't listening out for him, Luke took the opportunity to walk over to Nick's room, which were only two doors down…
When Luke made it to the outside of Nick's door, he stood there debating on whether to knock or walk in. While thinking for a moment, Luke listened into the door to hear faint, muffled sounds of sniffling as if Nick was crying… It was those noises that Luke then decided to click the door open and slowly walk in…
Not noticing his presence until his door closed, Nick quickly turned around to see Luke standing by the door, cheek slightly swollen due to when he punched him and eyes full of worry.
Nick was sitting on the side of his bed, facing out the window, clutching his matching Swiss army knife, but in blue. As the black-haired man quickly darted his head around, Luke noticed how his cheeks were stained with tears. His eyes were also an ocean blue colour due to the crying. Both of his white sleeves had been pulled up to the elbow's revealing newly cut horizontal incisions within Nick's pale skin.
Even in the dim light, Luke could make out blood all over Nick's arms, his hands and his knife. Even Nick seemed just as shocked as Luke was! He didn't even have time to tell him to get out.
"Luke…" Nick muttered, deciding to go against the idea of another shouting match.
Without saying a word Luke did what he intended to show Nick…
Luke placed his hand in his trouser pocket, pulling out his matching Swiss army knife, but in red. He then flicked up one of the long and sharp knifes and tugged his orange sweater sleeve up so that it was also above his elbow. Luke gave a glare to Nick as in to say "I'm gonna do it."
Before Nick could say anything, Luke had made up his mind and placed the tip of the knife into his skin like he was about to give an injection. Applying pressure to the skin, already drawing fresh crimson blood, Luke drew a long line horizontally across his flesh. Blood flowed out from his fresh cut and all over his arm and onto Nick's rug. The sensation was painful, sending a burning and sharp pain through Luke's veins, but he didn't care. He wanted Nick to understand that he felt his pain…
"Luke… stop!" Nick shouted, jumping up from the bed, his knife still in his bloody hand. He attempted to make a move for Luke's knife but the brunette just quickly made another incision to embed into his skin.
Luke wasn't going to stop; he continued to slice through his skin, causing more blood to spill out. Luke couldn't lie; it was actually starting to make him feel lightheaded…
Stubbornly, Nick didn't make a move to grab hold of Luke's knife, so instead, raised his own knife to his arms and made cuts in the spaces where the skin wasn't scarred just yet…
Luke's eyes widened in shock, he stopped cutting into himself for a moment and studied what Nick was now doing to himself. He also had many more deep cuts surrounding the whole area of his lower arm.
"Nick, stop…" Luke whispered shakily.
"Not until you do." Nick replied, tears making there way into his eyes once again.
Nick raised his knife back to his skin and made yet again, another incision to add to his 'collection'.
"Stop!" Luke whisper shouted before making several more harsh cuts on his skin. His eyes also started to water, leaving his vision blurry and distorted.
"You stop!" Nick whisper shouted back, stunned by how quickly Luke made three more cuts into his skin, leaving more blood trailing down his arm and onto the carpet.
Nick being as stubborn as he was, made another cut within his arm, this one a little deeper, leaving more crimson blood to gush out…
"Nick, please… this is stupid." Luke whispered, his vision getting hazy.
Before Nick could make another attempt at his arm, his vision also became warped, sending him to the floor, surrounded by Luke's and his blood.
"Nick!" Luke tried to say, but ended up falling to the ground in a loud thump!
They heard the faint sounds of people thundering up the stairs, followed by a gush of breeze as Nick's door swung open within a flash...
It was then that everything blacked out...
For the both of them…