Chaos Walking 1. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Author:Patrick Ness [Ness, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781406344462
Publisher: Walker Books Limited
Published: 2013-05-15T22:36:40+00:00

"Hey!" I say, slapping him cross the face with the back of my hand. "Hey! I'm asking you an asking!"

But the smile's back. I can't effing believe it but the smile's back.

"You know what my father always says, Todd Hewitt?" he leers up at me. "He says a knife is only as good as the one who wields it."

"Shut up," I say.

"Yer a fighter, I'll give you that." Still smiling, still bleeding a little below his chin. "But you ain't no killer."

"Shut up!" I yell but I know he can see in my Noise that I heard those exact words from Aaron.

"Oh, yeah?" he says. "Whaddya gonna do about it? Kill me?"

"I WILL," I shout. "Ill KILL you!"

He just licks some rain from his lips and laughs. I have him pinned to the ground with a knife up under his chin and he's laughing.

"STOP IT!" I scream at him and I raise the knife.

He keeps on laughing and then he looks at me and he says-

He says-

He says this--

"You wanna hear how Ben and Cillian screamed for mercy before I shot 'em twixt the eyes?" And my Noise buzzes red. And I clench the knife to strike at him. And I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him. And-And-And-

And right at the top of my swing-Right at the moment when I start to bring it down-Right at the moment when the power is mine to command and do with as I please-I hesitate - Again-- I hesitate-Only for a second--

But goddam me-

Goddam me forever and forever--

Cuz in that second he kicks up his legs, throws me off him, and elbows me in the throat. I lean over choking and I can only feel his hand wrench the knife away from my own.

As easy as candy from a baby.

"Now, Todd," he says, standing over me, "let me show you a thing or two about wielding."

THE DEATH OF THE WORTHLESS COWARD

I DESERVE IT. I've done everything wrong. I deserve it. If I had the knife back I'd kill myself with it. Except I'd probably be too much of a coward to do that, too.

"Yer some piece of work, Todd Hewitt," Mr. Prentiss Jr. says, examining my knife.

I'm kneeling now, knees in the mud, hand at my throat, still trying to get my breath.

"You had this fight won and then you went and just threw it away." He runs a finger up the blade. "Stupid as well as yella."

"Just finish it," I mumble into the mud.

"What was that?" Mr. Prentiss Jr. says, the smile back, his Noise bright.

"Just FINISH IT!" I shout up to him.

"Oh, I'm not gonna kill you," he says, his eyes flashing. "My pa wouldn't be too happy with that, now would he?"

He steps up to me and holds the knife near my face. He puts the tip of it into my nose so I have to hold my head back farther and farther.

"But there's lots of things you can do with a knife," he says, "without killing a man.

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