"For the love of God, don't hurt her!" Eshe cried and stepped forward with hand aloft to stop Eiji cutting Leora any further.

Eiji lessened the pressure on the knife but kept the edge pressed with enough force that Leora's skin dimpled in along it.

He smiled down at Leora's throat. "The way the blood flows down over her skin, the red on white, it makes such a beautiful picture. I'm almost inspired to write a haiku."

Ruslan bared he teeth and clenched his fists. "You are sick!"

"No," Eiji said very evenly. "I just see something you don't. The flesh is a canvas, waiting to be written upon. The blood is the ink that I use."

"Sick!" repeated Ruslan.

Eiji shook his head as if admonishing a child. "I'm an artist. A performance artist, if you will, since none of my works would be hung in Thompson's or the Tate, and my pieces are definitely not suitable for what you find at the National Gallery." He gave a dismissive laugh and rolled his eyes.

Eshe put both hands to her forehead. "What are you talking about?"

"Come now, you spent enough time in England. You must know the art galleries. I thought you were a cultured lady?" He quirked one eyebrow down, taunting her.

"Of course I know what you're talking about," she snapped. "Why you think any of those institutions would even consider letting a murderer like you through the doors is beyond me."

Eiji chuckled again, gave another head shake. "I know you are smarter than to really believe what you just said. I'm just another person when I walk through those doors. They know nothing more than you do other than I pay my admission fee to keep the place running." He sighed and gave a smile that transformed his face into almost handsome. "I practically lived in the art galleries during my years in London."

Ruslan leaned down to scratch his leg, when Eshe looked at him he gave the tip of his finger a twirl then a small flick to the right.

She didn't understand exactly what he meant. Keep him talking probably, but was she supposed to start moving or-

Ruslan stuck his foot out quite far and adjusted his shoe. When he stood, he ended up a foot to the right.

Her mind whirled. She rubbed her forehead and used the cover of her arm to check on Joey's progress toward them. He was still a few hundred feet away, but closing steadily.

She said through clenched teeth, "I don't even want to think that I might have stood alongside you in The Tate admiring something truly beautiful."

"Oh, dear lady, I just prefer not to hide behind the mask of a smile and a kind word. It's too bad you can't sense the true nature of the people you've stood beside as clearly as my associate says you can read the ground."

Eshe ground her teeth, trying to find a comeback. She examined the serenely smiling man.

His nose had swollen up twice the size. He was sniffing periodically and wincing slightly every time.

She wanted to taunt him about it, but she had to keep Eiji's eyes and mind on her, and off Ruslan who was slowly making his way farther around to the other side of this madman.

She just hoped she'd be able to figure out whatever move Ruslan was planning in time to make use of the opportunity herself.

A long time ago, she'd seen on some TV show that if you told your hostage-taker information about you, made yourself a full person to them with lots of details, then they were more likely to let you go. It would at least keep the conversation going if nothing else.

"Well, let me tell you about the person you are currently holding-" She caught herself before she said 'hostage'. "Her name is Leora Rosa Moreno. She was named after her mother, Leora, and grandmother, Rosa. Leora is from Ecuador. She grew up in a small village in the Andean foothills near the capital city. Do you know what the capital city of Ecuador is?"

Eiji cocked his head to the side, interested. "No, what?"

Eshe shifted the hoverboard's weight in her arms and glanced up the alley. She licked her lips nervously. Joey was almost upon them.

"It's a city called Quito. Leora went to school there. Leora plays raquetball and ping pong. She's amazingly organised. Leora is very resourceful. She's the best assistant I've ever had. She loves to paint. Oil painting. Leora speaks fluent English, Spanish and Quichua. She can also speak basic French." Eshe paused her monologue to take a breath.

Everyone zeroed in on Leora when she inhaled sharply and moaned, turning her chin up and away from the knife Eiji pressed in.

He smiled down at her. "Say something in Spanish for me, pet."

Barely moving her mouth, she said, "Púdrete en el infierno."

Eshe gasped. Her body tensed up. Telling the man with a knife to your throat to go to Hell wasn't helping in the cause of getting him to let you go.

"Tsk, tsk," Eiji said. "I don't need to ask you to translate that to guess it's not a very nice thing to say. Your friend's reaction tells me everything I need to know."

Eshe tried to relax the grimace her face had set in.

Eiji moved the knife from Leora's throat to point it at Ruslan who froze, his foot at a slightly awkward angle with the toe pointed in and heel out where he was shuffling it along inch by inch.

"You would be best to stop moving, Russian bear. You won't be blindsiding me again," Eiji said.

The moment of distraction was all that Leora needed to lift her foot and slam it down on top of Eiji's with a loud grunt of effort.

He hissed in pain, but instead of letting her go, he cinched in the arm around her waist and bent her forward with him draped over her back, the knife pointed at the side of her neck.

Eiji spoke low and threateningly into her ear. "That was not a wise move, pet. I'm not averse to a little rough play, but only on my say-so."

He moved his knife hand to twine in her ponytail and jerk her back to standing. When upright, he pulled on her hair until her head tilted as far back as it would go. The angle forced Leora's mouth open, and her Adam's apple bobbed uncomfortably in her throat.

Leora gave a high keening wail. Her eyes wheeled around, searching for him.

He relaxed his hold slightly to raise his hand with the knife, still with her ponytail, above her face. He twisted it this way and that. Leora's eyes bugged out following it.

He laid his cheek almost lovingly alongside hers. "Oh my pet, how I would love to break you."

Eshe's eyes followed the point of the knife that swayed dangerously close to Leora's eyes without Eiji watching it. Leora pressed into Eiji's cheek, away from the knife.

Eiji almost purred in satisfaction. "Your fear is intoxicating."

"Please, let her go!" Eshe pleaded.

Joey arrived, panting slightly and wiping his forehead. "Man, I forgot how wicked this heat is. What's up, hombre?"

Eiji let Leora's ponytail go and stood upright, resting his arm on Leora's shoulder with the knife loosely at her throat. He looked down his nose at Joey with disdain. "I've told you many times I do not enjoy being called such familiar terms."

Joey raised his brows in confusion. "Uh, okay. Shall we go?"

"Yes. The taxi stand, like we discussed. To my-"

Eiji didn't have the time to finish where they were going.

He screamed in pain as Leora tilted her chin down slightly and bit into the side of his hand with all her might. Blood ran down from around where her teeth had punctured. She pushed against his arm that had her arms pinned to her sides.

Eiji's fingers splayed out, but he managed to keep enough of a grip on the knife that it didn't fall from the crook of his thumb and pointer finger.

He leaned down and bit hard on Leora's cheek.

She screamed and instantly let go of his hand. Blood dribbled down the sides of her mouth, making her look like some bizarre cosplayer crossing a unicorn with a vampire.

She slid her eyes as far to the left as possible to meet Eiji's steady gaze. Tears leaked from her eyes and she huffed and puffed in pain.

He tightened his teeth on her cheek.

"I'm sorry..." she managed to say.

He let go, and they all saw the deep, red impressions of his teeth in the apple of Leora's cheek.

"Oh, you will be." He licked the wound he'd left behind then sucked the whole area into his mouth.

Leora whimpered and closed her eyes. Her chin wobbled with fear and pain.

Eiji's hand shook slightly as he dragged the honed point around Leora's jawbone. "You have such spirit. I've never been as invigorated as I am right now. Breaking you would have been one of my greatest pleasures. It probably would have taken me years to get bored of you. But right now I don't have time for an untrained toy, because," he pulled back his lips into a slow smile and pinned Eshe with his eyes. "You are causing an unnecessary hindrance to the real prize. It's a shame your disposal will have to be sped up."

"No!" screamed Eshe as she watched, helpless, while Eiji stabbed Leora in one side of her abdomen then dragged the knife straight across. Eshe's blood ran cold as red blossomed out, soaking the light coloured fabric of Leora's clothes.

Leora grunted at the impact. Her mouth gaped open and her eyes rolled up in her head before she became boneless.

"Awwww, man!" Joey grumbled coldly. "Now how are we going to control them?"

Eiji hissed when her wilting body pressed on his injured hand. No able to hold her up, he allowed Leora to slither to the ground where she lay in a heap with a slowly spreading pool of blood beneath her.

Shock had the rest of them frozen in place, matching expressions of surprise and disbelief plastered on their faces.

Eshe stared down at the woman who had become so much more than an assistant to her.

Her eyes flicked first to Eiji, smiling happily at Leora's still body, and Joey, who had been playing them this whole time.

Bitter hatred filled her mouth, and burning anger surged up through her, making every nerve ending sing with adrenaline.

"She was my best friend!" Eshe shrieked suddenly.

All eyes swivelled to her.

In a smooth movement, she swung the hoverboard forward and cracked it across Eiji's head, which impacted with the wall behind him, hard. He sagged backwards, barely holding himself upright just by means of gravity and his out-thrust feet before his eyes rolled up and he slid down the wall to sit on the ground with a thump. His head lolled to the side. Eyes closed.

She continued the arc around to slam the light metal into the side of Joey's head. He spun around in a complete circle. His round eyes of surprise at her outburst became glassy. After standing unsteadily in place for a second, he sagged to the earth almost delicately.

Eshe stopped her swing, pulling in her outstretched arms. With a small crack, the hoverboard split in two. She looked at the board, breathing heavily.

With a cry of rage, she raised the halves over her head then threw them down violently on Joey's prone body. He twitched at the blow.

"You waste of space!" she screamed then ran over to collect the pieces of the hoverboard. Pivoting on a heel, she whipped them one by one at Eiji. The first glanced off his shoulder, but the second hit him straight in the gut. His unconscious body slid to the side to lay on the ground at the edge of Leora's blood.

A low keening wail began low and deep in Eshe's throat. She dropped to her knees beside her friend, oblivious to the blood soaking into her trouser legs. Gently she pushed Leora to her back.

Leora's shirt had pulled up, revealing the grisly wound Eiji had inflicted. Eshe sniffed back a sob and reached forward to twitch down the fabric. She stroked one hand down Leora's face to close her eyes.

Laying a hand on Leora's shoulder, she raised her eyes to glance between Ruslan and Masahiro. "We can't leave her."

His face wet with tears, Masahiro dropped beside her and hugged her awkwardly. "I send message to friend with great trust. He come and get her. Make sure she safe."

Masahiro pulled a phone from his pocket and began typing furiously.

Eshe nodded and gave a weak smile. "Thank you, Masa. You are a true friend."

He slowly pushed the phone into his pocket. "I not friend. You here because of my board." He picked up the half that had glanced off Eiji's shoulder and regarded it regretfully. "I be sorry you lose this. But Leora..." His voice cracked and he dropped the board, which clattered to the ground, so he could cover his face and cry quietly.

Eshe wrapped her arm around him and pulled him into her side. Her other hand on Leora's shoulder. "We'll wait here for your friend."

"We can't!" Ruslan exclaimed. "They're waking up!"

With moans of pain and hands to heads, Eiji and Joey were pulling themselves to sitting.

Eiji narrowed his eyes to slits with the promise of revenge.

Ruslan grabbed at Masahiro and Eshe's elbows to help them to stand. "Let's go!"

Eshe looked back over her shoulder to see Eiji gain his feet. Her heart skipped when she saw him draw back a foot and kick Leora's dead body.

WORD COUNT: 2596