As Black as Ebony by Salla Simukka Read Free Book Online

would open. All her senses and thoughts had to be harnessed to this.
    Lumikki heard footsteps approaching. She could tell from their rhythm it was the person she was waiting for. She hated him so much that her rage nearly blinded her with a jagged haze of red across her vision. Her captor, her oppressor, who had killed the only person Lumikki could imagine loving. Lumikki hated him so much she was ready to kill.
    The steps paused at the door. The key turned excruciatingly slowly in the lock. Lumikki squeezed the comb in her hand. As the prince walked in, the opening door concealed Lumikki. The prince looked around at the empty tower room, confused. Lumikki kicked the door shut and attacked the prince. With a single, violent thrust, she plunged the sharp teeth of the comb into the prince’s neck. The prince fell, holding his throat.
    Blood. Red and warm. The elixir of life pulsing out of the prince with every heartbeat, every leaking drop moving him closer to death.
    “Help,” the prince beseeched Lumikki as he died.
    “Never.”
    Lumikki stood in the prince’s blood and watched as the life began to disappear from his face. She didn’t hurry. She enjoyed the moment. Die, my tormentor. You wanted to lull me into an eternal sleep and close me back up in a glass coffin. You wanted to look at me as if I were nothing more than a beautiful, silent decoration. Not a living person with thoughts and feelings and desires. Difficult to control. My own independent being who doesn’t always do exactly what you want.
    “Good, good. Very good. Lumikki, keep that.”
    Excitedly, Tinka jumped onto the stage and put her hand on Lumikki’s arm. Lumikki recoiled. She realized how hard she was breathing. Her hands were shaking and she was almost surprised to find they weren’t bloody. She had felt the warm, sticky blood on them. Sticky like strawberry jam. Once again, Lumikki had been somewhere else, so deep in her role that everything had actually been happening to her.
    “Is that really believable that she just stands there watching me die? Shouldn’t she run away or something?” Aleksi asked, rubbing his neck.
    “This is an important climax. Snow White’s revenge. Of course she has to stop and watch for a few seconds. The audience has to stop. And this isn’t supposed to be realistic.”
    Tinka sounded irritated again, as she did so often when she spoke to Aleksi.
    “Okay, okay. You’re the director. It’s your vision,” Aleksi replied.
    Then he leaned over to Lumikki.
    “Could you go a little easier with the comb next time? You scratched me pretty bad.”
    Aleksi showed the red marks on his neck.
    “Yeah, sorry.”
    What Lumikki couldn’t say was how surprised she was that Aleksi’s neck wasn’t spurting real blood. She didn’t have any memory of a moment when she could have stopped her attack.
    “That’s a wrap for tonight,” Tinka said and clapped her hands.
    Everybody started collecting their things. Sampsa came over to Lumikki and put his arm around her.
    “Tonight I’m going to stay over at your place and we can play Snow White and the Huntsman,” he whispered into Lumikki’s ear.
    “The Huntsman dies,” Lumikki said with a snort. “I’m not sure I’m really into the necrophilia thing.”
    “I might rise from the dead with the right encouragement.”
    Watching their whispering, Tinka’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
    “Let’s go before we have to get those two a room.”
    Aleksi laughed. Lumikki couldn’t quite put a finger on Tinka’s tone of voice. Maybe there was a little jealousy in it, but was there something else? Something darker? A hard edge under the sarcasm?
    In the front lobby, a strange sight awaited them.
    Red rose petals had been scattered all over the floor.
    “Okay, who’s the funny man?” Tinka asked the others.
    Everyone just looked at each other and shrugged.
    “Nobody else should be here but us,” Sampsa pointed out.
    “Hello? Anybody here?” Tinka yelled