The world of knife collecting had always been one of comfort and interest for Noah Karambit. Ever since he had been old enough to carry a knife safely he’d search for them. He’d beg parents, family, friends, anyone to give him a knife up until he was eighteen and could buy them himself.
One day in a pawn shop, he found a knife unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was a modified balisong with attachments within it like that of a Swiss army knife. Every part of steel was treated matte black; it had the design of a scorpion imprinted on the metal, with the tools being the legs. When folded out the blade, which forked near the base, appeared as two large claws. From the posterior of the supposed scorpion was a small chain, with a clip fashioned as the stinger. The most magnificent part of it though, were the eyes.
Each bolt used to hold the blade to the handles was a deep red in color, and behind these on either side were sets of smaller bolts in the same deep red. Picking it up, Noah felt a deep sense of wonder. Noah, however, did not just collect knives to collect them, but to carve with them. And he thought, what better to carve with this knife if not a scorpion? So he made a drawing of it for reference, and to make it more interesting, he decided to add a body to its stinger. Then he went off, slowly chipping away, slowly, at every piece of wood, and slowly he began to atrophy.
First, his face looked a little too thin. Then his ribs began to show. He was reached out to by many, but no one could reach him. He began to develop osteoporosis, not that anyone knew. He was too busy with his project to care or answer the phone. Finally, he was done, but he could not enjoy it. Lifting his head up as he finished, he collapsed.
When investigators searched the crime scene days later, they discovered the skeletal figure on the scorpions tail had been an exact likeness to Noah. Just a few miles down the road, at that same pawn shop, a new knife enthusiast was admiring the scorpion’s beauty, and the pawnbroker smiled, giving his next victim a hit of toxin as he walked away.
