The Use of Knives - A Short Tutorial
by Fabio Fernandes

That´s how you will do it: the knife will penetrate two or three inches below the center of the chest. That´s where the diaphragm is. That is the softest point in the thoracic cavity: no bones there. Inside, it is just a sheet of muscle extending across the bottom of the ribcage. Outside, it offers no resistance to metal.

To knife someone in the chest isn´t something one does lightly, and I´m not talking morals here; I´m talking strength. Strength to stab, strength to pull the knife out. If you want a clean job, keeping fingerprints out of the knife is not enough. You must keep the knife out of the body you kill it with. That´s why you don´t ever want to let the blade get stuck in the sternum. Or in the ribcage.

This sort of thing happened all the time with bayonets, for instance. If you got the blade of your bayonet stuck in a man´s sides, you want to do it the right way, that is, below the ribs, in the flanks. Otherwise, the tip of the knife gets stuck in the dead man´s carcass and you have one of two choices: either you leave the weapon in the bones, run for your damn life and risk being court-martialed for desertion or cowardice in battle – they did that a lot in France and Germany in the First World War – or you try very hard to pull it out of the corpse before the countryman of the cadaver comes with a vengeance and he sticks the bayonet in your ribs. And the ball starts rolling again.

Did you get it? The knife will penetrate always – always – below the chest. On the diaphragm. The motherfucker will suffer; he won´t die instantly. He must not be allowed to do so. He will try to fight, but not for long; for the diaphragm is crucial for breathing. He will have the wind knocked out of him, but permanently, and he is going to get incapacitated. Then, if he still offers some resistance, you can finish the job easily, calmly. And in a clean fashion. Cleanliness is essential.

Did you understand everything I just said? Then go. And don´t come back without the head of that sonofabitch.

BIO: Fabio Fernandes is a writer living in São Paulo, Brazil. Also a journalist and translator, he is responsible for the Brazilian translations of several prominent SF novels including Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and A Clockwork Orange. He has published more than two dozen stories in fanzines and magazines in Brazil, Portugal, and Romania. He just finished his first SF novel, "Back in the USSR" novel. (In Portuguese). In English, he sold sold several microfictions to Thaumatrope and Outshine twitterzines, and flash fictions to Everyday Weirdness and The Nautilus Engine. He can also be found at his English-language blog, Post-Weird Thoughts, which he shares with Brazilian writer Jacques Barcia.