The Soul Devourer

VI:

A figure with his face in shadow advanced towards me, making me stumble back. My back hit the wall as the man drew a shining blade and pressed it against my skin. Smiling, he slashed my throat.

I woke up grasping my throat, my breathing shallow. I sat up, switching on my bedside lamp, absurdly fearing the darkness in my room. I checked my phone and saw that it was two hours before dawn.

I fell back on the bed, recent events flashing through my mind. Recently, I had started having nightmares in which I always ended up dead. Considering my situation, I didn't know if it was foreshadowing or something else entirely.

According to Xavier, Python was a strong, ruthless organization who were discreet in their "missions". If they were coming after me, they truly believed I possessed the weapon they wanted. Then there was Natasha, who had also hinted at the weapon being in my possession. The closest thing to a weapon I had was a pocketknife that I kept in my bedside table but that was it. Maybe, someone in family had it, some very technologically advanced gun that Python wanted but I couldn't conjure up the image of anyone having it. Knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep again, I kicked off the blankets and opened my bedroom door. The hallway was dark and eerily silent. I switched on the flashlight on my phone and trudged towards the study room. I shut the door behind me and switched on the lights. The room was a small one, with a mahogany desk and shelves lining the walls. There were also cabinets along the back wall for holding any spare things. I had never properly gone through them, and it was the only place I could think of a weapon being hidden. The cabinets had locks but a key chain with multiple keys hung from one of the rusted locks. I twisted it, and opened the cabinet.

Coats and sweaters hung on the steel rod, and more winter clothes were stuffed into bags. Smaller bags lined the bottom, filled with trinkets and souvenirs from around the world. Old appliances in damaged boxes were competing for space. I opened another cabinet, and found rows and rows of old files; some containing old bills, some insurance papers and other important work papers for Dad. Another cabinet contained more books and a smaller one housed tools like screw drivers, hammer, bolts etc.

Sweat trickled down the nape of my neck and I stretched, my back sore from all the bending. I moved towards the shelves on the wall, but nothing out of the ordinary caught my eye. I was about to move out, when I caught a flash of something in the corner of my eye. Nestled between two blue pottery vases was a folded paper, turned yellow with age. I scooped it up and flicked it open. It contained no words, only a small drawing in the center. A prism was made, with small spherical crystals orbiting around it. I turned the page over but found nothing more. Frowning, I pocketed it. Maybe my brother, Sam, had made it. Still, why would he have placed it there?

As I walked back into the room, I realized that I had been in the room for hours, and now it was well after dawn. My father and brother weren't awake yet, so I walked back to my room and sat on the edge of my bed.

How could I stop Python from coming after me again? I didn't have a weapon, but what if they didn't care about it anyways and Xavier was wrong and they killed me and harmed my loved ones,anyways? They had targeted solely me for now but who knew how their minds worked? They always seemed to know where I was. So did Xavier.

A realization struck me, almost left me gasping for breath. Xavier was always there. A moment after I was attacked, but the moment before I could be hurt badly. He said he had been stalking Python and came to know I was their target, and that's how he knew where I was but what if he was stalking me too? What if he and Natasha were after this weapon too? They would want me alive if they needed to know where the weapon is, wouldn't they? And even better to coax it out of me after winning my trust. Was that why both of them were so fearful of telling me the truth, providing me with answers? If so, why did Python want me dead if they wanted to know where the weapon is, and believed I had that knowledge? Or maybe they knew where it was and believed they had to kill me to get to it?