Soul - The Shadow of Fear

Epilogue

I woke up at the edge of a lake. It was daytime, around 2:30 probably. My clothes were torn off and all wet because of a dive in the river. I tried to balance myself, reactivating my senses to observe my surroundings. But when I was done, I observed something which entirely blew up my mind. First, I was in Paris, which was already strange at the first place. Second, Paris did not look like Paris. It looked more like Manhattan, with high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. Third, Paris did not look like Paris because something was missing...The Eiffel Tower. Debris of the tower was lying on the ground, and most of it must've sunken in the river. Fourth, going there to observe something more was more dangerous, because I could hear police sirens and roars of an enraged crowd. I could not figure out whose name they were shouting (or I did not want to accept it), so I decided it was better to get away from the place.

But I was unable to walk even a bit. I had to struggle a lot even to take a single step. It was like my legs were broken, I felt like someone had stolen my rib-cage. I was all drenched, and was breathing heavily. Do all this observations point that I fell into the river from a considerable height?

I left that to be a mystery, surviving the situation is always my first priority. So I decided to move out of the place and look for a hiding spot (as I was unable to simply walk out). The streets looked the most secure passage. They were all dark due to the high buildings, and most of them were all cramped. I persuaded on my path slowly, before I saw something lying on the ground - A transparent box full of chalks. Most of them were white, while there were other colors too. Who would keep something like that here? It was obvious by looking that it was intentionally kept for someone to pick. Most probably for me, because I was going to take that. Strangely, the person who wanted me to take the chalk box, also wanted me to do something. There was a note inside the chalk box - "15 to front." Did it mean 'Move 15 steps in front'? Of course it did. I did as it said, and then scanned my surroundings again. As expected, there was one more gift for me lying on the ground - A Walkman with earphones. That was interesting, as it narrowed down the number of people who could be behind this surprise. I plugged in the earphones and listened for a moment. It just had a low sounded music; a tune which would've disturbed someone very easily, but it helped me to think. Who would be doing this all? There was still a possibility that it wasn't meant for me. Did the person knew that I would wake exactly here and also had the surety that no one would tamper with his or her setup?

Looking forward from the place I picked up my latest gift, I moved 15 steps ahead (since there was no other instruction and I knew that I was supposed to move). I was now able to hear the police sirens more clearly. Maybe they were coming towards me, trying to stop the chaos around the city. They could be here any moment, so I was supposed to look for a safe place really fast. There were a number of items for me, all belonging to my special interests. I found a black cloak to cover me (my clothes were half torn and my supposedly well-wisher probably knew that), a pocket knife, a pair of shoes, a coiled pipe, and a compass. It was someone who had been with me for a while. Someone who knows what I like and what I will pick up for sure. Let me tell you, there weren't much people like this.

I found a floppy also, with the title 'Not now'. Okay, I will watch it later. I can't watch it here after all. Now there was only one thing which I needed to live my life - a wristwatch. But the wristwatch which was kept for me was definitely special. More special than anything else I had picked. A very unique and modern wristwatch, with intricate designing over white color contrast. It also had a LED screen which was meant to show more than just time. Actually the whole watch was meant to do more than just to show time. But that was not what made it special. What made it special, was that it belonged to someone whom I knew personally, someone who had the power to destroy the world just with a clench of her fist...

The watch belonged to the daughter of the richest man on the Earth, to Elsa Lavelle Smith. Now there was 99.9 percent possibility that the person, who was behind this all, was Elsa herself. Where was she? Did she bring me all the way to Paris from India? What happened when I was asleep?