The Heart of the Sphinx

Chapter 2

London, thirteen days earlier.

All day I have been watching the man.

He has given me no indication that he is even slightly aware of me, although I have been present always at very close proximity to him but still he is unaware. Like every single day he has gathered at the bar with the poker tables and their elderly patrons of the evening who have been the regular customers for years. They are the retired men, drawing pension from this weird thing of people which they now called the government. It is the same thing like that of monarchy, only the names have changed.

They have been doing whatever bored old men usually do. Talk about old times, probably say that how their times were better than the ones they were currently in. Play a game of something which I could hear them calling the cards. It seemed a bit different from the games I had in my times but then I was not here to play games, was I? The road in which the bar was located had a back door where there was an alleyway. The men seemed to come out of that door and share something like long brown sticks and then smoked them, lighting them up with fire.

It had really been a long time since he had been in the actual game. I could see it in his eyes and in his expression. I could feel it in my bones that he was nothing more than a thief. But I could not do anything rash just because I had my suspicions on someone. Travelling now where at all moments there is a risk of being seen is a tedious task. Even the night times were not safe at all, there were so many things up in the sky except the stars. There were these strange metal carriages with wings which carried people in them. Humans, foolish humans, as we thought then, had come a long way since were mortal. I wish I could have spoken to someone now. But there was no one alive who would be able to understand the tongue in which I speak.

I still watched the old man, he looked a bit older and tired than the others. More obese, who drank like a sailor and even cursed like one. I did not know that in civilized societies such coarse language was even allowed to be spoken without cutting off their tongues. He had a thin wisp of white hair in the middle of his head and slight covering his around his baldness. He was wearing khaki pants and oxford shirt which was frayed at the ends. I was not aware if this was any kind of fashion statement, I had no idea if this was supposed to be worn by all the elderly men. Looking at this puny creature I had a sudden strange feeling that I could have him with just one s***h but I had to wait. I had to know if he was the one who had stolen all that I had been holding dear.

I was the one who had been entrusted with something which was so precious and that too for until the end of the time so that it would not fall in the hands of men because there were some things which were not made for the eyes of mortal beings. But I had failed in my mission…I had failed in protecting what I had been entrusted with. But there was one thing which I had in my side and these creatures did not.

And that was time.

He was now standing in the back alley smoking out puffs of white clouds from his mouth with the nonchalance of a street thug which he was clearly not. That was an attitude which strangely matched his pock marked and sun burned face and dark features of a gnarled man of a nation or as they call it country, rather than the lands of which they had been born off.

He might have been a good looking man in the past. I could see it in his features which had been now hidden under the ravishes of time after all these years. He was good looking enough to attract the whistles from two scantily clad women who leered at him walking past by. He smiled at them and they giggled with fake laughter. None of them could still see me but I could hear every single thing that they were saying.

“How about some fun with us, old boy?” asked one of the women. I could see the hunger and desperation in her eyes which had put her on the streets. This was one of the few professions which time could not erode. The clothes might have changed but every thing else remained the same.

None of them were afraid at all. After all why they should be? They were not facing any kind of danger, were they? Still I could smell a strange stink from all over one of the woman. I looked closely and peered in her eyes. Danger to her at this moment is a merely abstract concept, she had mouths to feed in a small shanty which was cold and probably even infested by roaches and rodents. I could see that it was out of love for her kids that she was standing here with such heavily painted eyes and lips in front of a man who would never be able to satisfy her in any way. Still when it came down hunger and keeping a roof over the heads of your children a mother could do anything.

I did not know that, I had never felt any of those emotions. But I could see it, I could smell it. And I wanted to slam them against the wall in disdain. But they were not my prey. The man was.

They walked together with this man and went to the place which I knew to be the residence of the man. I knew that they would probably be in there for about an hour before the women would come out with their currency. The meagre amounts which they earned by selling off their bodies. I wanted to know what this man was really made of but I had not yet the chance to see him put in test. The entire place was covered with things which they called alarm system nowadays and it was nothing more than a child’s play to get these things deactivated without even the slightest hint of noise.

I could see the man grunting as the women fake moaned and kissed him. It was a grotesque sight but nevertheless I knew that somewhere inside the four houses of these bastards my treasure was hidden.

After quite an amount of ticking of the thing that they called the clock had passed the women picked up their clothes and went out of the room blowing kisses towards the old man. I still lingered a bit longer on the ledge waiting to see what he did before I made my strike. But one thing was certain, he was not going to see the sun rise tomorrow dawn.

With a few swipes on that strange device which I heard and came to now as the alarm system it went off. My feet did not make any sound at all as I went inside and found that man sitting in his library looking at a golden urn. Every single strand of hair on my body stood up in rage. He was the thief. At the least one of them. It was the urn which contained the thing which had been searched by many all across the centuries just for the sake of keeping it in their own personal museum never coming to know the real value of what was actually inside. Because no one could open the urn without breaking it…and the moment any unworthy broke the urn it would lead to the coming out of a swarm so dangerous that the Black Plague would seem petty before it.

“You are not worthy to touch that thing,” I said as I was still lurking in the shadows. I did not dare to come into light before I finished the conversation because it was very possible with the condition of his heart he might die within moments of seeing me.

“Who is there?” shouted the old man. Fear and shock etched in his voice.

“Someone who has come to take back what is mine,” I said again, hoping he would understand what I was meaning to say. But men have been always a dumb creature, mere mortals….lost in their battle with age.

“Get the f**k out of my house before I call the police,” shouted the man again.

“Well you can certainly try, but by the time they would be here you would not be here to say anything to him anymore,” said I as I came into light.

The shriek that came out of his throat along with the scream could curdle anyone’s blood. But not mine.

“What are you? Whhh….aaatt….” he started stuttering as the receiver of the device called telephone dropped from his hand.

“You know who I am Bertie. You know what I am. You know fully well what I can do, you know the curse that lingers on your threshold and looms over your head. You have been the most scared. Haven’t you? That is why you never had a family of your own??? Come on Bertie…you have always known that this day would come, haven’t you?” I asked as I smiled at him but I had no idea what it seemed in his eyes.

“Why now? Why me?” asked the man as he dropped on the chair he was sitting on a few moments ago.

“Oh come now dear….you always knew that this day would come…you knew that I would come to collect back what is mine…you have taken something which should have never come in the fore-front of the mortal eyes. But you could not part away from this, could you? A piece of immortal knowledge in your hands even though you have no idea how to use it…but fear not…you will be relieved of this burden pretty soon,” I said as I unfurled my full body. After that a single swipe was more than enough to finish off that sorry excuse of man.

I clutched the urn in between my hands.

I could feel that they were feeling it as well that were home. I could feel it coming alive, as they were back home.