The Beginning

Alex sat in a cold and damp alleyway with a small knife held in his shaking hands. His eyes were glued to a specific door in the building across the street as he waited for his target to arrive.

'Why did this have to happen as soon as i joined...? If they had made this decision a week ago i would never have had to come to this shitty gang in the first place!' Alex thought with frustration.

'I've been waiting here for an hour already... where is he?' Alex thought as he inched out of the alleyway. He stepped out into the street as the light from a seemingly endless stack of buildings around him illuminated the area in a dim glow.

He hid the knife under his jacket and looked down the street to his left, seeing nothing but an empty dirt road. He veered his head to the right and felt his heart suddenly jump.

He dived back into the alleyway as quick as he could, his breathing becoming as rapid as his heartbeat. There, walking down the street on the right, was the man Alex had been waiting for.

The man, who's name was Oscar according to the gang, was holding onto his ribs tightly with his right arm as his left dangled loosely beside him. Although Oscar seemed to be struggling, he was clearly in a rush as he moved as quickly as he could given his seemingly injured state.

Alex wasn't entirely sure this was his target at first but those suspicions quickly disappeared as he saw the man enter the building through the door he had been watching all this time, his uncertainty being replaced with anxiety as he realized what he now had to do.

'Shit... shit, shit, shit!' Alex shouted internally as he tried to calm his anxious heart. 'He looked injured, that's a good thing... if he's injured then it will be easier, right?'

Alex took three deep breaths and forced himself to move. He circled around to the back of the building through a side street and walked up to a specific window he was told about beforehand.

He cautiously peered through the window, his entire body shaking with fear and anxiety. The window connected to the living room of this small apartment, with the front door leading into the kitchen on the other side of the room.

There was only a single three seat couch in the living room and countless empty alcohol bottles strewn about on the floor and couch alike. The kitchen, though small, was about what you would expect it to look like apart from the occasional bottle on the counter top.

There was a hallway leading off to the side between the living room and kitchen, presumably to the bedroom/s and bathroom. There was a dim glow coming from the passage that generated just enough light for Alex to make out these details as well as confirm that there was nobody in the living room and kitchen.

He peered down at the latch meant to keep the window closed and saw it had been broken, just as he was told it would be. Alex placed his shaky fingers under the window and slowly slid it up while trying to stay quiet.

Once the window was open, Alex slowly tried to climb through it into the apartment. Alex was an average height of 1.83 meters tall ( 6ft ) but he had virtually no muscle on his body. His lack of physically strength, coupled with his constant shaking, caused Alex to slip and tumble through the window with a loud crash as he slammed into the only couch in the room and sent bottles clanging into each other all around him.

Alex quickly stood up, his anxiety reaching an all time high as he heard thumping footsteps approaching from the hallway. In less than ten seconds after entering the apartment, Alex was faced with the worst case scenario.

Oscar turned around the corner of the passage and into the living room, instantly spotting Alex in the low light. Alex noticed the bandages wrapped around Oscars shirtless body, confirming his suspicions about him being injured.

However that was the least of his concerns now as something terrifying was drawing Alex's attention instead. When Oscar rounded the corner and spotted Alex, their eyes met and he felt as though his soul was leaving his body as the blood drained from his face.

Alex stared into Oscars blue eyes from across the room, a glow was emanating from behind his pupils and shining through the darkness with intense clarity.

'You've got to be kidding... it cant be... Why did they send me to kill someone with an ability!?' Alex thought with an indignant tone as he recognized the glow in Oscars eyes as something all ability users have.

"Who the fuck are you and why are you in my house!?" Shouted Oscar with a pained but still strong sounded voice. Alex wasn't able to answer, his body had essentially gone into shock as he stood there too stunned to speak.

Oscars eyes shifted down and immediately shot back up with an intense glare as he noticed the knife in Alex's hand. Alex noticed this change in expression and moved at the exact same moment Oscar did.

Oscar stuck his hand out towards the kitchen like he was trying to grab something and then swung his hand towards the living room. Alex was already diving behind the side of the couch when multiple knives came flying at him from the kitchen.

The majority of the knives slammed into the couch, embedding themselves into its weak wooden frame. However, two of the knives managed to reach Alex before he was able to find cover behind the couch.

One of the knives sliced into Alex's side near the bottom of his rib cage, sending a searing pain throughout his torso. There was no way of knowing how bad the cut was without looking at it, which was something Alex couldn't do right now.

The second knife managed to hit Alex dead on, embedding itself into his left thigh. Alex landed beside the couch, taking cover behind its armchair as he felt the pain from his two wounds spreading throughout his body.

He felt blood dripping down his side from the cut on his ribs but his attention was focused on something else. The entire blade of the Knife had gone into Alex's leg, leaving only the handle exposed.

'Fuck! Ah, it hurts so much!' Alex shouted internally as he gripped the handle of the knife and started to pull it out. The pain intensified as the blade sliced more of his leg on its exit. Blood began pouring out of Alex's leg at an incredible speed, making him realize how serious this really was.

'Am I really about to die... is this guy about to kill me? This isn't how things were supposed to go... I have to help my family, its the whole reason I'm doing this. Without me bringing in some money to help them... No! I won't let it end like this... my family needs my help and I refuse to die before they get it!' Alex shouted in his head as he forced himself to move through the pain.

He firmly gripped his knife while standing up from behind his cover and raised his arm in the air, ready to throw. As Oscars body came into view, Alex could see he was reaching towards the kitchen yet again.

Not wanting another volley of knives to come his way, Alex threw his knife with all his might, doing everything he could to make sure the throw was accurate. The knife flew through the air with perfect accuracy, something Alex would likely never manage to do a second time, and flew towards Oscars head.

Alex had never thrown a knife before in his life, which became evident when the back of the knife hit Oscar in the eye instead of the blade. Still, the force of the blow was enough to injure Oscar, even if only slightly, and cause him to stumble backwards.

Alex took this as his opportunity to escape and dived through the window, landing with a thump and quickly getting up to run away as fast as possible. He weaved in and out of alleyways, ran down several streets and took turns at random.

If Alex didn't know where he was going then neither would Oscar... that was the logic behind his actions. After several minutes of running, Alex's vision started to blur and his movements became sluggish.

He knew it was the blood seeping out of his leg that was the cause but he couldn't stop now. If he got caught because he stopped then he would surely be killed. Another minute of slow jogging went by as Alex's condition continued to worsen.

All of a sudden, some kind of words appeared in front of Alex's eyes, hovering in place as he moved.

'Great... now I'm hallucinating. I guess its... prob..abl...y time to..st...' Alex's thought trailed off as he collapsed. his vision continued to darken until he finally passed out. The last thing he saw before falling unconscious was one of the words floating in front of him.

[Devour]