Lost Mind

seventeen

Malcolm closed the door behind him quietly and passed me, clearing out the living room. He walked back to me, nodding as he lowered the gun. The two bedroom doors were closed, everyone was asleep. Malcolm tucked the gun into the waistband of his pants and began to over turn pillows in the old sofa. I stepped into the kitchen, patting down cupboards. The Davison chap had given us orders to retrieve certain papers a married couple stole from him.

I doubted those important documents were Davison's to begin with, but I didn't care. We were sent to do a job to show our skills and that was all there was to it. I opened two cupboards, tracing my fingers lightly on the inside, feeling for anything out of place. I closed them silently. As I moved onto the stack of magazines near the microwave, I paused. I eyed the figurines that stood on top of the microwave in curiosity. There were four otters, all of them slightly lumpy. I squinted at the last figurine, a bright yellow snake. It was slightly bigger than the other figurines, turned away from the rest of the otters.

My eyes trailed back to the fridge. A lot of the ugly artwork contained lumpy brown things that resembled the figures of otters. I inched closer to the fridge, grabbing one of the pictures from under the magnet. Four otters were scribbled on the paper, each one labeled at the bottom. Dad, Mom, Jace, and Jackson the last one read. My eyes flickered back to the otter figurines sitting silently on top of the microwave. If there were only four people in the family, who was the snake?

"Are you done looking through the kitchen?" Malcolm whispered as he crept into the kitchen. I continued to stare at the artwork in my hand. Malcolm peered over my shoulder, sighing as he realized what it was. "Come off it, Leah. We have a job to do." He reminded me as he began to look through the magazine stack. I placed the paper back on the fridge.

The uneasy feeling didn't leave my stomach. "No, something isn't right about this." I muttered to my brother. He chuckled quietly as he shuffled through the booklets. "That artwork isn't right looking." He replied with another chuckle.

"No..." I trailed off as my eyes caught a hint of yellow on the fridge. I quickly marched over, lifting a small sticky note out of the way to see the whole drawing better. As the sticker came off, my stomach tightened. A squiggly yellow snake was drawn in between a stick figure of a man and woman. The woman was holding a red blob that I assumed was an apple. At the bottom there was a small sentence written in uneven handwriting.

The words were hard to read, to understand. Realizing the lack of school in my life didn't help me decipher the sentence, I frowned. "Malcolm," I whispered over my shoulder. My brother moved quietly to my side.

"What does that say?" I asked, gesturing to the paper. Malcolm gave me a pointed look, silently telling me it was a waste of time. Nonetheless, he loomed closer and began to read it aloud. "'The snake is the devil in disguise,'" Malcolm paused to frown at me. I tapped his arm in anticipation. "Go on will you?" I said through my teeth. My brother turned back to the drawing. "'Just like the evil man that visits Mom and Dad...' Leah why do you need this?" Malcolm snapped as he straightened.

My eyes moved back to the lumpy snake figurine. "Why would they want a snake on top of their microwave that represents the evil man?" I thought out loud. Malcolm shrugged. "Maybe the kid was talking about a random wanker he saw." He offered, uninterested. I shook my head as I took a step closer to the picture. "It said, 'the evil man that visits Mum and Dad', Malcolm. This kid knows this bloke personally." I said eagerly. Malcolm and I slowly turned to look at the snake figurine in unison.

I moved first. I snatched the small object from the microwave. It felt heavier than it seemed. The longer I held it, the more it seemed to slightly tremble. It was an ugly figurine, not made with much delicacy as one would expect. Malcolm stared intently at it, poking at it. The figurine shook a little more. My eyes widened, expecting something to shoot out from it. "Maybe it has a key—"