Soulstealer: A Novel ✔️

Ch.1: All Good Things...

Nythan Dwienz scrunched his eyebrows as he inspected his cadet uniform lying on the bed.He stood a Nythan stepped back, gazing at the creased dress shirt. He then looked down at four instruction books laying evenly spaced on the bed, all flipped open to pages of photos, diagrams, and highlighted paragraphs. Nythan picked up the one turned to a picture of a uniform and held it beside his own.

Nythan smiled. "Perfect match."

He jumped as a sharp crack resonated down the hall, and he stared through the open door.

Juuuuust ignore it, he thought.

His friend Pamela had left her house in his care for a few days while she visited her family in New England. When Pamela had showed him around the place, she told him that the county considered her 1910 residence historic. The high ceilings, wood paneling, and faded marble floors gave the place a stately feel. But the random sounds of the old house shifting on its pier and beam foundation made himparanoid about the walls coming down around him.

Nythan set the textbook down and neatly squared it against the rest. Returning his attention to his uniform, he used a pair of small scissors to trim frayed strands of thread from his shoes. A high-pitched creak echoed from the hallway, and he again turned toward the door. That noise didn't sound like the groaning of walls or the strain of the ceiling. A slow panic twisted Nythan's stomach into knots.

He shook himself and sighed. Iwish this house would just...stop. He strode over to the open door, gave it a forceful push closed, and pressed the lock button.Better safe than sorry.

Nythan finished going over his uniform, scanning up and down until he was sure that not even the tiniest blemish remained. He then scanned one of his highlighted books to confirm the measurements of his medals. As a cadet in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Central Florida, he spent a great deal of time preparing for all the knowledge tests and uniform inspections.

Nythan swelled with pride as he hung up the uniform on the closet door, snapping to rigid attention in front of it. "FLIGHT, TENCH-HUT! DRESS RIGHT, HESS!"

He relaxed, appraising the flat pockets and razor-sharp creases. "There's no way we're going to fail this time."

Nythan cast a worried look at the door, sighing before he grabbed the doorknob. He peeked through the crack as the door opened.

Stop being stupid, Nythan chastised.

He stole a glance down either side of the long, narrow, beige hallway for reassurance. One end led to the master bedroom. The other led to a dead-end wall with an open doorway leading to the dining room on the left and a single-step stair descending into the living room on the right.

Nythan stepped into the hall and closed the door behind him. He hustled inside the bathroom next to his room and closed that door too, only relaxing when he heard the snap of the lock button as he pushed it in with his thumb.

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