This is a scene
of Basil's first night out as a Harvestor, hanging with Drakar and Pam:
Half an hour past
ten p.m., knuckles rapped against his door. An obscure driver escorted
him to a limousine. Drakar would travel in style.
His joyful mood
waned the moment Pam rolled her eyes at him. “I knew it.”
Basil settled on
a seat. The driver pulled away from the curb. “What?”
Pam shook her
head in disapproval, much like his father used to. Remembering his
parents sobered his thoughts, quieted his mind. A few minutes ride
brought them to the highway. Hazard lights flashed in the near distance.
Two shadows loomed near the vehicle.
“Driver,” Drakar
called. “Pull over. Looks like those folks are in need.”
The driver nodded
and slowed. Tires bumped and rumbled onto the shoulder.
White teeth
flashed when Drakar smiled mischievously. “Forget the casino, Pam.
Lessons start now.”
The corners of
her lips dipped into a neon frown, pink lipstick bright and shiny. But
she held her pout in check.
A couple held
their hands up to their faces, blinded by the limo’s headlights. “Pam,
take the guy. You know the drill.” Drakar instructed. He turned to
Basil. “If memory serves me correct, overprotective mommy never let you
within a foot of a girl’s lips, so we’ll have to improvise.”
Basil chewed his
bottom lip, both embarrassed and angered by the truth of Drakar’s words.
Heat flooded his cheeks. The tips of ears even tingled.
“What
is it we’re doing here?” Basil grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl,
rubbing it against his jeans.
“Siphoning,” Pam
answered.
Basil stilled,
playing the word in his head again. They were in a limo. They had
more than enough fuel to get to Atlantic City and back ten times over. He
knew she had to mean something else but he didn’t want to risk sounding more
useless, pathetic.
Drakar snatched
the apple from Basil.
“This will do.”
His grin spread wider.
“Worked out well for Adam and Eve.”
As a kid, Basil
learned the story of the first woman and man and the forbidden fruit. And
it most certainly didn’t work out well. This shook his nerves even more,
but he stayed quiet.
Drakar called to
the driver. “Go find out what is wrong.”
Once the driver
left, Drakar placed the green apple in one hand and held his other palm a
hand’s breadth from the stem, chanting, “Receive to consume. Animo.”
He spoke the words several times until the skin shone brilliant, inviting
and very tempting.
Consume.
Animo. Basil remembered the second word was another way to say
soul. The gears in his mind reached a conclusion he tried to deny.
The real meaning of siphoning.
Drakar broke into
his train of thoughts, handing him the apple. “Give this to the woman.
It will absorb her soul energy, act as a container since you’re sorely
behind in social skills.”
Pam giggled
aloud. “What a waste. I’m ready, Master.”
Basil bit back
the comment that she was probably always ready, knowing it would only earn
another snide remark.
The driver tapped
the rear passenger side window and Basil opened the door. “They don’t
need much,” the driver said. Having a little trouble changing the tire in
the dark is all. I’ll help them, if that’s okay with you.” Drakar nodded.
The driver returned to the couple’s vehicle.
Pam shoved Basil
out onto the gravel. He stumble-shuffled but kept upright. She
stuck one leg then the other out of the door with the grace of a feline.
Her face glowed beneath the moonlight, beautiful without her pesky smirk.
She took Basil by
the elbow and swayed her hips seductively as they approached the couple.
Her performance wasn’t lost on the guy. Or the woman.
Pam whispered in
Basil’s ear, “Give your apple to the woman first. I’ll handle the rest.”
He wracked his
brain for a good reason anyone would accept a piece of fruit from a complete
stranger. He got nothing. Pam shot him a glance, noting his
silence, then took over. “Hope you two haven’t waited for help too long
out here.”
“A short while,
but it’s okay,” the woman responded, lacing her arm with her husband’s.
Moonlight glinted off their matching wedding bands. “People are
understandably leery. We’re thankful you stopped.”
Pam’s smile
curled into something malevolent. “Don’t thank us yet. Now!”
Basil slapped the
apple into the woman’s hand. She stood stock still. Her arms fell
to her side, fingers gripping the fruit tightly. Her eyes widened and
glossed over. At the same time, Pam reached up and jerked the man’s face
down. Her lips bound to his. He squawked in protest half a
heartbeat then loosened like Jello.
The woman’s face
paled, thin lips bared over clenched teeth. The apple’s shine was gone,
the job of tempter now fulfilled. When Basil pried her fingers from the
fruit, the last thing he expected was for her slender form to crumple to the
ground. The same happened when Pam withdrew her lips from the man.
Husband and wife laid side by side like heaped rag dolls.
A weighted shiver
rolled down Basil’s spine, though not from the night air. He took solace
in watching their chests rise and fall, in knowing he hadn’t taken a life.
The driver’s gasp and the clank of the tire iron pulled him from his
thoughts.
“Oh my God!
What have you people…” The driver couldn’t finish, try as he may.
Not when the odor of decay surrounded them.
