The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

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They all crowded back into the room. They could see the dark clothes in a corner of the room where the pale man shed them to mold his body into that of the asexual canine in order to impress upon his newest captive the awesome nature of his prowess. He turned to his followers once he reached the center of the room. He looked ghastly and fearsome there in the dim light, which managed to penetrate the dark interior of the place. His eyes glowed in the ether as he addressed them.

"I shall not tolerate another transgression." Then he looked angrily at Maxwell Lewis as if he was somehow responsible for the machinations of Crumpler and Reese. He then made an aside to Reese who seemed now overly anxious to please him. "Guard this one closely for he may well have to be our repast–our dinner if we must." he said with chilling promise. Max almost collapsed with these words as to his possible destiny. He tried to orient himself in relation to the door. Why hadn't he run when he had the chance? He cursed himself for such stupidity.

Clay Reese began to watch him more closely now and when he made the slightest inclination toward the door the extraordinarily powerful young man positioned his body in a way to prevent any such escape attempts.

Maxwell was shocked by it all. He had at least thirty pounds on the kid and yet he was able to push him about effortlessly, as if he was a mere child. And it was the same with the vile Crumpler though he had at least twenty years of youth to mount against him. How was it possible? He was sure that in another situation he could have easily subdued the two of them.

Somehow the strange pale man had transformed them into some enhanced physical version of humanity. That must be it because, he could think of nothing else as the answer to the puzzle. But in order to achieve this status they had to have suffered some kind of terrible spell. Would he prefer becoming thus than the fate suggested by the pale man. "Our dinner if we must." That is what the beast had said. Did that mean what he thought it meant? Did that mean feed upon him? It was bullshit...it had to be! 

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If he did have the aforementioned option and indeed chose to be the pale man's slave as these two were would his dark skin turn the color of theirs? He would be wretched looking. He remembered once while in Georgia seeing two Negroes that were albinos. He had gone into a Krystal's to get some hamburgers on that long trip and they were standing there gabbing away. He had never see any Negroes that were so afflicted and the sight of them so repulsed him that he had to leave without getting the burgers. He vomited the scene had so nauseated him. Their eyes had looked like something from a horror movie. He was sure that would be the result if he suffered such a spell. He would opt for death if that were to be his choice. But escape was his plan, escape should he have any more opportunities to flee from their custody. 

 He cowered in the corner as they slept the remaining hours of the day away. Reese even slept some. But it afforded him no opportunity to escape because Reese remained cautious even in his slumber. Whenever Maxwell took a notion to seek the door he would open his eyes and they would assure him each time that he would die sooner than later should he try to flee.

His frustration mounted and soon he was weary from the duel and gradually it drained his strength as the sun did to these strangers. He wished that somehow he could devise a way to drag them into the daylight where the solar rays could strike them intensely sapping their power enough that he could escape. But he could see that night was approaching and such possibility would never present itself. At last this frustration drove him to sleep also. And so they slept on until the next morning.

When they awoke the pale man was still in a bad mood. The sun was very bright. This was obviously something the pale man did not welcome considering his reaction whenever he had occasion to be in the bright sunlight. The weather seemed to make the beast even angrier and as if to verify that fact he restricted everyone there for the day as he sat silent and contemplative. Was he trying to devise a plan of escape? He spoke to no one and no one to him. If he was he never as divulged it.