The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

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The white beast took a finger and gently stroked the neck of the sleeping soldier. The young man stirred somewhat, but he did not wake up. As he slept he thought he heard the faint voice of Deborah and she had shushed him. Why would she do that? He examined the sleep for he knew he was sleeping. He had never had greater clarity, but he heard her shushing him.

"You are beautiful....oh so beautiful." The voice of Deborah softly whispered. The voice was relaxing and he felt his body urging him to awake and greet the presence of this beautiful woman whose precious lips he had earlier caressed. He was now close to waking.

"Danny, Danny my love wake up so I may kiss you." he spoke soothingly; his lips were close and almost ready to meet the soldier's neck. The soldier stirred. He smacked his lips in anticipation and his body seemed to strain as if pulled by a marionette. His leaden eyes slowly opened. In the glass he stared at himself eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose. A cloud receded before him created by his own breathing. He did not move his head as he faced himself.

Now he did move. It was barely perceptible. And now a beautiful skeletal face was there behind his reflection in the glass. Black holes–perfect black holes were punched into the face; no they were not holes; he had seen them before–they were not holes–they were black sunglasses. Why would someone wear sunglasses  at night and on a dark bus? If they were not blind then there would be no good reason. He'd wondered that earlier this night and as the half world consciousness of waking up led him to total awareness he remembered the two pale men he'd seen at the bus terminal. The one that was the most frightening was seated next to him and staring intently into his eyes.

He said nothing, his voice subdued by the image. He turned resolutely prepared to confront whatever evil this specter represented. The glasses were gone and now two great yellow eyes that glowed in the darkness met his sight. They floated in his vision two dangerously alluring eyes that offered the most gratifying physical pleasure he could perceive.

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The pupils were like hot black diamonds that seared him with their energy and then led him into an unrelenting trance and entrapment. And now the face kissed him, drawing blood from his internal organs with feelers which the beast injected into its victims.

And at the same time he withdrew the blood other probing needle like protrusions injected a drug into him. A drug the monster produced in the laboratory of its being, a drug which destroyed its recipient's free will, for some a very long time, and made him a subservient creature and just such a being that the monster at that time required. And in the process of placing him into this mental state the drug also made it necessary that the pathetic being should now have to imbibe the blood of others to remain living the horrible life the monster had introduced them to.

And at last the beast released him. He fell back into the softness of the coat he had used as a pillow. His breath was gone. It was the kiss of wonderment, it was an epiphany for him. Like Saul on the road to Damascus the light of love blinded him. Was this the pale image of Jesus before him? Jesus come anew here to set him on the straight and narrow path? He was on a new path all right, but not a path of righteousness, but rather a path overflowing with the darkest blood. And he would follow this new god, albeit not voluntarily, until his destruction.

He wanted to embrace the pale man who gently smiled at him and burst his mind with those miserable eyes. He moved as if to pull this new love into his arms, but before he could do so the pale man took him into his own arms and held him close. He whispered to Daniel Meeker with Deborah's soft, sweet voice. "Danny, my Danny....will you love me always?" she asked him.

He looked up into the now once more shielded eyes of the pale man. "Always." he said to his own reflection, which stared back at him from the black sunglasses. In the seat behind him Clay Reese now fretted and plotted over this invasion, which his own beloved master had brought about. He was determined that he would not have to compete long with this new captive. He had now literally taken on Crumpler's mindset. And his fear mounted.