much more here, Gerald. If you don’t mind, I am going to head back into town. Let me know what the medical examiner finds when he does the autopsies, and when you get a chance, send me a copy of those security tapes.”
“Sure thing...Hey Mitch, when are you going to go fishing with me and the boys?”
“What about next week?” Mitchell replied.
“You got it. Lake Norman?”
“Fine. I’ll tell Kathy.”
Mitchell hugged his friend and briskly walked back to the Jaguar. He paused briefly to allow his vision to examine the three bodies as they were being loaded into the ambulances. He visually scoured each of the forms carefully. As closely as he could determine, none of the bodies had residual soul material. Other than the dull, gray, misty traces of life force that clung to the corpses, he could see nothing. Somehow, the soul material of these three people had been stolen. A force that could do that was nothing to ignore. Mitchell knew that he would need to do a much closer investigation of this matter under more appropriate circumstances.
Chapter Five
The Hut
Salva didn’t know what to make of the old man. He had not spoken a single word to the two girls in days. He provided food for them. It was simple fare by any measure—cooked meat with bread and wild potatoes—but considering their options, he was going far beyond any measure of civility that they had expected. He gave them a sleeping space and provided them with warm blankets and a large burlap sack filled with straw to use as a pillow. In a word, he had made them comfortable. The unsettling question that remained was, why?
The girls did not leave the grounds surrounding the hut for weeks. They slept, ate, and assigned themselves simple chores around the hut to pass the time. Salva dusted, swept, and cleaned the floors, cupboards, and doors as often as she could. Melvina spotted a large pile of unwashed clothing on the floor near the back of the hut and she busied herself with the task of sorting and washing them by hand. She found a wooden basin and managed to convince the old man that she needed to fill it with water. She opened the door with the basin in hand and walked outside. The dogs parted silently as the old man stood closely behind her and motioned for them to part. The two walked silently down a long wooded path that ended in a clearing.
Melvina could not identify the trees that lined the path. They were tall and broad, with large, dark trunks that bore unusual whorled patterns in their bark. The patterns seemed to form the vague outline of human faces, but Melvina decided that it was an illusion—simply a trick of the light.
The old man walked silently beside her, saying nothing. After a while, they came to the end of the clearing. Melvina saw a small creek flowing along a wide and crooked path that arched through the trees and disappeared beyond the field past the clearing. The water was clear and moved quickly along its path. Curiously, she did not hear the water as it moved. She stopped, looked at the old man, and saw that he had made himself comfortable on a nearby boulder. He was looking up at the sun, eyes wide open, without the least bit of discomfort. Melvina watched the old man for a moment as he sat cross-legged, entranced in a silent dance with the energy of the sun. She had never seen anyone look at the sun in that way.
As she watched him, she saw his diminutive figure begin to glow with a reddish-golden light. The energy from the sun seemed to envelop his form and, within a few moments, she could no longer distinguish the man from the glow of energy that surrounded him. Melvina could feel the energy emanating from his form. At first, she was uncomfortable with what she was seeing. The energy, however, was another matter entirely.
The reddish-golden light enveloped her as she watched the old man. She did not know how, but she felt as though she were somehow being recharged with energy by the act. Broad rivulets of energy began to course through her system. The energy began its path through her body by entering her toes. The sensation was not unlike that of a warm stream of water, but somehow it was stronger, much stronger. The current moved into her legs and gained momentum as it traveled through her body. When the energy reached her pelvis, she gasped aloud. The sensation was indescribably wonderful. She had never felt such pleasure before. In her brief time on earth, she had not had the pleasure of being with a man in the proper way. She had seen her parents’ bulls mating with the cows and once she had spotted a soldier with a young girl in the fields just beyond their home. For a moment, she recalled the incident in the arena that had led to her death. Somehow, the power of the energy that emanated from the old man seemed to wash the stain of that painful time away.
Melvina dropped the basin and fell to the ground as the power began to rise to new crescendos of intensity. She closed her eyes and allowed the energy to take her. The power coursed through her pelvis and gathered strength as it roared toward her chest and stomach area. She now no longer felt the need to move or breathe. The force of the energy seemed to take over her will. Her chest expanded and filled to accommodate the force of the power being shoveled into her being. She tried to look over at the old man’s form, but she could only see the reddish glow that filled the space where he once sat.
She closed her eyes once again and tried to make sense of the power that coursed through every fiber of her being. After a few moments, the energy made its way to her head. Blinding flashes of blissful pain entered her skull as the energy was now moving with a speed that she did not think possible. It seemed to be attempting to communicate with her. In her mind, she saw dozens of images move past her vision in rapid succession. She could not make out any of the visions individually, but she could sense that somehow they were imparting some knowledge to her that she would come to understand. Each image lasted only fractions of a second, but one image purposefully tore itself away from the stream and leaped from her mind.
She saw a ball of light floating in front of her. Within the ball, she saw the image of the old man, floating, smiling, and pointing to a flat moving image that glowed within the ball. Melvina focused intently upon the image. She saw a succession of people involved in what could only be described as mating. She saw people, young men and women mostly, of many races and cultures. Some of the women seemed to be in ecstasy, others were barely conscious of their surroundings. Each of them, in turn, looked at her, smiled, and pointed toward her with a single finger. The image lasted for perhaps a few minutes, flickered brightly, and slowly faded in the glow of the ball.
Suddenly, the intense force of the energy that erupted from the old man faded. Melvina felt paralyzed by the experience. She slowly opened her eyes and attempted to move her body. She wiggled her fingers and toes and attempted to stand. Her breath came in short gasps and her heart was racing. She managed to get to her feet after several furtive attempts. She looked around and saw the old man sitting on the boulder. His eyes were now closed and his form was no longer emblazoned with the reddish glow that she had seen earlier. The old man said nothing as he looked at her very intensely.
He slowly rose from his meditative position, walked toward Melvina, picked up the basin, and placed it in her hands. He then motioned for her to go to the stream.
Melvina quickly walked to the stream, filled the basin with water, and rose to return to the boulder. As she turned with the basin, she saw that the old man had already begun to walk back toward the treelined path. She also saw that two of the dogs now trotted quietly alongside him as he walked.
Melvina picked up her pace in order to catch up with the old man and the dogs. In a few moments, she caught up with them. She knew that the old man was not a normal person. She had never seen or experienced anything like what she had just gone through earlier. She wanted answers.
“Who are you? What do you want from us?”
The old man did not answer. He did not slow his pace. He did not look in her direction. He made no indication at all that he had heard her question.
“Did you hear me?” Melvina demanded, raising her voice slightly.
Again, the old man said nothing; he maintained his pace, did not look toward her, and continued to make no indication that he had heard her.
Melvina grew impatient and decided to get his attention in the only way that she knew how. She placed the basin upon the ground,