Bang On

HEAT

Chapter 2 - Part 2

Fill is sitting on the dock Matlacha.

It is dusk, the sun has gone down, the full moon is providing enough light that one could actually kayak or boat.

Phil is looking towards, what would be in daylight, a large dead tree standing in the middle of the mangrove. If Fill's hearing was just a bit better he would be able to hear the scream's from a throat whose vocal chords were about to give out.

The screams were coming from the hulk of an old boat blown into the mangrove during one of the tropical storms that hit this area from time to time.

The boat is Lou's home and he had just harvested a soul - a soul of a derelict -  a wanderer - someone who will be missed a few months from now when someone asks, 'whatever happened to old so and so - he just seemed to disappear'. How right they were.

Lou blew the molecular remnants of old Margueritte's body into the wind, knowing her soul was waiting for the ultimate torment - the raking - which he would get to soon enough.

Over the centuries Lou had held many influential and history defining roles but he finally figured out that the derelict was the best role of all.  Everybody saw you, yet they didn't - it was like hiding in plain sight. It had the added bonus of being able to harvest the odd one for soul raking - and no questions were ever asked.

In the past, to do that, he had to start wars of conquest or religion to hide the soul raking - this was just more economical. 

Lou leaned his head back and laughed - animals and birds nearby cowered - fish jetted away in every direction - those too close just exploded in a flash of blood and gore.

Lou had not been in Matlacha proper for a while - Margueritte had been here with him for almost a month - he had finally tired of her nonsense about the stars - which were his prison - if she had only known - that's the only meaning it had - his prison.

Lou didn't know yet where his soul was but he knew it was still here in the area - he had another nose bleed today - and considering Lou had no blood, that indeed was a big deal.

Lou began to think back to happier times - if happy can be used in his context - remembering his time in another part of the world as a man history knew as Genghis Khan - yes, how the blood flowed across the steppes - but then he grew quiet as he remembered ...