For the next hour, Harmon slipped in and out of consciousness, dreaming the same dream. He and Papa had discovered the mine, and it was the old man who wanted to explore. Harmon pleaded with him not to, but Papa blasted his way in with the shotgun, clearing an opening just large enough to peer inside. Papa waved him back as he knelt to see, and Harmon stood screaming when an enormous claw stabbed through the opening and ripped out his father’s throat.
He stirred. Felt groggy. A song he didn’t know crackled on the radio. The pain had ebbed, but he felt a dull throb where his eye used to be. He wondered where it was. The Dark had gouged it free before the acid had cauterized the wound. The smell of his burning flesh lingered.
The world seemed flat with one eye. A lifeless painting. He could not turn his head; still he was bound by that invisible force. He saw but half of the cramped room, but he saw enough. He still held the stick. Dark, dry blood caked it. A good inch or so along the shaft.
The crackling song ended and wove into another.
Welcome back.
Harmon barely managed to speak. “… Finish it.”
Patience and pain, the Dark told him. You’ll learn both. I promise.
Harmon’s left arm slapped to the table. The Dark flipped his hand on its back and spread his fingers to the point of agony. All he could do was watch in horror as his right arm brought the tip of the branch above his palm.
A single drop—that foul sap—bled from it. It tore into him with acid fangs. The rancid stench of his sizzling skin hung in the air as his flesh bubbled and burst like a fattened spore. Another drop fell, penetrating the wound with a ferocious appetite. It burned through vessel and fiber, consumed muscle and bone, and by the time the screaming ended, Harmon could only gape at the small cavity mined in the center of his palm.
His right arm rose. He followed the rising stick with an expression of terror only a single eye could give.
I know what you need, Black Man.
The words blasted through Harmon’s brain. He spat at the tortured hand that betrayed him. “You don’t know shit.”
The road to salvation is paved with shit, the Dark said. And I’m going to take you there.
They took it together.