George woke every time Miriam coughed or rolled over, afraid she would start having seizures during the night. And by the time morning came, he’d not slept more than a few minutes at a time and was still bleary-eyed when he heard voices outside the door.
George slipped out of bed to see what was going on just as Dwight Henderson entered with a tray of food. Through the doorway, George spotted Mulch still standing guard outside.
Henderson set the tray on the table and glanced into the bedroom. “How is she doing this morning?”
George glared at him. “As well as could be expected.”
Henderson was silent for a moment and then shook his head. “Why did you go nosing around? Why did you have to go down into the tunnels?”
“Why were you down there?” George said. “What does Vale have you doing? Checking on all his prisoners?”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
George could see some kind of conflict in Henderson’s eyes. Whatever was going on in this town, it looked like Henderson was more of an unwilling participant. Much like Amanda had been.
“Then why don’t you tell me? You can start with how you got here.”
“It’s not important.” Henderson looked away. “It was a long time ago.”
George sighed. “Vale lured you here the same way he did us, didn’t he? To save someone you loved?”
Henderson didn’t answer.
“Who was she?”
Henderson’s gaze fell, and after a moment he took a long breath. “Her name was Julia. She was my wife. But she’s been gone more than eighty years now.”
“From the perilium?”
“No…” Henderson sat down. “No, she hanged herself.”
“Suicide? What happened?”
Henderson’s gaze shifted around the room. “I was a doctor in San Francisco when Julia became ill with leukemia. It was 1897 and we tried every treatment available to us, but she only got worse. And that’s when Vale contacted me. I… I don’t know how he found me, but Julia was quite literally on her deathbed and Vale said he had this medicine—an old Indian treatment that would heal her. But he said it would come at a cost. My family was quite wealthy, but he said he didn’t only want our money. He just said the cure would require us to move to Beckon.”
“Sounds familiar,” George grunted.
Henderson shrugged. “We were desperate, and I would have done anything to save her. So, of course, I agreed. We were both in our fifties at the time and soon I found what you did. That perilium reverses the aging process and makes a person young again. Within days, Julia looked like she was thirty years younger.”
George nodded. “You thought it was a miracle.”
“Yes,” Henderson said. “He offered it to me as well, but he said he needed me to return to San Francisco for a few years. He said he had work for me to do.”
George frowned. “What kind of work?”
“Horrible work.” Henderson looked down and shuddered. “The devil’s work.”
“What was it?”
“He said he needed… specimens, he called them—five or six every month. He gave me very detailed instructions on what to do and how to have them sent. He said I would find plenty of suitable subjects in San Francisco. People no one would miss. Vagrants, prostitutes, criminals. He said I would be doing the city a favor. All I had to do was sedate them and have them transported to Wyoming. Henry Mulch would arrive with a coach every month like clockwork. And Vale said if I missed a single deadline, the perilium would stop and Julia would die. If I told anyone or tried to send help, Julia would die.”
George recalled Vale’s boasting about his negotiation skills. “So he found out what you needed most and exploited that to get what he wanted. He used your fear against you.”
“It’s what he does best. It’s how he has survived here for so long.”
“So what did he do with them? The… specimens?”
Henderson grew pale at George’s question. “There’s something down in the caves. The N’watu call it the Soul Eater—they worship it like some kind of god. And it’s the source of the perilium.” He turned away. “The N’watu must supply it with a new offering—they… feed it a human soul in exchange for the perilium.”
“Feed it?” George couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What do you mean? What is this thing?”
“It’s… some kind of animal.” Henderson seemed to struggle for words. “A creature that drinks the blood of its prey. The N’watu say it feeds on a human soul and in exchange provides that soul’s energy back to them.”
“This is crazy!” George found his mind reeling again. He got up and paced the room. The more information he gained about this town, the more hideous and terrifying it became. “So then everyone’s role here is somehow involved with finding new victims.”
“One way or another,” Henderson said. “If we don’t provide the N’watu with a new sacrifice, the perilium will stop. And if the perilium stops, we’ll all die. Just the way you saw Amanda die.”
“How many specimens did you send him?”
“I don’t know.” Henderson rubbed his eyes. “I wouldn’t keep count. You have to understand, I had to become another man altogether to do this work. Like Jekyll and Hyde. Sometimes I would find two or three at a time to send. I swear I didn’t know what he was doing with them.”
George grew indignant. This man truly believed he had done nothing wrong. He had justified his role in the deaths of possibly hundreds of innocent human beings. “What did you think he was doing? You’re a doctor. You’re supposed to save lives!”
“I saved Julia’s life. As long as Vale kept getting his specimens, she had enough perilium. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t sacrifice a stranger—or a thousand strangers—to save Miriam.”
George’s indignation suddenly abated. He’d made just such a choice last night. Amanda’s life had been in his hands and he’d sacrificed it for his wife’s. He no longer had the moral high ground from which to judge Henderson.
He wondered how long Henderson had kept this secret bottled up inside him. His voice softened. “Then what happened? How did you end up here?”
Henderson sighed and sank onto the couch. “It got to be too dangerous for me to stay in San Francisco. I was getting old by then and in danger of getting caught. Vale said it was time and I could come to Beckon to stay. He said he would give me the perilium and he had additional work for me to do.”
George frowned. “You wanted the perilium too? Even after everything you knew about it?”
“For a chance to regain my youth? To live with my Julia forever? Yes, more than anything. I drank it too.”
“Despite all the people that had been killed.”
“These were vagrants, criminals. After a time I came to accept what had once been unacceptable.” His gaze turned cold. “Don’t judge me too harshly. It’s not as hard as you might think.”
“And what happened to Julia?”
Henderson turned away. He went to the window and hung his head. “She never knew the truth about her cure or the things I had done on her behalf. She only knew that perilium was a fountain of youth, and she was perfectly happy in her ignorance. Then one day she found my journals. She confronted me and I had to tell her everything. She hanged herself not long afterward.”
George didn’t know whether to hate the man or pity him. Despite his complicit role in all this evil, George couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Because now he found himself in the same predicament.