Nightshade
by Robert Fry


He was gliding along the marshy scape. Ephemeral as the Spanish moss that hung lifeless among the trees of that bayou. There was no sound that came from him as he strode the areas toward the old home. He was neither of nor from this place, he was a city boy. How well he knew that now. It seemed so long ago that he came to this foreign place, with all its own rules and backwoods ways. It was criminal the way strangers were treated here. He felt that inherently in coming .She was however, a beautiful woman and well worth the risk of a few inconveniences

They had met at a college sorority dance and had immediately hooked up. He wasn't quite sure how they had hit it off so well, but they had. Maybe it had to do with the times that she brought food to him or offered to do his laundry, the whole time fluttering her eyes and flirting shamelessly with him.

"I believe that she loved me from the beginning," he thought. It was easy to do. She appeared so genuine in that fancy little poodle dress and bobby socks. He was forced to tell his parents that she had gotten in the childhood way. That took some courage for him to tell his father, who had counted on him coming back to hold the family business together.

They had never talked about the family business had they, he mused. I wonder what she will think about it when she finds out. Oh, well, we'll see. I think that she will be proud of the ability that we have but then again I am afraid that she will freak when she knows the whole truth.

Ah, now he was close to the house. He could feel the breath of her cousins coming in huge gulps as they ran before him, now. They would be yelling and she would be laughing hysterically at the purported joke they were trying to pull on her. Soon he would turn the corner and she could see for herself that he was indeed with her again..... and forever.

"Did I ever mention to you before the wedding that, 'until death do us part', has no meaning for me? Does it shock you to see me with my head back in its proper place? I didn't believe that you were in on this macabre assassination, but I am afraid that I have misjudged you." He could see now that she was the heart and soul of this attempt on his life. Could this be why he was drawn to her? What could he do, how to proceed?
"I guess there is no way around the using up of her cousins. Maybe, though, I should allow her the choice of conversion first," he thought to himself.
"My dear it must be obvious to you by now that I am not of this world. I am sorry that I could not confide in you to begin with, but I am sure that you can understand now, having seen the fullness of me. This does however, leave a nasty little crimp in our plans for the future. You had expected me to come here to live with you in the bayou. And your family could get all the money out of my daddy's accounts and then blast me off into Never-Never land. A well-struck plot I must admit, and one almost worthy of my family. The time is coming when that kind of plot will be useful. I am sorry that your cousins are such useless baggage now and they are to be eliminated. I give you the option, however, to join me again in a less than spiritual union. Be mine, forever, worshiping my father, and doing his bidding and you can live forever, being as wealthy as you desire for an age. However, I must tell you that you will have to do some things that you may not wish to do but they will come easier and easier as time draws along. Your wish is now my command."

He watched her anxiously to see if he could get a hint at her decision; after all, she did carry their child. It seems that he was correct, his visage itself had made too hard an imprint in her for her to choose affirmatively. Now there was nothing more to do than to slay the cousins and eat them, leaving her for dead after draining the life force from her and transporting it to another.

"I believe that I can make the transformation if you show me how," she said. "But, I am awfully scared of the hideous look that you have now. Can that be changed?"
" Why, yes, my dear" he said, chiding himself for what he thought was poor judgement of her character. "I can change at will to the form that we enjoyed in the beginning." She warmed as his bodily function morphed into the human shape to which she was accustomed.
"Yes, yes, I am beginning to see that I could do this easily." she stated.
"Good, I am glad to hear that confession, now the only thing that remains is your confession in the father and I can turn you," he replied.
"Who is the father", she asked.
"Why, don't you know, the devil, Lucifer, and Satan are all names for the father of all demons and creatures such as me, a Nightshade. I am particularly close to him as he has spawned me from only two generations from the beginning, my grandfather and my father. My grandfather was the one that butchered Job's family. A pretty good trick in those days."
"I believe that we better end this right here and now," she said as she drew a sword from her belt. She, actually, thought that she could do me in, a nightshade, with that old falderow.

He took her cousins first, as he had said. Neither was too evil, just getting started, so they had very little in the way of taste, actually rather banal. Sucking their souls had been an easy tidbit, a light snack or appetizer before her. She, I had chosen well, a true Jezebel, ready to do any and everything to inherit the good life except give herself to full evil. What a pity so close but so far away. He gorged on the fatness of her soul for a few hours forgetting about the son that they had spawned, so he had to work hard to get that soul transplanted into something quick. He found a lonesome hoot owl that was setting a good crop of eggs and deposited junior there.

"The youngster should be able to develop here without the interference of a mother and father and brothers and others. His great-grandfather and I will use him up someday for God knows what purpose. Maybe take down a jet in flight with hundreds of precious souls and a couple of saints. That would be a rare delicacy, better than this blackened Jezebel," he thought, belching life force with unexcused manners. "Now, where will I go for a little dessert ", he thought, as New Orleans loomed ahead.