Ancil“Alright,” she stretched her words. She then went out the door.
When I was assured that she was gone I said to Sam, “I want to tell you something but you have to promise not to say anything to the others.”
“Sure what is it Jed?” Sam said with her mouth full of food.
“The other night I think I changed into something. I don’t know what I changed into but I think I slaughtered an entire village.”
“Were you naked when you woke up?” Sam asked.
It seemed like a really weird question for her to ask. “What?”
“Were you naked?”
“Ummm no. Why?”
“If you say you temporarily changed into something then you could have been either a Lagahoo or a Midnight Robber. Based on my knowledge, those are the only two characters that can exist pro symbiotically with a human. There’s probably more, but these are the only two that I know. Maybe a Fairymaid. If you were naked then it would mean that you grew in size and became a Lagahoo.” Sam was taking this too well.
“So you think I’m a Midnight Robber?”
“I don’t know. Becoming a Midnight Robber is a long and strenuous process that only few ever experience. Only a chosen few can do it because it’s usually risky and most people aren’t even capable of wielding the power of the Midnight Robber. It takes a special kind of person. You would have to be worked on for days, maybe weeks. I could only recall two Midnight Robbers to date.”
“Two? You mean there isn’t only one?”
“Well, that’s what two means right,” she laughed. “Jeremy Duncan and Sandra Singh were the only two Midnight Robbers on record when I was on board. Apparently you’re the third.”
“But why me?”
“I don’t know. The Midnight Robber probably really likes you Jed.”
“I guess I’m now the weakest link,” I said.
“Not really. You could actually be more useful than you think.”
“I’m a monster.”
“No. Not yet. The Midnight Robber doesn’t kill senselessly when matured. During the first few transformations you may go berserk and kill people like you did in the village but in time it stops happening. The Midnight Robber personally only kills the truly evil or unjust. In Jeremy’s mind turning someone into a Jumbie or something isn’t actually killing but giving them new life. It’s just a twisted story he tells his Midnight Robber to justify the killings. But the Midnight Robber has to be properly convinced before killing someone. If you concentrate hard enough you can talk to it. You know, tell it what to do. Jeremy does it all the time. There is no guarantee that it will listen but it’s important to keep talking. You might just save some lives. The only reason Megan and Melanie weren’t infected all this time is probably because of Jeremy’s words to the Midnight Robber.”
“Thanks Sam,” I said.
“Don’t mention it.”
“By the way, whatever happened to that bomb in your head?”
“Apparently that never existed. Jeremy made the whole thing up to get me to work for him.”
“Damn,” I said. “I feel bad now.”
“Don’t. It’s okay. I was tricked the whole time. When you go unconscious and wake up in a smart room with a searing headache you tend to believe anything you’re told,” Sam said. “By the way, I have a gift for you.”
“A gift for me? Really?”
She dug up in her supplies bag and took out a green egg shaped object.
“What is that?”
“A grenade. This might come useful on your journeys.”
I looked at the egg shaped grenade for a while then asked a completely unrelated question. “Why were you burned by your people Sam?”
