“What?” I tried to act normal even as his eyes searched mine like he was reading my thoughts, trying to gauge my reaction to his touch and came up empty. “Is this your way of apologizing or just committing sexual harassment after hours? Newsflash even the boss can get in trouble for that sort of thing.”
“And Tarek?” He didn’t let me go. “A co-worker?”
I opened my mouth to explain but I realized I couldn’t explain just like I couldn’t explain why I was letting Timber touch me.
“Hmm, that’s what I thought.” He leaned in until our foreheads touched and then he just held us there.
I thought it was weird until I started to smell this intoxicating scent, like the most powerful flower in the world was permeating the air around us. “What is that?”
“Lotus—it cleanses.”
“Cleanses what?” I shuddered.
“Ancient Egyptians used to use it during funeral rituals to cleanse the bodies before they descended into Hell.”
“Or Heaven,” I argued.
“That’s almost adorable, that you still believe.”
“You don’t?”
He pulled back and gave me one of the saddest looks I’d ever seen in my entire life, his eyes empty, his face expressionless. “Heaven isn’t for me.”
“And it isn’t for me?”
“I guess that all depends on you, now doesn’t it?”
Enter the weirdest conversation I’d ever experienced.
Timber gave his head a shake. “Be safe tonight, keep your windows closed, you never know what some sort of depraved human might do when they see opportunity.”
“Like you?” I crossed my arms.
He didn’t even seem insulted; he just grinned. “Definitely not me, then again part of you knows that, the part that’s locked up inside where I imagine butterflies and unicorns exist.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, okay, I’ll see you tomorrow I guess.”
And I could have sworn I heard the words. “And tonight in your dreams.”
TIMBER
Egypt 336 BC
“Pharaoh.” I eyed him up and down while he stared up at my golden throne. “Have you come to petition again?” I smiled darkly and popped a grape into my mouth. Its juices gave me life like all living things. “I guess it has been…” I looked up. “…ten days since your first request.”
“Master.” He fell to his knees in a swirl of smoke. His body was elsewhere, but his soul was kneeling before me, begging a favor… of me. I almost laughed, but it amused me more to see him on his knees. The fact that he, an evil man, would come and ask me for a favor in exchange for something so precious was wasted. Then again, I didn’t have to tell him that, not when I enjoyed finally watching him show a sense of humility—I only hoped He was watching—maybe it meant there was hope, maybe not.
“Darius…” I yawned. “Tell me what it is you request, and we will see if the sacrifice is worth the outcome you desire.”
“Power.” He stood to his full height. “I want my descendants to know what I have done! I want a tomb in my name, with jewels for the afterlife, enough to secure me safe passage into the Creator’s arms.”
“Ah…” I tossed another grape into the air. “And this is where our beliefs differ, great king. You cannot live a life of depravity then buy your way into the Creator’s arms. You say you want to be remembered yet I hear your people’s screams in the darkest depths of this universe. You say you want jewels for the Creator when he has enough jewels to last him for several eternities. What you want is power over mankind, and that is something only given to the immortals. I cannot beseech your request when you do not ask the right favor.”
“A riddle?” He snorted.
“A truth,” I stated plainly, leaning forward, my long white hair fell to my belt in braids of black jewels. “You beg for life after life and you curse your people to their deaths beneath the rocks of their labor. Perhaps you’ll grow a heart and come back and sacrifice the only thing worth having.”
“Power?”