Heart's Desire

Chapter 14

The doorway led to a long black hall. Red tendrils of light bounced off the reflective black surface of the walls leaving just enough light behind to eliminate the way. Gusts of hot air puffed up from vents in the stone floor. Jesse shivered when one of them hit him. The reaction was not what he expected. There was a fear here that he could not explain. He had no previous knowledge with which to judge his surrounding by much like everything else he had encountered here. Everything was foreign and unwelcome. Even the heat here felt cold and lifeless. It reminded his of sitting out on a hot humid summer night with no breeze to cool you down and standing in the snow without a jacket on all at the same time. It was worst by the vents. Their heat made the difference in atmosphere all the more noticeable.

The hall way wound on for quite a long ways. Bel would turn a corner as soon as Jesse thought that they had reached the end of the tunnel. It continued like this for what seemed like an eternity. There were no doors and no windows here, only the red light.

Bel did not turn around once. He just kept going forward. Jesse realized that he did not know how far he had gone. He would be lost if he had to travel up to the surface again. They were coming up to another entrance. This one was completely black. At least the other ones have shown with the red light. Bel walked through. It swallowed him completely. Jesse gulped. He did not know if he really wanted to find out what was on the other side of those black obis. Unfortunately, for him, Moe did not realize that he had stopped and plowed right into him. Jesse went flying through the door. He caught himself on the other side.

He was in a room for a change. It was longer than the hall and wider too. In the center of the room was a table. Chairs were set up around it. Everything was bathed in that strange red light. The light seemed to be redder than it had been before. Jesse registered the change. He scanned the room to see what the cause of it could be. He found nothing. Besides the table and the chairs there seemed to be nothing else in the room.

Bel ushered him over to the table and signaled for him to sit. As soon as he did. Bel chapped his hands. Two men came in to the room carrying covered trays. They placed the trays on the table and took a seat. These two men were followed by two more. So it went until the table was filled with dished and the chairs were filled with men. Jesse took a long sniff of the covered trays. They smelled so good. His dry mouth began to water. His thirst took second place to his stomach for the moment. The only thing on Jesse's brain was the food set before him. He could think of nothing else. It was all he wanted. There was nothing else in the world. He reached to uncover one of the dishes. Something stopped him. He pulled his hand back and placed in firmly in his lap. He had to have more self-control in this place. He could not trust Bel. He had to remember that.

Bel cleared his throat. "As a guest at my table you are more than welcome to eat whatever you like," said Bel.

It took all of Jesse's self-control to keep his hands in his lap.

"Thank you sir for your hospitality," said Jesse. Bel just smiled at him. Bel nodded his head to the man on his right. The men removed the lids to each of the dishes in a wave. Jesse looked at the food with anticipation. His eyes scanned the dishes around him. His stomach made an involuntary growl when the rich smell of cooked meat reached his nose. His eyes came to rest on the dish in front of him. He wanted to gag. Suddenly the smell held no appeal. He was completely disgusted. The silver plate in front of him held the skull of a man.

Bel continued to smile at him.

"The boy, dig in. Eat!" said Bel.

Jesse could not. He was having a hard enough time trying to keep his stomach from expelling itself from his body. He was so hungry, but he could have been dieing from hunger before he would have taken a single bite of what lay before him.