Louis de Pointe du Lac in “Unfinished Business”

Louis de Pointe du Lac

He drained me to the very threshold of death... The blood, it came as a dull roar at first. And then a pounding, like the pounding of a drum, growing louder and louder as if some enormous creature were coming through a dark and alien forest. A huge drum. And then, there came a pounding of another drum, as if another giant were coming behind him, each giant intent on his own drum, giving no notice to the rhythm of the other. Throbbing in my lips, fingers and flesh of my temple. Above all, in my veins. Drum and then the other drum. I opened my eyes, and it was then that I realized the drum was my heart and the other drum had been his. I saw him sitting a length away from me, radiant. And we sat there for some time... in throes of increasing wonder... The end. The beginning.