Sam stopped speaking suddenly as if a thin tape had broken. He focused eyes that had been glazed during these words, and looked back up at Calvin. The old man was still and quiet across the fire, a shaman listening rather than a man. Far down into the tunnel, a drip fell into some dark pool and gave birth to a forlorn echo. Calvin kept his eyes unflinchingly on Sam’s until the younger man swallowed and spoke again.

‘He stopped hitting me and touched his cock. He looked at me in a real crazy way, then he grabbed my face with one hand, turned me over and put my arm up my back. Everything changed. All I could think of was you. Calvin. I knew what he was going to do and I just thought of how I loved you and trusted you, and as I felt him tearing at my pants this deep anger that was bigger than anything I ever had before in my life just welled up in my throat and exploded in my head.

‘I moved so fast he didn’t know what happened, but I roared like a bull and the anger in my head went into my body. And in a couple of seconds the roles were reversed and I was on top of Moses, my hand at his throat, my knees nearly bursting his chest. I just looked down at him then, spots of blood from my face dripping onto his, and I felt this thing happen in me as I looked into that face that was now frightened and weak instead of strong and cunning.

‘It was evil I felt. That’s the only way I can describe what it was. It was a warm dark thing that crept up my spine and touched a bit of me I didn’t know was there. What will I do with him? it made me think. I can do anything I like. I can torture him, kill him, make him suffer. Anything. It was such a dark warm feeling, a feeling of power, and I guessed that’s how Moses must have felt all along with me, and it made the darkness worse. Made the hate worse. He just lay there whimpering, drooling from the corner of his mouth, and I was about to hit him real hard when I stopped. I looked at Eden’s amulet round his neck and I just stopped.