Chapter three: Torturing Cordelia Chase

"Some day, I'd like to tie a victim to a whipping-post," said Warren, seemingly very serious. The two of them were at an ice-cream bar now, sitting in a couple of those high chairs you can only find in such places, and nowhere else. The girl serving them looked at Warren like he was crazy, and turned away from them, a disgusted look on her face. Warren gave her a long stare, as though he was trying to see beyond her clothing. Andrew smiled. Kind of like Superman. X-ray vision. He wondered if they could develop that in the future. But he decided to wait with that question until they were more established as a crime-syndicate.
"Someone like her," Warren said, a dreamy gaze dominating his face. "I'd torture her any day of the week."

Andrew frowned. Again, he'd lost track of what was being said. He felt stupid, but had to ask.
"Err, Warren... why'd you want to do that? I mean, why her?"
His companion smiled shrewdly. "'Cause it'd be fun, Andy. It'd be fun watching her scream, writhing like a worm on a hook, begging for mercy. She's so... pretty. And, you know, it's like in that song – all beauty must die." His smile changed; he now looked like a cat, about to trap a mouse between its gigantic, clawed paws. "And when you think about it, she could be anyone. You know? She could be someone who turned you down in high school, 'cause you weren't cool enough for her. Like that bitch, Cordelia. Now her I'd like to see on a whipping-post."

Andrew wondered what Cordelia had ever done to Warren. But he guessed it was the same old stuff that always happened to guys like him – humiliation, rejection... that alone motivates dreaming up bloody torture-methods.
Although, Andrew figured, Warren wasn't serious anyway, so what was there to care about, really? They were just discussing the possibility of this.

Right?

He decided to change the subject. The people working in the ice-cream bar were now looking at them very strangely, almost as if they were thinking about calling someone very large and sturdy to come take care of them.

"Hey, you think there are, like, more lives than one? I mean, that reincarnation stuff... you believe in it?"
Warren turned his head and looked at him, a surprised look on his face. "What? What has that to do with torturing Cordelia?"
"Nothing, obviously, but... well, I was just wondering. I don't know what to make of it."
Warren shrugged. "I don't know. I guess there could be. It's a scary thought, though."
Andrew smiled happily at him – a bit too happily, perhaps. "I reckon you were a member of the high-nobility in one of your past lives, anyway."
"You do? How do you figure?"
"Well, umm, you've got this..." He stopped.

What had he got himself into now? What was he going to say?

Since last week, he'd been wondering about these strange things that he felt when he was around Warren. Like there was nothing else that mattered but the two of them. He'd come to the conclusion that it was perfectly normal, that it was just hormones, and that he'd be best off trying to ignore them. And yet here he was now, getting himself in a whole lot of trouble just 'cause he'd wanted to change the subject. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
He slapped himself mentally.

"... this glow. You know? Like you're... higher up that the rest of us. We're down at the bottom, you're way up there." He pointed upwards, vaguely. "In the clouds. You know what I mean?"
Warren looked at him suspiciously. "Hold your horses, Andy. Sure, I'm gifted, but I don't believe all that crap about hierarchy. I'm down here with you guys." Liar, he thought to himself. You're much better than they are, and you know it.
Andrew smiled at him cheerfully. "I guess."