Mrs. Conner looked up again, a bit more oddly. "What's that, Miss Ca.s.sie?"

Instantly, Ca.s.sie felt idiotic. "Just, uh, er-nothing." My father, she wondered, has a thing for Mrs. Conner? The notion was absurd, but then- So was the notion of dead punk rockers occupying her house.

"I told you to be careful." Via chuckled, leading on.

"Something smells good," Xeke said.

It did. Via was leading them into the kitchen, and when the four of them entered, Ca.s.sie saw her father puttering at the range, clumsily wielding a metal spatula. When he glanced-and noticed her sheer, short nightgown-he cast her a fatherly frown. "You trying out for Victoria's Secret?"

"Relax, Dad. No one's going to see me," she replied.

"No one except us," Xeke piped in. "Your daughter's got some smokin' hot bod, huh, Dad?"

He and Via laughed out loud.

Ca.s.sie's father clearly didn't hear them, or see them.

"You feeling better?"

"Fine, Dad. I was just out in the sun too long yesterday," she tried to placate him.

"Well, good, 'cos you're just in time for a Cajun catfish omelette."

"Sounds a little too heavy for me," Ca.s.sie said.

"Hey, Dad, look!" Via exclaimed. She walked right up to him, hoisted her black t-shirt, and flashed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

BiU Heydon didn't see it.

"So what are you going to do today, honey?" he asked, searching for the pepper grinder.

Xeke chuckled. "Yeah, honey?"

Shut up, Ca.s.sie thought. "I don't know. Probably wander around."

"Yeah, Dad," Via chided. "She's gonna wander around with the dead people living in your house."

"Well, remember. Not too long in the sun this time." Her father tried to sound authoritative.

"I won't."

"Still don't believe us?" Via asked her.

"I guess I do," Ca.s.sie answered, then immediately thought d.a.m.n!

More laughter from her cohorts.

Her father looked at her. "You guess you do what?"

"Sorry. I was thinking out loud."

"That's a sign of senility, you know." Now her father was dropping pieces of catfish into the fry pan. "You're too young to be senile. Me? That's another story."

"Hush?" Via said. "Show her."

The short mute girl in black drifted across the kitchen. She grabbed Ca.s.sie's bare arm and squeezed, to verify it to Ca.s.sie. Then she grabbed her father's arm but- Hush's small hand seemed to disappear into Mr. Heydon's solid flesh and bone.

"All the way now," Via instructed.

Hush stepped into Bill Heydon's body-and all but disappeared.

He suddenly shivered. "d.a.m.n! Did you feel that cold draft?"

"Uh, yeah," Ca.s.sie said as an afterthought. Her fascination gripped her as she watched Hush step back out of her father's body.

"If you don't believe us now," Via said, "then you've really got a problem."

"Tell me about it," Ca.s.sie said.

Another funky look from her father. "Tell you about what, honey?"

Diamn! Did it again!

More laughter.

"Come on, honey," Xeke said. "Let's get out of here before your father thinks you've completely lost it."

Good idea. This was getting way too confusing. "See ya later, Dad," she bid.

"Sure." He gave her another look, shrugged, then returned to his cooking.

She followed them out, back toward the atrium-sized living room. Hush smiled at her and took her hand, as if to say, Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it.

Ca.s.sie had no idea where they were taking her. Via led the way down the hall. Her leather boots thunked loudly on the carpet, but by now, Ca.s.sie realized that only she could hear them.

"Down here," Via said at the door. "We can talk better down here, in the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"So," Ca.s.sie deduced once they were down. "You're ghosts."

"Nope." Xeke sat on the cold stone floor, lounging back against the bas.e.m.e.nt's long wall of tabby bricks. "Nothing like that at all. We're living souls. We're physical beings."

Hush sat beside Ca.s.sie on a row of moving boxes; she leaned her head against Ca.s.sie's shoulder as if tired, her black hair veiling her face. Via remained standing, walking back and forth.

"How can you be living souls," Ca.s.sie asked, "if you're dead?"

Via answered, "What he means is that we're living souls in our world. We're physical beings in our world. In your world, though, we're subcorporeal."

"What's that mean?"

"It means that we exist... but we don't."

"But we're not ghosts," Xeke said. "Ghosts are soulless projections. They're just images left over. No consciousness, no sentience."

Ca.s.sie considered this. "If that's true, then what are you?"

Via took off her punky leather jacket and dropped it in Xeke's lap. By her att.i.tude and gestures, it was clear that she was the leader of this little group. She began to diddle with the safety pins holding the tears in her t-shirt together. "It's a long story, but here goes. First, you gotta understand that there are Rules. We weren't really bad people in life, but we were f.u.c.ked up. We couldn't hack it. So we killed ourselves. That's one of the Rules."

"No ifs, ands, or buts," Xeke said.

"If you commit suicide, you go to h.e.l.l. Period. No way around it. If the Pope committed suicide, he'd go to h.e.l.l. It's one of the Rules."

Ca.s.sie touched her locket, felt something shrivel inside. Her sister, Lissa, had committed suicide. So she went to- Ca.s.sie couldn't finish the thought.

"This house is a Deadpa.s.s. Fenton Blackwell, the previous owner, committed atrocities so extreme that they created a Rive-that's, like, a little hole between the Living World and the h.e.l.lplanes. If you're like us-if you can find one of the holes-you can take refuge in the Living World."

"But no one in the Living World can see you," Ca.s.sie figured.

"No one. Period. That's another one of the Rules."

Ca.s.sie began, "Then how come-"

"You can see us?" Xeke held his finger up. "There's a loophole."

A dense silence filled the narrow bas.e.m.e.nt. Via, Xeke, and Hush were all trading solemn glances. Hush held Ca.s.sie's hand and squeezed it, as if to console her.

Ca.s.sie looked back dumbfounded at them all. "What is it?"

"You're a myth," Via said.

"In the h.e.l.lplanes," Xeke went on, "you're the equivalent of Atlantis. Something rumored to be true but has never been proven."

Via sat down next to Xeke and slung her arm around him. "Here's the myth. You're a virgin, right?"

Ca.s.sie flinched uncomfortably but nodded.

"And you were never baptized."

"No. I wasn't raised in any particular faith."

"You've genuinely tried to kill yourself at least once, right?"

Ca.s.sie gulped. "Yes."

"And you have a twin sister who did kill herself." Via wasn't even asking anymore; she was telling Ca.s.sie what she already knew. "A twin sister who was also a virgin."

Ca.s.sie was beginning to choke up. "Yes. Her name was Lissa."

More solemn stares.

"In h.e.l.l, you hear about it the same way you hear about the angelic visitations here, like these people who see Jesus in a mirror, or St. Mary on a taco," Via went on. "Stuff like that. You hear about but you never really believe it."

"It's all written down in the Infernal Archives," Xeke said. "The Grimoires of Elymas, the Lascaris Scrolls, the Apocrypha of Bael-the myth's all over the place. We've all read about it, and never really believed it either. But you're real."

"And the myth is true," Via said. "You're an Etheress."

The strange word seemed to flit about the bas.e.m.e.nt like a trapped sparrow. "Etheress," Ca.s.sie repeated.

"Just like it says in the Grimoires," Via continued, "you're a physical bond in the Etheric Realm, something that's created by astronomical circ.u.mstances. Two twin sisters, both virgins and both suicidal. One commits suicide and one survives. Both born on an occult holiday."

Now Ca.s.sie frowned. "Lissa and I were born on October 26. That isn't any occult holiday."

Via and Xeke laughed out loud. "It's the date of Gilles de Rais's execution," Via explained.

Then Xeke: "To the Satanic Sects, it's their most powerful day of worship. Makes Halloween and Beltane Eve look like a sock hop."

Via spoke louder now, her voice echoing. "You're an Etheress, Ca.s.sie. You're very very special."

Ca.s.sie didn't understand. Very special? Me? She'd never felt special in her life.

"We'll show you how special you really arc," Via said.

Xeke: "As a true Etheress, you have powers..."

Powers, Ca.s.sie thought.

Then Via went on, "And one of those powers is the ability to enter h.e.l.l anytime you want."

Ca.s.sie's eyes widened in the mounting confusion.

"You're a living person, but you can enter the realm of the dead..."

"We'll show you," Via promised. "We'll show you the city..." It was nothing she could have ever expected. Why should she? Ca.s.sie didn't even believe in the existence of h.e.l.l-until now, of course. There were some surprises.

They left the garage through the side door, stepping out into the sultry night. The chirrups of crickets throbbed loudly. Moonlight made the woods fluoresce. They wound around to the front of the house, which faced south. "You said we're going to the city," Ca.s.sie stopped them.

"That's right," Via replied. "It's called the Mephistopolis."

"You're talking about h.e.l.l, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Xeke answered. "Home, sweet home."

"Sort of," Via amended. "See, we don't live there anymore-we can't. We're XR's-ex-residents."

"Same as fugitives," Xeke explained. "In the city, there are two social castes: Plebes and Hierarchals. We're Plebes, commoners, and as XR's we're not allowed to reside in the city anymore. We're considered criminals because we haven't conformed. That's why we have to live in a Deadpa.s.s, like your house, or the Deadpa.s.ses in the other three Outer Sectors. It's a b.i.t.c.h, but if we stay in the city too long, the Constabularies get wise to us. We wouldn't last very long if we tried to stay in the city limits."

Via could read the confusion on Ca.s.sie's face. "Believe me, it's easier to just learn as you go. You still do want to go, don't you? Remember, you don't have to."

"I still want to go," Ca.s.sie said testily. "I just want to know exactly where it is we're going. h.e.l.l? h.e.l.l isn't supposed to be a city. It's supposed to be a sulphur pit, a lake of fire, stuff like that."