"You're messed up in the head, that's all. Everybody is."

Another laugh. Ca.s.sie liked R.J. Dr. Morse was another story. She couldn't say that she disliked him, but he was definitely a stick in the mud. Aside from those two, though, she really hadn't met anyone else. The med nurse, the "chaperon," the janitor. They were just bodies here doing a job.

"R.J.'s got the hots for you," Angelese's voice suddenly resumed.

"He does not," Ca.s.sie blurted.

R.J. turned back around, a c.o.c.ked brow. "Who does not?"

s.h.i.tl Ca.s.sie thought.

"Be careful," Angelese recommended. "You can hear me, he can't."

I wonder why, Ca.s.sie thought.

"Because you're an Etheress," Angelese reminded.

"Oh, yeah," then Ca.s.sie bit her lip again. When R.J. looked back this time, Ca.s.sie just said, "Don't ask."

"Don't worry, I talk to myself sometimes too. Everybody does."

Yeah, but everybody does NOT talk to bodiless angels from the Order of the Caliginauts.

"You got that right," Angelese said and laughed.

When they got to the small office closest to the showers, R.J. looked around and said, "Sadie must be at an examination. I've got an admissions interview right now, so I'll see you at the chow hall when you're done."

"Chow hall?" Ca.s.sie tried to joke. "Don't you mean Sustenance Facility?"

"You've had the food here. It's chow. For what we charge per week for an in-patient, you'd think we'd have better food, huh?"

The food was pretty bad. "Then change to an obesity clinic."

R.J. held a finger up. "Not a bad idea. See ya in a little while."

Ca.s.sie was taken aback. "Hey. You mean you're gonna leave me alone here? As in... by myself?"

"Sure."

"Aren't you afraid I'll try to escape?"

"Nope. But, just so you know, we don't call it 'escape' here. We call it 'resident elopement.' " Then he pointed to a sign on the wall: DO NOT LEAVE ELOPEMENT RISKS UNATTENDED.

"Maybe I will escape," Ca.s.sie goaded. "Then you'll get fired."

R.J. shrugged. "I hear they're hiring at Wendy's." Then he walked away.

Probably just some behavioral psychologist's trick, Ca.s.sie considered. Wants me to think he trusts me, then I'll trust him.

"That's not it," Angelese said, unseen as always. "He just likes you. And you like him."

"I do not!" Ca.s.sie insisted. "Jesus, he's old. He's like, thirty-five."

Faceless chuckles fluttered about the small room. "How old do you think I am? You saw my face in the water."

"I don't know. Eighteen, nineteen."

"Try five thousand."

Jeez.

She was waiting for Sadie, the ward chaperon, but the woman wasn't to be found. A television on the desk was on, the volume all the way down. There was also a copy of the St. Petersburg Times. Ca.s.sie immediately caught herself eyeing the front page.

ARMY SAYS MD EXPLOSION NOT TERRORIST BOMB, the top headline blared. What the h.e.l.l is that all about? Ca.s.sie wondered. She picked up the paper but quickly noticed a more local headline lower on the page. Ma.s.s HYSTERIA IN DANNELLETON?

Dannelleton? she realized. That's where this clinic is!

"Um-hmm," Angelese answered her thought.

Ca.s.sie addressed the faceless voice. "You sound like you know something about it."

"Um-hmm ... Turn the TV up."

CNN was on; Ca.s.sie hiked the volume. A newswoman who looked more like an E-Channel hostess was reporting, "... strange and devastating explosion which completely destroyed the obscure library in Laurel, Maryland, last night. The bodies of five security guards and an unnamed civilian were recovered by local fire-department crews. Nearby witnesses reported seeing a small mushroom cloud expanding over the site at the time of the mishap, and rumors quickly spread that the facility had been the target of a terrorist bomb. But federal officials from the Army and Nuclear Regulatory Commission quickly dispelled such rumors, stating that no radiation was detected at the site, nor does the site display any characteristics of a terrorist attack. Later, county and state officials explained that the unfortunate accident was the result of a natural gas line rupture..."

"I don't think so," Angelese sniped.

"What are you talking about?" Ca.s.sie asked. She was getting annoyed.

"Turn on the local news now."

Oh, well. Ca.s.sie did so. This time a newsman who seemed to have forgotten to comb his hair was saying, "... the small but exclusive downtown area of Dannelleton ravaged by fire last night, amid reports of earth tremors, power failures including battery-powered police radio communication failure and cell phone failure, foul-smelling fog, and ma.s.s screaming-" The newscaster cracked a smile. "Pinellas County public health officials attribute these observations to a case of simple ma.s.s-hysteria which often occurs at night, during times of limited visibility, and during traumatic public crises. Meanwhile, the fire marshal and his team of investigators explained that the fires were caused by gas line rupture..."

"And if you believe that," Angelese said, "I've got a bridge I can sell you."

Ca.s.sie turned the TV back down. "You're saying it's not true?" she asked, even though she had to admit, the coincidence seemed a bit far-fetched. "What do you know about it?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

The voice in the air paused, almost as if fearful. "Because I don't have the courage. But I'll tell you soon. I won't just tell you, I'll show you. There are certain things I'm not allowed to tell you. If I do... I'm punished, and believe me, the punishment hurts."

"I still don't know what you're talking about," Ca.s.sie said, her frustrations mounting.

"Just be patient."

"Patience isn't one of my best traits."

Sadie walked in, one brow raised. Probably heard me talking to Angelese, Ca.s.sie deduced. But so what, she already thinks I'm crazy. "h.e.l.lo, Ca.s.sie," the squat, husky woman said. Her blond perm looked like a large order of curly fries sitting on her head, and her conservative business dress would've looked nice on just about anyone else but on her it didn't work at all. No matter what she wears, she'll always look like a guard at a women's prison, Ca.s.sie thought. Sadie, as the ward's chaperon, was charged with the duty of being present whenever a female in-patient was undergoing a physical exam or taking a shower.

"If she's a lesbian," Angelese said, "she sure landed the right job."

Ca.s.sie had to bite her lip not to laugh. She followed the rotund woman to the long shower stalls. Sadie was polite enough at least to keep her eyes averted when Ca.s.sie took off her robe and stepped in. The warm spray hissed down, revitalizing Ca.s.sie.

"Okay, now what were you-" but then Ca.s.sie bit her lip again.

"I told you to be careful," Angelese reminded.

"Ca.s.sie?" It was Sadie. She peeked around the shower wall and looked in. "Is there someone in there with you?"

Ca.s.sie turned with a frown, faced the woman totally naked and spread her hands. "Does it look like anyone's in here with me?"

Sadie's eyes narrowed. "I could've sworn I heard you talking to someone."

"I talk to myself sometimes." Then she laughed. "Just ask R.J."

"Well. Okay. I'll be out here."

"Don't worry, Sadie. I know you people think I'm a suicide risk but be real. How can I kill myself with a bar of soap?"

A final, worried pause, then Sadie went back out.

"Just listen," Angelese said, "and if you have to talk, whisper, so Boxcar Bertha out there doesn't hear you."

Ca.s.sie nodded, the shower spray tickling her.

"There are some things I can tell you," the angel's voice began, "and some things I can't. It's one of the Rules. Just like there are Rules in the Mephistopolis, I have Rules, too. If I break them, I pay."

"How?" Ca.s.sie whispered.

"In pain. In torture. Remember last night, when we did the Transference with the water cupped in your hands?"

"Yeah."

"What happened right before my image disappeared?"

The memory blared. "You screamed, and for a minute the water turned red, like blood."

"Because it was blood. My blood. I was being slashed because I broke one of the Rules. I told you something I wasn't allowed to tell you. Do you remember? I told you that I would help you get back to the Mephistopolis, that I'd help you find the other Deadpa.s.s."

A long pause.

"For that I was punished," the angel continued. "I was punished by a thing called an Umbra-Specter. It's a kind of demon that can live in your shadow, and it can become real for a few seconds, anytime you break a Rule."

Ca.s.sie had never heard of such a thing during her previous trips to the Mephistopolis. It sounded like a sword of Damocles, that could swoop down and cut you without warning. "But... only for a few seconds?"

"A few seconds is enough." Angelese's voice grew solemn. "You'll see. Step back, out of the water..."

Ca.s.sie did so. The spray hissed out of the shower head. Then her eyes began to slowly widen.

The image was grained, like a pointillistic painting, but after a second Ca.s.sie could see the image of a short slender young woman standing under the shower spray. She thought of a television picture with bad reception.

"You can see me, right?"

Ca.s.sie nodded, speechless.

More of Angelese's image began to form, to the point that she nearly looked like a normal woman standing in the shower. Long snow-white hair hung in wet tendrils. She was very pet.i.te, fine-boned, and then she turned her head gracefully to look at Ca.s.sie and smile. The overlarge eyes sparkled, stunning with their violet-rimmed beige irises. The simple white gown she wore-low cut over a modest bosom-stuck to her skin in the water. Its hem went all the way down to her ankles.

"Hi," the angel said.

"Um," Ca.s.sie stalled. She stood aside, dripping. "Hi."

Bright fluorescent light tubes blared overhead. Angelese looked down at the floor slightly to one side. "See? See my shadow?"

Ca.s.sie could see it moving just off of Angelese's bare feet. There was nothing extraordinary about it, no demons seen hiding. "Looks just like a normal shadow to me."

Angelese just smiled. "Ask R.J. if you can move to the room at the very end of the hall, on the left."

"Why?"

"Because that's where I am. It will be easier for us to talk, face to face. This water thing is a pain in the a.s.s."

Ca.s.sie couldn't believe she'd just heard an angel use the word a.s.s. But she didn't understand, and Angelese could sense that.

"I use up a lot of my energy projecting my voice through the walls, and the Transference Charm makes me real tired afterward."

Did I get that right? Ca.s.sie needed clarification. "You mean you're staying in one of rooms on the ward? I thought you were an angel. Now you're telling me you're a patient?"

Angelese laughed. "No, no, I'm just occupying the room. I couldn't select it, it selected me. Any recruit in the Order of the Caliginauts can only physically occupy Death-Points in the Living World. We're attracted to darkness-it's part of our habitat."

Angels, Ca.s.sie contemplated the contradiction, attracted to darkness. "So what's the big deal about the room at the end of the hall?"

"Over the years, several dozen patients have committed suicide in it. When this sanatorium originally opened in the early 1900s, some of the patients were actually murdered by staff in that room, then they told the authorities it was suicide. Relatives often paid the staff to do this, to get the patients out of their hair, or claim their inheritance."

"How upbeat."

"Anyway, that's where I am. If you could get moved into the room directly across from me, it would be easier to talk."

"R.J.'s not gonna a.s.sign me a new room for no reason. What am I going to say? Will you please move me down the hall so I can talk to the angel? You know, the Caliginaut who's attracted to darkness? He and Morse'd have me on enough Thorazine to drop the Jolly Green Giant."

"Just tell him you want it for the view of the garden outside."

Can't hurt to try, Ca.s.sie thought. She squinted now at something catching her eye, a pendant around Angelese's neck. "What's that? Some kind of stone?"

From the end of the silver cord dangled a dark-purple stone shaped like an upside-down V. "It's a Tetramite-an Obscurity Stone," the angel explained. "It conceals my aura when I'm in the Living World. Humans can't see my physical body, but they'd be able to see my aura. All angels have auras, or haloes. And since you're an Etheress, whenever you're in h.e.l.l-"

"I know, I have an aura, too," Ca.s.sie said. During previous trips to the Mephistopolis, she'd always wear her onyx ring, to dampen the light of her lifeforce. Otherwise, she'd be recognized at once by the Constabularies or any other denizens of h.e.l.l.