“Oh, yeah. But not twice in the same place. I mean, cities, yeah, because so many people, but not little mountain towns. The rule seems to be one evil monster per little mountain town. Or always has been.”

Over his shoulder, Daniel said, “Rules change.”

The women exchanged a look, and Hollis said, “Okay. So what sort of monster this time? Has he said?”

“No.”

Rather abruptly, as things often happened in the gray time, a cold and eerie gray mist sort of shivered around them and they found themselves standing, slightly unbalanced for a moment, on the level sidewalk of what was obviously Main Street.

“Do you ever get used to that?” Hollis asked, searching for bearings and lifting one foot briefly to rub a toe she’d stubbed painfully on the rough sidewalk.

“Not really.” She looked at Daniel, who was facing them as they stood on the sidewalk.

“Look around,” he suggested.

Both women looked around them at a very gray, desolate downtown Salem. The buildings were clearer, but still more gray smudges than the complete linear contours and edges buildings were supposed to have. And windows of a lighter gray, also smudged around nonexistent edges. That was all that differentiated one building from another, one thing from another, really, shades of gray. There were a surprising number of shades of gray.

Infinite shades of gray, Diana always thought when she was here.

And it was barren of real life. There were never any people or animals, never any life other than spiritual. Diana tried not to think of it as a dead place, but it was certainly not a place where anything living flourished. It dragged at her, a steady and unsettling pull she was always, on some level of herself, aware of and disturbed by.

She had more than once thought that the essence of herself, of what made Diana who she was, was constantly under assault in the gray time, as though the forces here struggled to attack her as a foreign cell was surrounded and attacked by the defenses of the human body.

And she had wondered if there was, somehow, an expiration date, a limit to the number of times she could visit here and escape alive. Scary thought. Very scary thought.

“The Universe really made a creepy place here,” Hollis said. “Or time. Whatever.”

“Definitely.” Diana returned her gaze to their spirit guide. “Look, I’m okay for a while yet,” she said, hoping it was true at least one more time, “but Hollis is going to get very tired very quickly. Because it’s still new for her. So? What is it you wanted to tell us and show us?”

“Salem,” he said simply.

The women looked at each other, then returned their gazes to the spirit guide.

“You’ll be getting a call,” Daniel said. “Soon. But I was sent to warn you first.”

Hollis started to ask sent by whom, but Diana was shaking her head. “They never answer that one.”

“No,” Daniel agreed.