“What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. He’s getting stronger. He’s touching us to the other place, where the demons dream…It’s not a very good place at all. He was born here, you know…” That sounded just lovely. He changed the subject. “You promised to help. Have you found her yet?”

With the kid, science experiment, entity, whatever the hell he was right there, it kept getting colder. As if fueling his presence required sucking all of the energy out of the space. Within seconds the temperature was similar to being shoved into a walk-in freezer. I began to shiver uncontrollably. “I need to know who she is.”

“The names are gone. They took them from me. All I can see is her face.” He was desperate, but growing angry. “They took them, they erased what they could, and smashed everything else. My head…It’s filled with splinters.”

The more agitated he got, the more the temperature seemed to drop. My face was going numb. “I want to help you, but I need more information. I need something to work with.”

“You’re out of time!” he shouted. Face red, veins standing out in his neck, he lashed out with one fist, only to have it pass cleanly through the elevator wall as if it wasn’t even there. He jerked his hand back in surprise. Seemingly stunned, he stared at his hand in disbelief. “How—What is this place?”

“Las Vegas, Nevada. Planet Earth.”

“Are you real?” he asked me. “Are you alive?”

My teeth were chattering. “I am.” You, I’m not so sure about.

He shook his head as if to clear it. “No more tricks. You’re probably with them. You bastards clouded my mind with your drugs and machines. I’m sick of walking around in a fog. You stole my life. You tricked me, and I’m not putting up with it anymore.”

“I’m not with them.” I wasn’t even sure who them was, probably the scientists that had started this mess. “Calm down. I want to help.”

“That’s what they said last time. I took their tests. I did everything they asked me to, and all I got was tortured for it, and they just sit there in their lab coats writing notes on a clipboard while I begged for mercy. You listen and you listen good, buddy. You’re going to give her back to me, and we’re getting out of here. You do it, or I’ll stop holding him back. I swear. Find her or you’ll all pay.”