Much like how the mummy had been replaced by what looked like a normal human being, the fog-filled casino had been replaced by a wide-open desert of scrub brush. In the near distance were the shadows of mountains. It didn’t seem that different from the terrain I’d been in earlier in Dugway. After all, in terms of actual miles, we weren’t really that far away. Marcus had been buried not very far from his last earthly home.

“It seems…familiar. Why are we here?”

“Because I need you to understand that truth.”

It was freezing cold, but not from the strange energy-siphoning effect of the Nachtmar. This place really was that miserably cold in real life. The wind was howling. There was a dusting of snow on the sand. It was a barren, ugly place.

“Where have you taken me?” he asked, suspicious.

“You brought us here. This is what you’ve been looking for all along. I don’t know how to get here, but you’ve known all along, and he’s been leading you astray. The only thing I’ve done is help you get out from under the demon’s thumb. I’m like you.” I didn’t understand a fraction of what the Old Ones’ artifact had done to me, and I hated letting someone else tap into that strength. As I’d been told, everything from the other side came with a price, and I was going to have to pay for this somehow. “The Nachtmar isn’t strong enough to stop us both.”

He studied the horizon. It didn’t matter that it was dark. It wasn’t like his eyes were real anyway. He could see our surroundings just fine. “It does look familiar.” Marcus walked forward a few feet, squatted down, and poked at something in the sand. It was a chunk of an old bottle. Nearby were a few scraps of lumber rotting back into the ground. “But this…This can’t be…I know this place. There was a town here. Well, not really a town…They were only shacks, but…”

“They’re gone. They’ve been gone for a really long time. I tried to tell you before.”

Marcus went to his knees and laid his hands flat on the sand. “This feels like the place. I lived here. This isn’t another of his lies, is it?”

“I’m sorry. This is now. This is real.”

“This is where I left her. My wife…I promised her I’d come back.”

“But that was over sixty years ago. You’ve been asleep a long time.”

“It can’t be. That means…” he trailed off.

“Yeah.” It meant that everyone he’d ever know was probably dead, or so old that he wouldn’t be able to recognize them anyway. The world had passed him by. He was quiet for a long time as the terrible ramifications set in. “This isn’t your time anymore.”