It doesn’t have to be like that, insisted Laura. The dogma doesn’t say that the Place of Power is always obvious to the medium. Sometimes he has to look for it. Women carry it with them and can invoke it. Men must find it.

And I wouldn’t have noticed it already?

Not necessarily. Have you ever been to the house next door?

Never, admitted Juan. The doctor, or her assistant, always comes here.

We could pay it a visit.

The house at number four was extraordinary, more spacious than ours and more outmoded: Graciela hadn’t changed the furniture; plus, she was no hippie. and her only interest was in being Jorge Bradford’s best possible disciple. Juan didn’t want to hurt Graciela, so he decided to explore while she was out taking classes or working a shift at the hospital—I never really knew what her activities in London were, she didn’t talk to me. So the only people at 4 Cheyne Walk were the bodyguards and Graciela’s assistant, a very young medical student who always greeted us with a sincere smile. He offered us something to drink and apologized because Graciela wasn’t there. Juan asked his permission to tour the house, then: I’ve never seen it, he explained. The assistant, whose name I don’t remember, said it was a very pretty house. Juan nodded and went in, determined. The bodyguards stayed outside.

The discovery happened so incredibly fast that even today I can’t explain it, I just can’t understand how he didn’t find it sooner, how it could go unnoticed for so many days. When Juan reached the middle of the living room, we heard him take a deep breath and start to speak in a very low, fast voice, words of recognition and relief. His back was to us. When he turned around, he was almost unrecognizable. He reached out his arms in a clear gesture: we should not come any closer. I saw the transformation before the others did, in his hands. I screamed, I couldn’t help it, and my scream was so shrill and hysterical that one of the bodyguards opened the door. Stephen acted fast. He asked the guard to come in, and to bring his partner with him. I understood. Juan was going to open the Darkness, and the Darkness would come and eat. Graciela’s assistant was asking what was going on, but everyone ignored him.

Juan took his clothes off. He always had to be naked before the Darkness. It was necessary, it was part of the ritual. Rituals must not be questioned because rituals protect. The bodyguards surely thought, in those seconds before the Darkness invaded the house, that we were in the middle of an orgy and that they had been invited to take part. I don’t think they had time to imagine much more. Juan moved to stand in the requisite place and touched the floor with his animal hands. Something responded, and we could all feel it. When he stood up, there was a dark line all around his body and it was widening, as if it emanated from him. The Darkness is different when it’s unleashed inside, in a closed space. Enclosed, it bellows. It’s a continuous thunder of low vibrations. I backed up as far as I could, but it would take more than that to escape.