Kristen shook her head. “They’re part of the House.”

“But did you ever try?”

“I didn’t know how. I just avoided them. Like we used to.”

“And now we’re both trapped here.”

“Maybe,” she said.

“Come on. Billings won’t let us leave.”

“First of all, I’m not really here. I’m… visiting.”

“Then he’s trapped me here.”

“You’re trapped,” she told him, “but Billings hasn’t done it to you. He’s not keeping you here. Any of you. You’re keeping yourselves here. As long as you remain tied to your homes, as long as you have unresolved issues with those on the Other Side, you will remain on the border. It is the only hold the Houses have over you, this connection to the past, to the dead.”

“Unresolved issues?”

Kristen nodded.

“With you?”

She shook her head, smiled. “We always understood one another,” she said. She touched his cheek, and he felt the warmth of sunshine. “We still do.”

“Who, then?”

She paused. “Mother. Father.”

Mark grew silent.

“That is why you can’t leave.”

“Because I never came back and made it up with Mom and Dad?”

She nodded.

“I can’t believe this.”

“The House keeps them tied the same way. Those threads that bind you to the House and to the Other Side bind them to the House as well.”

“What if those threads are broken?”

“It is complicated.”

“What happens?”

She shook her head.

“Will the barrier be… weakened?”

“Possibly.”

“Is that good or bad?” he asked.

Her luminescent face grew grave. “It is bad,” she said. “The two sides must not mix.”

Mark smiled. “You’d be able to visit more often,” he said.

Kristen laughed, that tinkling musical sound that wasn’t quite human. “Mark,” she said fondly. “I really do miss you.”

“I know,” he said, and he felt the tears welling up as he looked at her face. She was as beautiful as he’d known she’d be, and she’d grown from a gawky teenager into a confident self-assured woman. God, if she’d only been allowed to live…

He wiped his eyes. “So that’s it. I’m stuck here. We’re all stuck here. We’re screwed.”

“No, that’s not it,” Kristen said.

“What, then?”

“The Houses do need people,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be you. It could be anyone. And if you guys leave, someone will come to take your place. Nature, as they say, abhors a vacuum.” She paused. “But when someone else comes, it will be voluntary. It will be their decision. They won’t be coerced or forced or held prisoner against their will. They’ll be like I was.”

“But how can we leave?”

“Resolve your problems.”

“And how do we do that?”

“It will come of its own.”

“What will?”

“You’ll see.”

“What? Can’t you say?”