“It’s confusing. I’m just as in the dark as I was before. Even more so, really. Because at least I knew how living worked. I knew what I had to do and where I could go. I knew my body’s needs and limits. I knew about the world I lived in. Now… I’m just lost. There’s no handbook, no guide, no one to really explain anything to me. I’m just… I’m trying to sort it all out right now.”

“Did she kill you?”

“Yes.” Daniel explained what had happened, how he’d been back at home with his wife and son, how she’d tricked him into death by promising to stay away from his boy, how he’d met his mother and she’d told him he could bring the girl back to the House, how he’d done that and had ended up in some sort of limbo, how the girl had escaped, and how she’d suddenly reappeared in the other House and he’d brought her back.

“What was she?” Mark asked.

Daniel shrugged. “You got me.”

“Is it over now? Is that it?”

“I hope so.”

Mark looked over at the girl’s corpse, still lying on the bed. In death, it looked like the body of a child. There was nothing unusual about it, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to indicate that it had been anything other than a little girl. He met Daniel’s eyes, saw understanding there.

The two of them were silent for several moments.

“Did it hurt when she killed you?” Mark asked finally. “When you died?”

“My body hurt. But once I was out of it, I felt no pain.”

Mark nodded, thought of his sister. “So what’s on the Other Side? Beyond the Houses, I mean.”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet.”

“What do you mean you haven’t seen it? You’re dead!”

“I seem to be… trapped. In the Houses. That’s all I’ve seen. What I told you.”

“Have you met my sister, Kristen?”

Daniel shook his head. “I haven’t met anybody. I’ve seen my mother. That’s it. I suppose all that comes next. I don’t really know.”

“You haven’t disappeared yet. You’re still here.”

“I know,” Daniel said worriedly.

“So what are you going to do now?” Mark asked.

“Go home,” Daniel said. “If I can.”

“And if you can’t?”

He shrugged.

“Is there…” Mark cleared his throat awkwardly. “Is there anything we should, you know, tell your wife? Or your son?”

Daniel was shaking his head. “No. Don’t…” He trailed off, thought for a moment. “Tell my wife… tell Margot… tell her… I don’t know, tell her something she can believe and she can understand. And let her know that I love her and that she and Tony were what I was thinking about and concerned about.”

Mark nodded.