I was in a vast underground cavern, no doubt carved into the Great Glen's geology during the last ice age. Above my head, stalactites dripped moisture from an arched ceiling that spanned forty feet above the dark pool of water. The long-dormant aquifer was sixty feet wide, and ran west to east through the tunnel-like chamber of rock, dead-ending at a collapsed wall of rubble to my far left. Across the waterway was a larger jagged shoreline that seemed to run parallel to the river along the length of the passage for as far as my light's beam could penetrate.

I was on the northern shore that seemed more a small outcropping of rock. Rotating the pincers of my right mitten, I aimed my handheld light upon my perch.

"Oh God …"

I was lying in piles of rubble composed of decomposed flesh and bone! Some were the skeletal remains of animals, but others were clearly human.

The dragon's lair. The vision from my night terrors!

Waves of panic threatened to drown me in a sea of insanity.

This isn't happening! Six months ago I was in sunny South Florida, working at a university! Six hours ago I was making love to Brandy MacDonald in my hotel room!

"No… no… no!" It startled me to hear my own muffled voice. "I'm not really here… I'm asleep. Wake up Zachary! Wake the fuck up!"

But I was here, surrounded by my worst imagined horrors, and now I needed the left side of my brain to take over before the right side sent me cartwheeling over the mental brink.

"Stop! Stay calm! Listen to me, Wallace, you're alive. You're alive inside a cavern, inside an aquifer. You're out of the water, lying on an outcropping of rock. There's air all around you, which means the pressure's fine. Use your lights, use your wits, and find a flicking way out of here!"

The pep talk returned reason to my thoughts.

"Okay, Zack, we'll take this one step at a time. Step one, you have to get out of this Newt Suit, it's the only way you can move. Step two, you've got to get to that dam. Step three, you're going to set the explosives in the rubble and—"

My lights flickered and dimmed.

My heart pounded.

And then I heard them… whispers in the darkness, advancing on me from the shadows.

Step four, you're going to panic…

Aldourie Castle

Gray daylight bled through smudged ancient glass, casting gothic shadows through the halls of the deserted manor.

True and his father pushed through decades of cobwebs and dust until they reached the study, surprised to find the door ajar.

True signaled to his father, then he yanked open the oak door and burst into the chamber, shocked to find his sister, standing by an immense stone and mortar fireplace.

"Brandy?"

"Whit's she daein' here?" Alban demanded.

Before True could respond, a voice from within the fireplace yelled, "it's bloody stuck!"