“That’s a good idea,” Rain said. “I don’t think anyone’s been here for a while, but we’ll be vulnerable while we’re in the dream. It can’t hurt to double check.”

“You’re not offended I’m prying?”

Rain shrugged. The mechanical arms that were attached to his elbows gave his arms extra weight, and made the shrug heavier. “I’d be happy to get any insights. I’m still trying to figure it all out. Or even a reminder about what’s screwed up about all of this.”

“Your parents, their bible was normal.”

“Aunt and uncle. Yeah. They were hardline Fallen, but they’d go back to the actual bible as their tried-and-true.”

“How do they reconcile that?” Gilpatrick asked.

Rain shrugged again, heavy. “They just do.”

“Your sister—or cousin?”

“Cousin.”

“She packed her clothes but didn’t bring the guitars.”

“She had four, I think.”

“Mmm,” Gilpatrick grunted. “I don’t want to sound weird about my fixation on this, I know I was just staring off into space, your cousin’s room, now I’m asking a lot of questions.”

“Nah. I think you could find a hundred things to stare at and question in this house. I know I do a lot of thinking about little things.”

“I can understand your aunt and uncle, I think—”

“Sure.”

“—and I think I have a grasp of who you are. But your cousin—there’s a picture on her dresser.”

Rain tilted his head to one side, then ascended the stairs. Gilpatrick stepped out of the way and let Rain enter the bedroom.

Gilpatrick watched as Rain found the framed photo in question.

“Weird,” Rain said.

“No clue what that’s about?”

“Not at all.”

It really fucking bothers me, Gilpatrick thought. It felt like that ugliness he’d gotten used to looking in dark corners for, except it sat right out there in the open. Unashamed, unabashed.

“Any ideas?” Gilpatrick asked.

“A punishment or a reminder maybe,” Rain said. “If she stayed out too late or spent too much time around someone my aunt and uncle deemed subversive, maybe it was a reminder of what happens to the unfaithful.”

“And they make her keep it on her desk?”

“Knowing Allie, they’d ask to get a picture of the unfaithful friend or boyfriend after punishments were meted out, and tell her to look at it and remember there are rules. Or whatever. And so she put it in a frame and kept it on her desk as a kind of middle finger to them. Because one way you deal with all of this is to accept it without flinching, or by doing the opposite of flinching, and pretend it doesn’t bother you. She was better at that than I was.”

“How is she now?”