…identified as Lot#298 and Block #19 , located inManhattan , New York City, on46th Street and 2nd Avenue, and Sombra Corporation , a corporation doing business within the State of New York.

On this day ofJuly 15, 1976, Sombra is paying a non-returnable sum of $100,000.00 to Calvin Tower , receipt of which is acknowledged in regard to this property. In consideration thereof, Calvin Tower agrees not to…

July 15th, 1976. Not quite a year ago.

Eddie felt the darkness sweeping down on them, and tried to cram the rest of it through his eyes and into his brain: enough, maybe, to make sense of what was going on here. If he could do that, it would be at least a step toward figuring out what all this meant to them.

If the chimes don’t drive me crazy. If the things in the darkness don’t eat us on the way back.

“Eddie!” Jake. And terrified, by the sound. Eddie ignored him.

…Calvin Tower agrees not to sell or lease or otherwise encumber the property during a one-year period commencing on the date hereof and ending on July 15, 1977 . It is understood that the Sombra Corporation shall have first right of purchase on the abovementioned property, as defined below.

During this period,Calvin Tower will fully preserve and protect Sombra Corporation’s stated interest in the abovementioned Property and will permit no liens or other encumbrances…

There was more, but now the chimes were hideous, head-bursting. For just one moment Eddie understood—hell, could almost see —how thin this world had become. All of the worlds, probably. As thin and worn as his own jeans. He caught one final phrase from the agreement: …if these conditions are met, will have the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the property to Sombra or any other party. Then the words were gone, everything was gone, spinning into a black whirlpool. Jake held onto Eddie’s belt with one hand and Oy with the other. Oy was barking wildly now, and Eddie had another confused image of Dorothy being swirled away to the Land of Oz.

There were things in the darkness: looming shapes behind weird phosphorescent eyes, the sort of things you saw in movies about exploring the deepest cracks of the ocean floor. Except in those movies, the explorers were always inside a steel diving-bell, while he and Jake—

The chimes grew to an ear-splitting volume. Eddie felt as if he had been jammed headfirst into the works of Big Ben as it was striking midnight. He screamed without hearing himself. And then it was gone, everything was all gone—Jake, Oy, Mid-World—and he was floating somewhere beyond the stars and the galaxies.

Susannah!he cried. Where are you, Suze?

No answer. Only darkness.

Chapter III

Mia

One