Mark nodded.
"Make sure she knows that I love her."
"Where does she live?"
Daniel gave him the address.
They stood there for a few moments longer, but they had nothing left to say to each other. There was an awkward silence between them, and finally Daniel said, "I'm going to try to go home, try to see Margot and Tony myself."
"Good luck," Mark told him.
Daniel smiled, nodded.
And before Mark could say another word, he was gone.
He was left alone in the room, the broken-necked body on the bed, the floor strewn with lint and dust and the other ingredients that had made up the dolls. He didn't know what was supposed to happen now, where he was to go from here, and he closed his eyes for a moment.
"Hello, Mark."
He opened his eyes.
It was Kristen.
She was standing next to him, and she put an arm around his shoulder, and he felt warmth, sunlight. "I'm proud of you, big brother."
"I thought I was a goner there for a sec."
She smiled. "I wasn't worried."
"You didn't think she could take me?"
Kristen shook her head. "Things can only work out the way they do."
Before he had time to ask her about that deterministic statement, she had moved over to the bed and was staring down at the girl's body.
Mark followed her, joined her. "Billings and the girl,"
he said. "What were they?"
"Meddlers in the natural process."
"Stormy thought maybe he was God and she was the devil."
"They have been called that."
He blinked. "So ... so God really is dead?"
"Not exactly."
"What do you mean, 'not exactly'?"
"They were merely representatives of other, higher forces. Pawns. You could call them good and evil, but good and evil are not all there is. There is something beyond all that."
"What?"
"I can't tell you."
"And I wouldn't understand?"
She nodded, smiling. "And you wouldn't understand."
"Do you?"
"Not completely. Not yet."
"But it's over now?"
"Nothing's ever over."
"You're more annoying dead than alive. Do you know that?"
Kristen laughed, and he laughed with her. It was the first time he'd allowed himself to laugh in a long, long while, and it felt good, it felt right.
When he stopped laughing, he saw that the girl's body was gone. It had disappeared. He turned toward his sister.
"Where did she go?"
"She's still here."
"I don't see her."
"Think of her as a sacrifice. A sacrifice to the House."
"The House demands sacrifices?"
Kristen smiled. "No."
"I don't--"
"You don't need to."
"So what happens now?"
"That's up to you."
"Are the others--?"
"You'll see them in a minute."
"And then what?"
"That's up to you." She kissed his cheek, and a flood of pleasant feelings passed through him. "You can leave now if you want. The doors are open."
"Kristen," he said.
He reached for her.
And she was gone.
Stormy There was no earthquake this time, only a silent temporary blurring of wall and floor and ceiling as the Houses came together.
He'd been standing in that previously unknown room Butchery --facing the oncomingDonielle , and she had suddenly stopped in place, eyes widening. She fell to the floor, flailing about, then stiffened and was still. He'd turned around, and the otherDonielle was lying on the floor, too. He remained there for a moment, unmoving, then walked toward her to make sure she was dead.
She was.
They both were.
He felt for a pulse, looked for any indication that there was life within the still bodies, and was gratified to learn that there were none. He was still in one of those black rooms, still staring at the girl's body, but when the change occurred, when the Houses again came together, he was in the sitting room, and the girl's body was nowhere in sight.
Once more, the House felt different. He didn't know why, didn't know how, but the aura of dread that had been in the background, like white noise, since he'd first stepped through the door of the House, was gone, replaced with a surprisingly benign sense of calm.
The windows of the sitting room were fogged with condensation, but there was light outside and shapes behind the obscuring blur of the glass.
He had the feeling that the real world was once again within reach.
Laurie walked in from the dining room, followed by Mark. Norton emerged from the entryway.
The four of them stood staring at each other for a long moment.
It was Mark who broke the silence. "Daniel's dead,"
he said. "She killed him. Or had him killed."
He explained what had happened, how he had confronted her in his sister's bedroom, how he had killed her and Daniel had helped.
The rest of them remained silent through his story, not interrupting, and even after he had finished none of them had any questions.
Stormy sighed tiredly. "I guess it's my turn."
They each described what had happened in their absence.
As before, while the details were different, the stories were remarkably similar Also, as before, Norton's was the most horrific.
Stormy was shocked by the old man's confession, and he found that he was disgusted, horrified, and slightly afraid of the teacher. He'd been surprised to see Norton alive, and happy about it at first, but as the other man related the events that had befallen him, Stormy recalled that bloody transparent figure he'd seen in the black room, and he understood what had happened there.
He did not like Norton, he realized, and as embarrassed and apologetic as the old man was, Stormy detected something hard and dark beneath that surface contrition, and he felt uncomfortable being in the same room with him.
He edged a little closer to Laurie.
"So what next?" Laurie asked after Norton had finished talking. She gestured toward the sitting-room window.
"It's light out there. Anybody want to try to go outside? See if we can finally get out of here?"
"Count me in," Stormy told her.
"The doors are open," Mark said. "There's nothing holding you here. You can go."
Laurie looked at him. " 'You'?"
Mark cleared his throat nervously. "I'm staying."
They looked at him.
"What?" Stormy said, incredulous.
Norton sucked in a deep breath. "I am, too."
"This is crazy!" Stormy looked from one man to the other. "Have you both lost your fucking minds? Billings is dead.Donielle's dead. The Houses are open. There's nothing keeping us here. We're free! We can go back to our normal lives and pretend this never happened!"
Mark's voice was quiet. "Yes, Billings and the girl are gone, but we don't know what that means. What we do know, is that with someone living in at least one of the Houses, the barrier holds."
"You still want to stay? After everything that's happened to you here?"
"Especially after everything that's happened. Think of what we've seen. Think of what we know. Can you leave here with a clear conscience, knowing that if the Houses are empty it'll all happen again? You had dead people popping up on your Indian reservation. And that kind of shit was happening all over the country, all over the world maybe. You know what would happen if the border fell entirely?" He shook his head. "I can't let that occur."
"We've been prisoners here!"
Norton smiled sadly. "I'm not a prisoner anymore.
This time it's my choice. And perhaps, in some small way, I can make up for ... for what happened before."