It was a desolate, formless wasteland that went on forever. Fog swirled at all sides. I could see for miles, and yet I couldn’t see two feet. It was miserably cold.
Something moved out there! Didn’t it? I turned. Nothing was there. But something…
I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to know. I would have closed my eyes, but I couldn’t stand the thought of something creeping up on me. There was something awful about this place. Something quite horrible…it was worse than the cavern…where was I?
I almost tripped over the man before I saw him.
He was cowering in the frozen dirt, naked, scrawny, and miserable. He stared up at me with deadened, tortured eyes. He looked like a dog that had been hit by a car, in agony and begging to be put out of its pain. I gasped with recognition.
“Saberhagen?”
He regarded me with mild interest. His arms wrapped around his shivering frame.
“They always said it was supposed to be hot here.” He tried to laugh, but it degenerated into a coughing fit.
I took a step backward. “Where are we?” The question came out louder than I intended. It echoed back to us, along with Saberhagen’s laughter. Or was something else laughing?
He sat there, twitching on the barren earth. “Every time I die, here I am. I don’t remember it…I don’t let myself remember. It’s awful, Sherman. More than you can imagine.” He suddenly looked up at me with a desperate intensity. “You made the right decision. Nothing is worth this. Not living forever. Not at this cost. I wish I could go back. I wish I could…” He coughed more.
The fog grew thicker. Or maybe things just got darker. Amorphous shapes gamboled just out of my line of sight.
“Where are we?” There was real panic in my voice.
His face broke into a contemptuous sneer. “Nowhere. At least, nowhere you need to concern yourself with. You’re safe.”
I sure didn’t feel safe. “Now what?”
“You go. I stay. We meet again someday.”
I thought I felt something brush my shoulder, but when I turned, nothing was behind me.
“Again? Why? Why don’t you leave me alone?”
Again, something laughed.
“Because we’re bound to each other, Sherman. You know what I am, and what I’ve done. And much as you hate to admit it, you want this fight as much as I do. Even if I promised to let you be, you’d shake things up again. You’ll never forget what I did.
I remembered Stephanie, talking to me about demons. No, I’d never forget what he did.
“Saberhagen…”
“Go now.”
It was distinctly darker. The fog began to take on more obvious shapes.
“Go? But what about…”
“Go!”
Something touched me. Something approached us. Saberhagen moaned. Cold, cold hands gripped my neck. I turned.
I screamed.