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SOLO III
Demon World
Part 002

   You sit up and feel very weak.  She slips the empty bottle into her purse
and helps you off the table.  You have to put your arm over her shoulder. 
You can barely walk.  She takes the candle and leads you to a hole in the
wall.
   Through the door to a landing at the top of crude stone steps going down
into pitch darkness.  She kicks a metal rod coming from a gap between the
landing and the rock wall.  Like a lever it clicks over from leaning toward
the portal to leaning toward the stairs.
   A huge stone slides down silently and covers the hole behind you.  The
candle flickers.  The stone lands with a thud and the air goes very still. 
Using her as a crutch, she helps you begin down the stairs.  Her left hand
holds the candle, her arm around you holding you up.
   ''Who am I.'' you ask.
   She doesnt look at you to answer.  Watching the crude irregular steps
carefully she says ''You were dead too long this time.'' Her voice sounds
strong, confident, and a little bit accusatory.
   She helps you down a few more steps.  ''I didn't think I made it in time,
Uncle.'' She sounds small and scared.
   You look down at your chest.  It's a nasty mess.  Matted hair and drying
blood.  A drip down your back tells you that what ever the wound was, it
went all the way through.  You look at her worried face in the candle light.
  Her brown hair is ragged and poorly cut.
   You still feel lost and uncertain.  ''Where are we going?''
   She keeps helping you down steps.  ''To the catacomb.''  Deeper and
deeper, winding this way and that.  ''To put you in a proper bed and let you
rest.''
   With your arm around her shoulder she feels graceful and strong.  She is
helping a weak old man down a treacherous flight of stairs.  She must work
for a living.

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