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softly, her voice so mesmerizing that
I immediately felt myself sinking into a more tranquil state.  “Now see what
she has seen.”
    I jerked like I was having a
convulsion when the world seemed to disappear around me, leaving me in a
terrifying kind of darkness, but I didn’t pull away.  I instinctively knew that
darkness, the way we all know it on some level.  It was the darkness of death, the
pitch black of the void between this life and the next.  The experience of
seeing it through Casey’s eyes left me feeling cold and sick.  Knowing that
darkness was the last thing she’d experienced in this life made the guilt in my
stomach boil up like acid.  It poured through my veins and I felt tears filling
my eyes behind my closed lids.
    Just when I started to fear
that the darkness was the only memory left for me to see, I saw a brilliant
pinpoint of light flicker to life.  I walked toward it, watching it grow larger
as I approached until it was the size of a doorway. 
    I had to force myself to
take the last step I would have to take, knowing I wasn’t going to enjoy what I
found.  Finally, though, I stepped out of the darkness and into the light and found
myself standing in a cell of some sort.  The walls were made of stone.  They
were slick with moisture and the whole place smelled like a septic system gone
bad.  The only light came from a battery-operated lantern hanging from a hook
on the wall.  It looked almost like a dungeon, complete with steel bars and
locked doors.
    And on the other side of those
bars stood Jack, his lips turned up in a twisted smile so sinister I had to
really fight the urge to run back into the darkness that, compared with the demon
facing me, suddenly didn’t look so bad.
    “You’ve made it longer than
your friends,” Jack said in a low, menacing voice.  “The others barely made it
three days.  You are a strong one, aren’t you?”
    “Please,” a weak voice
whispered behind me.  “If you’re going to kill me, do it.  Just stop playing
with me.”
    With a feeling of dread, I
turned to see Casey slumped against the wall in the corner, her face ghostly
pale in stark contrast to her freshly-dyed red curls.  She was covered in blood
and there were bruises and cuts on every inch of visible skin.  My heart ached
like someone had punched me in the chest when I saw the defeated look in her
dead blue eyes.  She knew she was going to die.  She knew it and had accepted
it.  She just wanted it to be over. 
    “Yes, it is almost time,”
Jack said, still smiling, as he pulled something small out of his back pocket. 
I felt physically ill when he held it up for Casey’s perusal and I saw it was a
scalpel.  The razor-sharp blade gleamed in the low light of the cell and I
heard Casey whimper in fear.  “Though your suffering has been entertaining, you
have begun to bore me.  We shall have one more session together, you and I,
before I give you the release you long for.  You will be my final message to an
old friend.”
    I forced myself to watch as
he unlocked the door of the cell and stalked toward the cowering creature in
the corner of the cell.  I wouldn’t allow myself to look away even when he
reached down and grabbed a handful of her curls to haul her to her feet.  I kept
my eyes on Casey’s face when he threw her onto the filthy cot next to me,
ignoring the tears I could feel streaming down my cheeks. 
    Then, to my horror, as Jack
slit her shirt open down the front, she turned and looked right at me.  And for
that one second as our eyes met, I knew she saw me. 
    “Run,” she whispered,
closing her eyes.  “Just run.”
    I didn’t look away from that
suddenly peaceful face until Jack, with a vicious laugh, started to carve
something into her skin.  Only then did I close my eyes and turn away.  The
second I did, I felt the world shift again and I was back in the morgue. 
Opening my eyes, I looked down at the peaceful face of the girl lying on the
table,