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was the leader of this little group. She began to diddle with the safety pins holding the tears in her t-shirt together. “It’s a long story, but here goes. First, you gotta understand that there are Rules. We weren’t really bad people in life, but we were fucked up. We couldn’t hack it. So we killed ourselves. That’s one of the Rules.”
    “No ifs, ands, or buts,” Xeke said.
    “If you commit suicide, you go to Hell. Period. No way around it. If the Pope committed suicide, he’d go to Hell. It’s one of the Rules.”
    Cassie touched her locket, felt something shrivel inside. Her sister, Lissa, had committed suicide. So she went to—
    Cassie couldn’t finish the thought.
    “This house is a Deadpass. Fenton Blackwell, the previous owner, committed atrocities so extreme that they created a Rive—that’s, like, a little hole between the Living World and the Hellplanes. If you’re like us—if you can find one of the holes—you can take refuge in the Living World.”
    “But no one in the Living World can see you,” Cassie figured.
    “No one. Period. That’s another one of the Rules.”
    Cassie began, “Then how come—”
    “You can see us?” Xeke held his finger up. “There’s a loophole.”
    A dense silence filled the narrow basement. Via, Xeke, and Hush were all trading solemn glances. Hush held Cassie’s hand and squeezed it, as if to console her.
    Cassie looked back dumbfounded at them all. “What is it?”
    “You’re a myth,” Via said.
    “In the Hellplanes,” Xeke went on, “you’re the equivalent of Atlantis. Something rumored to be true but has never been proven.”
    Via sat down next to Xeke and slung her arm around him. “Here’s the myth. You’re a virgin, right?”
    Cassie flinched uncomfortably but nodded.
    “And you were never baptized.”
    “No. I wasn’t raised in any particular faith.”
    “You’ve genuinely tried to kill yourself at least once, right?”
    Cassie gulped. “Yes.”
    “And you have a twin sister who did kill herself.” Via wasn’t even asking anymore; she was telling Cassie what she already knew. “A twin sister who was also a virgin.”
    Cassie was beginning to choke up. “Yes. Her name was Lissa.”
    More solemn stares.
    “In Hell, you hear about it the same way you hear about the angelic visitations here, like these people who see Jesus in a mirror, or St. Mary on a taco,” Via went on. “Stuff like that. You hear about but you never really believe it.”
    “It’s all written down in the Infernal Archives,” Xeke said. “The Grimoires of Elymas, the Lascaris Scrolls, the Apocrypha of Bael—the myth’s all over the place. We’ve all read about it, and never really believed it either. But you’re real.”
    “And the myth is true,” Via said. “You’re an Etheress.”
    The strange word seemed to flit about the basement like a trapped sparrow. “Etheress,” Cassie repeated.
    “Just like it says in the Grimoires,” Via continued, “you’re a physical bond in the Etheric Realm, something that’s created by astronomical circumstances. Two twin sisters, both virgins and both suicidal. One commits suicide and one survives. Both born on an occult holiday.”
    Now Cassie frowned. “Lissa and I were born on October 26. That isn’t any occult holiday.”
    Via and Xeke laughed out loud. “It’s the date of Gilles de Rais’s execution,” Via explained.
    Then Xeke: “To the Satanic Sects, it’s their most powerful day of worship. Makes Halloween and Beltane Eve look like a sock hop.”
    Via spoke louder now, her voice echoing. “You’re an Etheress, Cassie. You’re very very special.”
    Cassie didn’t understand. Very special? Me? She’d never felt special in her life.
    “We’ll show you how special you really arc,” Via said.
    Xeke: “As a true Etheress, you have powers...”
    Powers, Cassie thought.
    Then Via went on, “And one of those powers is the ability to enter Hell anytime you want.”
    Cassie’s eyes widened