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only the reverberations of her voice
and the snapping of the flames in the pit breaking the profound silence.
    The fire still burned in the center of the cavern. Would
another drop of blood summon those shades again? She had to try.
    “Please! I want another chance.” She found the knife, stood
over the fire and pricked her arm again until a bead of blood formed and
dripped into the flames.
    For long moments, nothing happened. She sobbed in
desperation. The tears started and flowed down her cheeks. She pressed the
knife deeper and let more blood flow into the flames until it popped and
hissed. Kelly couldn’t believe this was happening, that she’d made such a
mistake in such a drastically important thing.
    “This can’t stand. I was wrong.” She yelled it and heard her
admission come back to her from every direction.
    Then the echoes cut off abruptly in an odd and disquieting
way. The crackling from the fire went mute. For a few long, eerie moments, the
silence was absolute. Terror held her frozen in place and quiet.
    A low rumble shook the cavern, escalating her terror almost
to panic. But as she turned to run, the shaking stopped and a cloud of smoke
formed in front of her. The same cloud that had preceded the appearance of the
group of shades earlier.
    Kelly stopped and waited until the fog or smoke cleared. The
group stood there, the leader a step in front of the others. “You summoned us
again?” he asked. “You have another request?”
    Kelly had to call up all the courage she possessed to
answer. “Yes, sir. I made a mistake in my first verdict. I want to change it,
if that is possible.”
    The man said nothing for a moment, then asked, “Why?”
    “I made a mistake. I was wrong. I need to correct it if I
can.”
    “Why were you wrong?”
    “I reacted from shock and an emotional response when I
pushed Robert away and denied him. It was too much, too sudden and
overwhelming. When I was able to think about it, though, I realized there were
good, solid reasons for his actions. They didn’t come from evil within him, but
in reaction to and defense against evil outside him.”
    “An interesting distinction,” the man noted. “And an
important one.” He stared at her for a moment. “What made you think you could
summon us again and demand a second chance?”
    “I’m not sure I know. I only knew that I made a mistake and
that if you were really as concerned about justice as you seemed to be, it
couldn’t be allowed to stand.”
    The man’s expression changed to a smile. “So you did what
you could to set it right.”
    “I had to.”
    He nodded. “Robert did indeed choose his judge well.”
    “Then you’ll let me change my verdict?”
    “My dear, what are we about if not second chances?” The
group parted behind him and Robert appeared in between them, tall, solid and
naked.
    “But what if I hadn’t sought you out again? What would have
happened to him?”
    “Then his spirit would have gone on to the final judgment. A
judgment rendered, mercifully, by a power far more qualified to do so than any
of us. But because he picked his judge well, he is now returned to you to live
out the span of his human life.” He put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. “Go now,
both of you. This cavern will no longer exist in half an hour.”
     
    They stopped only long enough to gather up Kelly’s clothes
and belongings and relight the candle before racing to the stairs and back up
them.
    Once up the stairs and back through the door that hadn’t
existed before today—one that probably wouldn’t exist again tomorrow—they
stopped to turn to each other.
    She stared at him, amazed and a bit stunned to have him with
her. She put a hand on his arm to assure herself he was solid and real. Warmth
soaked into her palm from his skin and the muscles tensed under her touch.
    “I can’t believe it worked. You’re here.”
    Turning to him, she put both hands on his shoulders. She had
to reach up and was brought against