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Chapter 10: Orpheus, Father of Songs

I had rushed ahead of the group, running forward in an attempt to catch up to Marissa's kidnappers. As I turned to enter the jungle, something caught my foot and I nearly fell in my haste. This combined with the frantic yells of my friends stopped me from running off into the jungle alone.

I felt numb, empty. It was a horrible feeling, a feeling that I had done something terribly wrong. That I had failed Marissa, and that she could be suffering right now because of me. I also felt that something was missing, something that I had come to take for granted. The hole in my chest was cold and hard. I felt an autonomous movement as I looked down to see what had caught my foot.

It was an arm, extended from the deep vegetation. I recognized the gray hue as one of Marissa's captors, and the blood pooling out from under the vines convinced me that he had died. I felt my hand tingle numbly as I grabbed the arm and pulled, freeing the corpse from its place under the flora. As the body came completely free, the others had caught up to me.

"David! Don't run off, you know something could happen!" Markus sounded angry, but I couldn't bring myself to reassure him. Safety was no longer an issue for me, my friend had been taken and my love had been hurt. There would be retribution.

"It's a Lithian!" Marlowe said as he spotted the corpse, recognizing it immediately. He looked very reproachful of the corpse, standing back a few feet as if it would jump up at any minute.

"Yeah," Pharris agreed, "Definitely a Lithian. There's a chance they are natives here, but Nihash tends to employ them as field scouts." Pharris paused as I looked up at her before continuing her explanation. "They seem to be easier for him to manipulate for some reason... It seems possible that we've been discovered already."

I looked down at the corpse, the bizarre structure of the creature barely pulsing through the numbness and drawing my attention. It appeared to be another sort of beast-human creature from this world, only it had scales instead of fur, and the face was almost reptilian in form. The snout flared up at the nostrils, and the eyes were tilted with a permanent grimace. Had I seen this kind of creature in any other circumstance, I would have fled for my life.

"David, do you hear me?"

Markus' voice cut through the thickest the fog inside of my head, but only momentarily.

"Yeah, I'm sorry... but we need to hurry." My voice sounded strained and low. Markus looked concerned at hearing me speak.

"We don't even know where they went, David..."

Markus' words hurt, but I knew he was right. I looked back down at the corpse without responding as Pharris began speaking.

"If Nihash has somehow discovered us already, we need to get your friend back as soon as possible."

Pharris' words held little presence in my mind as my worries about Marissa buzzed on. I noted her warning as I looked down at the corpse.

A cursory glance over the body revealed that the creature was dressed in a kind of leather armor. The armor had never seemed to come into play, however, as one of the arrows that I had launched back was protruding from the creature's eye. Judging from the fact that it had punctured the back of the skull, the creature had apparently been hit very hard.

I looked at the body closer, trying to identify any pockets or spots that could be used to conceal something. I began searching the body, desperate to find anything that could lead me to Marissa. I felt a large lump underneath the creature's chest as I searched, discovering a hidden pocket with something inside of it. A few seconds of shuffling later, and I had pulled out a very large stone.

The stone was oddly polished, and had a greenish hue to it. It could have passed as a kind of gaudy jewelry that only an older woman could appreciate. As I was examining it, Marlowe leaned closer and spoke up.

"Pharris, isn't this the stone from the river?"

I looked up, confused as Pharris leaned over and examined the stone.

"It looks like it; you can't forget something like that..."

"What are you talking about?" I interjected. As I looked up at Pharris, I saw Markus' face as he stood a few feet behind her. His face looked forlorn, and I felt an immediate rush of sadness. I couldn't explain it, but it hurt. It was like water rushing into a cavity. I suddenly wanted nothing more than to embrace Markus and tell him how much I loved him.

"Whenever we were gathering supplies, there was a river near where we found the Vaporsnatch. These stones were everywhere."

"Let's go..." Surprisingly, it was Markus that had spoken up. As we began walking in the direction Pharris had gestured to, I walked beside Markus and hung my head. Something was wrong with him, but I couldn't quite place it.

?-?-?

"Markus." I spoke up beside him as we approached the river, having walked in silence for roughly thirty minutes now. We had fallen back from Pharris and Marlowe by several feet, and at the moment Markus was the only one that could hear me talking. The river was surrounded with the same jade stone that we had found on the corpse, and I think I now understood why he had taken one. The stones on the side of the river seemed plain and dull, but the ones that had found their way under the water sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight.

"Yeah?" Markus replied sullenly. I could hear his frown in his voice.

"You know that I love you, right?"

I sensed a shift in his pace as he replied, his movements changing slightly as he withdrew from his own thoughts.

"Of course. And I love you too. Why are you asking?"

I smiled as he responded, enjoying that familiar chorus of encouragement and happiness that resounds inside of me every time he returns my emotions.

"I just needed to hear you talk. I'm worried about too many things right now, you included."

He chuckled darkly.

"You know you don't have to worry about me."

"But I do anyway..."

Before I could finish speaking, Markus' arm was suddenly pulling me closer to him.

"Don't."

Instead of responding, I leaned into him and let the paranoia that had been eating away at me shrivel up. Markus was still Markus, and nothing between us had changed. It was like breathing in after resurfacing from a dive, and I felt somehow infinitely more confident that I would be able to help Marissa. I held onto this confidence as tightly as I could as we turned the corner, and my vision became blurred with the chaos of movement and sound. We were being attacked again.

"NO!" I yelled angrily at no one in particular, annoyed at the persistence of our attackers.

It was another volley of arrows, but this time Pharris had been prepared. Standing over water, a barrier was around us before we could have been hit. Each strike of arrow hitting barrier was punctuated with the sound of electricity crackling as bits of lightning shot back into the wilderness.

"Damnit!" Markus yelled as his grip on my tightened; I caught a slight flicker of rage in his eyes, and I feared for the next enemy to come into contact with him. We began moving ahead at a faster pace as the attack continued.

Volley after volley we were swarmed, our antagonists attacking relentlessly. We were only able to move as fast as Pharris could handle, our small group bunching up around her at every disjointed pause. We seemed to be making decent progress, although Pharris' counterattacks had no visible effect on the oncoming barrage of arrows. There was either an endless swarm of archers, or our counterattacks were completely ineffectual. We had just barely managed to cross the bridge, our pace far too slow to be considered efficient.

"Oof!"

Everyone's attention snapped to the center of the group, where Pharris abruptly fell to her knees.

"Sis!"

Marlowe ducked down to aid his sister, who had apparently over exerted herself. The barrier fell, and I had a moment to register a few things before my eyes scrunched together in concentration; The slight trickle of blood from Pharris' lips, the arrows only barely avoiding Marlowe's head, the sudden panicked movements as Markus turned toward me. I reached into myself and grabbed at the thin veil that I was coming to understand as the source of my abilities, and pulled as hard as I could. Within seconds the barrier was back in place, and I focused all of my effort on sustaining it.

"David? What's happening?"

Markus had attempted to shield me, but he backed up as the shimmering barrier covered us again.

"I'll keep us safe, grab Pharris and keep moving."

My words sounded distant, and it was all I could utter before the effort of constraining the barrier called my attention back. I couldn't quite open my eyes yet, but I could hear the scuffling as Markus began lifting Pharris into the air.

Each and every arrow strike resounded in my head. It was like the surface of the barrier was the surface of my mind, and within seconds the sounds were punctuated with an ever festering migraine.

"Ahh..."

I was having trouble keeping up with the group, my legs shuttering beneath me. I could tell that we we're almost across the bridge, but I didn't know how much further I could make it while fighting back the attack.

"What is that? What are those?"

Marlowe's voice this time, but distant. I only just caught what he had said, and in response I felt the horrible reprise of mental pressure dimming. It seemed that the arrows had stopped. However, just as I was beginning to recover, I felt something crash into the side of the barrier.

I couldn't hold it back any longer, and as the barrier snapped under the assault of the unknown force, I felt something in my mind snap with it.

I was falling, screaming, and losing consciousness. Everything felt wrong. There was an intense pain radiating from the center of my body, and the last thing I could hear before losing the last bit of awareness I had was the sound of Markus yelling my name.

?-?-?

Sudden blackness. The world as I knew it was compressing into a singularity at the base of my skull. I was no longer a person, no longer an entity capable of a coherent train of thought. I was an idea, a fragment of possibility floating in an endless ocean of nothing. I was an atom repeating a small line of code, ignorant of my own purpose. The nothingness pulsed around me, and I felt a part of myself marveling at how beautiful it seemed. That same part seemed to also be terrified of the nothingness, and I was beginning to wonder benignly how this was possible.

I floated on, experiencing emotion after emotion passively and fleetingly. I was worried about something, but I couldn't quite understand what. As I floated on and pondered what was going on around me, I saw the distant horizon begin to flare up with light. Before long, the light was all around me, and I felt a shock as I suddenly became aware of a horrible pain in the back of my head.

I could feel my eyes again, and I realized that they were shut. As they quickly fluttered open, I felt an involuntary intake of breath as the light brightened. Suddenly I was whole again, breathing, and I had no Idea where I was or where I had come from.

"Good morning, David."

A voice, greeting me. I heard my name and recalled myself, my simple life in New York returning to my mind as quickly as it had initially disappeared. My eyes were adjusting to the bright light, but I couldn't quite understand my surroundings. I was in a large white room, about the size of the average living room. I began fidgeting my fingers experimentally, and I looked down at myself in shock. I seemed to be wearing some heavily disheveled clothes, clothes that seemed alien to me.

"Are you back yet?"

The voice again. So familiar, but so strange. I looked up to where I had heard it, wondering almost passively who it could be. I saw a chair, as startlingly white as the rest of the room, turned away from me. There was someone sitting in the chair, back facing me. I had no fear at this point, only a muted sort of curiosity.

"Hello, David. That's your name, isn't it?"

I realized that I should probably reply, as silence suddenly seemed to be too rude of a response.

But why do you care about being rude?

"Yeah, I'm David. Who are you?"

My words listed, almost lazily, upward into the vast room. It seemed to have grown considerably in the past few moments, now slightly larger than the average cathedral.

"My name is Heart, what's yours?"

Suddenly, my head was pounding. As the person said his name, I felt a flickering in my head that reminded me of my headache. I couldn't quite seem to pick out what he had said his name was. It was like resurfacing from a cold pool of water, and within seconds I was aware of pains all over my body. The room had now grown so large that the walls were barely visible.

"I told you already, I'm David. Actually, you said my name already... where am I?"

A playful laugh from the seat ahead of me. I pulled my legs up and attempted to stand, but I still couldn't quite handle it. I fell back to the floor and grimaced as my headache worsened.

"I guess your mostly back now. You shouldn't look so sad that you can feel the pain again, David. You should know that that is a good thing."

I looked up again, studying the back of the chair apprehensively.

"I've never exactly been into masochism, so I'm still not quite to the point that I enjoy pain. Who are you?"

No laughter this time, only a pointed response.

"I already told you, my name is Alive."

Another flicker, and my headache worsened this time. I still couldn't quite catch the last bit of what he had said. The person spoke up before I was able to respond.

"You should take care not to strain yourself like this in the future, David. I was only just able to pull us back, and next time we might not be so lucky."

"Pull me back? What happened?" I felt a sudden concern wash over me as I began recalling something important.

"You should understand by now that you are pulling energy from yourself to affect the physical world around you. However, you have poor choice in what to draw from..."

I suddenly recalled the scene at the jungle, and what had happened as I had lost consciousness. I began feeling very anxious, my heart pounding in my chest. I looked around, and the world seemed infinitely white in all directions. I suddenly found that I couldn't quite recall who I was speaking too.

"Wait... what was your name again? Where am I?"

The familiar voice chimed in over the melancholy of my mind.

"My name is Orpheus, and you are scattered. You are in several places at once right now, and you're mind isn't handling it too well."

"Orpheus... that's such a weird name... Is Markus alright?"

Another pointed laugh from the other side of the chair.

"There it is. Yes, he is fine for now. All of your friends are, and they are terribly worried about you."

My mind was racing, and I couldn't see any possible exit in any direction.

"How do I get back?"

"In time, you will. For now, we need to go over something. What happened at the bridge, remember?"

I remembered myself recalling the barrier, and I remembered how quickly it had fallen. I wondered if I was back in my own world somewhere, but it still didn't seem to make sense. Who was this person, Orpheus, in front of me?

"I remember, but why am I here?"

I heard the echoes of a slight shuffling, a shuffling that I assumed was the sound of Orpheus' feet shifting in front of him.

"That isn't important now. What's important is that you listen to me. Do you understand?"

I heard what Orpheus said, and responded with my own silence. It seemed to be the only correct response.

"Good, now listen. You've made the mistake of pulling energy from your life to power yourself. While this is certainly the most powerful energy you have access too, it is also the most dangerous. Understand?"

I nodded, enthralled by his voice. It was almost uncomfortably soothing.

"You're love for him was the strongest emotion inside of you at the time, and because of that you drew from your life. However, this love is the framework that is holding David together. Are you still following?"

I wasn't sure that I understood entirely, but I nodded regardless. Bits of his sentence seemed almost broken, as if I couldn't quite make sense of them.

"Great. Now, because you used so much of this energy so fast, your mind has almost completely left you. It's returning as fast as you allow it too though, so don't feel too discouraged yet."

As Orpheus continued speaking, I suddenly began to feel very cold. I began shivering, pulling my arms in to warm myself. Orpheus sighed before speaking again.

"I guess we're already out of time, then. Just remember not to do that again, okay? There are hundreds, no, thousands of different choices for you to draw power from. You must understand that you're essence is that of the wild, and your heart is not nearly black enough to be dependent on vitality. If you attempt to pull from love again, you may die."

"Wait... I thought you said I used my life energy? It's love now?"

A moment of silence before he responded.

"I've already indicated that it was love, but you should understand by now that they are essentially the same. If fate is nearly as tangible a concept as love, one could easily argue that you and he were fated to love. It's as big a part of what makes you David as anything else."

"Wait, I don't-" A sudden pounding in my head. My heart began racing as the whitest walls began dimming in the distance. I was blacking out again.

"Goodbye. I'm sorry I couldn't talk with you a little longer, but it's only fitting that our conversation would end here. I'm afraid we won't be speaking again after this, so try to keep my message close to us. Be safe." I heard the squeaking of chair wheels as Orpheus turned to face me. I looked up at a face as incomprehensible as the center of the known galaxy, and it was forgotten almost as soon as it was registered.

No time to reply. The second Orpheus' last words began chiming through the vast room, the world blacked out around me. I felt my mind compressing again, and the last thought I had before losing conscious was that I could finally feel the cold again.

?-?-?

I awoke suddenly, flailing my arms ahead of myself as I took in a deep, unsettled breath. I was breathing quickly, raggedly. The cold was almost unbearable, and as I sputtered into the darkness, I felt warm and powerful arms embracing me.

Along with the embrace that I knew so well was a kind of unintelligible banter. It sounded like speech, but didn't seem to make any sense. I was suddenly aware that my eyes were closed, and I opened them before frantically looking around myself.

"Markus!" I exclaimed, almost impulsively. He was already there, holding me. I looked up at his face in the dim light, and realized that the strange sound of speaking was him. In fact, there seemed to be several people speaking at once. I still couldn't understand what they were saying, and it seemed almost as if they were speaking a different language entirely. As I stood staring incomprehensibly at them, I felt a sudden jolt of pain in my head. I closed my eyes in pain, and felt a strange popping sensation in my ears as I finally regained full spatial awareness again. Markus was speaking to me.

"David?! Come on, talk to me!"

He sounded as if he'd been crying.

"Markus... I'm here. Where are we?"

Instead of responding, he immediately pulled me into him. He didn't seem to realize that he was crushing me, but the shock of realizing that he was crying kept me from pushing him away. Instead, I embraced him back. I was quickly becoming aware of how hot it was in this room, wherever we were.

"Hey, Markus... relax... It's fine, I'm here now! It's fine..."

His embrace tightened, and I felt myself become winded.

"Oof! Markus, chill!"

This time he did as I asked, almost immediately backing up and quieting himself.

"I'm sorry... You didn't have a pulse... She said you were..."

Markus sounded devastated.

"I swear I'm fine now relax..."

A voice interjected itself into the conversation immediately after mine.

"Not really, fine is a bad word choice. You were dead only minutes ago... Second time that's happened today, actually..." I looked over as I recognized the voice, and I saw that both Pharris and Marlowe were sitting slightly away from me. Pharris was smiling awkwardly, as if relieved, and Marlowe appeared to be wiping his face off with the back of his hand. They both seemed excited for some reason, but I could see the weariness in their movements. Something about what she said was bothering me, but it slipped my mind as I began examining our surroundings.

We were all sitting awkwardly in what appeared to be a small grotto of sorts, a circular hole about fifteen feet in diameter. It was very dim, and once again I was struck at how hot the grotto was. It was almost hot enough to cause a burn when I touched the wall. I looked up and was slightly shocked to see a large grate surrounding the top, and I realized that the hole wasn't even deep enough for any of us to stand up in. I began wondering what had happened to land us in this strange place.

I sighed awkwardly as I recognized all of the attention that was on me; had I really been dead?

"I said I'm fine, sorry for worrying you..." I was looking at Markus again. He seemed to have recovered significantly, and as my gaze turned towards his eyes I felt an overpowering urge to hug him again... So I did. Markus didn't complain, only reciprocated my actions.

"I'm really sorry... I pushed myself too far..."

"Yeah, about that... I didn't think I'd get the chance to tell you, but you probably should lay off the omnipotence for a while... or maybe forever, seeing as it killed you."

I sighed awkwardly as I pulled back from an annoyed Markus.

"I've already decided that I won't be using them anymore for a while... where are we?"

I began examining my surroundings in detail, the strange mossy walls and the metal grate above that appeared to be some form of gate. It was obvious that we were in a prison of sorts.

"We were captured shortly after we both dropped."

Pharris sounded severely annoyed, and I could tell that she was blaming herself for what had happened. Her voice sounded strained, resigned.

"We're in a cell of some sort. After you fell, I must have gotten knocked out... then I woke up here, and Pharris said that you were dead... I didn't know what to do..."

I looked over at Markus again, beginning to feel sick with sadness and relief. I felt Sadness that Markus had dealt with my own death like this for who knows how long, and relief that at least for the moment, we were all alive and breathing, however miraculously.

"I'm sorry, Markus..." I caught myself about to sigh again, and looked up before my own mental fatigue had a chance to show itself. "So, have you already tried to break the bars?"

Marlowe replied quietly from the corner, and as I heard the feebleness of his voice I became very concerned.

"Sis tried to use her resonance stuff... it didn't work. Also, the bars are burning up for some reason. You can't touch them."

"Marlowe, are you alright?" I asked cautiously, squinting my eyes to see him in the dimness of the cell.

"He burned his hand on the metal up there... I'm pretty sure it's being heated to keep us from trying to escape." Pharris explained.

"It's not that bad... I just wish I could sleep, it's been too long."

Too long? Wait... How long have I been...

"How long was I unconscious?"

There was silence for a moment, and I looked over at Markus for a moment, hoping he would respond.

"I'm not sure, David... I just woke up myself."

"You just woke up? So then we couldn't have been here long right?"

I looked over at Pharris, expecting confirmation. She waited a moment before responding.

"You heard me when I said you had died, right?"

"Well... yeah, but whatever, I'm-"

"Well, it wasn't just you. It's been about 2 days since they tossed us in here. I'd say you and Markus were both dead for about twelve hours."

"I... what?" I looked over at Markus, and he had what I assume was a mirrored expression of puzzlement.

"He just kind of passed out after you did... You both had a pulse when we got thrown in here, but it didn't last long."

"Why didn't you mention this to me?" Markus asked after a few moments had passed.

Pharris snorted.

"Well, for one thing, you were a corpse. I wasn't expecting you to jump up and start asking questions out of the blue. Also, you didn't stop crying until his second coming."

"Are... are you sure?" I asked, my head pounding.

"Of course, It's not that difficult to identify a pulse, or the lack of one. Also you stopped breathing."

Pharris spoke with her normal halfhearted tone of disdain, but I could tell from her smile that she was relieved that we were alive. I let the implications of what she was saying sink into me, but I couldn't seem to focus on it for too long; there was simply far too much going on in my head.

"I don't really know what to say..." Markus replied, sounding about as bewildered as I felt. As I listened to his voice, I was struck with a sudden revelation.

"Wait, so you're saying that we were captured by the same people that took Marissa? Do you think she's nearby!?"

Pharris shifted in place before replying, her movements slow and deliberate.

"It seems plausible, but even if she is, we have no way to leave this chamber."

"I could go back to my world and get something-"

"What could you possibly bring that could get us out of this room!?"

Pharris responded harshly, and as she flinched I realized that she had taken herself by surprise. She looked down.

"I'm sorry. I've been thinking a lot, and there hasn't been any food or water here for a while. There are guards right up there, so even if we managed to open the gate, they would probably kill us."

"Do you think you could go get some food?" Marlowe asked, his voice just barely audible.

"I..." I thought for a second before continuing. I couldn't think of an escape plan, and if they have been here for two days without food, they had to be close to starving. In fact, we all had to be. Oddly enough, I didn't feel too hungry.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." I replied. "I guess I need to sleep now."

I waited for confirmation, but neither Pharris nor Marlowe seemed inclined to speak. I couldn't quite tell if they were passing out or falling asleep. Able to take a hint, I began shifting around on the floor trying to get comfortable. The walls were scalding hot, but the floor was bearable enough to touch. As I was laying myself down, Markus spoke up to me.

"You can lay on me if you want... You know I don't mind."

"Are you sure? It's kind of hot in here. Isn't the wall burning your back?"

"It's fine, David. It always will be. Come sit down in front of me."

I did as Markus asked, unwilling to argue. Pharris and Marlowe still remaining silent. Markus had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, but as he replied to me he spread his legs open on the ground. I sidled up in front of him and turned, sitting down in the space between his legs. He grabbed onto my shoulders and pulled me back lightly, and I rested my back on his stomach. I moved in as close as I could, resting my head on his arm as he wrapped his arms around my stomach. Markus leaned his head down next to mine and whispered in my ear.

"Better?"

"Yeah..." I replied quietly, suddenly sleepier than I should have been.

"I guess dying is pretty exhausting, I think I'm about to fall asleep..."

Markus' grip on me tightened, and I instantly regretted what I had said.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to bring it back up..." I murmured up to Markus.

"It's fine. What's important is that were both here, both alright. We will get out of this safe, with your friend. Do you believe me?"

I thought for a moment before replying. No one could say for sure whether or not we would survive, but if there was anything in the plane of existence that I could put my trust in, it was Markus. Markus was always there for me, even when I couldn't be there for him, and I truly believed that he always would be. This was the last thing I was able to contemplate as I nodded against Markus' arm and fell asleep.

?-?-?

Cold, Metal. I'm freezing, and its dark everywhere. I'm gasping for air, the feeling is very familiar. There's a blanket over me, but it doesn't seem to be keeping out the cold at all. I throw the blanket off of myself as I go to reach upward, expecting my vision to return momentarily. I was almost immediately impeded by more cold metal. The air is stale, and it smelled almost sickly sweet. I began feeling around myself, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I was trapped in a box of some sort. I began pushing at all of the walls around me, to no avail.

I could barely breathe, and my heart was racing. It was only a day ago that I was lying in a hospital bed safe and sound.

But wait... two days...

Then, suddenly, everything clicked together in my head, and I realized where I was. I stifled the urge to vomit as I kicked as hard as I could below myself. The door to the cold storage chamber came loose with a thud before crashing to the ground, and light flooded in around me. I reached up and slid the tray I was on out with my hands, practically hyperventilating now. I needed to get out, to find my...

Oh god, mom... She's got to be freaking out now. Relax, just relax... we'll take this step by step, just relax...

My mantra was doing little to slow the clamor in my chest. I fell out of the chamber and onto the ground, shivering and rubbing myself to regain warmth.

It's too much, just too much...

I staggered to my feet, realizing that I was wearing the tattered clothing from the grotto. It was streaked with dirt and singed at some points, assumedly from where the clothing had come into contact with the burning iron, or maybe even the wall. I attempted to walk forward, only to have my legs threaten to give out on me. I wondered if I was having a panic attack, as my heart couldn't seem to relax. I stopped moving and began breathing slowly, attempting to calm myself.

It's ok... There's still time to fix everything... just relax...

A door swung open nearby, interrupting my thoughts.

"I thought I heard it over here, I'm not really sure what it was..."

A woman's voice, punctuated by several sets of footsteps coming this way.

Oh god... I wonder what they'd do if they saw me standing here, dressed like this...

I was panicking again, but this time adrenaline was pushing my body into motion. I had no clue how the hospital staff would react to a real-life resurrection, and I had neither the time nor the inclination to find out how bad things could get. I looked around myself quickly, the ever approaching footsteps augmented by the acoustics of the morgue. I saw a flashing exit sign, and quickly made a run for the door. It opened with ease, and I ran out into the night, the door closing lightly behind me.