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?If you lose your way, I?ll follow you down,? Helen told him,
already feeling the baked air of the dry lands leaching all the moisture
out of the atmosphere.
Suddenly, Helen knew what the dry lands were and why she had
always been too frightened to recognize the truth when it was staring
her in the face. The desert that she wandered into while she
slept, the land Jason now had to traverse to save Claire, was the
land of the dead. For the briefest of moments she could see Claire?s
fetch, confused, scared, and soundlessly calling out Jason?s name.
Helen banished that disturbing image and spoke directly into
Jason?s ear. ?I know the way through the rubble, and I promise, if
you can?t make it on your own, I?ll come down and carry you both
out.?
Jason?s eyes snapped back open in shock, but his spirit was
already following Claire?s, and although he tried to fight it, his eyes
closed again as he slipped into a deep comalike slumber. Helen left
the room
, trusting him completely with Claire?s heal. Mentally, she
was already joining the battle that awaited her in the living room.
Helen picked her way down the stairs, hearing her mother?s
raised voice as she neared. It was already hauntingly familiar even
though she had known the woman only a few short hours.
Daphne?s voice was Helen?s own, coming from outside her head
like a recording played back on a crappy answering machine.
Helen hated it?not the sound, but feeling like she was stuck in
someone else?s mistake, doomed to adopt the worst qualities of the
people she was supposed to love the most.
Helen paused for a moment to steel herself before she went into
the living room. In the few short minutes Helen had been upstairs,