This, too, a kind of distraction from asking certain questions that could only be reached through knowing specific details. But the right specific details, not, for example, that there were six species of venomous snakes in Area X. A reach, yes, but I was not in the mood to set aside even the most unlikely scenarios.

Even the darkness seemed more alive to me, surrounding me like something physical. I can’t even say it was a sinister presence.

There shall be a fire that knows your name, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you.

I had never talked to the frogs; I despised anthropomorphizing animals. “So what has changed if we wouldn’t have liked each other as kids?” I asked. “Oh, I would have liked you despite that,” he said, grinning. “You would have fascinated me, and I would have followed you anywhere. Without hesitation.”

I did not trust that feeling. I felt, in so many ways, that I was being lied to.

I became aware of the weight of the photograph in my pocket.

Death, as I was beginning to understand it, was not the same thing here as back across the border.

We were scientists, trained to observe natural phenomena and the results of human activity. We had not been trained to encounter what appeared to be the uncanny. In unusual situations there can be a comfort in the presence of even someone you think might be your enemy. Now we had come close to the edges of something unprecedented, and less than a

I began to wonder if the absence of references to the Tower fit this theory as well, this writing around the edges of things.