Though he felt like Ada's reaction was too delayed for the situation, she did react. The swarm of blue beings became blurry as Avery's body shuddered, his arms and legs growing numb.

He froze as something—Ada—slipped out of him, as if he'd been poked by thousands of needles and was leaking water, or blood, or oxygen. She poured out of him like a fountain, and he fell to his knees, grabbing his head as pain shot from one side of his brain to the other.

"Stop," she said, appearing in front of Avery, one bluish arm raised. Avery saw through foggy eyes as she used her energy to block the Nevada Guides from shoving into Avery and Jamie.

Jamie had collapsed, too, and was seething, struggling to breathe. Avery grabbed his wrist and squeezed it. "It's okay, let him out."

Faz weaseled out of Jamie, and manifested beside Ada, his blue body taking form, arms and legs floating above the ground, and his head popping out with a frown on his face. He also held his hand out. "We come as friends, not foes."

"You?" One being, who'd come the closest to knocking Avery and Jamie out, levitated inches from Ada, cocking its head. It studied her, eyes narrowing and widening, then narrowing again. "Ada, right? From the California portal? Is that you?"

Ada bowed her head. "I'm sorry to come without warning, but this was urgent. I also apologize for bringing humans—they took us here, and they're not foes, either."

The army of misty blue beings that'd been about to collide with Avery and Jamie seemed to back off and away, squirreling back to wherever they'd come from.

But the one who'd recognized Ada remained in place, crossing its hazy arms over its chest. "This is highly unusual."

Avery couldn't figure out what gender it was, if it even had a gender. Perhaps it had chosen not to have one, to be a neutral, genderless being like Avery would have assumed most Guides to be.

Do they get to decide what they are? Or are they former humans and they retain whatever sex they were at the time they became Guides?

He actually missed having Ada on the inside to respond to his questions.

"Is something happening?" The creature took on a feminine voice now that Avery's ears were no longer buzzing. His vision adjusted to the blast of blue light before them, and he discerned two bulges on her chest, and long, silvery hair like Ada's. "Your arrival is quite abrupt. We only just communicated last night, but here you are?"

She sounded young, younger than Ada, for sure. Her features were youthful, one might almost say beautiful. The curves of her face were sharp but graceful, and her body had an hourglass shape that Avery might have once found appealing.

If she wasn't a supernatural thing, that is.

"Here I am." Ada joined her hands behind her back. "Again, I apologize for the suddenness, but I had no time to warn you, and no energy to spare to do so. This man," she waved at Avery to join her, "is the other part of the prophecy, the one I told you about."

A chorus of gasps received her statement—some of the beings still hovered nearby—and the younger, prettier Guide raised her eyebrows. "Him? You brought him here?"

Avery, knees aching from when he'd fallen on them, limped over to stand before this Nevada Guide. "Me. Yeah, I'm here to help."

Ada cleared her throat, perking up. "He's come to finish what he couldn't last time."

"Wait," the young Guide shook her head, then pinched the bridge of her nose, "it's coming? Here?" She inclined closer to them and lowered her voice, a whisper of a tremble in her words. "The vessel?"

"We think so," said Ada, matching her volume. "This one," she gestured at Faz, "possessed the vessel for three years, on my command. He felt her moving this way, so we... we had to come. To alert you. Protect you. And maybe stop her."

The Guide peeked at Faz, scanning him as if noticing him for the first time. "Ah. Right. So there's a piece of him inside the vessel. He can trace it. Yes, that's quite useful."

Faz opened his mouth to speak, but instead released a deep, painful sounding cough. "I can smell her," he said, doubling over so suddenly Ada veered to him in surprise. "I can smell that piece of me, it's... she's... she's close, Ada." He craned his neck up to look at Ada, worry in his expression. "She'll be here any minute."

The Guides who'd been clustered close panicked. They proceeded to zoom all around, their voices filling with fear, their attitudes loading the air with tension, apprehension. All their squirms and questions filled Avery's ears, deafening him.

"Bro, what the fuck?" Jamie's fists balled at his sides. "You knew how close she was and you only mention that now?"

Avery's nostrils flared. "A bit of a heads' up might have been nice. What do we do?" He glared at Ada, who'd shooed Jamie off and away from the still suffering Faz. "If she's coming, that means... she... and me..." He gulped. "I have to get ready to confront her."

Ada straightened up—she'd bent over to help Faz—and sent her hands to hover over Avery's shoulders. "I'm sorry you had so little time to brace for impact. But yes, it's time. Go," she motioned at the front door of the cabin-like building, "find the basement and... wait for her."

Avery winced. There had to be more to her instructions; more that he could do, instead of sit around and wait for Jessamine to locate him. "And then what? I just... I," he slid a finger across his throat, "end her?"

"Or push her in, but ending her would be best, Avery." In an unexpected tender moment, her fingertips trailed along his jawline, sending chills down his neck. If the gesture was meant to be reassuring, it didn't work; it only weirded Avery out more than her usual demeanor did. "I'm sorry I can't be there to help. If it wasn't so risky, I'd possess you and give you the strength to do this, but I can't. I have to be up here, helping the Guides. And if you were to die while I was inside you... I'm not sure what'd happen."

Avery gulped again. "Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to find that out this way."

He started towards the door, but Ada used her energy to hold him back. "I'm not sure if you brought any, but no flashlights." She flinched. "I never explained it to you, but flashlights hurt Guides' eyes, and can damage spirits, weaken them. So try to navigate without one, okay?"

The younger Guide, who hadn't scrambled and turned to panic like the other Guides had, moved forward. "I'll take them there. It'll take them too long to find it on their own," she said, signaling for Avery and Jamie to follow her. "Ada, my Guides know what to do, where to take the spirits, where to hide. They won't tell you where it is, so all you can do is get everyone and everything out of the house. The rest is up to us. I thank you for telling us of the explosion last night—that gave us time to discuss our options should the vessel threaten us next."

Avery snickered.

She should have warned them much sooner.

Ignoring his grimace, Ada dashed off to help evacuate the house, with Faz on her heels. Avery stared at her shrinking form as she disappeared behind the house, and wondered if he should have said something to her. A thank you, or a fuck you, or both, since there was a high chance he might never see her again. Did he care that much, though? She was a scheming supernatural creature who'd been responsible for a vision that would end the world. She was no friend to him.

And yet, he couldn't fully consider her a foe.

"Hurry," said the young Guide, drawing Avery back to reality, "before this place turns into a war-zone."

Next he knew Avery was ushered past the giant front door, and inside the house. Darkness blanketed him at once, causing him to freeze on the spot, disoriented. A scent of rust and decay infested his nostrils, and he sniffled, hoping to clear it out.

The only light came from the Guides' ethereal blue glow, displaying the house in a bluish filter. Several lengthy corridors took root from the entryway, and the being hurried forward, down the middle one, hissing at them to get moving.

There were no windows down this way, but Avery imagined the ones in the outlying corridors were boarded up, blocking out the light. The same eeriness wafted through the air, the same staleness and sense of discomfort, but it was worsened by the fact that this space was smaller, more cramped. A tinge of burnt copper filtered into Avery's nose, and he looked at the walls to see smears of dirt and what might have been blood, splattered over the light colored wallpaper. Cobwebs camped in high corners, and every threshold they passed had a door firmly shut, the wood indented with claw marks.

At the end of the never-ending hall, the Guide stopped in front of a door that she nudged open with her energy. She grimaced as she turned to them. "Down there," she said, seemingly struggling to speak. "I won't go down with you, but I wish you luck. Both of you."

As she shimmied off, Jamie started to pass the door-frame, but Avery threw out his arm to stop him.

"No, you're not going down there either," he said, shoving his body in the way to further prevent Jamie from getting in. He sighted the outline of the stairs leading downward, concealed in shadows, but with a faint red glow coming from the bottom. "Stay up here. I don't want you to see any of this shit."

Jamie, whose body was bigger and whose arms were much more muscular than Avery's, shoved him aside with a grunt. "Yeah, right. Man, I told you, I'm seeing this through with you, okay?" He flung his hand towards the stairs. "There's no way I'm not going down there to help you."

"But you—"

Jamie yanked the gun out from its hiding spot. "I have this," he waved it, then nestled it back in his jeans, "so I can take care of myself. And if anything, I could shoot her in the leg or something, to distract her while you get the door opened to throw her in. Or while you prepare to kill her—" he stilled, staring at Avery's empty hands. "You don't have anything to kill her with, do you?"

Avery shook his head. Not that he'd done it on purpose, but he'd forgotten to grab any sort of weapon from his car before they ditched it in front of the woods. And when sighting Jamie and the gun, he'd been distracted.

He didn't want to kill Jessamine, and he knew he couldn't. No matter that it was Ada's preferred method of saving the world, Avery wouldn't do it. He'd had enough time to ponder his options while driving to the portal, while climbing over the pass and admiring the landscapes he might not ever see again.

He'd rather die himself than kill Jessamine. And if he died shoving her into the demonic realm—where she might survive—then so be it.

"I don't want you down there, Jamie," he said, dragging a hand down his face, standing at the precipice of the stairs down to literal hell. "It's too risky."

"There's no point trying to negotiate." Jamie stood beside him, looking down into the depths of darkness, with the faded hint of red at the bottom, likely coming from the door. "I'm going, and that's that. I can defend myself, and I can run pretty fast."

Avery snorted, taking one step downward. He seethed at a jolt of pain flaring up his legs and poking him in the gut. "Yeah, well, she can catch up, since she can—"

The walls rattled, jerking Avery and Jamie side to side. The steps shook, suddenly becoming slippery. Jamie jammed a palm onto the railing, and used his other to help keep Avery standing, holding him up by his arm. His footing was firm, but Avery was wobbly, unable to stay balanced as everything seemed to shake around him.

"Fuck," said Jamie, hauling Avery up a few steps. "The place is going to cave in with us inside."

Avery broke free from his grip, but resumed descending the stairs, instead. "Yeah, but it's because she's coming. She's here, she's the one doing this, and I—"

A whoosh of wind blasted into his chest, knocking him into Jamie, who smacked into the opposite wall. Jamie grabbed him, stopping him from falling down the steps and landing dangerously at the bottom.

A heavy, suffocating energy fell over them both, and Jamie's heart pounded so hard Avery felt it in his back. His own heart raced too, throbbing into his rib-cage, painful.

Something darted past them—a blur of a body, a flash of red, leaving a trail of hot air in its wake.

Avery felt the heat swarming over his face, and he let out a moan as his knees gave out, as if the air itself had attacked him.

It's her. That was her, she's here.

Jamie held him up, but barely; Avery's knees still hit the steps with a bang, and he nearly slipped sideways down the rest of the stairs.

"What the fuck was that?" Jamie's voice was muted under the noise caused by the rattling of walls and stairs, the creaking of floor-boards overhead. Everything was caving in, like he'd said, but Avery couldn't leave. Not yet. Not until he'd done what he'd come to do.

"Her," he whispered, his throat scratchy and drier than ever. "That was Jessamine. She's here... she's here, though we got here first, she beat us to the door. We're.... We're fucked."

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