"Care to explain?" Ada's arms squeezed tight against her chest as she glowered at Avery's mess—Jamie's undug grave. And she'd seen Jamie, too, of course. What a sight that must have been, even for someone of her age, her caliber.

"Um," Avery gulped, "well, Jamie came to me," he said through gritted teeth, a mix of angst and anger swirling through him. Ada's presence always caused such mingled emotions to swarm him, and he never knew if he hated her, pitied her, or simply didn't want to be near her. "He told me this was the way, this was... his idea. The ghosts need humans down there, too, but since no living souls can get in... he asked me to unearth his body and he somehow hopped into it, and—"

"—right," Ada let out a sigh that seemed to deflate her hardened exterior, "I've heard that rumor before. That if you dig up a freshly dead body, its ghost can possess it temporarily. I'd never seen it done, though, and had no clue any other ghosts in there were spreading that gossip. And I wasn't aware it granted access to Limbo..." She rubbed the back of her neck. "That'll be something to remember for future reference."

"Future reference?" Avery's eyes burned. "You think all this shit might happen again?"

Ada flinched. "No, that's not what I meant." She sucked her lips in and shook her head. "And no, it won't happen again, not on my watch. Not if we survive this. But I must take note of certain pieces of gossip that turn out to be true. Spirits possessing their former bodies... that's important." She swung out her arms, stretched her legs, then focused on Avery. "Anything else he mentioned while I was in another world?"

"Not yet." Avery passed his hand over his scalp, sensing the sweat that had started to gather there in his nervousness. "He took control of his body and vanished. And I'm more confused than ever. Humans in Limbo? Monsters in monster-land? Dinosaurs in here?"

"Here's what you need to understand." Ada waved him over to a set of logs, to take a seat and a breather from his hard work. He sat, but not without groaning and grimacing. When would he get to go into a real house, with real furniture to sit on? "Both the Limbo and demon dimensions aren't as massive as this one. They're more like eternal wastelands; well, I don't know for sure about the demonic realm, but that's the case for Limbo."

Avery scoffed. "Oh, I can confirm the demon dimension is a wasteland. It was dry and smelly and looked like I'd stepped into an old-timey photograph."

"Yes, well," Ada hovered on the spot, in front of Avery, "Limbo is similar, then. It's a gray world lacking in color. A never-ending forest that spirits can never quite escape from. Though this world and Limbo bleed into one another, most of what they see are tall trees cloaking a graying sky. No sunlight, no moonlight. No houses or people or objects to use."

"There was a sun in the demon world," Avery snickered at the memory, "but its light was dimmed, like it was sick or something. Not real."

"Hm, interesting." Ada tapped her chin. "Though both realms are similar, the main differences are the doors. There are no such things in Limbo; spirits melt into it through the ground or the air itself."

Avery raised a finger. "Exactly; that's how Jamie disappeared. Through the ground. But with an actual body, I... didn't think that was possible. It took me and the Guide who helped me aback."

Ada chortled; a heartless sound that rattled Avery's insides. "At this point, young man, I'm beginning to believe just about anything is possible. We should be bracing for anything to happen."

"So the door thing... that's specific to the demon realm?" Avery set his elbows on his thighs, watching Ada she slowly swept side to side.

"I'd assume so. And it's safe to also assume that those doors in each house's basement lead to different parts of the realm. But once in the realm it must be feasible to walk to them, be close to them. Which would explain how Jessamine went through the Nevada door, but was able to communicate with you through this one. She figured out she had to find the California door, and it must not have been far."

Avery squinted at her, becoming hypnotized by the swaying of her arms. Jessamine was smart, but how had she figured out the doors on her own? Had the demons told her? Were the demons helping her, hoping to hitch a ride back out into the human world if they managed to get her out, too? Or was there someone else in there... another human?

Nah, that's not possible.

"Time goes by differently in other dimensions," said Ada, her fingertips twitching. "I'm sure you sensed that when you were in the demonic world; and it's the same in Limbo. Distances are different, everything seems closer than it is, and certain areas are inaccessible no matter how near they appear to be."

Avery hadn't had time to test out those theories in the demon world, but he had felt stuck in the dimension for minutes, when in fact he'd been gone for much longer, according to Jamie.

Jamie would have loved to debate the mechanics of these parallel worlds, but Avery didn't have the stomach or experience to do so.

"So, what next, then? We continue to wait?"

Ada peered at the house, gripping her chin between her index and thumb. "The ghosts are all grouped together in Limbo. Jamie's idea... it's genius."

Avery quirked an eyebrow and shot up from his hunched position. "Hang on, you support this? A dead soul inside his dead body, wandering around Limbo? You're not mad at me, at us, for doing this?"

"No. Why would I be mad? You thought like I'd think, Avery. You reacted and took the reins of a situation in my absence. And it's for a necessary cause. Also, like I said, I wasn't even certain it was possible. I'll admit," she turned to him, smiling, "I'm impressed that it can be done, and I see it working in our favor. Thank you for not listening to me, for once."

"So we don't sit around and wait?" Avery got to his feet, brushing himself off. He clapped once. "I can actually do something?"

"You can," Ada signaled towards the forest, "and you can start by digging up more bodies for ghosts to use."

Still shocked by Ada's positive reaction to his disobedience, he scanned the area, scoping through the trees. He heard the pops of white orbs showing up, as if summoned. "I'd love to, but the Guide who was going to help me locate fresh corpses vanished, and I have no idea where to dig. And I can't pull out dead people by myself, they're too heavy." He sensed his arm muscles flexing, as if disappointed that he wouldn't believe in their strength.

Ada groaned. "Right. I'll show you a few spots; the most recent ones. I presume the fresher, the better."

Avery sneered at her words, unsure if any corpse could be considered fresh.

"I'll help," said a familiar timbre resonating in Avery's ears, coming from his left.

He pivoted to find Faz, who'd been listening in on the conversation; but Ada must have seen him, because she had no attitude towards his arrival, and to his offer to help Avery.

"Fine, let's get moving, then," said Avery, following Ada as she hustled towards the tree-line.

Avery grabbed his shovel on the way, and marked the spots she pointed at with X's, to come back and unearth the bodies.

Ada left him with Faz, stating she needed to advise her Guides of what was going on.

Together, Faz and Avery removed dirt, pulled out bodies, and watched as orbs jumped into chests and reanimated those bodies. They all had the same lifeless gray eyes as Jamie, and all melted through the ground as he had. Some thanked Avery; some bobbed their head in salute and disappeared. He didn't have time to chit-chat with them, anyway: he had graves to dig and corpses to liberate and ghosts to give new, albeit temporary, homes to.

After a dozen humans had come back to life, Avery stopped, wiping sweat from his forehead, smiling at Faz. "Bet you never thought you'd be doing that today, did you?"

Faz chuckled. "I've learned to expect anything while working under Ada's supervision. But yes, this was quite far off my list of things I'd have to do for the sake of protecting this world."

The questions Avery had harbored for days now swirled in his mind. Ada was off doing who-knows-what, and Faz was a receptive, kind creature; would he provide the answers Avery so desperately needed? What were Guides, where did they come from, what more did they know about otherworldly realms and beasts from malevolent portals?

As he opened his mouth to begin hounding Faz with those questions, Ada swooped in, hanging her head.

Perfect timing, dammit.

"Faz," she snapped at him, "would you mind giving us a moment? I have some... developments to share with Avery."

Avery nearly stretched out his arm to grab Faz before remembering he couldn't touch him.

If she's asking him to leave, she has grave news.

He'd have preferred to not be alone with her; she tended to give him the worst information when there was no one else there to soothe him, to soften the blow. To witness her poor delivery and her attempts to gain forgiveness for her lies, her errors.

"Since humans are essential in sealing all these gates," Ada's volume lowered as she watched Faz scamper off towards the clearance, "I've been thinking."

"You've been thinking? That's your development?" Avery had a feeling he could guess what was coming next, but he didn't want to voice it, to give it life. He plucked the shovel from the ground, clutching it tight to his core.

"I have, a lot. Humans are key in everything, and that's proven to be true in our realm, and in Limbo. Which means it's safe to suppose that the same can be said about the demon realm."

"Yeah, that'd make sense. Humans would be—" he paused, gasped, clapped a hand over his mouth, and shook his head. "No. No, you're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?"

This is worse than what I expected.

"That since ghosts had to possess their former bodies to work in Limbo, any human in the demonic realm might have to be possessed by demons for more strength? Yes," Ada cringed, "that is indeed what I'm saying."

"No." Avery grated his teeth as he let go of his shovel and punched a fist into his palm. The utensil fell to the ground, clunking against a few stray rocks and pebbles. "No, that can't be possible. There has to be another way."

"I'm afraid there isn't." Ada looked genuinely apologetic, though her voice was stern and unbreakable as always. "It wouldn't surprise me if what applies in Limbo also applies in the demonic realm, in our realm, in all realms. Humans must be possessed by stronger beings to halt and contain the invaders." She snickered. "Goodness, that sounds like another prophecy, doesn't it?"

"It sounds awful," said Avery, restraining himself from kicking into a tree-trunk. The newly dug up hole in front of him seemed to be a great spot to jump into, to pull the dirt over him, to hide forever to avoid all this. "And it sounds like you're implying Jessamine, the only human in the demonic realm, will have to let the demons possess her again?" His heart raced so fast in his chest that it hurt. "She can't. She won't. There's no way she'll allow it."

Ada squeezed her hands together. "I don't think she has a choice if she wants to survive."

"And do you think she pieced that together?" Avery pictured Jessamine encircled by red monsters who drooled at the scent of her. Their massive black eyes lusting over her, determined to slip under her skin and control her once more.

"I'm sure she's debating it, if it hasn't happened already. They'll have pleaded their case with her, I have no doubt." Ada's lips bunched side to side. "If I figured this out, the demons will have, too. Evil and cruel as they are, they're not stupid. Some of them are almost as old as I am, and they've been down on that plane for so long... portals opening must be some harbinger of doom in a place so wretched. They'll be in a panic."

"We are in a panic, and now you're saying the one who was a big part of all that panic will have to reenact what got us here in the first place? Possession, Ada. Jessamine, their delicious vessel, giving herself up again?" He massaged the sides of his head. "This can't be happening."

"I have more bad news, if you can handle it." He couldn't see Ada's face as he'd closed his eyes, but he waved at her to proceed, to tell him what more he'd have to deal with. "Humans who pledged to help... well, they need to be possessed as you know."

Avery blew out a raspberry, though he'd hoped for a growl to come out, instead. "Yeah, you need to possess me." He opened his eyes; Ada was floating in front of him, grimacing, staring at the leaves covering the ground. "You need to use me, the human, to seal all the portals out there?"

Ada's voice was strained, as if she'd been holding on to her wind-pipes, blocking her own words. "I need your body, and you need my power. As always, it's temporary. And only to track down the closest portal and close it. This one's not all on you, Avery." She looked up then, her eyes wide with worry and pleading. "Other Guides are helping, this time, drawing humans to the cause and getting permission to enter them. The fate of the world doesn't rest only on your shoulders; but yours, and mine, are quite important, nonetheless. This is a huge task, world-saving event. I'm not asking this lightly, but I need your consent."

Avery shuddered, remembering every second of Ada's other possessions. The feeling that his insides were scrutinized, drained of knowledge, scanned for all he knew, anything that'd ever gone through his mind. His thoughts were peeled apart, chopped into, layer by layer. All his hatred for Ada's lies, his feelings for Jessamine, his odd attraction to the demonic version of her—Ada had seen that, and was asking to see it again.

He wanted to shake his head, to decline her; and yet he knew, in the depths of his tormented soul, that she was right. If he didn't give himself up for this, dinosaurs would populate the planet. Horrifying beasts would escape the demonic realm and kill whatever remained after the dinosaur's destruction. His sacrifice of Jessamine, by throwing her into the dark dimension, would have been for nothing. Jamie's death, Amy's death—all for nothing.

"Fuck," he said, rubbing his fingers against the bridge of his nose.

"I won't control you, my friend," Ada pressed her hands together in prayer, "and you'll be in charge. I'll only tell you what to do, okay?"

Avery picked up the shovel, only to drop it again, for effect. It clanked at his feet, stopping inches before falling into the recently excavated hole. "I'm not your friend," he hissed through his teeth, "but fine. For the world, for the humans. For Jamie, for Avery... for Jessamine. I guess today, the enemy of my enemy is my temporary ally."

○○○