She was white and she was crying. Which was strange. I always knew her to be strong. Stronger, at least than those who've had it easy and pretend they care. No one cares. Not in the least. So why pretend?

I edge closer. Shuffling, dragging my feet across the ceiling...Ceiling? Yes. We're upside down. I see her tears crawl up her forehead, shying away from the curves of her skull and down to the ground. She has shaved her hair so there are no beautiful locks to drink her tears up, to hide her shame.

"Leia...?" I start. She doesn't respond. She is shuddering, sobbing, her white skin and whiter dress quivering. Her dress doesn't fall because she's sitting on the ceiling, her dress curled underneath her. I look up at the ground.

Everything is white and there are ropes hanging up towards us. With bodies hanging by heir necks. They had jumped towards the ceiling and died. This is eerie. I'm standing upside-down on the ceiling. The bodies are floating towards us, only stopped by the ropes. Is gravity upside-down? Why are her tears falling the other way then? I see the faces of the corpses. There are about thirty in all. And every one of them is grinning.

I step closer to Leia. She has stopped crying now. Silence for a moment. Then noise. She is giggling, softly, first then maniacally. She is shuddering with joy and I see red liquid spread on the ceiling. She lifts her hands up, still laughing as if she's insane, and drops, then streams of her blood fall towards the ground, raining on the corpses. She's expressing her delight, shuddering with laughter, she's bleeding, she screams. An ear-splitting scream of delight.

Then, silence.

"Leia?" I start again, louder, horrified.

And she speaks. "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down," in an unnaturally childish voice. I lurch and the ground comes up to meet me. With every rope loose now, the corpses are lying over each other, in a mingle of human body, bent in odd angles. And Leia, alive and bleeding among the dead and wasted. Her dress ruined now, with streaks of blood and I'm falling into this. I see Leia turn, about to show her face and I'm falling, falling and...

I lurch awake. I'm too stunned o be able to go and switch on the lights and there is no bedside lamp, or even a bedside table. I check the clock opposite to me. In the unnerving silence, it's screaming 'tick, tock, tick, tock, tick...' It's 4 AM.

I wipe the sweat of my brow and try to calm down. It's 4 AM and in the dark of this room, and as I'm about to lie down again, shake the dream off I hear someone knock the door.

Two dull thuds.

Then silence.

I admit I was expecting a scream. It didn't come.

For some strange reason, I remember the note, telling me that I was going to die. I had torn it up and thrown it out the window. I remember this as I get up and switch on the lights. The white tube blinked twice into brightness and I stood still for a moment, in front of the door.

Then I reached out and opened it.

Walter's standing there, in front of the door, holding an electric torch. I see he's wearing a sweatshirt and I feel cold sting through my flimsy black garment. "I didn't expect you to be up this soon. What? Bad dreams?"

"Yes," I stifled a yawn.

"I guess it's the same with everyone. What's your number?"

"What?" I didn't understand at first. Then it clicked.

"You got a note too?"

"Course I did," he said, irritated. "Everyone who lives in this hell got one. I'm ninety-eight."

"Seventy-seven."

He reached inside the room and switched off the lights, simultaneously clicking on his flashlight. "Come on, they're holding a meeting in the fourth floor hall."

"Who are?" I asked.

"The Tergiversates. And hopefully, you'll remember what is happening, why it's happening, what this place is, and why you're here. Though it would be much easier if you stop pretending you don't know. "

"I don't."

He sighed. I shut the door, and headed off with him to clear the mess in my mind, with only his flashlight to guide us through the deep, consuming, violent and ever increasing darkness.

Therefore, as we cut through with our tiny ray of light, the darkness closed in on us.

Oh, and Walter says that the Tergiversates never lie. They exist to deliver the truth in as simple a form as it could possibly be. Which reminds me that the word 'Tergiversates' is derived from 'Tergiversation'. And, as you might know-

Tergiversation- Falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language.