Maybe This Time

Fourteen

Andie had gone into the sitting room while Isolde called 911. Dennis was sitting there on the green-striped couch, leaning against one of the green-striped bolsters by the arms, staring straight ahead, looking not that different from when he was alive except that he wasn’t blinking, but Andie knew instantly because there was no heh heh, no asthmatic cough, no lame jokes, nothing. So when she sat with him, and took his cold hand, and said, “Dennis, I’m so, so sorry,” she knew he wasn’t there. She just didn’t know what else to do.

North came in and said, “Isolde just came to get me. Andie, I’m so sorry,” and she knew how he felt, impotent to help her, because she felt the same way for Dennis. Then the EMTs arrived, and Andie stood back and let them work, letting North answer their questions, helping him when he didn’t know the answers, part of her still believing Dennis would wake up, that he’d come walking in from the kitchen later with some banana bread, saying, “This is really extraordinary,” and ask for a brandy. Then she went up to the nursery and found the kids sitting together in front of the fire, Carter’s arm around Alice, Alice’s arms around his waist, waiting for her to tell them why there’d been sirens outside.

“What happened?” Carter said.

“Dennis died,” Andie said, and Alice’s face crumpled.

Andie went over to the window seat and sat down, putting her arms around both of them. Alice reached out as she wept and wound her fist into Andie’s sweater, pulling her closer to Carter, huddling between them.

“They killed him,” Alice sobbed. “And he was nice!”

“He was good man,” Andie said, holding her close. “He died very quickly of a heart attack, and he didn’t suffer. I don’t think the ghosts killed him, Alice. I think he was really happy when he died because he’d seen the ghosts in the séance. He’d always wanted to, you know.”

“They killed him, they killed him,” Alice wailed.

“No,” Andie said, holding her close. “He wasn’t trying to take you away. Why would they hurt him?” Unless he’d found out something else about them…

“Why did he have a heart attack?” Carter said, no emotion in his voice at all.

“He’d been drinking a lot and the séance really excited him.” Plus he was doped to the gills on salvia. “Maybe he just had a weak heart.”

Carter had that stubborn look on his face. “He didn’t look sick. One of the teachers at my school had a heart condition and he was really pale all the time. Dennis looked healthy.”

“It can happen like that. Sometimes hearts just blow out.”

“Do you think he’ll come back?” Carter said, and then the emotion was there, guilt and worry and a need for comfort. “Like Aunt May did?”

“No.” Andie smoothed his hair back and for once he didn’t flinch. “I think he’d done everything right in his life, and I don’t think he had any unfinished business. I think the only thing he really wanted to do, even though he wouldn’t admit it, was see a ghost. And he saw a ghost.”

“Which one?” Carter said, tense again.

“All of them,” Andie said. “He talked about how beautiful your aunt May was.”

“Which one did he see when he died?” Carter said.

“I don’t think any. I was in the dining room with him before he died, and he was definitely excited, but the room was warm and I didn’t see anybody in there.” Carter relaxed, and then she said, “I’m pretty sure he was alone when he died.”

“You weren’t with him?” Carter said, tense again.

“I went to bed.” I left him alone. “Isolde found him in the sitting room this morning.”

“You weren’t with him when he died.”

“No,” Andie said.

Carter looked down at Alice who had stopped crying now.

“What?” Andie said.

“The ghosts killed him,” Carter said, and Alice nodded sadly.

“Ghosts can’t kill people,” Andie said. “They can’t touch-”

“There was a big black cloud and Aunt May screamed,” Alice said. “It was Miss J. I bet she killed Dennis the same way.”

“Listen,” Andie said. “We have to talk about you leaving. It’s too dangerous to stay here, the ghosts are too strong now. So we have to figure out a way to do this.”

“We can’t,” Alice said, starting to cry again.

“We can do anything,” Andie said. “Don’t cry, think.”

“I just miss Dennis,” Alice wailed.

“I’ll think,” Carter said, and Andie held Alice and said, “We’ll all think.”

By ten, North had talked to the ambulance crew and the police, discovered Dennis had no next of kin, left a message with his university, waved the police and the ambulance down the drive as they left with Dennis’s body, and refused Southie’s offer of a beer.

Instead he went into the Great Hall where Isolde sat at the round table there, staring out the big mullioned windows on the front of the house.

“Can I get you anything?” he said gently, and she shook her head.

He waited a moment, studying her. She was a caricature of a woman dangerously out of touch with fashion, all dark eye makeup, big hair, and shoulder pads, but the emotion she was feeling was real, and he couldn’t leave her alone in that icy barn of a hall, especially since she really believed the place was haunted.

“The sitting room is warmer,” he told her before he remembered that the sitting room was where Dennis had died.

She shook her head.

He sat down across from her.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he told her.

“I know that,” she said, all of her former snap gone.

North nodded. “Can you tell me why you don’t want to move someplace warmer?”

She looked at him with interest then. “It’s cold because of the ghosts. They’re feeding on the emotion here. I don’t know what they’re doing or who they are because Harold is gone, but they’re still here in this room. That’s why it’s cold.”

I don’t believe in ghosts, North thought, but she clearly did. Whatever Isolde Hammersmith was, she wasn’t a faker or a con artist. “Harold is gone?”

“He went to the other side. He said he’d had enough of humanity, living and dead.” Isolde took a deep breath. “Which is pretty rich considering he killed himself because he’d gotten caught fleecing humanity. He liked them just fine when he was taking their money.”

“Fleecing?”

“He was Harold Rich, the guy who ran the big Ponzi scheme out of Florida.”

“Oh,” North said, taken aback. If she was going to make up a spirit guide, Harold Rich was an interesting choice.

“Not a nice person,” Isolde said, “but very good at reading people. And ghosts. I was down there doing a reading and he was wandering around, bitching and moaning, so I took him on. He was really pissed when I brought him back to Ohio, but then nothing was ever good enough for Harold. Damn good spirit guide, though. Good with investments, too. Harold helped me a lot, so I put up with his lousy personality.”

“So that must be hard, losing Harold,” North said, trying to stick to the key points. “I’m sorry. But I really think you should come into the sitting room. It’s too cold in here.”

“If the room gets warmer, it means the ghosts have gone somewhere else. Which would be bad because I think they have a plan. So I want to know where they are.” She smiled at him, a tight little smile that he was pretty sure wasn’t natural to her.

“I can get my brother to come monitor the temperature in here. He thinks a lot of you. I’m sure he’d want you someplace warm-”

“Southie,” Isolde said, with some of her old spirit. “There’s a great guy.”

“Yes, he is,” North said. “Let me get him-”

“Dennis was a good guy, too,” Isolde said, and North shut up. If she wanted to talk, he could sit in an ice-cold hall and listen for a few minutes. “He didn’t believe, you know, and he wanted to. He wanted to see ghosts in spite of not believing. Then he saw them during the séance. Did a complete one-eighty. He was so excited.”

“You think he died because of that? His excitement gave him the heart attack?”

Isolde smiled at him kindly, as if he weren’t quite bright. “No, I think one of the ghosts killed him.”

North sat back. “Isolde-”

“I think one of the ghosts went in there when he was weakened and scared him to death. I think they have a plan, and he knew too much about ghosts, and he was getting in their way. His information was very good, you know. He didn’t believe, but he did his homework.”

North nodded, trying to think of a way to make her suspicion normal. Maybe somebody in the house, the housekeeper, had done something to keep the fantasy of the ghosts alive and frightened Dennis to death accidentally. Except Dennis wouldn’t have been scared to death by a human being. He’d investigated the best and lived to tell about it.

“I know you don’t believe,” Isolde said. “That’s all right, most people don’t. But the danger is real. They want your children and they want your wife.”

North stiffened, but Isolde went on.

“I don’t know why they want them. Harold didn’t think two of them were even sane. But the danger is real. So I’m sitting here trying to… sense them. To see if they’ll come to me. I think-”

She stopped and stiffened, as if she were listening.

“Isolde?” North said.

“It’s getting warmer in here,” she said, and he realized she was right.

“They’re moving,” she said and stood up.

“Where are you going?” North said, as she walked toward the big stone arch.

“To find the cold spots,” she said, and even though he didn’t believe, he followed her.

Andie made sure the gas fire was burning brightly in the nursery, told Alice and Carter to stay put, and went downstairs to get them lunch. The police and the EMTs were gone, even Isolde was gone from the Great Hall, so she went into the sitting room and sat down on the green-striped sofa. Dennis’s sofa. He had been alive right here and then he was dead right here and-

North came to the doorway between the sitting room and the dining room.

“I’m going through the house with Isolde,” he said. “She’s upset and I don’t want to leave her alone. Do you need me to sit with you?”

The idea of North sitting with anybody for comfort was so ludicrous that she laughed, and then she burst into tears.

He came over and sat down beside her and put his arms around her.

“I only knew him two days,” Andie said, trying to stop the tears as she cried into his chest. “But he was a good man. And he didn’t believe in ghosts but he tried to help us anyway, and then he did believe and he was so happy and one of them killed him…”

“Isolde thinks they killed him, too,” North said. “She’s going through the house looking for cold spots.”

“It had to be Peter,” Andie said. “Murderous son of a bitch. Dennis never had a chance. You can’t fight something you don’t believe in.” She drew a long breath and sat up, pulling back from North. “You know what? This is the first time I’ve really thought about death. I mean, Dennis is gone. I’m surrounded by ghosts but this is the first time I really understood what it meant. And Dennis did the right thing, he went on, he didn’t stay around preying on the living…” She stopped, realizing that was a slap at May who could be lurking anywhere. “It’s not natural for them to stay,” she said finally.

“There I agree,” North said. “Southie and Mother are in the kitchen with Flo, putting together some kind of lunch. I’ll find Isolde. You go eat something.”

Andie shook her head. “I just want to sit here alone for a while and think about Dennis.”

North rubbed her shoulder. “Okay. I’ll go find Isolde.”

Andie nodded, and North left, closing the door behind him, and she let the tears come then, quietly dripping while she thought about poor Dennis who’d died just as he’d opened a new chapter in his life. Well, she thought, trying to get a grip, he was opening a new chapter now. Whatever came next, she hoped it was wonderful for him. She straightened the bolsters on the couch and found something soft behind one of them, and when she shook it out, she realized it was Dennis’s godawful green argyle sweater, the one she’d gotten the pizza sauce out of the first night. He’d been so grateful. God, it was so sad, such a dweebish piece of clothing, but it was so Dennis, and Dennis had been so…

The tears came back with a vengeance this time, and she put her face in the sweater and cried hard for the poor sweet parapsychologist who’d just wanted to see a ghost and had finally seen one right before he died.

It’s all right, Andie.

Andie sniffed the tears back and looked toward the door, expecting to see North, but it was still closed. “North?” She put the cardigan down in her lap and wiped her eyes. “Hello?” she called.

That’s my cardigan. It’s okay, I don’t need it, but-

“Dennis?” Andie jerked her head around. “Dennis, is that you? I can’t see you.”

I’m dead, the voice said reasonably.

“And yet, that’s not a problem with those other people from hell who keep showing up.” Andie clutched the sweater to her. “Dennis, is it really you? How do I know it’s you?”

I don’t know. We really didn’t have time to get to know one another well, although I do think a bond was formed under stress. That’s often common in wartime. And of course, you’ve become attuned to supernatural elements because of your concern for Alice, which strengthened the telepathic connection, although Alice isn’t here now, so I’m going to have to look at that hypothesis again-

“Okay, it’s you.” Andie looked around the room, still trying to catch of glimmer of something to talk to. “Oh, Dennis, how are you?”

Dead.

“I know,” Andie said, feeling horrible again. “I’m so sorry. Is it awful?”

No. I don’t think it’s something I’d choose, given the choice, which of course I wasn’t…

Andie clutched his cardigan, trying hard not to cry. “Dennis, are you suffering?”

Oh, no. In fact, in many ways it’s wonderful. Andie, there really are ghosts!

Annoyance replaced pity. “Yes, Dennis, we talked about that.”

Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and Andie turned, but there was nothing there.

But now I know. It’s amazing.

“What’s it like? Tell me it’s not awful.”

There’s no feeling at all. Well, no physical feeling. There are emotions, of course.

“Emotions,” Andie said. “Are you sad?”

No. In fact, I’m rather jubilant. There are ghosts, they’re real!

“I don’t see that as the upside here.”

Yes, but I didn’t believe you. I couldn’t talk to them. And now…

“You can?” Andie held his sweater closer. “Can you tell them to go away?”

They can’t.

Andie felt a chill to her left, a draft, probably, but she turned that way, just in case.

They’re tied to something in the house. They have to stay here.

“Okay, how do we evict them? A séance?”

Another one? It’s getting pretty crowded here on this side already, I don’t think you want to take out another civilian.

“Four of you now.”

Yes, and some of us aren’t quite top drawer.

“How upsetting for you.” She waited a minute and then said, “Dennis? Did one of them kill you?”

I think so.

“Which one?”

I don’t know. I was sitting on the couch talking to May-she’s lovely, Andie-and then she left, and all of a sudden this thing rose up out of the carpet like a dark, screaming cloud, and I died.

“It scared you to death?”

I wouldn’t think so. But I’m dead, so it’s a reasonable hypothesis.

Andie looked at the carpet. “It’s just a carpet, Dennis.”

Well, something came out of it and here we are.

She got down on her hands and knees to see what she could find-ectoplasm in the broadloom?-and when she got up, her hands were dirty, covered in a fine, dark dust. “What’s this stuff?”

I don’t know. I’d wash it off. It might be deadly.

“I think it’s just dirt.” She dusted her hand off. “Okay, we have to get rid of the ghosts. It was probably Peter who killed you. You weren’t threatening Alice in any way so Miss J wouldn’t go after you, and May was sitting with you, right?”

It’s a moot point now. It’s not like we can bring them to justice. I think the best course is for us all to leave.

“Yes, that had occurred to all of us, too.” Andie tried to pull her thoughts together and a new wrinkle popped up. “Wait a minute. I can hear you but I can’t see you. Oh, hell, Dennis, you’re a crisis apparition!”

I wish all my students paid attention the way you do, Andie. That’s very astute.

“But that means this is it.” Andie looked around wildly for him. “You’re going to… go toward the light or something. I mean, that’s good, you should do that, but we don’t have much time.”

Well, the light is definitely here. Annoying, too. It’s really a blessing I don’t need sleep now, because that light would make it impossible.

“So what have you come to tell me?” Andie said. “I mean, the message you have to deliver before you go. Was it to leave the house? Because I’m on it.”

I’m not going. I’m not leaving you and May to deal with those mad discarnate entities.

“That’s sweet, Dennis. But really-”

May has a beautiful soul. You should see it.

“I’ve seen it. It’s been in me. Not that beautiful.”

No, no, she has a voluptuous soul.

“Dennis, are you leering?”

The ghostly laughter ended in asthmatic coughing, which was a comfort.

“You okay there?”

Yes. You’d think now that I don’t have lungs-

“Dennis, if you’re a crisis apparition, we don’t have time for this. If you have any advice on how to get rid of those things, now’s the time to share.”

Well, of course, they’d be weaker if everybody would just stay calm.

“Crumb and Kelly and her cameraman are gone.”

That’s a help, Dennis said.

“Who are you talking to?” North said, and Andie turned to see him in the doorway.

“Get in here and shut the door,” Andie said, standing up. “We have a new… wrinkle.”

North came in and shut the door. “I don’t want a wrinkle.”

Andie turned back to where she thought Dennis was. “Can he hear you?”

I don’t know, Dennis said. You’re the only one who’s heard me so far. Besides May, of course. She has a-

“Voluptuous soul, I know.” Andie looked at North. “Did you hear that?”

“Voluptuous soul?” North said, looking confused.

“Okay, here’s the short version. Dennis is here. I think he’s a crisis apparition, which means he can’t stay long and shouldn’t stay long because he’s got to go toward the light-”

I really think that’s an option.

“-because we don’t want him to miss the bus to Paradise. But he’s staying because he’s worried about the ghosts and because he’s attracted to May-”

I wouldn’t say “attracted.” We have mutual interests.

“-and so he’s dragging his feet,” Andie finished. She turned back in the direction of Dennis. “Maybe you could take the rest of the ghosts with you. Get them a seat on the bus, too-”

I’m not going.

“Dennis, this is the afterlife we’re talking about here.”

Yes, and it’s my afterlife. I’m staying here. I’d like to go to Cincinnati and give that fraud Boston Ulrich the scare of his life, but I can’t seem to leave-

“Andie?” North said, concern in his voice.

Andie turned back to him. “I swear to God, he’s here, North. I am not crazy, Dennis is here.”

“Well, this is where he died,” North said reasonably. “On the other hand, I would remind you that you’re grieving and he’s dead.”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell him,” Andie said, exasperated. “Go toward the light. But now that he’s dating May-”

Andie!

“Andie, I know you liked Dennis a lot, but he’s dead.”

You told him you liked me a lot?

“Not now, Dennis. He’s here, North. I don’t care whether you believe me or not, he’s here. What are you doing?”

He sat down next to her on the couch and put his arm around her. “I was thinking-”

If you’re going to neck, you should probably do it somewhere else, Dennis said. I can’t seem to leave this couch.

“The couch?” Andie said. “You’re tied to the couch?”

North looked around. “Who’s tied to the couch?”

“Dennis,” Andie said to him, exasperated.

I can’t seem to move away from it, Dennis said. I’m hoping that’s temporary. I don’t want to be a supernatural couch potato. Heh heh heh. He coughed then, asthmatic wheezing from beyond the grave, and Andie gave up.

“I have to take the kids lunch,” she said, standing up. “If I don’t see you again, it was a pleasure knowing you.”

“Andie, Dennis is dead,” North said, gently but firmly.

I’m not going anywhere, Dennis said, and Andie gave up on both of them and went to the kitchen.

Andie carried the lunch tray up to the nursery. Both kids were in bed, Alice with her Walkman and Rose Bunny, and Carter with a comic book.

“So,” Andie said. “About Dennis.”

“He came back?” Carter said.

“Yes. How’d you know?”

“Did he say who’d killed him?”

“No. He said it was just this thing that came out of the carpet.”

“Black cloud,” Alice said, and picked up her sandwich.

“Okay,” Carter said and went back to his comic book.

“Can I go talk to him?” Alice said, and Andie was tempted to let her, but with any luck Dennis would have found his way to the light by now, and Alice would have one fewer person on her chatting-with-the-dead list.

“Maybe later,” Andie said. “Eat your lunch.”

She went out onto the gallery and heard voices below, so she looked over the railing to see North below, talking to Southie, and went around the corner of the gallery and through the stone archway to the stairs so she could join them.

Something surged up out of the carpet, black and stinging, swirling into a solid mass of staring death’s-head, and she screamed and turned blindly to run only to see May rushing toward her, her face a skull as she screamed like a banshee, and Andie turned, screaming again, caught between the two horrors, and fell, hitting the rickety rail around the gallery with her shoulder, feeling it give way, reaching out and grasping only air, and then somebody caught her arm and dragged her back and the ghosts were gone and she was gasping on the carpet, looking at the gaping hole in the gallery railing, with Isolde bending over her, still holding on to her arm.

“Bastards,” Isolde said calmly.

“Yeah,” Andie said, shaking as she tried to sit up.

“What stopped you from going over?”

“You,” Andie said, thinking, JESUS CHRIST, WHAT WAS THAT??

“Nope, I got here at the end and caught your arm, but before that you were headed straight for that railing and then you turned away.”

“May.” Andie tried to calm down enough to think. “May was there.”

“Who was the other one?”

“I don’t know. This stuff just came out of the carpet. That’s what Dennis said. He said this thing came out of the carpet…”

Isolde reached down and picked up some of the black particles. “It’s dirt. Whatever it was just pulled up all the dirt in the carpets and threw it at you.”

“It was more than that, it was a shape, a skull,” Andie said, and then North ran through the arch and said, “What the hell?”

“They tried to kill her,” Isolde said as North pulled Andie up into his arms.

“What happened?” North said, looking into Andie’s eyes. “Are you all right?”

“Isolde grabbed me before I went through the rail,” Andie said, trying to sound normal, but wanting to hold on to him, just the same. “It’s the way May died. The ghosts killed May and now they’re coming after us. We have to get rid of them, North.” She looked at Isolde. “I want another séance. I want to pull them in so we can look at them, find out-”

“Harold’s gone,” Isolde said. “I can’t work without a spirit guide.”

“Well, give it a shot,” Andie said. “We’ll put Flo in the nursery with the kids-”

“Lydia,” Isolde said. “I need Flo. I need believers.”

“Okay, Lydia, and we’ll make it work this time.”

It’s never worked before.

Andie turned and saw May floating in front of the broken railing. “Thank you. I know you saved me.”

If there’d been someone there for me, I wouldn’t have died.

“I’m sorry, I really am, May, you got such a raw deal on this. But thank you for stopping me.”

Yeah, you owe me, May said, and then smiled her beautiful smile. You’re welcome.

“Can you be Isolde’s spirit guide at the séance?” Andie said.

“Wait a minute,” Isolde said.

You should ask Dennis, May said. He’d love that. He’s very career-minded.

“Dennis,” Andie said to Isolde. “Unless he’s left us.”

“I could do Dennis,” Isolde said, and Andie went downstairs to see if he’d gone toward the light yet.

Half an hour later, Lydia was upstairs hearing the Princess Alice story, and Andie, Isolde, Flo, Southie, and a reluctant North were at the table they’d dragged in from the Great Hall and put in front of Dennis’s couch which Dennis was refusing to leave.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Isolde said as she sat down across from the couch, looking even paler than usual.

It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? Dennis said.

“What?” Isolde said, looking around.

“That’s Dennis,” Andie said. “Are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes?” Isolde pushed her narrow glasses up the narrow bridge of her nose.

“Maybe they’ll be feeling guilty for killing Dennis,” Southie said.

They don’t give a rat’s ass, Dennis said.

“Watch the language,” Isolde said.

“What language?” Southie said.

“Dennis is grumpy,” Andie said.

“Do you want a permanent job, Dennis?” Isolde said.

No.

“He’s going toward the light as soon as we’re done here,” Andie said firmly.

No I’m not.

“Don’t be hasty about turning me down,” Isolde said. “It’s interesting work.”

I have a job. I’m researching ghosts.

“Well, you’ll meet a lot more with me,” Isolde said. “Think about it.”

It’s a moot point. I can’t leave this couch.

“Oh, suck it up, Dennis,” Isolde said. “You’re too old for a security blanket.”

I believe I would know if it were possible for me to establish a wider range.

“You’ve been a ghost for six hours, but you’re an expert,” Isolde snorted.

I was an expert before I was a ghost, Dennis snapped.

“Not that I don’t find this fascinating,” Andie said, “but we need to find out what it is that the ghosts left behind that’s keeping them here. Since Dennis had dibs on the couch, it’s not that, so let’s just leave the furniture out of it for now. We have to be looking for something smaller, a lock of hair maybe, the Victorians did a lot of mourning jewelry. Or… a finger or something.”

“A finger?” Southie said.

“Probably not. We need to find out what’s holding them here so we can burn it and send them on to… wherever.”

“Are they here?” Isolde said. “It doesn’t feel like they’re here.”

No, Dennis said. I’m the only one here.

“Then we’ll have to call them. Just remember, they’re killers. If things start getting dicey, I’m calling it quits for good on this one.”

“Now that is a sane idea,” North said.

“Sit down,” Isolde said, and he did. “Join hands. Breathe.”

The thing about those long slow breaths was that they were very peaceful. Andie relaxed into her chair a little more, but she watched for any movement in the air, any clue that there might-

This again? May said. You know, you could just ask me.

“Not you,” Andie said. “Them.”

What do you want?

“Is there something tying them here, some souvenir with a lock of hair or something that would keep them from being evicted?”

It would have had to have come with the house, May said. That was years and years ago. Something really old. Our family wouldn’t have anything that old.

“Old,” Andie said. “Something from the early 1800s.”

“Pocket watch,” North said.

Andie jerked around, distracted. “What?”

“We found a pocket watch when we searched the house. I’ll go get it.”

North left the table, clearly glad to be able to do so.

“Good,” Isolde said. “With him gone, I can see a lot clearer. What do you think, Dennis?”

I think it’s all a crock.

“My God,” Andie said. “You’re dead and you still don’t believe in ghosts?”

I don’t believe in the burning of the pocket watch. Victorian mourning jewelry was rings and lockets.

“Lockets,” Andie said. “The locket you drew on Miss J is around Alice’s neck. I’ll be right back.” She turned and ran for the stairs, double-timing it up to the nursery, only to see Lydia standing in front of Alice’s bed, snarling, “Get out” at North, and when Andie said, “What the hell?” he turned around.

North’s eyes were empty and black, cruel and evil, and then she saw the pocket watch in his hand and realized she was looking into Peter’s white face of damnation. North was gone.