Julie slipped out of her boots and into bed. She didn't expect to sleep, not really; she had long ago memorized the pattern of the darkened ceiling above her. Then for a while, what seemed to her now a brief instant, she had spent her nights memorizing Ori's curves. And now in a mockery of comfort, here was the ceiling again. Come crawling back, have you? thought Julie.

Come crawling to me, after all this time.

The patterns of the tiles seemed to shift.

Are you missing something? A hiss in the darkness. A flicker like eyes.

"Yes." The word was no more than a breath. Something coiled and twisted at the foot of the bed.

Do you want to see her again?

"Yes!" She was sitting up now, clutching the sheets to her, half-afraid, half-crazy. A wounded lion.

What would you do?

There was only one answer. "Anything."

Anything? The patterns coiled sinuously into a smile. Then, like a wind, it was leaving, spiralling out of the room like a dark wind. Follow.

She ran, through what she was sure was not her apartment, through veils and curtains, maddened by the need to keep her guide in sight. Finally they stopped in a room filled with dark wood.

The twisting darkness produced a sheet of paper that sailed into her waiting hands. Sign.

She didn't even hesitate.

The words on the page faded and blurred, as though viewed through a curtain of tears. She wiped her eyes and read, lines in a strangely familiar script.

"So I don't regret stealing him from you. Because that was what I had hoped for. You must hate the way I am."

The tears began to rise again as Juri clutched her locket and remembered.