“Tennessee, pheh,” she uttered, staring over at the fake, flat snowy mountains standing in for the real ones just behind. “Come on, George,” she urged to the meditating youth gazing out in the other direction. “Let’s go see what this *Abyss* is all about.” She starts walking toward the stairs, still talking. “Nothing to be afraid of, George. So says TILE.” Was Clare losing her faith? Now that she remembers the whole of the Wheeler existence? Do we even need to be asking this? I believe it is so.
“Come on come on come on.”
“Oh all *right*.” George was enjoying the meditation. He didn’t want to encounter the Abyss just now.
—–
“Well, here we are at the mouth of this thing. You-go-first.”
“Me? But I’m just a kid.”
“You’re no kid. *Go*. Protect me if you must.” She sweeps her hand forward. “Off you go,” she commands again. “Come on come on come on.” This was not like Clare Nova, who was sweeter. This was the orders of Wheeler. Fully clowned now, she needed to find out what she was facing at the end.
—–
“What do you see in there?” called Clare-Wheeler from just outside the mouth now.
“I don’t know,” replied George. “Skulls. Candles. Lots of skulls and candles.”
“That’s the Abyss part,” said Wheeler. “What else is in there? Look in the corners, along the walls. Look *beyond* the normal.”
“There’s nothing *normal* about this place.”
“*Try*,” she urged. “I’ll be right here, ready to help if needed.” She definitely wasn’t going to help. If the power behind the Abyss got George, then another one would fill his spot. Just like she did with Clare. George could die, yes. *Duncan* had already died, maybe several times — hard to keep up. But Baker Bloch will continue on. Along with herself it seems.
“Um. Oh yeah, Mother Mary. I guess that’s good. But then a, let’s see, Medusa Gorgon beside her. Not so good.”
“Great. Keep looking. Maybe something in writing?”
“Well, the Gorgon is holding a, er, book it looks like.” He stands on his tippy toes. “But I can’t see the cover… (strain) to tell what it is.”
“Get that book,” Clare-Wheeler commands. “Just *grab* it from her.”
Dare he?
Sunklands 