Angus got into bed and turned out the light, content to watch the starlight through the glass ceiling. It was his favorite part of the whole house. He was fully aware of the risks facing him and everyone with him, and as much as he didn't want the people he loved to risk themselves to help him, neither did he want to do this particular fight, but by the same token, he didn't believe he had done anything to be ashamed of. He didn't know if Pearl was connected to him for any reason other than the fact that she was related to Suzanne, but he was starting to think that Pearl didn't have any axe to grind about Suzanne. This seemed to be completely separate issue, and maybe, he thought, was just coincidence that Pearl was part of the Tyler family tree.
He yawned, tired, not wanting to go to sleep and yet not wanting to put it off either. His eyes fluttered shut, and he fell asleep.
He slept for quite awhile the deep sleep of someone who was dealing with the chronic stress of knowing that at any moment he might well be fighting for his life. And then, in the wee hours of the morning, in his sleep, he found himself again in a cellar made of rugged black stone blocks, with flat stone floors. And then he felt the presence of someone there with him, and it wasn't anyone friendly.
"You..." the voice hissed in his ear in a whisper, "You can't stop me, you little fool. You aren't the first, and you aren't the last. You think you can get rid of me? Then, come find out. And bring whoever wants to die along with you. You're younger than most of the others, but that only makes you easier pickings for me." The voice laughed, and to Angus, there was a tone that was more than sinister. There was almost a madness to it."
"Why are you doing this?" Angus asked.
"Come. Come face me and find out," the voice taunted. "Look. Look at what's in store for youuuuu." The voice trailed off but it placed a vision in his head of his family, all laying dead in a pile on the floor, and then something picked up his body like it was a mere piece of cord wood and threw it on the pile.
"Wake UP!" someone was shaking him hard. "You have to WAKE UP!" Angus woke with a hard jolt to see it was Anise who had come in to the bedroom in the dark and had grabbed him by the shoulders and was shaking the crap out of him.
"I'm awake. Stop. I'm awake," he told her, trying to catch his breath. "You're gonna wake the whole damned house."