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"What is he like?" Lucas asked

Noould have to lie

An asshole just like you ould have been the truthful answer, but not the most tactful one in this particular circumstance

"He, uh… He looks like you," I replied That was about themyself to say about Jeramiah at this point in time And it wasn’t even all that true Jeramiah did not look nize the reseuessed there were siht and hair color But otherwise, I guessed Jeramiah must resemble histo reconnect with you," I went on

"Reconnect," Lucasin the air

I cast my eyes up at the surface of the pool, still paranoid that the ghouls would be on the hunt for ical order… " ht ain as he asked, "Where is he now?" It was both a relief and a pleasant surprise to have hi questions

I didn’t knohere he was Perhaps he’d returned to The Oasis? I realized that iven the fact that it here Lucas had actually died It ht serve to provide yet another jolt to his dusty memory

"The Oasis," I replied "Jeramiah misses you terribly He even installed a randfather to avenge you, I added silently

Now I saw a sain "Is… there anything at all that you could tell ed to find a way, you could come with me I could help you to find your son… to reconnect with hi the word that seemed to mean a lot to him "You would like that, wouldn’t you?"

He nodded "I would" His voice had becoain I foundthat this was really the same man who had attempted on a number of occasions to rape andfor hih not in the way I had really hoped

"I did try to escape this place before," hehis brows "I recall it now More than once More than… any of these ever tried…" He gestured toward the ghosts on the floor of the pool They had stopped watching Lucas now, and had returned to their forht They would take s… Terrible things" He paused, sing hard "The last time they locked ain"

"How exactly did you try to escape?" I asked

He shifted uncoh his eye contact reher up" He nodded his head up to the ceiling "Many ghosts tried to escape at once I was one of the leaders of the plot, at the forefront of the crowd as we atteh the base of the whirlpool As soon as the ghouls spotted us stor toward them, they closed the exit And those they believed to be at the forefront of the plot were punished and then… thrust doards Further down than I’d ever been"

I was still thinking about the exit "How did the ghouls close the exit off?" I asked

His face scrunched in concentration "They, uh, they kept… a net nearby, tucked ah They fixed it at the base of the vortex and fastened it There was nothing we could do to get out It was just… impossible"

So they have some kind of barrier I hadn’t noticed any "net" when I had been down there but then again, Lucas had said that they kept it stashed away I wondered when the last ht that it would happen on a regular basis, but perhaps only a the new recruits, who hadn’t already seen that it was "i that Lucas had said he’d been a leader a the rebels Leader Froiven of him, he’d never struck me as a leader; a wannabe leader ed Lucas in many ways

"So," I continued, "you did find out that you were not actually in Hell You found out before you got thrust down here?"

"Yes," he replied "Yes, I did But I… I appear to have forgotten a lot of things after the last ti to res now"

Fro that none of the things he was re elco when I froze The sound of ghouls tittering drifted down fro for me Two shadows loomed over the surface of the pond Then a hand dipped inside I looked around wildly for somewhere to hide If one of them peered into the water and looked around, they’d spot me in a matter of seconds

I was about to hurtle down to the floor and attehosts, but then Lucas moved in front of me I moved backward, deeper into the corner He sat up a little straighter, enough to block direct view of me--at least somewhat Of course, his body was translucent and on close scrutiny, it would be easy to see houls poked his head into the pond, his frightening glealanced only briefly over Lucas I curled up into a ball and hunkered do, trying to keep every part of houl didn’t spot ain After he exchanged some more eerie words with his companion, the two shadows moved away Lucas shifted a little, and I uncurled, slowly daring to resume my former position next to him I stared at my uncle