Page 143 of Confessions of the Dead

Analysis Note: The subject was beginning to fade in and out, much like the girl did. I don’t know how it looked to him, but he clearly saw something.

Sordello:

Your neck. Touch your neck.

Analysis Note: He did, and his fingers came away slick with blood from the wound that had killed him all those years ago. There were stains on his shirt now. They hadn’t been there only a few minutes ago.

Sordello:

In reality, you and Gabby Sanchez were married and had been for six months when you committed adultery. That was your crime, your sin. The reason you’re trapped. Addie coveted a married man. Gabby took her own life. All mortal sins that sentenced you to hell, where you have been ever since. Somehow, your lives have continued there, but it’s all part of your punishment. Your personal purgatory. Torture, for lack of a better term.

Analysis Note: The man working the lock made some sort of progress; there was an audibleclick. Sordello fired twice at the glass, striking the lock from the inside. The man fell back, unhurt but frightened. It only bought her a few seconds before he went back to work.

Sordello:

[Speaking faster] Beneath what you believe to be Hollows Bend, there is a frozen lake. Best we’ve been able to determine, your souls are there. Trapped indefinitely. Dante described it as the ninth circle of hell. At 6:37 yesterday morning, something punched a hole through to that place. We’ve since learned it was a large tree. A tree possibly older than time itself. That hole created a tear between the hell in which you exist and our world.The living world.We had the area sealed off, thought we had it contained, when a secondary explosion tore it wide open.

Maro:

Cody Hill’s bomb vest?

Sordello:

When that bomb detonated there, the rip between these two realities grew worse. We don’t know what will happen if it spills over. We’re trying to contain it, and we are failing.

---