The purple tube turned and twisted as I continued to slide down its slippery interior. Loops and sharp turns constantly caused me to lose my orientation as I slid sideways and backwards as much as I did forwards. The speed at which I was traveling was always increasing, but never to the point where it was so fast that I didn't see the turns the moment before I hit them.

I wasn't scared in the least. I could feel Joey right there with me, going down that tube just like I was. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew he was right beside me, experiencing everything I was. So instead of being scared, we were enjoying ourselves. Neither of us realized we were dreaming, but we somehow knew there was no danger.

But just as we were finishing a triple loop with a hard right turn at the end, I felt an incredibly strong force pull me right through the purple surface of the tube.

My panic started to rise when I found myself free falling in space... without Joey.

I reached out and tried to find him, becoming very alarmed when I found nothing but emptiness. No one was out there with me. I was completely alone.

There was nothing but blackness all around me. I wasn't cold or hot, and there seemed to be plenty of air to breathe. But I felt completely naked and defenseless and finally gave into the urge to curl up into a ball to block out my empty surroundings.

Only minutes later, I felt a warmth on my right side. I opened my eyes and found myself laying in bed facing a brilliant column of light.

"Michael?" I called.

A flash of light to the left of me drew my attention to the coin on my nightstand. As the coin began to glow with a white light, the other column of light suddenly flashed and surged forward towards me.

Before I could react, the column of light passed right through me, making every hair on my body stand on end. The moment it made contact I knew it wasn't Michael. This was something far more powerful than anything on Earth. But before I could even process this information and wonder who... or what it was, it was gone.

When I got over my shock, I found myself watching Michael's vortex of light grow to full size, and remembered that Joey should have been here with me. But try as I might, I couldn't feel Joey, or anyone for that matter. I wasn't powerless, just blocked from the real world somehow.

The whispering started again, but something was different about how the sparks of light were acting and the tone of the whispers. I nearly jumped away when Michael's hand formed out of the light and reached out to grab my foot.

His grasp was feather soft, but it felt as if it was pulling energy from my body at a near painful rate. His grip got stronger as my very being was pulled from my body. I felt like one of those Stretch Armstrong toys with two boys trying to stretch me so far that I snap in half. Luckily, just like the toy, I didn't snap in two. But I was pulled out of my physical body and suddenly found myself in a gray place.

There was nothing around me but gray. I appeared to be standing upright on a floor, but when I tried to judge how large of an area I was standing in, I couldn't tell were the floor ended and the sky began. Everything was just.. gray.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my 'shoulder'. I turned around to find Michael standing behind me with a grin on his face.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," was the only thing I could think of.

"So how does it feel to be dead?" Michael asked.

"Dead?" I said with a shiver.

"Yeah. Don't worry. You're not really dead. You could say you're just visiting."

"Is this heaven?" I said looking at the nothingness around us.

"Nope. I'm not really sure what this place is, but it's kinda neat. Here, have a seat."

A pair of gray lazy boys and a gray table suddenly appeared beside us sitting on top of a circular patch of gray carpet. Michael walked over to the lazy boy nearest to him and sat in it, almost disappearing because he too was gray in color. In fact, I suddenly realized that I was also gray, and that if I looked too closely to anything, it disappeared to my 'vision' because everything was actually the exact same color of gray.

I pondered on that for a moment before sitting down myself. I didn't understand what I was 'seeing' since everything was one color. No shadows, no different shades to distinguish where one 'object' ended and another began. By looking for these things, everything around me simply melted into a single field of gray, temporarily blinding and disorientating me.

But each time I started to panic from this, Michael made a noise or movement that distracted me enough that everything was suddenly there again.

When I lost my vision the fourth time, Michael said, "Don't try and make sense out of it. I spent nearly two days trying before just giving up so I wouldn't go crazy. And then later I thought that this may be what a blind man would see in his head if he tried to imagine what it was like to have sight."

"Hmm.. I guess you're right. No use trying to figure out something that probably can't be figured out... Uhm, how did you bring me here? And why?"

"He thought it would be easier for us if we could 'hear' each other, that's all. He made it work, all I did was pull."

I sat there for a minute with gray goosebumps traveling up and down my gray skin. The thought that I had been touched by God.... It was almost too much to even recall what it felt like when that column of light went through me. But when I did, I found myself not really convinced that it had been God. Something about the way it had felt... There was something.. individual... something with clear personal motivations that I believed a divine being wouldn't possess.

"Tim, I don't have much time..." Michael said, bringing me out of my deep thought.

"Oh.. Sorry," I said a little sheepishly. "Uhm, can you tell me anything to help find them?"

"No..." he said sadly. "But I can tell you a little about what they have done and what their plans are."

"That's even better. With your help, we could set a trap and.."

"Tim, look over there," he said pointing off to the right. "You see that kind of bright spot?"

"Uhm, yeah. It's actually not the same color as everything else," I said, mostly to myself. I wondered why I hadn't noticed it before.

"He said when I see the bright light, I had to enter it. If I waited too long, I would be trapped here forever. It used to be so bright that if we were looking at it with eyes, it would have blinded us for sure. He said if I didn't pass through tonight... Tim, I won't be able to help you after I pass through. And I don't.."

"Okay.. I understand. Tell me everything you know, then maybe if you have time afterwards I can ask you questions?"

"Yeah, that should be okay," he said with a look of relief. I had the feeling he would have sacrificed his chance to move on if I had asked him to. That disturbed me because I wasn't sure if I would have done the same if the situation had been reversed.

His expression saddened as he stated, "Steven never drugged Penny to make her do these things."

"What?!" I said almost standing up out of my chair. "Then how did he turn her into..."

"He didn't," Michael said, letting a gray tear fall. "She's been helping him willingly. She's changed, Tim. Steven offered her power and an equal share of anything he gets. Penny didn't even get upset when Steven beat us up. I even think it was her idea to test our brainwashing by raping and beating us like that."

"But WHY? Why hasn't Steven used the drug on her? He must have done something to her to change her! I know she would never do it without being made to. I probably know Penny better than anyone. She and I explored each others.. Oh shit. She saw my every fear, every regret, and probably every weakness I have. Oh, man... I'm in trouble if she can remember all...

"But then again..." I said as I realized I wasn't the same person I had been that summer. In fact, probably the strongest weapon she could have used against me would have been my fear of becoming corrupted. But that fear didn't exist inside me anymore. Because I had been limited by all those lines I had made in the dirt back then, anything she remembered about my weaknesses probably would be useless. She would try to make me cross a line to break my will. She didn't know that not only did I want to cross those lines, I wanted to stomp, crush, mangle, twist, spit, piss, and finally shit on the damn things. And then I'd get really nasty.

"Steven started staying with them about two months after you left her with her mom and dad. When her dad stopped having sex with her, she got really depressed. Steven convinced her that everything was your fault and that he could help her get revenge. He really did a good job getting her to hate you and believing that the only thing more important that getting her revenge was becoming the heads of their family.

"Penny invited me and David over to her house for New Years Eve. She said she wanted to apologize for the way she had been ignoring us. We fell for it and got knocked out by their father's tranquilizing gun as soon as their front door was shut. The next thing I knew, I was strapped down in a chair in a laboratory with Steven holding a needle with that green stuff in it while Penny was wiping... <sniff> wiping my arm with a cotton swab of alcohol <sniff>."

He paused and wiped the gray tears from his face, and I diverted my eyes while he pulled himself together. But the moment my eyes left his face, they were drawn to the hard on he was trying to hide at the same time.

"I'm sorry..." he said when he realized what I was looking at. "That drug makes everything they say feel so good to hear, I can't help but.. never mind. Ignore it. It doesn't matter to me anymore.

"I sorta remember Penny telling Steven things while he brainwashed me. I think she was telling him how to do it, but I'm not really sure. By the time he was finished, I loved him like a god and wanted nothing else but to do whatever he wanted.

"I don't remember everything that happened after that, just bits and pieces. When I wouldn't tell them about what you did to their father, they thought my... brainwashing was starting to fail. That's when Steven raped me and beat me up. He told me I needed to be tested to see if I was truly faithful to him. Shit, Tim. The whole time he did that, all I could think about was how much I loved him and that I wanted to be his most trusted slave. I passed the test with flying colors, and it was about a week later that Penny called Suzi up.

"They kept David and I apart up until they sent us to steal that van. And then I didn't even know who he was. He was just another loyal slave who had just gotten out of the hospital and would help me steal the van. After we loaded Suzi in the back, he left to help Penny and Steven get out of town. I think David passed his test even better than I did by almost dying...

"I kind of remember being at your place, but nothing really clearly. I do remember hypnotizing Joey though. I couldn't believe I had done it, and then I asked him a few questions about where I was and stuff, and I think I remember realizing he had been tricking me."

"Did Steven plant anything in your head about using Joey to get to me or anything?"

"No, I don't think so. I just saw a chance to prove my worth to Steven and took it. They didn't have time to plan anything but their escape."

"Whew! You have no idea how big of a relief that is. I thought.."

"You can't put your guard down for a moment! After I spoke to you last night, I went to feel Steven, Penny, and David out again. Tim, I think they know everything you do and everyone you have contact with. They had already done something really bad to someone else you know, and it felt like they were ready to do something else and were just waiting for the right moment. I don't know what they are planning, but I know you're in danger. That's why He let me talk to you like this. I think He's.."

Michael was cut off by a sudden flash of light from the bright patch of space. He was standing on he feet by the time the flash ended, and his desperate and panicked face told me it was his last chance to leave.

"Go... You have my word I will do whatever I can to help David," I said standing up.

"Thanks.." he said as he started to run towards the fading light.

When he was almost twenty yards away, he cried over his shoulder, "Tim!.. please help Penny too? She's not herself...."

"We'll see!" I answered. "I'll do what I can.."

I watched him as he ran further and further away, his image becoming less coherent as it grew smaller in the distance, quickly becoming a moving gray dot heading towards a brightening larger white dot.

I barely heard his voice when he apparently stopped and cried, "Tell David he can have the top cap.. He'll know what I mean."

Then just before his gray dot reached the brilliant white dot, I heard, "And tell Penny I forgive her and I'll always love her."

The words "love her" echoed all around me as the white dot absorbed him. The white dot grew incredibly bright, triggering a defense reaction that made me close my 'eyes'. Then with a white flash of light, I awoke to find myself peering into a face I didn't recognize.

"What the," I started to say, but couldn't because of the tube running down my mouth and throat. The man I was staring at squeezed the air sack and forced air into my lungs before he noticed my eyes were open.

"He's back!" I heard Joey's voice say as the man's face registered his surprise.

I quickly took in my surrounding as the stranger removed the tube from my air passage. We were inside an ambulance, apparently rushing me to the hospital.

It took us a few minutes to explain to each other what had happened. Joey had woken up when Michael interrupted our shared dream, then woke my mom up when he couldn't access my thoughts. By the time she got to my room, I had stopped breathing. Joey used CPR on me while my mom called for an ambulance.

What truly amazed us was the fact my heart had stopped beating for nearly forty minutes, yet I felt like I had just woken up from a nap. Joey had done the best he could with his CPR, but had given up hope by the time the ambulance team arrived and took over. My mom made them continue giving me CPR, but after being clinically dead that long, I should have at least had a hang over or something. But I felt fine.

I had goosebumps the entire time I told them my side of the story. And Michael's warning kept echoing in my head.

"They know everything I do and everyone I'm with. They have already done something to someone else I know, and they're ready and waiting for the right moment to do something else. Then he said he didn't know what they're planning, but whatever it was, I was in danger. Then the white thing made a flash to tell him his time was up. He ran to the light... and crossed over. That's when I woke up."

"Shit," Joey exclaimed as the three of us climbed out of the ambulance and went back inside the mansion. "What do we do now? Grab Suzi and run for the hills?"

"I'm not running," I thought to them. "They will make their move and I'll be ready for them. Michael told me enough to set our own trap."

"Tim," my mother thought to us, "I hate to say it, but perhaps running would be the best idea. I don't like the idea of you depending on what happened tonight to protect your safety. You said it yourself you didn't think it was really God controlling that column of light."

"Mom, Michael risked his immortal soul to tell me all of that. And whoever helped him to contact me is more powerful than any of us or Steven. I mean, I should be dead or something."

"So what do we do now?" Joey repeated.

"Give everyone we know the commands to protect them from Steven's drug, then wait for him to make his move?"

We spent several hours discussing this, my dad joining us once my mother had contacted him and explained everything that had happened. To our surprise, he agreed with my suggestion to immunize everyone we knew and then just wait. He even took it a step further by pointing out we should immunize everyone who goes to our school, who lives around Suzi and Joey, and perhaps even the families of anyone who we were friends with.

Joey, my dad, and I spent all day at school blanketing class after class after class with the complex instructions that we called our inoculation. Then we took Suzi home and did her parents. We even managed to reach her brother on the phone at school and did him long distance.

All of this was in vain. Steven had already made his move, but we didn't realize it until Joey and I reached his house to do his parents.

The moment we saw the garage up and the Olds missing, we both knew something was wrong. Joey and his dad religiously kept the garage door closed to protect their collection of tools, but not only was the door up, but one of the tool boxes had been knocked over and the sockets they were so proud of laid scattered all over the garage floor.

We raced inside the house in almost a panic, hoping what we suspected wasn't

true. Apart from the tools in the garage, nothing seemed to be disturbed. We stopped and listened for a moment, hearing some movement via the hall leading to the bedrooms. I finally used my brain and scanned the house with my mind.

"Oh, Damnit!" I said with my eyes watering. "They took 'em, and they left me a message," I said running after Joey heading towards his parent's bedroom.

"NO!" Joey screamed when he saw the fucking couple on the bed wasn't his mom and dad. "I'LL KILL THE BASTARD!!!" Joey screamed as he dived at the familiar pair. "I'LL RIP THE TOP OF HIS HEAD OFF AND SHIT ON HIS FUCKING BRAIN! I'LL.. OH MY GOD!" he finally shuttered when he recognized the two people whom he was holding apart by the hair.

If I hadn't scanned their minds before hand, I wouldn't have recognized them at all. Their bodies were covered with tattoos from head to toe, all of them inviting the reader to violate their bodies sexually. There were arrows pointing to their genitals, anus, breasts, navels, mouths, and even had one on their tongues pointing down their throat. They had instructions with pictures written on them telling me, me specifically, what had been done to them. But the biggest message they were sending me wasn't written on their skin.

Dana was at least three months pregnant, and since Jerry was struggling to fuck her even while Joey sat in between them shaking all over, it was obvious Jerry was the father. I understood the message loud and clear.

"They can get around our commands," I stated without emotion.

It took a few moments before my words registered, but when Joey comprehended them his face went white with fright.

I checked inside my two friend's heads while Joey tried to get a hold of himself. The two people whom I had watched fall in love and had tried my best to give them a happy life had been reduced to the level of mindless animals. Their only desire was to fuck each other or anyone else who asked. They had no morals to interfere in their sexual activities, and they had no personal feelings to get hurt. They had eaten each other's shit, drank each other's urine, fucked and sucked men, women and beasts. Steven had put them through every indignity that wouldn't outright kill them, making them into the thing I had feared I would make others into.

This would have crippled me with guilt if I was still the boy Penny had known. Even though Steven would have never touched Jerry and Dana if they hadn't met me, I knew I had done nothing to cause this. Their condition actually produced the opposite affect that had been intended, increasing my confidence that I could never do such a horrible thing to anyone. Not even to someone like Steven.

Joey however was another matter. I was startled by the rage I felt from him, and had to physically restrain him when he started punching Jerry because he wouldn't stop humping.

"JOEY! YOU'RE LETTING STEVEN WIN BY DOING WHAT HE WANTED YOU TO DO! You can't let him make you so angry that you lose control. Please? For everyone's sake, don't let the anger take over. I need you thinking straight, not punching people."

"SHIT! All right! FUCK!!!" he said getting off the bed to walk his anger off.

I just noticed that the fucking noises had stopped when I heard the familiar sound of the tranquilizer gun go off. I dived for the floor, but then realized I hadn't been the target. Joey sank down to he knees just as I heard the gun go off above me and felt the dart strike me right in the neck. I barely saw the look of Jerry's blank face as he mindlessly pulled the trigger again while another gun went off. The two gunmen went right back to fucking, ignoring the tranquilizer darts that had struck them both in their necks. I fell asleep admiring Steven's thoroughness and praying my mother had felt my fear.