Guiltily, Sylvie realized that she had reverted to controlling Snowpepper as though they were still two people in one body. What had happened? Snowpepper should be able to speak when she felt moved to just as Sylvie could. That was supposed to have changed. She sighed. It must be her own control issues.

You hit the nail on the head, kiddo, said a voice in her mind.

It wasn’t just a voice. It was the voice. The horrible, slippery, insinuating voice that had tormented her in that strange dream within a dream. She jumped as though she had been pinched.

“Who are you?” she demanded aloud.

“What is it, dear?” Adele stirred. She had been sitting quietly, smoking another cigarette. “Did you say something?”

“It’s… I dunno. There’s a weird voice in my head. I don’t like it!”

“Oh?” Adele’s gaze sharpened. “Ask it who it is, and what it wants from you.”

For lack of any brighter ideas of her own, Sylvie complied.

Okay, who the heck are you anyway? How did you get into my head? And what do you want from me?

Aahh… she’s finally asking the right questions. The voice sounded amused. Your mother must have prompted you.

Yeah, so? What’s the answer, then, if those are the right questions? she demanded.

The voice made a sound like a sigh. All right. I am Asafel, at your service, my dear. I am in your head because I have no place else to be; I’ve always been here, in fact. As for what I want from you, I want us to have the rightful and open relationship we ought to have had if you had been properly introduced to me in childhood. Oh, I know it’s too late for it to be the same as it would have been. But it’s not too late to start fresh.

She gasped. “Mom! He says he’s Asafel!”

“That’s who I thought it must be, Sylvie.”

“Why does he feel so icky? It’s horrible! I feel slimed!”

“You’ll have to ask him, Sylvie. It probably has to do with the fact that you’ve never been properly introduced. My fault, of course.” She sighed, exhaling a puff of smoke. “If you want him out of your head, you’re going to have to formally call on him. Ask him to come out.”

Sylvie could sense Snowpepper’s excitement. She got the impression that Snowpepper hadn’t heard the voice at all, which puzzled her, but right now her priority was to get the voice out. She felt she couldn’t stand it in her head another second.

“All right! Asafel or whatever your name is, come out now! I call you! I conjure you! Whatever!”

She felt a weirdly disorienting sensation like a wind blowing through her mind. She cried out, pressing her hands to her temples, but it lasted only a fraction of a second, leaving her gasping.

“Is he out, Mommie? Where is he?”

“We’re in the city, darling. He doesn’t like to be seen by people who aren’t family. He’s made himself invisible to ordinary people.” A smile came into her voice. “Hello Asafel, dear. I would like to introduce you to my only daughter. Sylvie, this is Asafel, an old family friend and helper.”

Sylvie gaped. As her mother spoke, she began to see a tall, thin, dapper-looking man with a goatee, wearing a rakishly tilted cap, standing about a foot above the ground, striking a jaunty pose and bowing to her with a flourish. He was only partially visible, coloured a uniform shade of translucent red all over. She felt a strange, haunting sense of familiarity, as though she were meeting someone she had known forever.

“Hi, um, Asafel,” she said hesitantly. “How come I can see you if you’re invisible?”

“We’ve been properly introduced now,” he explained. “I am pleased to meet you at last, Sylvie,” he went on with a mischievous grin. “You have no idea how pleased. Thank you for finally calling me out.”

“It’s you!!” Sylvie burst out, surprising herself. It was Snowpepper-in-her coming forward spontaneously. “I know you! You were my friend!” Snowpepper was bursting with excitement. She laughed gaily and bounced in her seat. “I remember! I remember!! You were in that horrid no-place with me, right? I’d forgotten about you! I wasn’t alone at all! You were there!”

Asafel’s red eyes gleamed and he smiled. “Yes, my little friend, and I must say, I am more than pleased, I am ecstatic to see you restored to your rightful self!”

As he spoke, the air seemed to brighten. The sky, which had been overcast, grew lighter and the colours of the drab city sharpened. Sylvie had the sense that the homeless people in the park near them, who had been listlessly filling time, had suddenly become more animated.

“Hey!” Sylvie said, “You don’t feel horrible to me anymore! You actually feel kind of … good!”

“I apologize for that, truly,” Asafel grimaced wryly. “That was a side-effect of my situation, being imprisoned wrongly in your head. My voice, indeed my very essence could not feel good to you there. I was situated inside-out, or outside-in, rather.” His eyes twinkled. “Still, I did remain silent a rather long time. I spent my energies with your subconscious alter ego, who was aware of me before she became conscious again. Being outside-in herself at the time, we had something in common.”

Sylvie’s head began to spin. “Ahhh!” she cried out plaintively, “This is getting really horribly complicated. I don’t understand any of it!”

“Let your otherside self be on top,” Asafel suggested. “She understands perfectly, and her understanding will help you, if you let her be the one in charge of the mind. You have an acquired habit of rigid self-control. It’s not your fault, but it doesn’t help things one bit. I would like to help you lose that habit. You’ll be much happier without it, I promise you.”

As grateful for the suggestion as though the possibility had not existed before Asafel named it, Sylvie surrendered the reins of her body to Snowpepper and let her consciousness drift out of her mind’s control.

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