But the others were gone now, chased away by returning reality, shrinking and fading into the darkness. Steven stood just inside the heavy door, eyes ...adjusting to the dim light, staring in disbelief at the wooden scaffold where Elyse hung by her wrists, her naked body gleaming with sweat, writhing and moaning beside her master. Simon stood close to her, his lean, muscular torso ablaze with light against the black depths of the room. He was naked as well, his cock still brutally hard, jutting. Also..."He hesitated, obviously embarrassed."Well?" Well, Monsieur le Prefet, I must tell you—something..."He was looking for his words and seemed to fear the consequences of them at the same time that he uttered them. But he suddenly made up his mind."Monsieur le Prefet, there is in this house—somewhere—a packet of letters which I value more than my life. It is possible that those letters, if misinterpreted, will furnish a weapon against me; but no matter. The great thing is that they should. "There's no other way for you to live. Your world is going to die, and you'll die with it if you stay. But we can help you leave it." All of us?" No, I'm sorry," Meiersdottir admitted. "Even we can't build a ship big enough for you all. The bodies of most must remain here. But I know that all live in your mind even after their bodies die, and in that way yes, all may come. But we can take only about one hundred of you physically with us, along with the things of your living."The mother absorbed. "And you're not either. We can do nothing together. We've always done nothing well." We have," Brock replied. "Uh, I was thinking, I haven't really been out of the house much in the past couple of months. Once I figure out when Meredith is heading back to work with Randi, let's go out for dinner and maybe find something fun to do afterward." Sounds great!" Tara said. "We'll figure it out later. Still, I need to get going. Call me later and let me know if you want to do something tonight. I.