He turned and bolted from the doorway,turning away from Brandy and the room entirely.

“Albert!” She began to cry again,utterly terrified, and Albert felt sick to have left her in thedark like that. “Albert! Don’t leave me!”

“It’s okay. I’m right here.”

“Come back!”

“Come to me!”

“Albert, please!”

“I can’t!” He growled withfrustration. He wanted to go to her, but he couldn’t, and he didn’teven know why. “What the fuck!”

“Where are you?” She was getting closernow.

“I’m right outside the door.” He shined thelight at the door, not looking at it. “You can see the light,right?”

“Yeah. Sort of. But I can’t see anythingelse. My glasses.”

Albert looked down at her glasses. He wasstill holding them in his hand. “I’ve got your glasses. Come to me,okay Brandy?”

“Okay.” She sounded pitiful. “I’mcoming.”

He could hear her footsteps. She was justinside the door, but moving slowly, likely feeling her way aroundthe statues that had bruised him up a good deal on his way out.

At last she stepped through the doorway. Herarms were still crossed over her breasts, as though unaware thather bottom half was showing as well. She spotted Albert and flungherself into his arms. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know.” He held her that way for along time, letting her weep against his bare shoulder, trying notto think that she was naked or about what they’d done together. Hekept his ears open and watched both the doorway behind and thetunnels ahead, keeping an eye out for whoever or whatever had movedtheir stuff.

“Why did we do that?” Her words were nearlyinaudible, muffled against his shoulder and by her own sobs.

“I don’t know. It was that room. Somethingabout it.”

Brandy pulled away from his embrace andcovered herself again, this time covering all of her, useless as itwas. “Where are my clothes?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see them.” He gaveher back her glasses and she revealed her body long enough to slipthem onto her face, both hands trembling so badly that he wasafraid she might poke herself in the eye with one of theearpieces.

“Fucking hell!” She leaned backagainst the hard stone wall. “I couldn’t control myself in there.”She growled with a self-hatred that nearly broke Albert’sheart.

“I’m sorry.”

“Good,” she spat. “You’re sorry.Wonderful. Like that changes anything.”

“I guess it doesn’t.” Albert turned andwalked to the tunnel he had not taken before.

“Where are you going?”

“Just looking.”

Albert stood with his back to her now. Hewas afraid he was going to cry and he did not want that. If ithappened he certainly did not want her to see it. He could think ofmuch worse things that could happen to them than a freak humping.Being mauled by whatever took their clothes was not last on thatlist. Nevertheless, he felt a deep shame at having lured her intosuch a thing, and an even deeper hurt at the thought that she maynever forgive him for it.

There was no movement ahead of them ineither of the tunnels. Everything was as he’d left it. Of course,whatever was in here with them probably possessed enough sense tostay well away from the light. In many of the passages they’dtraveled, their flashlights did not nearly reach the other end.Anything could have stood right out in the open and watched theirevery move, completely unobserved.

“Where’s our clothes?”

Albert wanted to lie, but there was no wayaround it. “I don’t know. They’re gone.”

“How the fuck are they gone?”

“Somebody was in there with us while wewere…whatever it was we were doing.”

“We were fucking!” she spat. “Goddamn it! What was that place?”

“I don’t know.”

Brandy made a noise that was half whimperand half groan and cursed.

Without turning back to her, Albert said, “Isaw something when we were…” he started to avoid it, but saw nopoint in it, “…fucking. I couldn’t do anything. I was out ofcontrol.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

Albert bit his lip and closed his eyes.After a moment, he went on. “When I woke up it was dark, I followedthe light through that tunnel over there. I found your glasses justa little ways up and the flashlight was farther ahead.”

“I didn’t see anybody.”

Albert turned and looked at her. She wassitting on the floor with her back to the wall now, hugging herknees in front of her and shivering. She was terrified and ashamed,he could see that in her face, but there was something else thereas well, something much colder. “What?”

“I didn’t see anybody. I woke up and youwere gone.”

He wanted to argue that logic, but hehonestly could not. “I don’t—”

“Why did you want me to come down here withyou?” she asked, cutting him off.

Albert stared at her. He knew she didn’tfully trust him, but now that he was under the gun, he could hardlybelieve it. “Because this is half yours,” He replied cautiously.“It’s your key.”

But her cold eyes never left his.

“Do you think I could come up with somethinglike that?” he asked suddenly, lifting a finger toward the doorwayof the sex room. “I’m a fucking Computer Science major! Last Ichecked that didn’t include fucking with people’s heads!”

Brandy flinched with each word that hespoke. “I didn’t say you made it,” she said, her voice shakier thanbefore.

Albert’s anger was sudden and furious, butit melted away as he saw the fear in her eyes. In a calmer voice hesaid, “You think I led you here on purpose.”

She said nothing. She only stared at himwith those same cold eyes she’d fixed on him in the second floorlounge of Lumey, except this time those eyes were wet withtears.

He backed up against the wall and closed hiseyes. “I didn’t know anything about this. If I had, I wouldn’t havecome like this. I’d… I don’t know. I’d have found another way.”

Brandy stared at him. None of this made anysense to her, but she did know that he was right. There was no wayhe could have made something like that. That didn’t mean, however,that he hadn’t discovered it before.

Albert sighed. “What do you want me todo?”

“What?”

“Tell me what you want me to do. I can’tmake you trust me. You have no reason to. I fucked up, probablyruined your life. I might as well have raped you. So it’s your gamenow. What do you want me to do?”

Brandy stared at him and said nothing.

He held the flashlight out to her. “You wantthe flashlight? You can be in charge. You can just go if you want,leave me here.”

“Leave you here?”

“Yeah. Go ahead. Good luck getting backthrough that room, though. And as for these tunnels, from what I’veseen they’re a maze.”

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t know.” He sat down against the wallopposite her and stared down at the floor. “I didn’t do anything. Ijust did what the box told me. I solved the puzzle, that’s all. Ididn’t know anything like this was going to happen or I wouldn’thave. You were right. I should’ve just thrown the damn thingaway.”

Brandy lowered her eyes to the floor as welland remained silent.

Albert felt the silence drag on for nearly aminute before speaking again. “I am sorry. I couldn’tcontrol myself in there either, you know.”

For a moment he did not think that she wouldreply, but then she did. “I know.”

“Good.”

“What do we do now?” she asked so softly healmost didn’t hear her.

“I guess we push on.”

She looked up at him with fear in hereyes.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want togo back in that room.”

Brandy lowered her eyes again and slowlynodded. She couldn’t argue that. Besides, their clothes weremissing. If he was telling the truth, he found her glasses and theflashlight up ahead. Maybe there’d be a trail to lead them to therest of their things. Hopefully it wouldn’t lead them to anythingbad.