I examine the circle once it's complete. There's nothing to indicate this is a magic portal to hell. I guess I was expecting something flashier, like red lights and a floating Satan head.

Stefan eyes the stones skeptically. "Is it working?" he asks.

"I hope so. Skadi says you just step into the circle," I say.

Stefan takes a deep breath and his eyes find mine. "Okay, then, wish me luck," he says.

Suddenly, we move forward into a kiss. I'm not sure who started it. It's not a let's have sex kiss, but more of an I'm off to the war kind of kiss. It's really great, and it's over too soon.

I look at Stefan to gauge his reaction, and see that my gaze is making him uncomfortable.

"Stefan, I have a better idea. Let's step into the circle together. I know you're worried there's something dangerous on the other side, but I'm more worried about being separated," I say.

He mulls it over as he holds me in his arms. "Okay, but if we're going in together, let's do it right. Wrap your legs around me," he says.

I laugh, happy to comply. I kiss him again as he carries me into the circle.

One moment, we're in the clearing, surrounded by forest, and the next I've fallen on my ass in the middle of Pennsylvania farming country. The sky is cloudy, and the low rolling hills are covered with brown vegetation. In the distance, a barn burns, sending a twisting snake of black smoke into the air.

As I feared, Stefan is nowhere to be seen. There's not a single person in sight. My jaw tightens as I get to my feet and readjust the rifle hanging on my shoulder. Wherever Stefan is, I hope he's safe.

It's too much of a coincidence that Helheim looks like where I grew up. Something tells me that hell is in the eye of the beholder, and Stefan is seeing something completely different from me.

I'm struck by a frightening thought. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before. Could my dead father be here? Will he be looking for me, seeking vengeance for the dog attack that took his life? After all, I trained the dogs that killed him, and I sicced them on him.

I take a deep breath to calm myself. I'm a grown woman now, and I'm too strong for him to hurt me anymore.

I check to make sure Seeker is still with me. She is! It's a relief to know I'll be able to invoke here.

I slowly turn, surveying the horizon. It's cloudy and I don't see any dark spots, but there is a place where the clouds are a little heavier. I'll head in that direction and hope I find Eventide. But before I leave, I gather up the circle of gate stones around me.

After traveling for about ten minutes, I see activity ahead in a field of dead corn. It's a group of Mennonites in wide-brimmed black hats, hunching as they pick corn and throw the black cobs into wheelbarrows.

The Mennonites I know, the Christian community who lived near us when I was growing up, are peaceful people. They shouldn't be dangerous. Maybe I should ask them how far it is to Eventide.

I call out a greeting, but they ignore me, their faces hidden by their hat brims.

I pass a barrow of cobs. They're covered with black mold and crawling with worms. I make a grunt of disgust, and one of the men suddenly looks up at me. He has no eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. His face is just a flat sheet of flesh.

I gasp, passing around him in a wide circle. One by one, they all look up at me, all of them without eyes, noses, or mouths. It makes me queasy.

What does this mean?

I jog past the cornfield and through a settlement of ramshackle wooden houses. Ahead, I see a group of children with toothy grins, dancing around a pit of coals. Some sort of charred animal hangs on the spit over the coals. God, I hope that isn't a dog. I fight a strong urge to vomit. I hold my nose as I pass the kids. I don't want to smell the meat.

I think of my poor lost dogs, Shasta and Lucky, and pray that they're safe.

As I leave the settlement, I run into a Mennonite woman milking a black-and-white Holstein cow. Thank God, she has a face.

She smiles at me as her hands work the cow's udders, squeezing milk into a bucket. But it isn't milk, it's steaming squirts of yellow pus.

I lean against an old wooden fence and vomit.

If this world was built from my imagination, I've really outdone myself.

When I'm feeling better, I invoke and begin running. I need to get past all this craziness and find Eventide.

As I run, I stare at the brown grass on the ground ahead, trying to empty my mind. If this nightmare is coming from my own thoughts, I need to shut them off.

After what must be an hour, I uninvoke and stop to rest my sore feet. For the first time since I saw the cow, I look up and scan the horizon. I'm a little off course, but the dark clouds in the distance have gathered into a single point. I'm pretty sure that must mark Eventide.

The area around me looks familiar. I realize I'm standing next to Mr. McPhee's barn. In the next property over, I see my family home with its peeling mustard paint. Through one of the windows, I catch a glimpse of someone moving inside!

My heart pounds. Is my dead father in there? No, not my father, I have to stop calling him that.

I feel a powerful urge to run. Even though I have a gun, and I have Seeker, part of me is afraid.

I don't want to be afraid anymore.

I march toward the house.

Doubts gnaw at me as I approach the front door of the run-down property. I reach the handle with shaking hands and find it locked. For some reason I wasn't expecting that.

Last time I visited home, the house had new owners. They told me Mom sold the house and left me a video, but it was destroyed before I could see it. Maybe the new owners are inside.

I knock on the door.

I cry out in shock when I see who answers.