I wake up and things are different...

Hmm.

I may have overslept. I look at Paul. He's still sleeping. Look at the clock. Hmm. Not too late...

Wait...

That can't be the year, can it?

I'm so enamored with this walking thing (I have vague memories of same, but I don't remember it being so much fun) that by the time I think of stopping, I'm lost. I'm deep in the forest, the . . . Greenwood. The names are coming back. The woman said it was New Year's: I should have asked what year.

I'm still cold, but oddly it does not bother me. I notice it, but I don't shiver, and my teeth don't chatter, which is lucky because I suspect they might give off sparks. I notice that I'm leaving deep footprints in the pine needles.

She promised to make me a new body; that was part of the bargain. I didn't think what that might mean. The materials she had to work with are not . . . ideal. In some ways they will be an improvement, stronger, more durable, less vulnerable to the elements. In some ways I suspect they will be an inconvenience.

I stop near a clearing. The distant fireworks have stopped, and the Greenwood at night is dense with furtive movement, rustling of leaves and crackle of underbrush and whisper of breath. There is something--there are some things--nearby.

I look out over the clearing, and the new eyes pick out clean white reflecting moonlight, small rib cages and skulls and leg bones and tails. As I try to identify the animal, a pair of eyes skulks out from beneath the boughs of a spruce and advances, followed by others. Are there wolves in the Greenwood? I recall stories . . . but these are dogs. The Well-Behaved.

They seem not to notice me. I wonder if basalt and micah and agate and whatever else this new body is composed of give off any scent at all, or if the scent I give off is simply too confusing for the Well-Behaved to take notice of.

The dogs move to the edge of the clearing, but none of them enter, none but the last. She is an elderly creature, a short-haired mix of bull mastiff and German Shepherd, by her looks. She moves slowly, and I can hear the bellows of her lungs from here. She steps gingerly into the clearing, picking her way over the bones, and then she throws back her head and howls.

The others raise their voices with her, but stay beyond the circle of moonlight. They are like her shadows, though they are not of the same breed, from what little I can see. She soaks up the moonlight, almost glowing, and her howls become lustier, while beyond her the shadow dogs seem to fade into the darkness, their voices receding along with their shapes. Soon the bitch is alone in the clearing, her voice the only one raised in supplication, and then she too falls silent and collapses in a heap. The moonglow gives her fur a gray and mangy look, and I realize she is dead.

This is the legendary graveyard of the Well-Behaved, then, the place where the creatures who spend their lives in service to the people of Dogtown come to find their rest. It seems a lonely end, and yet the clearing is dense with the remains of those who have marked the way, and I think that the bitch must be content now. I hope so.

In a strange way I feel more connected now to this world which I used to know, which I hope I can call home again. I back slowly away from the clearing, showing respect, and then resume wandering through the Greenwood looking for a way out and possibly some pants.

After a good hotdog, I'm feeling much less annoyed with Miracleman. He did do me a favour, after all, even if I didn't really want to borrow Hector. This place is very different to my old home. For example, my power is much greater here, and although I haven't tested the telepathy, the levitation is going well.

Very handy for eating and reading at the same time.

Now- just where does one go to find a good party in this place? I don't like the look of The Prancing Pony, but I overheard someone talking about "DX Machina's place", and that sounds worth going to. Now- I can't find it on the map, so it'll have to be 'ask a local'. A dangerous policy, but it seems worth trying.

Out in the street, everyone is huddled in their warm winter coats. I step up to the nearest person, despite the fact that they could be anyone (or anything), and ask, "Which way to DX's?"

Psst, Penny... The party isn't at DX's house. It's at DX's bar, Milo's, corner of Andre and Machunado in the Old Quarter.

Why in all the blessed gods and goddesses names did I set the alarm? What was I thinking?

Oh, yeah, I wasn't, and I forgot to turn the alarm off. NightOwl arrived and was actually good as gold for a couple of hours as I worked. Of course, he was in the kitchen annoying Achmed the whole time, so I didn't notice. At least, not until I heard some really horrifying Arabic, the kind Achmed should hope his mother doesn't find out he knows.

"Bob, leave Achmed alone!" I yelled. "He's not interested in you!"

"Don't call me Bob!"

Stupid, over-sensitive ... "I am NOT calling you NightOwl! It's dumb! Though not as dumb as that NightHawk thing you tried to talk me into. NightVulture, NightLeech, that'd work. Want me to call you NightLeech?"

So he appears in the doorway, lounging in that annoying boneless way that he either stole from James Marsters or JM stole from him. I prefer not to ask. "You could call me what you did last night," he grins. He's actually using his own accent for a change, that faint Irish curl that wanders up and down my spine.

And I should know better than to ask. "I--don't remember ..."

He strolls closer. Behind him, Achmed sighs and closes the door to the kitchen. "Something about 'lord' and 'god,' I was a little distracted myself."

"I was not talking to you."

"Well, there wasn't anyone else there, you must have been talking to me."

"Stop trying to do DeNiro."

And he's right behind me, reaching over to hit save on the computer, then closing it down. "Rather do you."

Which lead to one thing and then another, and now I'm listening to some perkier-than-thou DJ creature working at WSS, The Voice of Sang Sacre, announcing the weather. Partly cloudy, with chance of frogs. Bloody plagues.

"Can I kill him?" asks a familiar voice from under the pillow on the other side of the bed.

"Daytime, you can't go out."

"I'm willing to wait."

"Sorry. The job of holiday DJ is one of the more obscure circles of hell, he's already being punished. Tell me why you're here and not at home."

"Nope. We can talk about the bloodier side of Sears later. I want breakfast."

I don't even have to look to know he's staring at my neck. Note to self: remember the iron supplements.

I stagger through the sewers back the submerged strip mall that is my new home. Perhaps, I overindulged in the city's festivities last night, judging by the fact that my head feels like hell. By the time I decide which specific hell it feels like, I'm back to the "Sears" and am seeing the wonderful four post bed that been placed in my lair. It's an acceptable piece, twisted vines with the occasional skull for the posts and twisted nest of vines with evil looking ravens for the canopy.

I lay some wards and collapse into the welcoming bed. A good day, save for my gremlins being rather slow on the job. Sweet thoughts of vengence dance through my head as I drift off to sleep.

"Mi vida, I think we have a problem."

"What now? We haven't had anything but problems since we opened here in the strip mall from hell. I wanted another studio in the Bresilico right near Mario's taqueria but nooo."

"Hey, vampires are good customers. Siempre tienen plata y pagan bien."

"Yeah, they always have money becuase they steal it off of the bodies of their dead victims. But anyway, no quiero pelear mas. Estamos aqui. So what's the problem."

"Well, they didn't show up for their mambo class. Last night was the big graduation recital."

"Maybe they had better things to do on NEW YEAR'S EVE."

"Well, I wanted to go and talk to them. Find out what was up. So I went over to Sears and no estan."

"Well, that's weird. It's daytime. Where could they be?"

"Cenizas. All ashes. And there's some weird, I don't know, guy with a cape and glowy eyes. He doesn't look like he enjoys Papa Loves Mambo."

"We'd better go back to the hotel and find out what's going on." I close the lid on the old 78 player and turn off the lights in the studio. The neon sign blinks in the window, Dead Can Dance Studio. "When we get home, you'd better call and cancel the Hobbit samba class."

Gods, snerk, mambo, snerk t falling over

Gods. What time is it? Lords of All the Worlds...

...late. Well, that's good. Hungover? A bit, not too bad...

Warm arm.

Oh, gods.

I gingerly roll over and see who's there. The warm brown eyes, the dark red hair...

"Aimee?!"

"Yes?"

Oh. Oh, gods. Oh...

Memory surfaces like a submarine desperate for fresh air. "Oh. Oh!"

"Yes," she says, her smile warm.

"I'm so..."

"If you say 'sorry', I will smack you."

Was I that drunk? Really?!

And from deep down the answer comes: No. No, you really weren't.

"So," I say and clear my throat. "Uh..."

"Just like old times, eh?"

"Better," I hear myself reply. And realize it's true.

"I thought so, too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well..."

"'What now?'"

"Something like that."

"I guess we'll figure it out, huh?"

"I suppose." On impulse I kiss her. "Y'know...I really did miss you."

"Good."

You realize this doesn't let you off the hook for my missing Carpenters collection.