Sophia manages to get David back to the Secret Cavern. She kisses and caresses him, lovingly cleans him up, cuts his hair, and files down his long nails. The intensity of this devotion gradually brings him back to life.
“I waited a long time,” he says.
“How long?” she says, softly.
“Hard to tell. Three years … maybe more.”
“I was there when my sister drowned,” she says. “I was with her. At the water’s edge. I was only fifteen. I hesitated. Just for a few seconds. Maybe I could have saved her.”
“Your sister … what did she tell you?”
“You have to go down, all the way to the basements.”
“There is nothing down there. Only the house foundations, mud and darkness,” he says.
“She told me about a metal stair that goes all the way down. And about a huge room. She said she’d wait, to show me the way out.”
“I’ve never seen that stair, but I know where it is. I know that’s where They all are. Sophia, if we get out of this house … if we make it … you’re not born in my era, I’m already dead. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” She nods her head.
“We can only be together here.”
“I know.”
“The old man you told me about, the one who died in his armchair, I’ll go see him. I’ll tell him our story, and ask him to leave you the house, so you can save me. I’ll leave him a message for you, a letter, telling you about my life, about what kind of person I became. And that I love you. This letter, I’ll ask him to hide it.”
“Where?” she asks
“Wherever you want. Do you believe me?”
She nods her head. “Yes”
He smiles, and kisses her.
