Alec bounded into the room. He’d been up here two or three times before, ingratiating himself to the old man, who liked the attention. If things were good, he’d see a god sprawled semi-conscious on the bunk against the wall and he’d leap on him with teeth bared. If things were bad, he’d see an ascended demon and would need to hit his knees and do some serious toe-sucking.

What he saw caused him to stop so quickly he almost fell over.

The room was always a mess, the kind of mess that should have reeked of mildew, thermal paper and old man. Instead it usually smelled the was a summer day smells after a stormburst, rainy with a tang of ozone, but that smell was fading quickly. The old man was sprawled on the bed, looking like a dead old man (and Alec had seen a lot of dead men, he knew dead alright). His shirt was still on but his pants were dangling over a filing cabinet.

Simone, naked and pale, was cowering in a corner, curled in a fetal position and sobbing.