Marcel didn't show up in the apartment for a long time afterward. He was afraid of what he might find, but ultimately, he couldn't delay forever. If Alice was dead, he had to be sure. If she was alive, he needed to know what condition she was in. After all, it was his apartment.

  "I'm alive, to your misfortune," she greeted him from the doorway.

  Marcel breathed a sigh of relief. The thought of finding the girl possessed terrified him as much as the thought of finding Alice completely massacred. But in all of this, the vision that disturbed him most was the possibility that Alice might never be able to send him to the afterlife. How long would he have to wait for another such opportunity? For a chance at complete liberation?

  "I'm glad you're okay," he said, emerging from the wall. "I was worried about you..."

  The spirit trailed off mid-sentence as he looked at the witch more carefully. She was sitting calmly in her favorite armchair by the window, smoking a cigarette with her eyes closed. Still in her robe, still uncombed and without makeup. And yet, she was glowing. Not like last time. This time she was shining even more intensely, strongly, vividly, like never before. Her aura seemed to fill the entire room; against other people, it would stand out like a light bulb in the darkness.

  "What did you do...?" he asked, though he was afraid to hear the answer.

  "What was necessary," she stated calmly, and her aura began to fade, to blur. "I survived. Once again."

  "So what are you doing now?" he asked, even more unsettled.

  "Hiding my potential. You don't want more uninvited guests, do you?"

  His mind was in a whirl. None of this added up for him, and yet it somehow fit together in a strange way. He was dead and, as a spirit, he probably should know about such things, but he only knew what he had managed to teach himself over all these years. He had never experienced anything like this, though. Besides, he didn't want to experience it now either.

  "An aura reflects the level of energy I possess," Alice said calmly, knowing full well that Marcel had some gaps in this area. "The stronger, brighter the aura, the more power, and that attracts spirits. Souls without bodies, cut off from God by their own fear or hatred, need to feed on something. They don't have access to the Creator's energy, so they feed on energy from their surroundings. They steal it from people, which allows them to manifest, to feel, even for a moment, like living beings with significance again. You know this; you did it yourself. If I didn't hide the energy I truly possess, every spirit nearby would flock here like moths to a flame. That in itself wouldn't be such a paralyzing problem, but demons could arrive with them, and fortunately, I haven't met one yet and have no desire to meet one in my own apartment."

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Logical," Marcel noted, yet feeling that while his mind had registered the statement, he had lost its meaning along the way.

  The spirit looked at Alice with a strange, unpleasant feeling. On one hand, he wanted to know everything; on the other, he didn't feel the least bit ready for such knowledge. Not at all. He was dead, and only that should matter to him. Well, but how could he forget what he himself had encountered? He should know if he was in mortal danger, if everything was within normal limits... Why him, of all souls?

  "Those weren't spirits," said the black-haired man, smiling broadly. "I'm pleased by your prudence, Alice. Revealing your potential would be... ill-advised under these circumstances."

  "Fuck..." Marcel groaned, trying to slip out of the apartment.

  "It's impolite to leave without saying goodbye," the man remarked.

  "And it's impolite to invite yourself in unannounced," Marcel snarled before he could stop himself.

  As soon as the words left him, he felt all his life force draining away. The fear was so monstrous, so paralyzing, that it was impossible to defend against it, let alone fight it. Well, he was going to die even as a soul. He had practically started reciting his prayers when the room was filled with Alice's laughter. A moment later, Not-a-Doctor joined in.

  "Goodbye, Marcel," the other said, and then an impulse of energy threw Marcel out of the apartment. A moment later, a thick barrier prevented him from even eavesdropping.

  "What the hell...?" the spirit moaned, feeling the fear slowly subside.

  Alice still hadn't opened her eyes. She sat in the same position, still masking her energy and restoring her aura to an inconspicuous appearance, a relatively time-consuming task for her. After all, she was working entirely on intuition and didn't even fully know if she was doing everything correctly.

  "How do you feel with your new potential?" the man asked, helping himself to a cigarette from the pack on the table. "Powerful?"

  "I feel tiny and defenseless, because it's slowly dawning on me how immense your potential must be. But what terrifies me even more is the thought that there are those stronger than you, ones before whom even you kneel. I can't even begin to grasp the scale of their power, and that unsettles me."

  "Rightly so," the black-haired man laughed. "To them, you are merely a worm."

  Silence fell for a long moment. Alice didn't seem offended by his last words, but too much of her attention was being consumed by finishing the process. The man knew this, so he respected her concentration and waited. It took about fifteen minutes, no more. Alice had an almost normal aura, and that was enough, at least for now. She had done excellently, even as a novice in this subject.

  "When you made me practice manipulating the energy around me every day, I thought it was your whim. I couldn't understand what these exercises were really about, why you were making me work so hard. Who would have thought that dust would become a gateway to another world, a world of such great possibilities." Alice opened her eyes and looked at Not-a-Doctor, but he remained silent, calmly meeting her gaze. Finally, she couldn't stand the silent battle and asked, "Why did you come?"

  "Focus only on what you need," he said with a slight smile on his face. "What you encountered today was an intermediate form between a soul and a demon. Those girls lived, then died, and then learned to feed on power and became something more than just spirits. Expect interest in you to grow."

  He vanished. After those words, he simply vanished and left Alice alone. The girl knew perfectly well it was another warning.