" She was smiling. "Will you like my hair longer?" Yes." Good, in that case I am happy to let it grow." She grinned. "But I will because it's what I w...nt, and not just because it will please you. Even though you have become so masterful." She commented dryly. I laughed and Diane joined in the laughter. We relaxed then, drinking tea and reminiscing about the things we had done when younger and the friends we had known.Just then the phone warbled. I got up to answer; it was bound to be the. I didn't know you guys were going to be here, though."I looked at Charlotte and all I could see was her naked on the bed of her apartment. "Charlotte, have you met my new maid, Amanda?"Charlotte looked at Amanda as if she were the remains of a dog's breakfast. In a voice filled with sarcasm, she said, "What a pleasure to see that you have moved from the world's oldest profession to another stereotype. I hope this means you have moved on from trying to get you hooks into my husband. Good move.. Most polite. I wished him a pleasant morning. He grinned a feral grin, and said it was not likely."Is there a problem?" I asked."Have breakfast. You'll need it," was all he said.The table was heavily laden. Some foods I recognized, and a lot I didn't. It was apparently 'help yourself'. I did, after checking with a small spell to make sure it was safe to eat. Everything but two items, passed my spell test."I felt your spell. What was its purpose?" Shaitan asked me.I explained it was a spell. At least she’d had enough sense to put on her grey raincoat, she told herself.Marie wasn’t a superstitious person, but as she passed close by a life-sized stone angel, she could not help feeling that its stone eyes were watching her and that its stone arms were reaching out to her.The dead were everywhere, and she felt their presence. An unpleasant thought crossed her mind, for a moment, that someday she, too, would be lying under her own press of earth. It was a horrible thought. She tried to.