Then his head hit something, and it was as scary as it was painful.

- For fuck’s sake! he yelled, and he dropped a dozen more swear words, just to calm his nerves.

He had hit the frame of a small door. He bent down, passed cautiously and followed the wall. The corridor had a bend, and when he turned, he discovered a shelving unit slightly bright, as if it was illuminated from inside the wood. It was covered with strange objects.

The only thing to do now was to discover which one he was supposed to fetch. The faster he would leave this place, the better.

But at each step he did towards the shelving unit, he felt a bigger terror invade him. When he arrived right in front of it, he felt completely terrorised without any apparent reason.

- I am Mr. October, he whispered, hoping it would work again, but it didn’t.

“I am Halloween”, he thought, but it was not that of a reassurance.

This was unbearable. He ran away, and managed to stop and breathe only after having passed the small door again.

Well, thanks to him, the voices were right. He ran away like the coward he was, and he was completely unable to go back in, like a coward again. He could only go upstairs and tell his failure to Miss Ives. He would be rightly despised by all those creatures who fascinated him and made him feel like home. The doors of demimonde would be closed to him forever.

He wallowed in self-pitying for several minutes, then he heard:

- So, you moron, do you go back in or do you need a kick in the arse to give you some run-up?

It was Jane’s voice, and he could hear it as clearly as if she was in the room. And what was the scarier, a fluorescent shelf or an angry Jane? He smiled, and went back in.

The terror attacked him immediately, but this time he was prepared. He kept on walking and stopped in front of the shelves.

The objects were really strange and varied. He saw a kind of magic wand, a compass, a skull, a candle, some jewels, bottles full of weird liquids, stones, a comb...

Instinctively, he closed his eyes, still trying to struggle against the fear harassing him. He touched the shelf with a finger and passed along it, gently.

After a few minutes, he smelled suddenly a sweet and reassuring fragrance. He slowed down, and the fragrance vanished. He experimented it again, same finger, same shelf, and smelled the fragrance again, at the very same place. He stretched his arm and took the object.