I woke to the sound of someone walking down a hallway. My eyes flew open and I looked up through prison bars into a dark corridor.

Someone was staring at me through the darkness. She was wearing a long black dress which was so tight it looked as if it had been painted onto her body. The neckline plunged between her massive breasts. Her face was shadowed by a large black hat.

"I'm sorry, but what’s going on here?" I asked.

She didn't answer. Instead, a second figure appeared in front of me. He was tall and slender, his hair was cut short and he wore a black suit with a black shirt and black tie. His face, like the other one's, was shadowed by a large black hat. So cold. With a look of contempt, he said something in his own language, which I did not understand. Then he turned and walked away. 

For a moment, my mind was like a blank slate. All I knew was that my heart was beating rapidly. That I felt like I'd been struck by lightning. Where am I? I wondered. What happened? How long have I been here? My legs felt weak and heavy. Everything was spinning. Was I dead? Then the woman drew closer to the bars and I saw her face more clearly. She was staring straight at me, and for a moment I felt I recognized her. But she was a different person. A woman I didn't recognize, but one I felt I had seen before nevertheless. Then the feeling passed and my mind went blank again. 

"Help me," I said faintly. 

She looked straight at me and smiled that awful smile of hers, then disappeared from view again just as suddenly as she had appeared. The whole thing was so sudden, so unexpected, I felt like I was going mad. Just then what I can only assume was the jailer appeared and unlocked the door of my cell. 

"Come," he said shortly. "I will take you to your trial."

"I can't leave," I said. "I don’t even know why I’m here."

"Nonsense!" he replied. "You are going with me now."

He took hold of my arm and pulled me to my feet. He hustled me past the jailer's lodge where I noticed a woman standing against a barrel of skulls. All she wore was a torn fur coat and a fur beret. She had large, slab-like features and looked like a London slum-woman. She eyed me malevolently as we passed–and then I saw her eyes were bandaged.

"Who is that?" I asked the jailer as he hustled me along the passage.

"Hush!" he said, "You will know soon enough."

We emerged into an area surrounded by candles suspended in the air. Opposite was the entrance to the court, shrouded in a thick mist I could taste. The ground was sticky and emitted a coppery odor with each step we took toward the court. As we entered, a door clanged heavily behind us–the entrance had been closed–but it did not seem to trouble the jailer at all. He was used to this sick business which was making me nauseous.

I couldn’t see a thing at first inside the court. Then, slowly, as my eyes grew accustomed to the mist, I saw forms moving about. Some distance away from me a small, white-haired man was standing in front of a scaffold that appeared to be newly erected. He was adjusting something on the scaffold and singing in a quavering, heart-rendering voice, "Oh, give me a home where the crows don’t fly, Where the rain doesn’t fall and the wind doesn’t blow."

There was a man at the foot of the scaffold. He wore a red cap, with white spots on it, and his face was all soaked in blood that dripped from his body. Many people were standing around him. Some throwing stones and others kicking him while he lay motionless. There didn't appear to be any life left in him.

After a moment the white-haired man finished what he was doing and departed. The man at the foot of the scaffold got up and staggered away, still bleeding.

"All this," I muttered to myself, "all these butchers’ shops in which human bodies are pickled for sale–all these horrors are just outside."

Then I turned from this horror to the jailer, “I want to go now. I’ve seen enough.”

But the jailer only answered with a grin. "Wait a bit," he said, "let me get you something better to see than that."

And going behind one of the piles of bones, he brought forth a huge skull and tossed it upon the ground at my feet. I shrieked and jumped back as if from a viper.

"Don't be afraid," said the jailer coolly. "It's only a dry one."

“So what?” I demanded.

“The One has chosen not to see you. You are too far beneath him. You must face the Trial of Zalumma. If you pass you may return to your hopeless life and quest for the woman who died and then returned to life in your car which you have since lost. If you do not–then–”

“I’ll be damned?” I inquired.

“You’re already damned,” he replied coolly. “There is no error but in the trial. It is only a question of time.”

I stepped towards him, “Then test me.”

He took out a small key and opened the great skull.

Then the jailer said with a grin, "Wait a bit.” Then he disappeared into the mist.

I didn’t have to wait long before the skull-like head and grisly face of Zalumma appeared at the opening. She looked right through me with eyes made brilliant by the fog.

"Come forth," she said in a dreamy voice, and slowly advanced towards me with an outstretched arm.

I stepped back involuntarily as I saw the dull fire of madness in her eyes.

“It is too late," she continued, "it is useless to resist longer: come forth."

She was close upon me now and I beheld with infinite disgust that she brought her arm down to within a few inches of my chest. Her lips curled up at the corners in a ghastly smile and I turned to run. She followed me closely, still calling me by name, and rained blows upon my shoulders and back with her bloodless fingers.

"Leave me!" I shrieked, falling at full length upon the ground. "Leave me! Let me perish rather than let you touch me!"

She paused for an instant over my prostrate form, gazing intently into my face.

"You shall remain here," she said at length, "your flesh is soft and tender; it will afford me pleasure to scratch it with my nails." As she spoke, she resumed her progress and I heard her gliding over the sticky ground not far off.

"Ah!" I exclaimed, springing to my feet and throwing myself upon her.

My action precipitated us both upon the ground. She gave a loud scream, seized me by the wrists, and pressed them against her eyes as if to shut out the sight of my person.

"Leave me!" I shrieked in her ear. "Let go of my hands! Let me get up! I burn, I burn!"

"You are burning now," she murmured.

"You are scalding me with your eyes. Let me go! Let me go!"

"No! You shall not go!" she answered, tightening her hold upon my wrists.

I ceased struggling and we lay together upon the ground, locked in each other's arms. For some minutes we lay thus in silence. At length, she broke it.

"You are looking at me!" she whispered, scarcely above her breath.

"Yes! I am looking at you!" I replied, gazing fiercely into her eyes. She shrank away and would have risen, but I held her down.

"No," I said sternly, "you shall not move."

She struggled to free herself still further and buried her face in the earth.

"You are killing me!" I gasped. "Look at me!"

She did so, shuddering violently; then she broke from my grasp and sprang to her feet.

"Go!" she exclaimed, panting for breath. "Make haste and go, but you don't know what you are doing."

"Back!” I shrieked at her, “back or I’ll shoot."

With a hideous laugh, she stopped and repeated my words as if in triumph. "Shoot!" she said contemptuously. "You cannot kill what is dead."

I raised my pistol, but even as I did so she caught it from my hand and hurled it into the lake.

"You cannot kill what is dead," she said again.

"Good!" I replied and darted away.

Throwing myself down upon the wet, sticky earth, I wept aloud in my misery.

“Come forth,” I called instinctively. “I am yours.”

A flash of light blinded my eyes in contrast to the darkness. My eyes had grown accustomed to this horrific place. Then a piercing noise accosted my ears, ‘honk! Honk! HONK!’

I stood up.

I was in the middle of 101st Street in the big city.

I dove to the left as a taxi, bus, truck and three town cars flew past. I barely made it to the sidewalk in one piece. The nightlife crowds walked over me as I regained my bearings.

What was happening to me?