As soon as my foot hit sand, a wall of Paul's creeping darkness slammed into me. Invisible yet palpable, heavy enough to stick my lungs together. This lake, contained inside four walls of a stairway closet, definitely belonged to him. The air didn't smell damp, or like a lake at all, really. It didn't smell like much of anything except that cold heaviness that dragged chills down my arms whenever Paul was near.

My flesh scurried away, threatening to sweep me back into the devil, but ...