A week passed and as foretold by the strange girl, it rained until Sunday. Wendy was shocked at the fact and assumed Irene waxed prophetic. Then, the more she thought about it, she realized she had simply watched the news or something.

She was free today, not that she cleared her schedule specifically for Irene: it just happened. Seeing as how both meetings took place around dusk, she placed their next encounter as taking place after dark today also. The sun was still out when she heard a knock on her door. 

 "Irene?"

 Stealthily peeking out her window, she confirmed that it was in fact, Irene. She shook her head to make sure she wasn't seeing things and in the act, heard the door being knocked on again. It would be rude to keep her waiting so she quickly ran downstairs and opened the door to greet her. 

Almost as soon as they met, a large gray cloud passed over the house and obscured the sun. The winds seemed to pick up too, and it felt as though another rain would come.

"Let me in?"

 "Huh? Yeah- sorry."

 A dastardly grin visited Irene's face. "Are you sure? They say vampires won't come unless their invited inside."

 Wendy glared at her with a stupefied look.

 "Just kidding. I wouldn't be walking around daylight if I were a vampire."

 "Yeah," and Wendy forced out a laugh.

As the door was being shut, she noticed a black cat run off in the distance and then climb a tree. She made nothing of it; simple coincidence. What she did note were the eyes of her visitor that now reflected a look akin to boredom if not disillusionment. And she wondered if this was not her first time inside the house.

 "It hasn't changed. At all. See, I told you- you're looking for a place where there is no variation of shadows due to lighting. Everything is as it was when he took me inside his room."

 Wendy was more taken aback by the fact her brother took Irene inside his room over what seeming nonsense she remarked.

 "He drew me. That's all, don't worry. People always admire my beauty because of its otherworldliness."

 "Oh, ok..."

Wendy never received many visitors so she was quite confused as to the proper conduct of a good host. Eventually, she let Irene lead her and they sat at the kitchen waiting for some tea to finish. She was partially annoyed by her incompetence but she couldn't do much, consenting for her visitor to behave as though she were the owner of the domain.

Wisps of steam hovered away from the porcelain cups, and the sky was dyed red by the setting sun. This was a moment of silence, and indeed it had been all too quiet since Irene took charge of accommodations. Her ruby lips stamped the cup with scarlet; she was like a majesty which sipped on tea, except her domain may have been some world of pure ether, those particles which make out the cosmos.

Wendy was glued to her serene beauty. How was it that an ordinary man such as her brother claimed such life as his mate? And why did he not share her existence- any man would be proud to boast of her. She failed to realize her beauty was not a vain one; she was no bronze or golden trophy to be displayed among many. Irene was totally "other."

 "Don't you care to ask about your sibling? He loved me with all his life, love. As for me? I would lie should I say I partook of such an emotion regarding him. You see, he beheld me as God. But no, I'm not. Before I found myself absorbed in love, he had already put an infinite distance between himself and I, a distance not even eternity could bridge. He worshipped me."

 The expression on Wendy was one of confusion, but anger steadily rose inside. Her brother was insulted, she felt, and the dead can never defend themselves. Their place lies in the grave, no longer on Earth.

 "How do you know that? And aren't you being too high and mighty to even claim that? I know you're beautiful- any man, or woman for that matter, can see that- but to liken yourself to God?"

 "Honey, and do you know your own brother? Before, on our last encounter, you failed to recognize he had fallen madly in love with a woman."

 There was no way Wendy could answer. A heavy weight crushed her small frame: guilt. 

 "But that's fine. Humanity is endowed with imperfection. Eve fed Adam with knowledge, not immortality- not perfection."

 Irene's words sounded like a taunt, so, in retaliation, Wendy gulped down the tea and then slammed the table.

 "Who are you?"

 "Ah, that's one question I've heard many times and in all languages."

 "What?"

 Irene sat down her cup and glanced out the window before redirecting her attention to the angry little girl. Her composure never changed, she was unmoved by the outburst of anger.

 "Have you ever asked that to yourself? Every person must question themselves, but have you? Have you quested to know the meaning of things- do you flee from the ultimate questions?"

 Wendy rubbed her face in frustration. "What do you mean? You're weird. The only thing you have is a pretty face, but those are a dime a dozen; go to any place..." She lost track of her words because a deep instinct told her she was wrong. No, Irene was not like others; she was quite unique, maybe even more than that. "You're strange! Why did you poke at that dead squirrel the other night and why were you praying to a tree just last week?"

 Irene motioned her host to sit, and she complied. The placid look on her face continued without change. 

 "Mortality is a funny thing. It tries to embody the eternal but it cannot and its end result is humorous. When decay takes its full course, I cannot stand it and so I buried the creature. I offered a prayer to the Great Old One that one day this realm might at last meld with that other world."

"Again with the inscrutable ciphers." Wendy looked puzzled. However, this time she felt she understood more; a secret in her heart resonated with Irene's soft-spoken words. 

 "What other world?"

 Irene smiled, a queer grin which may have surfaced on the faces of jesters during medieval times. 

 "There are worlds beyond worlds. And then there are worlds which exist in the gaps of existence, between these other worlds. Most do not know, but those that do would give all their being to catch even a glimpse of those domains. Yet, flashes of such dimensions of life have been exposed and these are known as ghosts."

 Without hurling a litany of questions at her or even putting up a face of utter stupidity, Wendy nodded. For some reason, it made sense to her. Ghosts and demons- spiritual beings always sounded like fiction. Real beings which lived with a body made of matter but which could not be reached due to the extreme distances in between them was more credible. But what of proof?

 The manifestation of quasi-divine essence continued with complete confidence in her words. No one could doubt what she said was truth for her speech was presented without sarcasm or humor whatsoever. When she spoke, her voice vibrated with a sincerity that came from experience. The more she heard her, the more inclined was Wendy to believe that she had visited these weird worlds, even possibly, that her existence originated in one that was completely hidden from man- yet one disclosed to his subconscious in a form resembling a riddle.

 "This world exists parallel to one inhabited by eternity. And this very world, Wendy, is the one you're looking for. Your brother saw it and felt it but his flesh failed to attain the life it shared."

 Imperceptibly, her heart rate rose so that it presently sounded in her head with an almost deafening intensity. Small spasms shook her body and her felt as though it would burst outward. She could no longer bear such emotions that she retreated from Irene and ran to her brother's room. Why there was a total mystery.

She caught her breath and laid flat on the dusty bed. Closing her eyes she mumbled some words to herself about the bizarre quality of this meeting and how exactly her brother entertained such a woman. How long passed, she could only guess but she felt as though she stayed in that room for days. Once the pains subsided she went down to see Irene but to no surprise, she had left.

At night she went to sleep as normal, but the mundane now appeared to be a thing of the past. Wendy was made conscious of a change that would soon take place, what that change was was beyond her. Then she heard a knock on her door. Immediately, she ran to answer, presuming it to be Irene, as she made her out to be a nocturnal person.

 "Who are you, sir?"

 A man dressed poorly, in tatters that were dull and gray, with a face that was washed by time was her guest. She felt at peace with him, and because this sense was so agreeable to her, she viewed him as though he were a familiar friend. It was as though he were a grandfather looking after her interests. Yet, when they locked eyes, she gasped.

In those orbs of his swirled a gray color, similar but not exactly, like the mist at dawn that clears as the day progresses. A strong gravity came upon her and had the man not held her up, she would've fallen to her knees.

 "Guard your heart."

 "Who are you?" she replied in a strained voice.

 "Why do you ask for my name? But, listen well and guard your heart for the eyes fool but so does the heart."

 Wendy passed out and when she came to, she was in bed. Whether or not the meeting was a dream was up in the air because it was all so real. It felt more real than this waking day.