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"Before I could rise the sound stopped, and he turned, turned as a human couldn't turn, and looked at me over his right shoulder. He wore no grin or mournful expression, only a vaguely startled look.

"As I rose from my chair he vanished.

"The message on the computer screen was long:

" 'I know all the words you know, words you type. Pops dead like Lynelle and Sweetheart. Dead, gone, not in the body. Sadness. Spirit gone. Body left. Body washed. Body painted. Body empty. Spirit is life. This life. Life gone. Why does life leave body? People say don't know. I don't know. Quinn sad. Quinn cry. Aunt Queen cry. I am sad. But danger is coming. Danger on island. I see danger. Don't forget. Rebecca is bad. Danger to Quinn. Quinn will leave Goblin. ¡¯

"Immediately I typed out the answer. 'Listen to me,' I said aloud as I wrote. 'I will never leave you. The only thing that could part us is for me to die, and then, yes, my spirit would leave my body and I would be gone, I don't know where. Now ask yourself again, Where did the spirit of Lynelle go? Where did the spirit of Sweetheart go? Where did the spirit of Pops go?¡¯

"I sat waiting and there was no answer.

"Then the keys before me began to move. He typed out: 'Where did these spirits come from?¡¯

"I felt a tightening, a keen sense that I had to be careful. I wrote: 'Bodies are born into the world. Remember when I was a newborn? A baby? Bodies are born into the world with the spirit in them, and when those bodies die the spirit leaves. ¡¯

"Silence.

"Then the keys moved again: 'Where did I come from?¡¯

"I felt a dull fear. It was the panic breaking through, but it was something more as well. I typed out:

" 'Don't you know where you came from? Don't you know who you were before you became my Goblin?¡¯

" 'No. ¡¯

" 'You must remember something,' I typed. 'You must have been somewhere. ¡¯

" 'Were you somewhere?' he asked. 'Before you were Quinn?¡¯

" 'No. I had my beginnings when I was born,' I wrote. 'But you are a spirit. Where were you? Were you with somebody else? Why did you come to me?¡¯

"There was a long pause, very long, so long that I almost rose from the desk and moved off, but then the clicking keys came again:

" 'I love Quinn,' the writing said. 'Quinn and Goblin one together. ¡¯

" 'Yes,' I said out loud. 'We are, one together. ¡¯

"The machine was clicked off. The gooseneck lamp flicked on and off twice and then went dark.

"My heart was pounding. What was happening to Goblin? And how could I confide to anyone in this world about him, what with Pops dead and everything at Blackwood Farm hanging in the balance? To whom could I go to say this spirit is taking on new strength?

"For some period of time I sat there, and then I turned on the machine and asked:

" 'Danger, this danger you speak of, is it from the stranger who came into this room?¡¯

"No answer.

" 'What did you see when you saw the stranger? What did he look like to you? You must remember that to my eyes he was only a dark shape. Goblin, listen. Tell me. ¡¯

"A breeze sifted through the room, something chilling against my cheek -- but no answer. He didn't have the strength. He had done enough for one day. Or he didn't want to answer. Whatever the case, there was only the silence now.

"I was no longer sleepy, only tired, and a deep sweet exhaustion swallowed up my grief and my panic. I wanted to fold down into my wing chair by the fireplace and sleep again, safe in the knowledge that there were armed guards around the property and the mysterious stranger couldn't harm me. But I couldn't do that.

"No, Little Lord Tarquin was the man of Blackwood Manor now.

"I went downstairs to see to Aunt Queen.

"Fr. Kevin Mayfair was in her room, seated by the bed, talking softly to her. He was wearing his severe and spotless clerical black along with his white Roman collar.