A hint of burnt ozone hung in the air, the only sign of the Door that had opened moments ago.

“Where are we this time?” Robert asked.

“You know the answer to that.” Zxvasdf chided, his hands doing the talking. Robert was still amazed he could understand him so clearly. “We don’t know, until we do- or at least until one of us does.”

The big man shifted uncomfortably. “Well do you think we are in the House?”

“Robert, I think we are always in the House. Even here.”

An acid-washed sky pushed at the horizon. Rocky hills, with beards of tufted grass, seemed to be giving way under the weight of all that nothingness. Trees growing upside down, roots clawing upward, thrust their way out cracked peaks of crystallized sand dunes.

“I can’t tell if this is a mind-cursion, a part of the Dream, or something else.”

“You always look to name things, to classify them-”

“I like to be accurate.”

“You like to be in control.”

Robert smiled ruefully. “Is that a crime?”

“It might be here.” Zxvasdf replied cryptically.