She pushed at the door with her gloved fingertips. Hinges creaked theatrically.

Beyond..

A short flight of crumbled wooden steps, leading down to..

Darkness.

Only not quite. A single solitary beam of sunlight stabbed like a dagger, and here and there was perched a fat white candle. All of this showed the outlines of the space. Rough stone walls. The eastern side of the room was a stagnant pool, lapping at the base of the steps.

As the door swung wider, the shadows grudgingly retreated into the other half of the basement, swirling around the shape which loomed there, tall and thin under a battered stovepipe hat. Other shapes lurked around the edges, holding more candles.

Under the hat, a mouth smiled, and two rows of exposed teeth gleamed shockingly clean and white.

“Greetings, my lady. Why don’t you come on down?” The voice was rich and deep, and hinted at years of painful cultivation built on a rough foundation.

The woman raised a carefully-sculpted blonde eyebrow. Then..

“You have successfully attracted my attention, little man. In the unlikely event you actually have something to say to me, say it from there.”

There was a shelf crouched to one side. The shape raised a long and painfully thin hand, selected something from the shelf (the shelf trembled at his touch) thrust it into the light-dagger. A doll, fashioned from some unpleasant black-brown substance. A scrap of expensive red fabric was wrapped around the figure’s narrow waist, and a few strands of fine blonde hair had been pinned to the head.

The woman jacked the eyebrow a notch higher.

“And that's supposed to be...”

“It is not supposed to be anything.”

“This is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard. What on Earth possessed me to listen to that little idiot Rhonda, to come all the way to... this filthy pit?.” She turned to go. The shape held the doll close and moved his lips, his breath just disturbing the hair.

She spun back, her blue eyes suddenly blazing.

“What?”

His towering outline, unspeaking. The darkness crept back across the basement. Finally she spoke again, a trace of flush crawling into her cheeks.

“I said, what did you just say to me?”

He lifted his other hand with painful care. Something was dangling from thumb and bony forefinger: a piece of string. From the other end dangled a small glob.. He brought the string into the light; the glob was a small twist of crumpled tinfoil. He twirled the string so that the clump was spinning in front of the doll's face, featureless except for two blue-button eyes. “What did I say? I said you’re getting very sleepy...”

“I...” She broke off and stared. Her arms slowly slid apart.

There was something forming in the dark musty air in front of her. It sketched its outlines into shape and then sparkled to life, a gigantic perfectly-cut diamond, filled with colors and music and bottomless infinite interlocking facets, more and more of them... It swung like the pendulum on an building-high clock, defying gravity in its majestic... awful... slowness.

It was the most beautiful, most compelling, thing that she had ever seen. Every facet her eyes followed led seamlessly to another, each more fascinating than the one before it, taking her further down, further in...

Somehow, she tore herself away from the sight. Doing so took every last ounce of strength, and she staggered weakly to one side with a small scream, almost tumbling off of the stairs as she tottered on her stylish heels. Even as she swung her arms and recovered her balance, she realized with freshly mounting horror that the glowing monstrosity was still there. It had serenely followed her gaze, remained directly in front of her. Everywhere she looked, there was the diamond, trapping her gaze in a vice and funneling it down... down... She clutched at her head, futilely trying to close her eyes and ears...

The music intertwined with a voice, a voice both thunderous and soothing, a waterfall, a tidal wave of freshly-chilled ether. It gushed forth from the heart of the diamond, blasting away resistance, stripping off thoughts...

“Time to sleep now. Your eyes, are open, open wide, but your mind, it is closing down. Going to sleep. Asleep now. It has gone all the way down into sleep, and it will never wake up again. Not unless I tell it to. You understand, my pet?”

“I...”

The diamond spun faster and faster. The voice grew, more thunderous, more soothing.

“Do you understand?”

She grew very still for a moment. She straightened, gave a single slow nod, unblinking now. Her arms settled to her sides, her slender well-manicured fingers resting limp against her sides. The diamond expanded before her, unfolding its structure.

Deeper. Deeper. Ever more complex.

“I understand.”

“What are you?”

The diamond swallowed her mind. She was inside it now, deep inside the endless facets, and still it continued to grow.

To infinity

“I'm asleep.” Her voice was soft and very flat.

“That’s right. Deep and dreamless. I will tell you what to do. And you will do it.”

She stared, her eyes now an exact match for those of the doll, two buttons, flat and empty and two dimensional.

“You will tell me what to do. And-” a last helpless swallow... “I will do it.”

“Yess. Now close the door.”

She swiveled and closed the door behind her. It clucked shut with tight ruthless finality. Darkness, no there was no darkness, there was only the Diamond...

“Come on in. Come on down.”

He was whispering now.

“And time for me to move up..”

She pivoted again. She paused for moment, but only to kick off her shoes with two quick flips. Then she walked down the steps, the boards squeaking under her bare feet. She pulled her hair out of its complex knot, let it spill down her back.

She pulled off her dress, and tossed it away.

Female shapes waded forward, each holding a fat white candle.

She stepped into the water, joined her sisters, and the darkness swallowed her.

“Patrice!”

“Margaret! Hello. Thank you for coming.”

The two women exchanged kisses on the cheek, or at least the general vicinity of their cheeks. The dark-haired woman absently passed her stole to a maid who hovered nearby. The blonde woman made a dismissive gesture, and the servant, her skin and hair almost matching her black uniform, gave a silent little bob and disappeared. The dark-haired woman looked at her hostess, her gaze narrowing slightly. She spoke lightly, with only one or two barbs trailing under the surface of her words.

“Are you feeling well, my dear? You look a little pale.”

The blonde woman smiled, her teeth very white.

“I’m fine. I’ve just been spending a little too much time indoors lately. Now that spring is almost here, perhaps I’ll get out a little more.”

“You definitely need to. Roger and I are going to the islands in a few weeks. You should come along.”

“Perhaps I should.”

They started walking into the main room.

“So, what was it you wanted to show me?”

“Oh, it’s just so delicious. You’ll just fall in love with it. Once Rhonda takes care of your things. It’s all been set up down in the basement...”