When Louis-Cesar grabs Tomas while Cassie’s spirit is in charge, Cassie barely has time to realize that a vision is coming before she is thrown back through time.  When she arrives at Carcassonne, this time she is a spirit and Tomas has come along for the ride.  Its a little later this time and they arrive in the torture chamber.  This trip she hears the screams more clearly and there are thousands of them.  Since she is a spirit she recognizes the thousands of ghosts crying for vengeance.  They have made the corridor ice cold and the hallway is covered in a miasma of spirits,  Never before has she felt so many ghosts in 1 place at 1 time and the spiritual mist fills the halls air to the point of suffocation. “It was despair made tangible, like a film of freezing grease on my face that ran down my throat until I thought I would choke on it. This time I was alone and, without the bully of a jailer to distract me, I could concentrate on the voices. Slowly they became a little clearer. I quickly wished they hadn’t.“  There was a feeling of intelligence, of many minds and so much rage that Cassie wonders at first if it is demonic, but she quickly realizes that its just ghosts.  Ghosts typically haunt for three reasons-they died before their time, they died unjustly (which sometimes means murder), or they died leaving something unfinished.  Of course, ghosts are left by people and so there are always lots of complicating factors, making every ghost as unique as the person they were.  What Cassie was feeling was thousands of ghosts with all three issues and all the minor complicating ones that could be imagined.  If there were psychiatrists for ghosts…but there aren’t psychiatrists for ghosts.  All there is is revenge and it plays out with the ghost getting satisfaction, payback or hanging around lusting for vengeance until its energy runs out.  Most fade until only their voices remain, but here Cassie can feel so many ghosts-some almost out of juice, some just made.  The implication was beyond staggering-this spot had been used for torture for centuries creating so much dark energy that even the most nonsensitive person would feel the chill.  

Cassie looks around but she’s a little scared.  Her visions have always been predictable.  She sees things that are going to happen and they hit her like a freight train, she cries, she moves on.  But now the universe has changed the rules and no one told her.  A cold wind hits Cassie as the ghosts are getting restless.  She asks them what they want, but letting the spirits know she can hear and feel them was like hitting a hornet’s nest with a stick.  Suddenly, she is inundated with flashes of color, flickers of images and the wind picks up in the hall and its like she is in the middle of a hurricane.  She backs away and falls against the wall, realizing that she is in spirit and in the right body.  She recognizes the torture chamber but she is alone except for the torture victims who don’t seem to notice her.  She is there in spirit and in body, and its different.  The witch Cassie just freed at the casino is laying on the torture rack but she is not burned yet.  She looks behind her and sees the thousands of ghosts, standing quietly but there isn’t enough physical space for thousands of people.  Cassie is surprised to see the witch looking a her and says that she doesn’t know what to do.  The witch tried to speak to her but no sound comes out.  Someone hands Cassie a dipper of water but it is gross.  Cassie says that water is too gross and a voice responds telling her there isn’t anything else. Cassie is so disoriented she doesn’t recognize the voice as Tomas.  Then she does and jumps spilling the water.  Tomas is standing there holding a bucket of green slimy water. Cassie asks him what he is doing here.  Tomas tells her that he was in his body and she took control of his body and then he was here.  He asks her where here is and if that is Francoise.  Cassie looks at the bucket and realizes he shouldn’t be able to have a bucket.  She asks him where he got it and he says it was in the corner.  Cassie decides to screw the metaphysics and just goes with it.  If Tomas can move the bucket, maybe she can change whats about to happen.  Her first priority is to get the witch out of there but she isn’t going to make it without something to drink and is casting longing glances at the slimy bucket.  Tomas tastes the water and says it is another form of torture as it’s 1/3 salt.  Tomas says he will go find water.  Cassie tells him he has to stay here.  Tomas asks what could happen and Cassie considers telling him that ghosts can cannibalize each other.  Most don’t because it just isn’t worth the energy but the rules are changing and she doesn’t have a body to hide behind.  They are foreign spirits on these ghosts ground.  Billy Joe has been mugged before by other spirits because it is easier for spirits to cannabalize each other than to attack humans.  There were several thousand angry ghosts and so far they weren’t being aggressive, but Cassie doesn’t want to chance it.  She tells Tomas he doesn’t want to know and finds herself softening towards him since he seems to be so genuinely concerned about Francoise. And then Cassie begins to worry about Tomas.  Billy Joe is inhabiting Cassie’s body and keeping it alive but Tomas’ body has no spirit to keep it from dying.  But he’s a vampire so he dies every day anyway.  Cassie puts the metaphysics aside and focuses on Francoise.  Cassie focuses on Francoise and tells Tomas to help her get Francoise off the rack.  They try to be as gentle as possible, but the ropes had dug into Francoise’s skin and the blood and tissue had dried over the ropes.  It was almost as if they were flaying her alive again.  Cassie looks for another source of water but all that she sees are men bound in chains and tortured in ways she never imagined.  It is hard to believe they still breathe.  Cassie turns away before she gets sick. Something nudges her elbow and it is a flask floating from the ghosts.  It smells like whisky and maybe that will help with the pain.  Francoise drinks a little and passes out.  Cassie goes to try and free the men, but they are bound by chains.  Cassie asks Tomas if he can break the chains.  He tries, but both he and Cassie are tiring quickly.  Cassie doesn’t know what to do-things look bleak.  She doesn’t know where she is, how she was going to get back, or when the torturer would come back.  When they do get back to Vegas its going to be in the middle of a fight they may or may not be winning.  Even for Cassie its a banner raising bad day!  Tomas tells Cassie that it’s useless-he is weak as a human so if they are going to save the woman they need to do it now. Cassie asks the ghosts if any of them know of a way out of the torture chamber.  The ghosts shuffle around and eventually a young man who looks like a teenage version of Louis-Cesar comes forward and bows to Cassie.  He offers to help using the same phrase Louis-Cesar did “A votre service,mademoiselle.” Cassie looks at Tomas and asks if he speaks French.  Tomas tells her he only knows a few phrases because he is rarely allowed at Senate headquarters.  Cassie asks when French became the language in Las Vegas and Tomas impatiently tells her that the European Senate is headquartered in Paris.  Cassie tells him she didn’t know he was with them and he sullenly tells her there is much she doesn’t know.  Cassie puts aside her confusion and tells the ghosts she does not speak french.  After some shuffling an older man comes forward who was a wine trader and asks if he can help.  Cassie tells him that she doesn’t know what she is doing here or where here is or what they want or how she can help.  He tells her that he too is puzzled.  They are as puzzled as she is.  Cassie and Tomas are spirits like them but not.  He asks if Cassie and Tomas are sent be god in answer to a prayer.  Cassie almost laughs at the thought and tell them no, they aren’t angels.  The younger man babbles in french at the older man and the older man looks shocked.  The younger man fears for his lover’s life that she will die here as they all did.  He said that he cares not if they be from god or the devil as long as they bring hope of salvation.  The older man says that the young man did not really mean it.  Cassie tells him its complicated and that she just wants to save the woman but doesn’t even know where they are.  The man tells her that they are at Carcassonne, hell on earth.  Cassie asks if that is in France and the man looks at her oddly.  Cassie says she just wants to get Francoise out before she is killed and the older man asks if she is here to avenge Francoise’s death.  Cassie loses her temper and says she would rather Francoise not die at all.   Francoise wakes up as the young man and the older man are arguing in french and looks at Cassie with wide eyes.  The older man tells Cassie that even if they help they may only save her for a few days and that is no reason for the rest of them to pass on vengeance.  Cassie loses it again-she’s not there as the angel of death but is there to save this woman.  If they want vengeance they should get it on their own.  The older man tells her that if they could they would stop this place but there is some magic that keeps them from vengeance.  She is a powerful witch-surely she can help and they will then be her slaves.  This is just plain it for Cassie.  She tells them there is no witch here, just your friendly neighborhood clairvoyant and she is getting francoise out of there.  She gets the younger man to lead the out via a tunnel and Tomas carries Francoise.  They get to a cottage and turn Francoise over to Louis-Cesar just as their strength gives out.  The next thing they know Cassie is laying on the ground, but at least she is in the right body and the right time