Eudora’s arm slammed uncomfortably into Claudia’s stomach.  It startled her but had its desired effect.  Claudia stopped.  She gaped and if Eudora’s finger hadn’t crossed her lips for silence Claudia would have called out.

            For there in front of them strode another woman. Unlike the two that hung back she was not young, nor in the least attractive.  She was hunched, and her eyes glazed with age instead of with suffering.  Yet there was suffering there too.  A red welt spread across her jaw and her arm was dreadfully burned.  Nothing could come to this place and not suffer.

            Staring at her Claudia felt strange stirrings.  The urge to weep welled up inside her along side with urges harder to contain.  She wanted to go to the old woman and aid her; she wanted to go to the old woman and wring her neck.  For here was a remnant, a reminder of the world above.

            Claudia had almost stopped believing in the sky, and the grass. She had nearly managed to forget the touch of the sun and clean starched sheets.  Those had seemed thing from an ancient delusion.  Now she remembered because this poor old drudge carried the vestiges of that world on her tired drooped shoulders.

            Claudia found she hated her because the old woman was really not that much worse off down here than she had been up there.  She had lived her whole life in gutters, struggling for each bite she ate.  That somehow she’d attained old age only showed some perversity in her temperament.  Under pressures that would have killed Claudia within the space of a few months this woman had lived out a lifetime (though likely stunted by swift aging.)  How dare someone who’d never known joy lay claim to Claudia’s suffering.  She who had renounced life suddenly came back to it with a fierce jealousy.

            All she had left was her hell and now she must share it (Eudora hardly counted as she was a part of hell.)  Claudia stood in the shelter of Eudora’s shadow and hated this stranger with all the fiber of her being. 

            For not only was this woman an intruder, she had made Claudia remember she was alive.  Claudia did not want someone else to have her hell, but neither did she want to have to experience it.  She wanted freedom.  She wanted love.  And now this woman who had never enjoyed either dared to steal the glorified suffering Claudia believed was hers alone.

            Eudora’s hand held her back and for a moment Claudia pushed against it.  Her claws extended- defending her territory.

            Then the hatred broke inside of her and Claudia found pity inside herself.  This astounded her.  Never before had a pitiable creature been real enough for her to truly pity them.  The priest would tell stories but they were always removed into a realm Claudia need not worry about.  She had seen deformed children begging but they were only eye sores- to be pitied yes, but only in church and only by giving a few coins to proper charities or to the church depository.  They hadn’t been real. This woman was real.  She shared Claudia’s suffering.

            Her vague eyes stared about in terror.  Her dry lips parted.  She was tired, thirsty, hungry and afraid.  Claudia had walked in her place not so long ago and now was not so very far from that desperation.  Had they been in equally desperate straits Claudia would have fought tooth and nail to survive.  She might then truly have destroyed this woman.  Now she wanted to help her. She wanted to guide this woman to water and food.

            From this urge, too, Eudora’s arm held her back.

            Slowly the old woman passed them.  Claudia and Eudora both watched her retreating back.  Claudia opened her mouth to call the woman back but then Eudora’s hand was there silencing her. 

            Claudia had only been alive for a few moments she didn’t have the life yet to fight.  So she allowed Eudora to silence her with no struggle. 

            So instead she stood silently and watched the old woman, a piece of the real world, disappear from her sight.  Only when she was long out of sight did Eudora lower her arm.

            “There is only so much to go around, Claudia.” Eudora said softly.  “The same amount of food comes down no matter how many are eating it.  How many do you think can live on what is brought down?”

            Claudia turned her eyes to her beautiful companion and realized that Eudora was not a demon.  She was a survivor, and she was a bit mad but she was only human.  “I’m still hungry.”

            Eudora nodded.  “And there are only two of us eating now.”

            Eudora began to walk.  She headed in the opposite direction of the old woman.  Claudia followed Eudora without a moment’s hesitation.  The old woman had been real but she was gone now.  Claudia had a lifetime’s experience telling her she could make no difference in the world and that (other than God) nothing she could not see could affect her.  There-for the old woman did not matter. 

            Eudora mattered.  She cared for Claudia.  Claudia had been cared for her entire life and was not about to desert a provider.  Eudora was a friend.

            They passed silently through the hallway, moving slowly.  Claudia imitated the steps that Eudora made.  Who knew where something might pop out to mangle her?  Claudia, being only recently alive, was in no mood to lose her life. 

            So the ghost who was alive followed behind the demon who was human.  Something about both of them had changed.  Claudia had awoken and in her waking she had found humanity where there had been none.

            Claudia wanted to ask Eudora all about herself but was afraid to know the answer.  She knew that once Eudora had loved and been loved by him.  Other than that Eudora was an unknown.  This absence of knowledge did not frighten her as much as the thought of having it filled.  If she did not know it could not hurt her.  Something had allowed Eudora to survive down here when no one else had.  Something had brought her to the knowledge she had of this place.  Still more importantly something had brought Eudora to this place.  A person wasn’t damned to hell for nothing after all.  If she knew the answers to Eudora she might have to be frightened by the beautiful blond woman.  Now, with no knowledge of anything but now, Claudia had every reason to trust Eudora.  She did not want that to change.

            After they had gone a little ways Eudora turned to look Claudia in the face.  The light was so it caught Eudora’s face in light.  Her hair fell in a golden mesh of knots and curls around her pale face.  Under her wide blue eyes were dark circles.  Her lips seemed a tad grey.  She looked like a beautiful corpse- pale and grey and lovely as only a dead thing could be.  Only she was very much alive.  Her warm breath touched Claudia’s cold cheeks.

            “Is the pretty awake?”  Eudora asked.  Her breath came out in a puff of white

            Claudia smiled softly.  “I would like a new dress.”

            “You have been wearing that one since you came down.”

            Claudia looked down at the dress. It was torn, dirty and worn.  “It was my wedding dress.”

            Eudora said nothing but her eyes snapped like a fire. 

            They began to walk together, side by side.  Somewhere a cold draft flowed down into the hall around them.  The trickles of water, which once Claudia had lapped up from the floor, froze solid.