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The Maze - Nineteen had a feeling that something was outside. Or someone. He went out onto the patio, watching. In the still night he could see highway traffic off in the distance, and then he glanced up. Above him was an oval-shaped patch of black, outlined against the starry sky. There was no sound, and no object was apparent, just a perfect blackness where the stars were blotted out. He thought it was strange, so he went back inside and woke up one of his friends, asking him to come see the odd phenomenon. But by the time they returned to the patio, the oval patch had disappeared and the sky looked completely normal. For some reason, the sight had made Ted very nervous, so he lit a cigarette and talked for a while, repeating to his friend the details of the image. A couple of months passed uneventfully, as the autumn nights grew chilly. Then once again, Ted awoke in the middle of the night and bolted upright in the bed, his heart racing wildly. Instinctively he let out a roaring scream, dashed up, and raced out onto the patio, shaking uncontrollably. One of the neighbors, awakened by the scream, turned on a light and came outside, looking around anxiously. “What’s wrong?” he called out. “Are you okay?” Still shaking, Ted replied with a nervous nod, “Yeah, I just had a nightmare. I’m sorry I bothered you.” He suddenly felt very cold, and then realizing he was wearing only his underwear, Ted hurried back indoors. But he couldn’t calm down, and his fright was so strong that he sat up the rest of the night, pacing and smoking, until day- light dawned. And slowly he began to remember parts of the nightmare, although by that time he was not sure that he had really been asleep when it happened. For he clearly recalled being taken somewhere, up above the mobile home, and looking down on it below. He had felt conscious, and the sight looked real. He remembered moving rapidly from that spot and watching lights flying past him for a brief time before coming to a stop. At that point, Ted was looking down on a barren terrain in which everything blended together in a dull yellowish-tan color. He saw sagebrush, and then he saw a large compound surrounded by a high wall. Within the wall were a group of Masquerade of Angels 186 The Maze - Nineteen people, herded together like cattle in a small corral. Drawing closer, Ted saw a woman and a young boy sitting together in the crowded space, totally immobile. As he moved even closer, he felt that he could have reached out and touched them. He suddenly wanted to shake them awake, although he didn’t know why. He turned to someone he could not see and said, “You can’t do this to my people! You're treating them just like cattle!” “You treat cattle this way,” the unknown person replied. “Why can’t we treat humans like this?” The next thing Ted remembered was screaming in hyster- ics and then waking up back in bed. Now, sitting nervously on the patio in the morning sun and trying to make sense of these memories, Ted also felt that he had been to another area within the compound, one that was underground. And what- ever he had seen going on with the humans reminded him of cattle, that was clear. For days afterward, he experienced feel- ings of great anger and fear. He couldn’t sleep well and had to resort again, after several years, to a sedative that would let him rest and keep functioning at work. Ted worried about slipping back into the stressed-out condition that had led to his collapse in Atlanta. He was also afraid that the spirit world was once again intent upon dis- turbing him and interfering with the normal, happy life he had made for himself in Albuquerque. And he desperately did not want that to happen. As the next few months passed without further incident, however, Ted slowly began to relax, sleeping better again, thanking the higher powers for his return to a sane, uncom- plicated life. There were no more strange shapes in the sky, and eventually the frightening memories of the compound and the people in the corral faded away, too. With persistent faith, he told himself he was free from the paranormal. Somewhere, in another dimension, perhaps, the spirits must have been amused. Looking down on Ted clinging to a desperate belief that he could live his life on everyday terms, they must have wondered how long he could delude himself with such ideas. It did not matter that Ted had given up the Masquerade of Angels 187