The Good,the Bad and the Uncanny

"Put it on, John, and raise your gift. Then focus your gift through the device, and it will lead you right to Tommy."

I raised the device with both hands, then hesitated as I remembered Walker doing the same thing. I cautiously lowered the future-science thing onto my head, while some small part of me gleefully thought, I crown thee King John the First of the Nightside. The device settled itself onto my head, feeling a lot heavier than it had in my hands. A series of small pin-pricks ran around my scalp as the device established contact, and sharp stabs of lightning detonated inside my head, as long-quiet parts of my mind woke up and made themselves known.

I raised my gift and a huge charge ran through my mind, blasting my i

One of them was Tommy Oblivion. I was looking through his eyes now, Seeing the world he saw. He had become a soft ghost. I could sense his presence, his drifting, unfocused thoughts. More than dreaming, but far from awake. The Collector's device brought our two minds together, and I could actually feel his thoughts concentrating, his identity coming into focus for the first time in a long time, strengthened and stabilised by my presence.

"John?" said Tommy Oblivion. "John Taylor? Is that you?"

"Yes, Tommy. I'm here with you. I've been looking for you. I've come to take you home."

"Home… I've been trying to find my way home for such a long time… What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, Tommy. Do you remember the Lilith War?"

"Hell, yes! There was a mob… out of their minds, swarming all over me, trying to kill me. There was no way to escape, so… I used my special gift and made myself existential. Neither one thing nor another, neither here nor there, living or dead. It saved me from the mob, but in that existential state I drifted out of reality, or turned sideways from it… and became enduringly uncertain. In reality, but not of it."

"A soft ghost," I said.

"Yes… I drifted through co

"Ever since, I've been collecting people I knew and making them like me. Sometimes just to keep me company, sometimes to save their lives when they were in danger. I made them existential, too, made them soft ghosts like me. I was too far gone to realise what a terrible thing I was doing. It's been a long time since I could think this clearly. I've been drifting back and forth for what seems like forever, reaching out to people I thought I recognised, trying to get their attention…"

It was only then I remembered the soft ghost who'd been following Larry and me around all night, plucking at our sleeves, calling out to us. All the time we'd been looking for Tommy Oblivion, he'd been right there with us, closer than we thought.

Hadleigh was suddenly there, a solid presence standing firmly in the midst of the soft ghosts. They all turned to focus on him, attracted by his certainty like moths to a flame.

"Well done, John," he said. His voice was everywhere, permeating the uncertain scene. "Now that you've made contact with Tommy, I can help you bring him back to reality. Make him real and solid and certain again."

"And all the others, too," said Tommy, his voice clear. "Not only the ones I'm responsible for; all of them. I can't leave anyone here, like this."

"Of course, Tommy," said Hadleigh. "Everyone gets to go home. That's what I do; that's what I'm here for. I had to wait until John and Larry were working together because I needed both of them to do this. You've located Tommy, John; but you don't have the power to bring him back. I can open a door between this place and the Nightside; but I can't directly affect Tommy, or any of the others. Only Larry can do that, because he's neither one thing nor another. Neither living nor dead, strictly speaking, a man suspended between two states of existence. But now, John, hang on to Tommy. I've opened the door. Larry, bring us home!"

I could sense Larry's presence, cold and sharp like an unsheathed blade. I could feel him reaching out to us; and Tommy and Hadleigh and I reached back. And just like that we were all back in the Cheyne Walk approach, real and solid. Tommy looked about him, wide-eyed, gri

A whole crowd of new people stood around us, solid and real and aware again for the first time in God alone knew how long. Some were laughing; some were crying; others sat down hard and hugged themselves tightly, as though afraid they might drift away again. Larry suddenly hugged Tommy, actually lifting him off his feet.

"All right, yes, I'm glad to see you again, too!" said Tommy, breathlessly. "Now, put me down before you break something! You never did know your own strength, even before you died. And bloody hell, you're cold."

"Circulation problems," Larry said solemnly. "Good to have you back, Tommy."

"Good to be back. Damn, look at them. I didn't know there were so many of them…"

There had to be at least a hundred men and women, lost souls with their lives and identities finally restored. I recognised some of the faces. Larry and I had been talking about them earlier; familiar faces from the Nightside scene who hadn't been seen in quite a while. Strange Harald the Junkman, in his assorted rags and tatters, asking plaintively if anyone had seen his horse. Bishop Beastly, splendid in his great scarlet cape, calling on all the spirits of the earth and air to avenge this slight to his dignity. Lady Damnation, with her corpse-pale face and fierce green eyes, licking her dark lips, eager to be about her nasty business again. Sister Igor, delicious as ever. Salvation Kane, gaunt and saturnine in his drab Puritan garb, glaring at everyone. Mistress Murmur, in a long pink ball gown, carrying a blood-soaked hatchet, as though she'd been interrupted in the middle of something. And many more besides, good and bad and somewhere in between, long gone and long thought lost. Not all of them Tommy's fault, by any means.

We'd brought them all home, every lost soul of them.

"All right," said Tommy. "Enough of the hugging, Larry! We were never that close. Thank you. I want to know what's happened while I was away. Where's Lilith, for starters? Did we win?"

"We won," I said. "She's gone; and she won't be coming back."

Tommy blinked at me, heard something in my voice, and decided not to pursue it. "How long have I been gone? Feels like years… Like being caught forever in one of those horrible dreams where you try and talk to people, but they can't see or hear you…"