“Luke?” I said.

He moved up to the bar beside me.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“You know you’re on a trip, don’t you?”

“I don’t… I’m not sure what you mean,” he said.

“When Mask had you prisoner I think he slipped you some acid,” I said. “Is that possible?”

“Who’s Mask?” he asked me.

“The new head honcho at the Keep.”

“Oh, you mean Sharu Garrul,” he said. “I do remember that he had on a blue mask.”

I saw no reason to go into an explanation as to why Mask wasn’t Sharu. He’d probably forget, anyway. I just nodded and said, “The boss.”

“Well… yes, I guess he could have given me something,” he replied. “You mean that all this…?” He gestured toward the room at large.

I nodded.

“Sure, it’s real,” I said. “But we can transport ourselves into hallucinations. They’re all real somewhere. Acid’ll do it.”

“I’ll be damned,” he said.

“I gave you some stuff to bring you down,” I told him. “But it may take a while.”

He licked his lips and glanced about.

“Well, there’s no hurry,” he said. Then he smiled as a distant screaming began and the demons started in doing nasty things to the burning woman off in the mural. “I kind of like it here.”

I placed the folded weapon back upon the bartop. Luke rapped on the surface beside it and called for another round of brews. I backed away, shaking my head.

“I’ve got to go now,” I told him. “Someone’s still after me, and he just came close.”

“Animals don’t count,” Luke said.

“The one I just chopped up does,” I answered. “It was sent.”