“Who the hell is messing with us?" Ava snapped. "And why did they want us to come to an old folks’ home?”

Cece studied her. “I'm not sure what happened to the two of you, but whoever you're speaking of obviously wanted you to find Madame Coulise. Why else would you come here?”

“I don’t know that woman!” Ava cried. “My grandmothers both died--”

"Ava.” Abe’s voice was weak. Nervous. “You were injured in the timehole, before…” He cleared his throat, shifted his weight. Still nervous.

"Obviously.”

."Yes, well, if you can get injured, then...you probably can age.”

She couldn't understand why he was so antsy. “Please. I’m not worried about crow’s feet, Abe.”

"But what if someone was in there quite a long time?” he pressed. “Possibly...years?”

"Come on--you’d have to be pretty idiotic to just sit in a timehole for that long!” From what she could tell, the timeholes a were each just their own little puzzle. Solve the puzzle, you get to leave the hole.

Abe tried to steady his voice. “Not if you had no idea what it was. Or how to stop it.” He swallowed. “Not if you slipped in by accident.”