​     Myanna descended a stairway to find herself in a hall that looked made of marble, floors and walls. (Wherever any of them were, they never looked up to see a ceiling, only sky.)

     An Azurian couple crossed the hall, both nude. The male seemed quite proud of his stiff penis. The woman's nipples looked as hard as bolts. They smiled at Myanna in the exact same manner as they passed. Not a hair on either of them that Myanna could see. Together, they disappeared into one of the private bathing rooms. 

     She almost jumped out of her skin when someone next to her said, "Adorable, huh?"

     "Yeow! Don't sneak up on somebody like that!"

     "I didn't sneak up on you," Skip said. "I was right next to you all the way down the stairs. I thought you knew. Think that's the grotto down at the end of the hall there?"

     It was. Skip saw a pool that filled an amphitheater lined by walls seeping warm water. Boulders littered the pool for people to sit on. 

     "The sky's a fucking work of art all by itself," Skip said.

     "Have you noticed?" Myanna replied. "The skies are all starting to blend, to swirl around each other."

     "I noticed," Skip said, although he was lying. He hadn't.

     A half dozen female spirits waded in the pool, if you could call it wading. They made not a ripple. Nude, their hair flowed like a river to halfway down their backs. Firm breasts. Full, thick pubic patches, all as bright as bright, white light.

     "They're all exactly alike," Myanna said. "They're like Barbie dolls."

     "Those are not Barbies," Skip said.

​     "Let's go," Myanna said. "We'll come back when maybe there'll be some real people here."

     "Do you have to leave right now?" the wraith closest to them asked with a voice as soft as a whisper.

     "Damn, I didn't know you could talk," Myanna said. "Sorry about that."

     "I'd like to touch you if I could. Would that be too much of an imposition?"

     "I suppose not."

     The wraith rested a hand on Myanna's shoulder. Warmth like a quilt on a cold, winter night emanated from Myanna's shoulder to wash over the rest of her. 

     She couldn't help but smile.

     "That really does feel very nice," she said.

​     "I've got a shoulder, too," Skip reminded the wraiths as he seriously considered removing a few articles of clothing because, hey, they were in a grotto, and grottos made you sweaty.

     A wraith got on either side of him to envelop him in their embrace.

     Skip forgot all about the heat.

     Myanna asked, "Do you have names, or are you just angels, or..."

     "We all have the same name because we are all, in essence, the same person," the wraith in front of Myanna replied. "My name, our name, is Galatea." 

CONTINUE