Southwest, past Lilith's castle.

Dago decided to walk back to where he came, figuring that it was best to stay close to Lilith’s castle, for safety’s sake. He wandered for a good amount of time until he came across a building that was about the size of a small shack. He opened the door, but found it was empty and about the size of a broom closet. He turned around and ran right smack into someone. Dago fell into the broom closet with a thud, right on his ass.

“Ow,” he said, looking up at who ran into him.

A man that Dago didn’t recognize stood in the doorway, but by the wide eyes and blush across his face, Dago guessed that the man recognized him. He looked nervous and apologetic, but mostly a bit shocked.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, forgive me,” the man said, bending down to help Dago up, “Oh, I can touch you!”

The man had a firm grip around Dago’s elbow, but Dago couldn’t figure out for the life of him why he was amazed that he was able to touch him. He allowed the man to help him up and Dago dusted off his pants.

“Are you going to the surface, too?” the man inquired with some wonder.

“No, is this the way you take?” Dago asked, peering at the inside of the broom closet.

“Yes, it’s how anyone from purgatory goes. Did you die? You didn’t look dead the last time I saw you, but that was a long time ago,” the man said trailing off.

“You’ve seen me before?” Dago asked, sidestepping the question on ****.

The man reddened more than he had been when he knocked Dago down, “Oh, well, yes, a few times, but you didn’t see me, so don’t worry. You don’t know me and you… well…”

“Wait a second, slow down. When was this?” Dago asked with a frown.

“I don’t know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything, you both looked like you were kind of occupied, I didn’t want to just pop in and say hello. Your mouth was a bit full at the time, if I recall,” Ivan said, his ears burning, “I never thought about doing that on my piano.”

Dago stared at the man for a few moments before trying to decide if he should be upset there was some secret voyeur watching while he had sex on a piano. With Marian, if he had to guess, too.

“Who are you?” Dago said, figuring he could make the man squirm a bit more.

“My name is Ivan,” he said, seeming a bit less embarrassed now, ‘Pleasure to finally be introduced, Dago.”

Dago covered his mouth with his hand to stifle his laughter. He knew his name, too! Ivan realized his mistake and covered his face with his hands.

“I’m so sorry, that was rude of me!” he said, through his fingers, “I just overheard and forgot…”

“I bet you did,” Dago said, unable to hide the fact that he found this hilarious anymore.

“I really didn’t mean it, I’m sorry!” protested Ivan, tugging at the brim of his hat.

He looked as though he might melt right into the ground out of embarrassment, so Dago decided to spare him a little bit.

“Are you a demon?” Dago asked.

“No! Why would you ask such a thing!?” Ivan said indignantly.

“You sounded surprised when you grabbed my arm,” Dago reasoned, “It’s not because you’re a demon then?”

“No…,” Ivan said sadly, “I’m a ghost, actually, but apparently only on the mortal plane. It just surprised me; I haven’t actually had contact with anyone in awhile.”

Dago almost made a potentially rude comment about changing that and making up for the difference, but he took a different route and took Ivan’s shoulder. He was taller than Dago, but not by enough to make it awkward. Ivan looked at Dago with a bit of a curious look, but was obviously nervous because of the contact.

“You seem pretty solid to me,” Dago said with a shrug.

“I think it’s only when I’m on the mortal plane. Strange, isn’t it?” Ivan said.