The caves gone dark came from a vague and troubling dream in the 80’s, of little detail and no light.  Somewhere in it I heard Kiril say, “Twins don’t talk.”  I invented a context for that in the story.  The dream had a clear-cut meaning for me in the waking world, but I shall keep that to myself, for telling it would reveal more than just my own issues, and I have no right.

I wrote the Monday scene, but not Deirdre’s memories of Jonathan and of her birth-parents.  Those I derived from dreams.

          I dreamed of going past those lancet windows, down the stone stairs of Toulin Academy.

          I made up the hallucinations and stuff, but sensory deprivation does produce hallucinations of this sort, at first intriguing, in bright colors, then tedious and empty.  As before, the astute reader might be able to guess which thoughts belong to whom, but of course Deirdre absorbs it all as a random and unlabeled stew of imagery.

          I also invented the awakening, putting together the logical consequences of starvation and sensory deprivation combined.