vicki and howard are mysteriously missing, however, and paul is taken back to imboca, where he is sent to the hotel that barbara was supposed to have gone to. but she is missing as well and paul is left to wait for her in an old, filthy hotel room, where he dreams of the mermaid again. his fitful rest is disturbed by a large gathering of strange, fish-like people approaching the hotel and is forced to flee. he ends up in a macabre tannery full of human skins, where he discovers howard's remains. he escapes the tannery by starting a fire and finds momentary safety with an old drunkard named ezequiel, the last full-blooded human in imboca.