The Villa

Emily and Chess go into Orvieto to discover the town, behaving like tourists. Chess asks Emily what she’s been listening to, and Emily tells her about one of the podcasts describing the murder at Villa Aestas in 1974. Chess knows the women involved, dismissing them as representative of Los Angeles. Emily doesn’t quite follow what that signifies. Explaining the podcasts further, Emily gestures toward history and the past, saying they have become part of the house’s history. They find a trattoria—a smaller, more casual type of restaurant, and enjoy pasta and wine. After they find a queue of tourists and discover the Pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick’s well), a deep well bored into the medieval hillside town, surrounded by a double helix staircase. Hawkins quotes from Lilith Rising and a guidebook that a fellow tourist gives them. Interspersed with Emily’s descriptions of their tourist activities, the quote from the guidebook describe the well in Orvieto and the material from Lilith Rising depicts the main character Victoria and her love interest Colin, as he tells her about a cave in Ireland called St. Patrick’s Purgatory that allegedly leads to Hell.