All that's left

[Mari]

She sat underneath the once lush and green copse of trees within Scara Brae, the one she leaned against was dried and withered. It’s leaves had fallen into a dead pile of dried rot around her. The trees around her suffered a similar, but less severe fate. Their branches cracked and some had fallen, bare of leaves. Signs of decay prevalent but not so deep set the trees themselves were lost. The very air was thick with the stench of death, suffocating those who drew too close. Overwhelming the senses with an unsettling feeling of dread.

Scarlet was a visage of crimson, a red so deep as though her very being drunk up the blood she so recklessly and so frequently spilled. Eyes, hollow and black stared at the empty space before her. Focused with a seething hatred, a dark desire and an unnerving calm.

She had been there for three days, once upon a time, Scarlet would have grown bored. Frustrated. Angry. And moved on. But she didn’t have such concerns anymore. Without the niggling feelings of emotions to stir her and send her awry, Scarlet felt she had all the time and patience in the world. Besides, she didn’t want to miss her dear friend Jake if he happened on by. Scarlet knew him well, she knew the paths he took. The places he portaled, and it was only a matter of time before he visited his dear, sweet, Isabella.

Scarlet nestled further back against the dying tree, shifting her legs to rest underneath her. The tree groaned against her weight. Before long, a shimmery door appeared, its edges aglow in an ethereal light. Scarlets’ lips twisted up into a mischievous grin.

“Well, hello Jake.” She purred toward the door.

[Jake Narmolanya]

The dank odor of rot came through the doorway along with the familiar voice. Jake Narmolanya stepped over the arcane threshold, allowing the portal to dissipate behind him. He wore tailored green sifan clothing and carried a sheathed sword and cased bow on his back, a liviol tonfa on one hip, and a quiver of arrows on the other. His leather boots crackled on the dead earth. He had just come from a few days of training in the field with the Knights of Scara Brae, and was returning to visit the princess Isabella, who had promised in a letter to share a meal with him.

Least she could bloody do, considering I saved her from being chopped up by goblins.

Jake’s thoughts of the princess evaporated as his feet stilled, and his green eyes fell on Amari. She looked horrible, her skin ruptured by dark lines, her eyes emotionless obsidian. Even her auburn hair hung limp and shapeless.

“What’s wrong?” Jake gasped, falling to his knees beside his old friend. “Amari, what happened?” With his nose and mind filled with the stench of death, he could only fear the worst, even if he wasn’t sure what the worst was.

She pushed herself off the ground and approached him. “What’s wrong?” she asked in feigned innocence. Amari reached out to Jake, cold fingers with nails manicured to rounded points tracing his cheek. “You stopped sending me correspondence….” She said with a sigh as she tilted her head. “Is it because of her?” There was a slight stinging sensation as she dragged her nails down his cheek, leaving lines of crimson where she drew blood. “Because of Isabella? Oh Jake. I’m so hurt.”

“I’ve been in the field, training with the Knights. Learning jousting, of all things.” He clapped a hand to his cheek and took a step backwards. “I haven’t seen Isabella since the night we saved her, Amari. And even if I had, I’d never have thought you’d be jealous. Now what’s wrong? You can’t tell me you waited here for me just because I went a few days without writing.”

She bought her fingers up to her mouth, licking his blood out from under her fingernails. “It’s Scarlet.” She said, voice deadpan.

“And I suppose next week, it’ll be Burgundy?” Jake retorted with more ire than he intended. He’d played along for the most part when she wanted to be called Red, but this was getting ridiculous. She gave a callous laugh that grated Jake’s nerves. “Look,” he went on, softening his tone, “I’m supposed to meet Isabella for dinner, but I’m sure she won’t mind if I’m late. She probably wouldn’t mind if I didn’t show up.” He gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. “Why don’t we grab a drink and catch up?”

[Mari]

“Bitter?” Scarlet asked with a raised brow. “Or disappointed you didn’t get a good fuck out of her?” Scarlet continued as she slowly began to pace around Jake. It was eerily quiet, aside from the sounds of her black boots crunching into the dead leaves that surrounded them. The surrounding wildlife had long since fled the area, and it was uncommon to find people trek through here, especially at twilight. The air around her still clung, thick and stagnant with the undeniable scent of decay. Scarlet tapped her finger upon her lips which were set in a bemused smirk. Her eyes never once leaving the half elfs face. “I’d be disappointed too… you went through all that effort, just to have her snub you off. Quite unfair, don’t you think?” She didn’t give him time to answer. “That’s the way the world is, Jake.” Scarlet was on the prowl, she had initially come to toy with Jake, and much life Fenn, leave him incapacitated, wounded. Possibly dead. Scarlet wasn’t fond of people tied to her past, especially ones who she was sure would be so set on ‘bringing her back’ to the pathetic waif of a woman she once was, but if she could sway him, that’d prove far more useful than a mangled corpse.

Scarlet stopped short in front of him and kneeled down so their eyes met. She crossed her arms over her chest, accentuating her bosom. “I can join you for that drink.” She said. Scarlet reached out to grasp his chin. “I’d even fuck you if you’d like, and you can call me Burgundy too, if that’s what jollies your roger.”

Jake met her crimson gaze. “What did he do to you?” It came out a whisper.

“I’ll tell you over a drink.” Scarlet said as she pushed him away. She stood and dusted off her dress. “I’m feeling wonderful, Jake. I feel free. I feel in control, and I have a clarity I never thought possible.” She turned her back on him, heading on the lone path toward the small town, an unassuming village that acted as a halfway point between the empty roads and the capitol.

Jake raced to catch up, a careful expression on his face. “Well I’m glad you’re feeling so good. What brought that on?”

Scarlet gave Jake a wily grin, not slowing her pace, as they walked the stagnant air followed. Tufts of grass wilted under the pressure of her presence and there was a chill in the air that wasn’t just bought on by the setting sun. “I stopped fighting everything.” Her dark eyes glanced up toward the clear sky. “It was painful at first, sure, but when haven’t I felt such a thing?” She shifted her gaze to Jake, who still held a worried expression. “Ah…. but that answer won’t do will it. You want to know the catalyst, what tipped the scales. Right?” She paused in her stead and shifted her weight to one leg as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I could tell you, but tit for tat, Jake. What would you do for me?”

“Whatever you need,” he said, “I promised you I’d always be your friend.”

Scarlet grinned. “I wish I could believe that…” She began. She knew Jake, and what buttons to push. “But at every turn, you’ve yet to actually prove it.” She took a step toward him and draped her arms over his shoulders, looping them around his back. “Way I see it, is you’re a coward. You ran away from my dear brother, you ran away from me when I offered you aid to find that crystal sword, you ran from Master. All you do is portal around the place.”

He shifted awkwardly in her grip, placing his palms forward on her shoulders in an attempt to pry her away, but Scarlet refused to relent. She continued, “I’ll tell you everything, I’ll show you everything, but first, prove I have your word.” She pressed her lips to his ear, whispering the next words. “Kill Isabella.”

[Jake Narmolanya]

Jake’s breath caught, but his green eyes remained unwavering. Furious thoughts roiled like stormclouds in his mind. He’d sensed a difference in Amari the moment he’d made eye contact with her back in the glade, the moment it had become clear she wasn’t controlling her ability to rot nature. I can’t bring her into a pub. Who knows what she might do to the people. If Jake knew one thing about his friend, it was that she was dangerous when roused… and something had clearly roused her.

“I’ve been wondering how long it would take for you to really invite me in, Scarlet.” He put on a smile that turned his stomach and nodded toward a nearby inn. “Let’s go there to… talk. They let rooms by the hour.”

She gave him an incredulous look as she slinked back. Jake feared that she had seen right through his ruse. Her rosy red lips were pulled taught in a thin line, but instead of arguing she gave Jake a small nod and turned to head toward the inn. “Such bold words. Let’s see if your actions match.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Jake drawled. He took her gloved hand in his and gallantly opened the door. Only, it wasn’t the door to the pub. It was one of his portals, and it lead to a dusty old tavern in an abandoned mining town some miles north. Jake pulled Amari through and allowed the portal to dissipate behind them. He dropped the redhead’s hand, callused palm instinctively going to the hilt of his tonfa.

“Tell me what’s happened to you, Amari.”

A low chuckle rolled through the redheaded womans form. “Your doors have a shimmer to them, I figured you’d pull something like this, more balls than I gave you credit for. I suppose a promise is a promise, no?”

She stalked toward him, ripping the gloves off her hands. Jake gripped his tonfa but mad no other movement as she pressed her fingers to his temples. “Might hurt a bit, but - you know how it works.”

Blackness rushed in, followed by a flood of memories.

Jake saw something he didn’t expect, a scene through Amari’s eyes, of her apologising to a white haired man who looked like he was Akashiman. She pulled away from him and then the scene became clear, they were in a cell with her Master staring at them. “You promise you will never harm him.”

“You have my word. I won’t lay a finger on him.” Her master said as he ripped off her collar and then came the overwhelming pain that wracked his body. He could feel his very soul rip apart, her soul… it was suffocating and blinding and frightening - it was all so much, too much to handle. Jake felt his knees buckle under her grasp as he struggled to stay standing.

He felt Amari’s soul as it drowned in the pain and chaos that had pushed so hard against it for the entirety of her life, but instead of the relenting force that she normally had, there was nothing. Nothing to yield against the spreading plague. Finally, the pain stopped and there was a feeling of absolute clarity, a void where there was so much turmoil. There was no pain, no loneliness, no loss. No love or happiness either. The feeling of having emotions stripped, and the scary clarity that set in.

It was followed by a feeling of euphoria.

Amari pulled away from him, dusting off her hands as though it were nothing more than an unpleasant feeling upon her skin. “I won’t allow you the finer details.” She mused. Her eyes glanced up at him, uncaring. “Satisfied?”

“No,” Jake said, “and I won’t be, until I’ve killed your master.”

[Mari]

“Master?” She had a wild grin on her face, what a hilarious thought. The tiny, weak half-elf taking on such a man. “You think you can harm him?” Scarlet laughed, a cold and cruel laugh that echoed, bouncing off the broken debris around them.

“Go ahead and try. I’ll even give you his name, something I had to earn. Something I had to befoul my body, hands and soul for. Lichensith Ulroke.” Her eyes flashed dangerously as she began pacing around him. “Answer me this, Jake. Why would I give you his name? Is it because you’re my friend? Is it because I want to see you fail? Or is it because I...quite frankly, don’t give two flying fucks about the man anymore?”

“Maybe it’s because you’re losing your mind.” Jake said, his voice choked by emotion.

Scarlet paused, he was right, in a sense. She had lost her mind. But his timing was off. Her mind broke long ago. Before the night she sacrificed herself for a foolish ronin, before she was subjected to night after night of rigorous torture by Lye and Aure, before being abandoned in rubble town….her mind broke long ago. She had simply come to terms with it. Small giggles rippled through her body before it turned into boisterous laughter, she gripped her head with one hand, the other wrapped tightly around her waist.

“You’re so funny Jake!” She gasped between her fits of laughter. “Look at you, you’re so confused! So sad! It’s hilarious!” Scarlet took one step forward, then another, then another till she was able to lean forward to press her shaking form against Jake.

“You saw it all! You felt it all! How can you deny such a wonderful feeling?” She released herself from her own grip and reached out to wrap her fingers around his throat. Wild eyes on his. “Why not join me, Jake? Fuck the Crimson Hand, fuck the headache of this pitiful world. Come with me, and we can start something great! Don’t you want that?” Her grip tightened, just enough for the half elf to feel pressure. “Don’t you want to be free?”


“I’ve always been free,” Jake said sadly, his body rigid, “I’ve always been the one offering you freedom. What makes you free now, just because you’ve stopped caring? Won’t your master come after you?”

Scarlet nodded as she pressed her forehead to Jake, biting her lower lip. “Yes. It’s a wonderful game between Master and I. It’s what makes it fun.” Scarlets body still shook with stifled laughter as she swept a booted leg up and underneath Jake, with the added pressure of her weight they toppled to the floor. Clouds of dust formed around them, and the woman pressed harder into Jake as she shifted to straddle him, fingers still tightly wound around his throat.

“You’ve only had a taste of what I feel.” She leaned in closer, wine red hair spilling over her shoulders. “Don’t you want more, Jake?” Her fingers sparked with a crackling red energy, and a heat began to emit from her hands. “Or should I show you...just like I showed Taka...just like I showed Fenn…” Her lips lightly brushed against his cheek, “C’mon Jake, you’re not truly free.” She ground herself into him, knowing the glances he had always given her.

[Jake Narmolanya]

Despite himself, Jake found Amari’s advances arousing. She’d always wielded a certain power over him, ever since they’d bathed together as teenagers. An overwhelming part of him wanted to give in… and then she whispered a name.

Jake bridged and rolled, arrows spilling from the quiver on his hip as he dumped Amari on the ground and scrambled to his feet.

“Fenn?” He asked. The little Fae-thief was a close friend. “Amari, what did you do to Fennik?”

She effortlessly righted herself with an elegance he wished he could admire. “The brat?” She blinked, mild surprise on her features before she returned to an unnerving grin. “Ah yes... “ She crossed her legs, uncaring at what could be seen. “Little shit left me with the Tarot, I had to show him how grateful I was.” She tapped her knee as she watched Jake with a bemused grin.

“He’s bound in iron shackles, somewhere in the Salvar wastes. It’s been….” She paused, “How long was I waiting for you...let’s see...ah! Four days. Nasty allergy he has, don’t you think?” She tilted her head to the side. “How long do you think it takes a fae and his broken little pup to die of starvation? He was a bit of a bore that one, no screams.”

“Tell me this isn’t all that’s left of you, Amari.” Jake said. His right hand drifted from the butt of his tonfa to the hilt of the crystal sword on his back. “Tell me you haven’t become one of the demons.”

The room began aglow in a dancing red light as the four tentacles sprout from her back, she didn’t move, but they waved dangerously behind her, casting shadows across her pale face as she forever wore that bemused smile. “If you try, he’ll die. Lost. Alone. Crying.”

Jake took a step forward. “Tell me where to find him,” he urged, “we can go there together and change all of this.”

She didn’t shift, she rose her chin up toward him. “I told you, Salvar wastes.” She smirked, “we could change a few things, I did plan to drown the dog, but there was no nearby lake.”

Jake’s right hand released the crystal sword’s pommel, palm splayed to show he meant no harm. At the same time, his left hand grasped his tonfa’s crosspiece and halfway drew the fighting stick. Its solid liviol end aimed to smash Amari’s protruding chin. Even his worry for Fennik could not force the half elf to draw a blade against his onetime friend.

[Mari]

Scarlet wasn’t the daft woman she once was. She was far more astute and keen to the subtle nuances around her. She saw his flat palm, but her eyes shifted away from the sword as it clattered to the floor. They fell upon some form of polearm. He was ready to strike. How interesting, didn’t think the whelp had it in him.

“Amari…” Jake warned her. His pain and conflict evident in his voice. She could see the desperation in his eyes in the dimming light.

“Beat it out of me.” Scarlet goaded as she shifted herself into a position she could more easily right herself if he were to strike. “How far are you willing to go? Will you push me to the brink of death? Kill one friend to save another?” Scarlet lowered her face, grinning. “Beat me to near death, and I will tell you.”

Jake finished drawing his liviol fighting stick. “I don’t see a friend here,” he said sadly, and struck like a scalded snake. The end of the tonfa whipped downward at the outside of the redhead’s knee. Scarlet was expecting a strike to the head, the attack caught her off guard and sent her toppling to the floor. She quickly rolled onto her back, hissing from the pain in her already swollen knee. Jake adjusted fluidly, floating on quick feet and aiming his next swing at the downed woman’s skull. Scarlet bought her arms up in a cross section and blocked it, she stood, her weight leaning on her good knee as she laughed, eyes wild. “Yes.. YES!” She said in delight. “That’s what I want to see! Again! Try again!” She egged him on, the tentacles still dancing dangerously behind her.

Jake feinted another swing at her legs, and instead thrust the tonfa’s crosspiece at the side of Scarlet’s head. It struck with a force greater than she expected, again she toppled to the floor. With each strike Scarlet felt a rush of adrenaline and euphoria. She thought emotions were dead to her, but the physical pain, the hurt and anger in Jake’s eyes. It ignited something within the crimson haired assassin. “More….” She hissed in a low growl. Scarlet grinned as she stood, her head bleeding. “That won’t save Fenn…” She taunted as a glimmer of gold flashed across her knee, she quickly tested it. It felt fine. She may have lost the ability to heal others, but not herself.

“Tick, tock, tick tock….”

Jake hissed his exhale and feinted twice, finishing with a third strike at her other knee. Scarlet
cackled as she crumbled, but the half elf had changed tactics. He leaped atop her, pinning her hips with his, sliding the fighting stick across her throat so it cut off the blood flow. He leaned into the choke.

“Tell me where he is,” Jake seethed, “or I swear… there won’t be any pain. You’ll just drift to sleep and never wake up.”

Scarlet adored him like this, this was the most attractive the half elf had ever been to her, the pain in his words - the hate in his eyes and the desperation in his actions. It was such an elated feeling for the woman. She couldn’t let him have all the fun, nor could she let him ruin hers. Scarlet felt the all too familiar feeling of burning in her lungs and the weight on her limbs, if she didn’t act soon she would pass out.

The tentacles flew out from her back and wrapped around Jakes neck and Torso, searing into his flesh. Jake cried out in agony but attempted to hold the choke. Scarlet slowly pushed himself off of her, the tentacles sinking further into his flesh. “Good show, but you don’t have it in you to kill me yet.” She gripped his upper arms with her hands with the intent to cripple him, she could feel his bones shift and crack beneath the pressure of her corrupted soul magic.

Finally Jake let up with a yelp. “I didn’t break them.” Scarlet muttered dryly as she rubbed her neck. “That’d be too easy. Now, its my turn.” With a swift kick to his sternum Scarlet sent Jake to the floor, she heaved her weight onto him, straddling his hips. “I think you need a reminder…” She hissed as she gripped his arm.

With an index finger Scarlet carved the word ‘COWARD’ into his arm. Thick red ichor bubbled over his skin and dripped to the dirty wooden floor. The woman leaned over him, lips tickling his ears. “Whenever you see that scar, you will be reminded of your failures. Jake. Your failure to save a meek noble woman, your failure to stay true to your word, your failure to face my Master, and your failure to save poor. Little. Fenn.”

With her free hand, Scarlet pressed her fingers to Jakes temples, and showed him Fenn. Alone and unconscious in a dark, abandoned hut. Wrists and ankles bound in iron, and surrounded by a small Iron cage, leaving him no space to stand. He was unconscious in a pool of his own blood. Unmoving.

“Tick Tock, Tick Tock.” Scarlet hissed.

[Jake Narmolanya]

Jake struggled to shake Amari off again but failed; the strength contained within her tentacles was too great. His arms burned, his whole body felt afire with pain. And yet his green eyes remained hard. All he could think of was the image of Fenn she’d shown him. If he could only get away, there might still be time…

“What do you hope to gain from all of this?” Jake growled, “Is life just a game to you now?”

She snickered and slowly released her grip. Amari took a step back, and it was clear pain ebbed at her form. She held her arms out wide. “This? THIS is life. A fuckery of shit thrown at you. There is no good, no evil, no right.. No wrong…. Just cause and effect Jake. This isn’t a game. This is how the world pikin’ works.” She lowered her arms. “You want to know what I hope to achieve?” She said, her voice low.

“I’m more than curious.”

“I want the world to see what I see, and I want those in my past to know the hand they played in who I am today.” She gave a low sweeping bow toward the half elf. “So thank you, Jake Narmolanya. If it weren’t for you. I would not be the woman who stands before you now.”

“If it weren’t for me, you’d have fallen this far long ago.” Jake spat, shifting to sit up with his back against the wall. He sneezed as dust entered his lungs. “I only wish I hadn’t wasted my time.”

“No.” She cooed as she stalked him, predatory look in her eyes. “For it was you, Jake, who pushed me. Who guided me, if I weren’t so hopeful, so set on my emotions, I would not have fallen so far, so fast.”

“Is that what you told Fenn?” Jake snarled through his agony, “Is it his fault too, Amari?”

She crouched down before him, her dark eyes never leaving his. Even as she dipped her finger into a pool of his blood and slowly began to swirl it around. “More or less. For someone who is meant to be an adult….he sure cried like a child.”

Jake looked at the word she’d burned into his arm. A feeling of dread ran through his veins, and yet coupled with it, strange relief. The Amari he’d known and loved was gone, replaced by this demon who wore her skin. He would still call her by her proper name, to honor the person she had been. Jake lifted a hand through the weight of pain and conjured a doorway between him and the redhead.

“I suppose this is where I run away?” He said, struggling to get his feet beneath him. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him as he watched her thoughtfully place her bloodied finger in her mouth.

“Mmm, if your arm is anything to go by. Prove me wrong.”

“I don’t think anything could be proven to you, Amari. You’re as mad as a dog foaming at the mouth.” Jake’s back slid up the wall and he staggered forward, placing one hand on the brass doorknob to the portal he’d summoned.

He opened the door, and the ocean rushed in. The portal’s twin sat on the seabed just off the Scaran coast, and a deluge of salt water swarmed into the broken down pub, knocking Jake and Amari down in a growing pool. Jake’s head glanced off the edge of a table, and he landed face down in the water as the portal dissipated.

[Mari]

Scarlet laughed as the water washed over her. It was unexpected, and exhilarating! She loved it. “Yes!” She cackled before the wave of water hit. She was thrown up against the side of the pub, and landed upon a protruding piece of split lumbar. She groaned and coughed up. It protruded through her shoulder, pinning her 'safely' above the raging waters below. Scarlet lifted her legs and pressed them against the wall, pushing herself off of the protruding stake.

"Eurhg..." Amari fell to the floor with a thud, grace was not with her. She fell on her side, clutching her wound. "Fuck me.." She hissed as golden light sizzled, spluttering as it struggled to heal her wounds. The pain was immense, and she felt an odd wave of nausea roll over her body. It had been happening more often than not to the woman, and she wasn't liking it one bit. It looked like playtime was over for her.


Amari stood and limped over to Jake, still healing the wound on her shoulder. She wiped the blood from her mouth. “Ugh. You’re a pathetic sight.” She muttered as she kneeled over the unconscious half elf. For all his gusto, and all his talk. He’d die with lungs filled with the very water he summoned. “What did you hope to achieve with your little stunt?” She asked, pushing his sandy blonde hair away from his face. There was no response. No scowl, no witty comeback and no words of endearment. “You’re no fun like this…” Scarlet muttered, feeling a sense of loss over the half elf. It was one she didn’t like, and assumed it was because her fun with him was at an end.

Scarlet sighed as she placed her hands over his chest, and began to rhythmically pump it, every so often pausing to press her lips to his, creating an airtight seal as she breathed putrid air into his lungs. After several repetitions Jakes body convulsed and he rolled over, throwing up the seawater.

Wordlessly, Scarlet stood as she wiped the blood on her hands onto his shirt. She turned her back on him and left the pub. She had her fun, and he had learned his lesson. It’d be pointless to push him to see what she saw now, he was a half dead fool, and set on saving the pathetic fae child. I’ll come back for you soon Jake, and when I do - you’ll see how I see the world. For all of its decrepit beauty and sin.

[Jake Narmolanya]

Jake blinked salt out of his eyes in time to see Amari exit the tavern. The water was receding, rushing out the door and between cracks in floorboards. Should have aimed the portal directly at her, he thought, and yet he knew he hadn’t out of concern for her life. He couldn’t bring himself to watch Amari die… and somehow, it seemed she felt the same about him.

Gathering his strength, Jake ignored the burns and abrasions scarring his body and stood. He gathered his sodden arrows off the floor, found his tonfa, and finally the crystal sword. His mind was on Fenn, but he knew he’d need to care for himself first.

He portaled to Underwood, where he knew an Ai’Brone monk who worked at the Dansdel combat arena. The monk healed his wounds, offering to remove the scarred blisters spelling out the word coward as well.

“No,” Jake said, “leave that be.” It would remind him to be as hard as steel. It would remind him to draw his sword the next time he faced Amari. And it would remind him he still had much to learn.

Healed but still feeling sickly and weak, Jake detoured to a local inn and bought a haversack full of food and drink. Fenn would need it. Fenn would still be alive. He would be.

Jake jogged out of town to a familiar copse of trees, not dissimilar to the one Amari had ambushed him at in Scara Brae. He found it best not to create portals in the middle of busy towns and villages.

The half elf closed his eyes and placed his fingers over his temples, remembering every detail of the vision Amari had shown him. He saw Fenn, bound in irons and caged. He saw dusty woodwork, and stone floors. He saw a little shadowplay on a wall, and then he created a portal.

The doorway sprang into existence. Jake checked his weapons. He considered the possibility it might be some kind of trap, but he didn’t care. With a deep breath, he twisted the doorknob and ducked through into frigid air.