Valerie woke with a start; she had dreamed again of the inside of a car trunk, of darkness and fear and the certainty of her own eventual destruction, if not death.

Dana paced her dimly lit hotel room, debating how much of heaven and earth she was willing to uproot to get back to California a few hours early. She had no way to reach Valerie directly— a situation of her own making, and one she was, at least in that moment, regretting. A simple text message would have done wonders to set her mind at ease.

Valerie stood naked in front of the full length mirror in Dana’s bathroom, staring at herself. Her eyes were fixed on the metal that Lucca had put through her body. She had been staring for several minutes, lost in thought; occasionally she turned, just to watch the light glint off of the new piercings.

Valerie moaned as the plug inside her cycled on. Her eyes widened — pointlessly, behind both blindfold and hood. The intense pulsing lasted only a few seconds before cutting off again.

Isolation, and Valerie’s own fearful imagination, broke her before any action of Lucca’s.

Without instructions to the contrary, Valerie slept in the cell that night. Unbound, still wearing the flannel pajamas, with a blanket, and no cold shower— she found it practically luxurious. She slept well, and, blessedly, dreamed only strange dreams, whose memory dissipated when she awoke.

It was difficult to converse with Mictlan while they walked back across the plains, which Ness thought was probably for the best— Mira did not seem to be in any mood for conversation. The three walked single file, back the way Mira and Ness had just come. They had a long walk ahead of them, and Ness was extremely unenthusiastic about it.

“Yellow,” Valerie answered, shifting her eyes away from Lucca. She felt suddenly shy, and was unwilling to see the expression they would give her in reply. She suppressed a shudder as she imagined the scenario Lucca had asked about, but she also imagined herself enduring it. Surviving it.

As Ness grew accustomed to her magically-enhanced sense of smell, she realized that she could discern not only Mictlan’s trail, and hints of the wild animals around them— but also the scent of Mira’s skin, silky and spicy, and the salt tang of her sweat. She ran harder, muscles burning despite the magic coursing through her. She ran hard enough that she couldn’t think of how good Mira’s skin would feel, with all of that energy surging through her.

Valerie had finished nearly all of her oatmeal, and a second cup of black diner coffee, but she couldn’t handle another bite of the now-cold porridge. Lucca flagged down their server, and a few minutes later she dropped off the check.