“Wait, Mallory, you can’t go one alone in here.” Di’at came to his senses and walked in front of Mallory, blocking her way. “Let me go first and take care of anything that comes up. I’m the one that invited you first, after all.” Mallory took one look at the man and shook her head before going around him and moving on. When Di’at tried to stop her again, Mallory growled and started to push against the man with her head, which did very slowly start to shift the man forward.

“I’m not talking to you anymore.” Mallory said, “You might not be the Devil, but you’re not very trustworthy. I’ll find my own way back from this hell you put me into.” Even as she said it, Mallory felt herself hesitate on going any further on account of how completely dark everything was. What faint light there was didn’t have the strength to illuminate the more minute details of where she was, which could prove fatal were traps to be involved. Some of Mallory’s anger at Di’at really came from her own regret at being lured so easily away from her death. She had accepted her fate, didn’t she? And yet here she was, stumbling in the dark while being followed by a man that could easily pass as her given a change of clothes and demeanor.

“Look out.” Di’at was suddenly at Mallory’s side, gently pushing her back as something large flew through the air in front of them both. Several minutes later, that same thing came rushing back, and only then did Mallory realize that she had triggered a trap. She looked at Di’at for an explanation, but the man became annoyingly tight-lipped and said nothing. So she crossed her arms and took note of what she could find about this trap. The area it affected seemed fixed, and the sound it makes as it goes through the air suggests that it’s something rather large and heavy, but light enough to keep moving. All these things put together in Mallory’s mind presented something like a large blade on a pendulum, which is a pretty classic trap in movies and the like.

But simply knowing the kind of trap at hand was markedly different from having a plan to get through it. She had no idea how large the blade was, as well as how big the gap that let the blade swing through was. Her mind briefly touched upon asking Di’at for help, but that thought was ruthlessly stomped down before it could get any further. She said she wouldn’t talk to him anymore, and she’d keep her word, come hell or high water. Her resolve found, Mallory began to time the blade in her mind, keeping track of how much time she had until it came back round. Once she was sure her counting was sound, Mallory walked back a couple steps and braced herself to sprint and jump across the gap just as the blade passed its lowest point. The seconds ticked down until-

Now! Her mind screamed at her to move a second too late, as her body was already moving. Wholly ignoring Di’at, who wisely stepped to the side, Mallory sprinted like she had never sprinted before, each step taken already feeling like they might fail her, but still she moved until she felt the edge and beyond it, freedom. She leaped across the gap and hoped she had built enough speed, her time in the air feeling like she would never come down in one piece, and yet she did, landing sprawled on the ground with the wind knocked out of her. Mallory didn’t dare move for a minute or so as she waited for something horrible to happen, some realization that she had been cut, that part of her didn’t make it, swallowed by the gap. When no pain besides exhaustion made themselves present, Mallory felt the urge to laugh and cry at the same time, her hands touching every part of her just to confirm what already fact. She opted to laugh, at her triumph over the stupid trap and over Di’at and his stupid words and over her own inflated fears of death and, and-

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Oh my Lord, I could have died. I really could have died just now. With her body returned to its youth, Mallory found herself awash with the full brunt of her emotions in their rawness and clarity. What once were dull prods upon the psyche were now spears tipped with poison, twisting her nerves until they burned. Her second panic attack in short order, Mallory nearly hurt herself as she collapsed on the ground were it not for Di’at who caught her as she fell and laid her gently on her back.

“I’m starting to think it might have been a mistake of mine to bring you here. I tend to do that when it comes to humans and their limited lifespans; it’s rare that my playmates lived as long as you have. It just feels like I blink and then they’re gone, and that’s why I got so excited to see you were still alive. But now I see that it’s probably for the best that you return back to your bed, to where your fate waits. I’m sorry for even thinking it was a good idea to get you out of there to come and visit a place you never even visited before.” Di’at stepped away from Mallory and held out his hand to a nearby empty spot, whereupon a familiar dark portal appeared, though this time it showed what was on the other side. There was the bed, and the soft electric glow of monitors and assorted instruments dedicated to keeping an old woman stay alive. The lights of the room was dim but compared to the near-complete darkness of where Mallory and Di’at were at, it might as well have been the sun itself.

“Take my hand, Mallory, and you can go home. All of this will just be a bad dream soon forgotten.” Mallory, who by now was slowly starting to calm down, sat up and stared at the portal, and then to Di’at, the man that got her into this mess and now was offering her the way out. This was exactly what she wanted and taking his hand should have been a no-brainer, but something stayed her hand. A part that was growing with each second Mallory remained young began to erode the steadfast will and determination Mallory’s older self possessed after a lifetime of living and replaced it with the doubt and fear of the young.

If this was all not going to matter in the end, then surely it wouldn’t hurt to see how it was all going to play out? She hadn’t felt so alive in years, would she really want to go back and feel those ages come back in a moment just in time to meet the angel of death once more? Was this not a chance to live, actually live, for a little bit longer? Kings, queens, emperors and tyrants have killed and died for such a chance, and Mallory Nivin Evergrand had it dropped on her lap, addressed to her name with a neat and tidy bow on top. These ponderings and questions and the like shifted the scale ever so slightly until finally Mallory stood up and stared at Di’at with a calculating look, as though she was weighing what the man’s worth was to her.

“ … No, I think I’d like to stay and see what you’re offering me, Di’at. I made it this far; I can go a lot further.” Di’at’s mouth opened and closed as he looked genuinely surprised at Mallory’s answer, but he closed the portal all the same. Mallory could see he was dying to ask her why she had decided to stay, and felt much better knowing she would never answer those questions. She had the upper-hand now-

“Oh, watch out for that … trap.” Di’at said as Mallory stepped on a trigger and the wall ahead of her immediately crashed upon one another in a great roar of kinetic force. The man winced at the impact, but Mallory remained still. Perfectly still. Upon closer inspection by Di’at, he realized that she had fainted, and sighed as he realized he would have to carry her on his back for some time now.