Chapter 14:

(Posted: March 6)

A minute later, Harrison found himself being pushed down a small staircase by Kat. Rich stumbled down in front of the both of them. “Kat, you know where we're going?” he shouted back at her.

“Not really,” she acknowledged. “I've never been down in the basement. Only went to his house once before I ended up in my wheelchair. And it's not like he put up ramps everywhere.”

The three of them, still dressed in their fancy evening wear, clamored down a small concrete staircase into Dos Palos's basement. When they reached the bottom, Harrison saw a few white-painted hallways leading in different directions. Through a glass door directly in the front of them he could see hundreds of bottles of wine racked on the walls of a large cellar.

“What the fuck do you think Jessica's doing up there?” Rich wondered aloud.

“Probably signing her own death warrant,” Kat expressed in frustration.

Suddenly an explosion rang out above them, followed by shaking that indicated a part of the mansion was collapsing above their heads. It sounded like a bomb had gone off somewhere outside. Dust sprinkled down from the ceiling but the basement ceilings held. Everyone looked up in nervous concern.

“Sounds like a war-zone out there,” Harrison commented.

“Let's start exploring,” Kat suggested. “No idea what's down here but maybe we can find some good place to lay low.”

Harrison and Rich started to slowly follow her down a hallway as muffled booming noises from outside continued. The ground kept shaking the house and the light fixtures rattled on the walls around them. Some unholy hell was happening right above their heads. Harrison felt relieved he'd taken shelter from the storm, but he couldn't stop wondering about Jessica.

A minute earlier, from Leo's study Kat decided it would be best to flee to the basement, so the other three followed her back to the house's main staircase. Walking back to the landing, Harrison, Kat, and Rich revolted in horror when they saw all the party guests flailing around helplessly on the staircase, reduced to one inch in height. Though a few bloody footprints marked the stairs, the steps teemed with small bodies struggling to get up or down the step they were stuck on.

“What the fuck did you do?!” Kat shouted at Jessica, more terrified than impressed.

“I... I don't know,” she admitted sheepishly. “I just shrank them somehow.”

“Holy fucking moley,” Rich said, looking over the scene. Harrison stayed silent, having already seen Jessica perform her witchcraft.

“You guys keep running,” Jessica ordered them, “I'm gonna try taking on the guys outside. I'll do my best to keep them out of the house, but I can't promise anything.”

“How do we get down?” Harrison asked, looking at the staircase in disgust.

“Just go!” Kat barked at him. Without looking, she started rapidly descending the stairs. Tiny men and women, unlucky enough to get caught under her feet, simply vanished beneath her black heels with a squish. Though not usually squeamish, Harrison had to look away.

“Fuck it,” Rich said, following her. Jessica also descended with him. Sucking it up, Harrison put his hand on the banister and started down the stairs too. Though he could hear squelching sounds below him, he tried not thinking about what was happening under his feet. And he certainly didn't look.

At the bottom of the stairs, Kat grabbed Harrison and Rich and led them through the now deserted ground floor of the mansion, finally smuggling them down a staircase to the basement. Jessica, standing alone at the front door of the house, contemplated what she could do against these new forces. There were a lot of men coming towards the house, and these ones had guns now. She concluded it might be difficult to shrink them all fast enough before one shot her. Still unsure what abilities she really possessed, she pictured a few different scenarios in her mind. Immediately, one of them felt right. She smiled, knowing what she had to do now. Confidently, Jessica strode out the front door of mansion.

Legions of men, clad in armor and carrying semi-automatic rifles, trudged through the snow to surround the house. On the drive, trucks carrying more troops rolled up to the house, guarded by armored cars with large guns mounted atop. Jessica surveyed all of this from the porch, not too far from where the wardrobe still sat in the bushes. Though she didn't really know, she guessed they'd triggered some security protocol built into this world. It may have been something the woman in black had created, but it didn't really matter now. Jessica had the means to defeat it.

Concentrating, like she'd done before, this time Jessica didn't focus on the men in the army. She focused on herself. Hundreds of them could overwhelm her at her regular size, so to truly defend herself, she needed to be big. Much bigger.

An instant later, the troops stopped in their tracks to watch the attractive blonde in the red dress suddenly explode in proportion. Jessica's height shot up until she absolutely towered over the scene below her. If she could have seen the little men's faces, it would have amused her to see the abject shock they now displayed. But from her gaze now hundreds of feet above them, the soldiers merely looked like insects below her.

Because she'd been standing so close to the house when she'd grown, Jessica's large feet bulldozed the front section of the manor. Looking down, Jessica could see the remaining part of the house came up to about the height of her ankles. The little soldiers below were no bigger than her toes.

Without saying a word, she took a step forward, covering up a few men with her red heel. Far below she heard the sound of small arms fire, and she could see the area around her shoes light up with tiny little flashes. Against her feet she could feel the insignificant sensations of their bullets hitting her flesh harmlessly. Their guns were useless against her.

But Jessica looked at the armored cars with concern. Each one had some kind of turret-mounted cannon on top, a few of which were slowly coming to life. Those guns, though unlikely to stop her, looked like they might actually sting. One of them, close to her right foot, started swiveling its turret around at her. Jessica planted her left foot then kicked the vehicle with her other foot, instantly regretting the idea. Her shoes, while very big, were still open-toed, and when her feet impacted the armor of the vehicle, it felt like kicking a rock. But her foot slammed into the side of the armored car regardless, sending it tumbling off the road and down the slope of the mountain.

She winced, vowing not to make the same mistake again. Still ignoring the subtle feelings from the soldiers firing at her, Jessica stepped over to the next armored vehicle. It moved its turret and aimed up at her leg, but she easily avoided it. It fired, the boom from the cannon echoing in the night, but Jessica was already bringing her foot down atop the vehicle. Her high heels were not the best at stomping out vehicles, but once her foot rested on the armored car, she shifted her weight and started pressing down. The metal buckled and groaned, and she found with a little bit of effort she could flatten the car, entombing its crew inside. It felt like stepping on an aluminum soda can. She marveled at her casual display of strength.

Though she'd easily destroyed two of the armored vehicles, a few more remained farther down the drive. They opened fire at Jessica, one striking her leg just above her ankle. It stung, like the shot from a BB gun, but she didn't think it pieced her skin. Once she's gotten over the surprise, it seemed more of an annoyance than anything.

But as much as she wanted to stomp out the remaining vehicles, she remembered her real mission was to protect her friends in the house. While she was distracted, soldiers had swarmed the wrecked building. She could see a few starting to climb up what remained of the front of the mansion, looking for a way in. She wasn't going to let that happen.

Jessica moved with determination and grace. Never feeling hurried at this size, she calmly stepped back towards the house and began casually grinding out the soldiers gathered on the snowy front lawn. They were easy to spot, like little black bugs crawling on a white floor. Though she couldn't feel them crunch under the soles of her shoes, bring her feet down upon them was a satisfying feeling nonetheless. She'd already gotten used to thinking of these soldiers not as real people but more as the pests they actually were, and soon it started feeling like a game.

As the remaining armored cars sporadically fired at her legs, she eventually became inured to the stinging sensations their shells caused. Right now, she was focused on the soldiers. Spotting a group of helmeted men clamoring into the house over a fallen wall, she swung her foot over them. With a mighty crash she stomped into the rubble of the house, pulverizing the attackers.

Noticing more men huddling around some of the upright walls of the mansion, Jessica flattened their bodies by gently kicking her shoes against them, smearing them against Dos Palos's stone exterior. More bits and pieces of the house crumbled as she battered it, but Jessica assumed her friends were already safe deep inside the basement.

Looking over the chaos unfolding at her feet, she could see soldiers scrambling everywhere in panic. Another shell from an armored car glanced off her calf. She turned around and peered at the remaining forces confronting her, try to decide which vehicle to flatten next. She narrowed her eyes, enjoying her newfound role as a vengeful goddess.

Her massacre continued unabated.

Beneath the crumbling house, the regular-sized pilots moved through the basement. They found some rooms meant for storage, while others contained water tanks and furnaces. They even stumbled upon the massive kitchen that served the residents and guests of Dos Palos. It, like the rest of the house, lay abandoned. Standing amid the clutter of an unattended kitchen, they looked for somewhere safe to hide. A walk-in refrigerator or freezer came to Harrison's mind.

“Let's try that door,” Rich suggested, pointing at a plain gray door.

“Sure, why not,” Kat said, hurrying over to it as another boom above shook the house. A light fixture detached from the ceiling and shattered on the floor next to Harrison, causing him to jump. Kat didn't even flinch as she opened the gray door.

When she pulled open the door, a warm current of air burst into the room. This door was different. Kat peered in awe through it as she looked into a different world. The door opened up into what looked like a dusty shop, full of gilded trinkets and carpets, almost as if it had belonged in a Middle Eastern bazaar.

“What the fuck?” Rich exclaimed. Kat quickly shut the door. She was just as confused.

“I have no idea what's going on,” she admitted. “This door leads to a completely different world. That's not possible.” Another boom from outside shook the room.

“I only thought green doors led somewhere?” Rich asked.

“Yeah, me too,” Kat concurred.

“Are we going to go through it then?” Harrison asked. Just then a loud boom rocked the foundations of Dos Palos. The ceiling shook violently and all the lights suddenly flickered, plunging them in temporary darkness.

“I don't think we have a choice,” Kat finally said. “This house is close to collapsing.”

“Are we still just going to leave Jessica?” Harrison queried them. “I mean, she's up there saving our asses right now!”

“I already told you the plan,” Kat told him sternly. “We get out as soon as possible, then I de-sim her manually. We still have plenty of time too,” she said, holding up her watch with the timer. It read just over 34 hours elapsed.

Despite the incredible danger bearing down on them in this world, Harrison didn't feel comfortable leaving Jessica behind. He also didn't like the idea of going through the new door either. Kat, sensing his reluctance, continued to persuade him.

“Harrison, don't overthink this, let's go. This world is fucked!”

“No, you guys go,” he replied to her. “I'm going to make sure Jessica gets out of this. You can de-sim both of us if you beat us out.”

Rich stepped in. “Harrison I think you're making a big fucking mistake man.”

“Jessica seems like she's doing fine up there,” Kat said. “Plus, you're the one that convinced us she's gone over to the dark side. You want to still be here if or when that fight up there is over? Because either way, we lose.”

Though Kat made a good point, Harrison felt like he owed it to Jessica to stay behind. Sure, something about her seemed off now, but he needed to confront her about it. After all, he hadn't had a chance to talk to her since she'd witnessed his pathetic acquiescence to the woman in black in the volcano world. Not only did he need to atone for that, he suspected the woman in black had visited Jessica in the mansion too.

He also didn't like the thought of going through this weird door in the basement. He always assumed that to travel between worlds they'd have to access the side space. Maybe out here on the edges of VERSA, the rules were so bent that nothing made sense? Regardless, he knew what choice he had to make.

“Rich, you go with Kat,” Harrison told him confidently. He turned to Kat. “You get yourselves out. It'll be easier if you two go alone. I'll stick with Jessica. I'll see you guys back home. Good luck.”

Before Kat and Rich could keep arguing with him, Harrison ran out of the kitchen. He could hear them yelling at him, but soon the noise coming from outside and the shaking of the house drowned out their voices. They wouldn't be running after him.

Harrison immediately questioned his decision when he surveyed the basement corridor and determined it could collapse at any moment. Whatever was going on outside must be destroying the house, but that indicated that Jessica somehow wasn't dead yet. Considering the state of warfare upstairs, it occurred to him that if Jessica had acquired the power to shrink others, she might also possess the ability to grow herself. That would certainly account for whatever battle was currently taking place above him. But he needed to get to safety, which was not in this crumbling mansion's basement.

Running through the smoke and dust that saturated the basement air, Harrison eventually found the staircase they'd climbed down just a few minutes before. Down another basement corridor he could see the ceiling had fallen in. He didn't have much time.

Hurriedly, he climbed out of the basement and found a house in shambles. The ornate rooms, or at the least the ones that hadn't completely collapsed, were wrecked and filled with debris and smoke. A fire in one room licked at piles of stone and wood. It seemed like the second floor had mostly come down into the first, and the mansion looked more like a ruin than a real house. Where he could see through the smoke, Harrison could make out the starry night sky above him. And a massive dark figure in red, silhouetted faintly by the light of the stars. Jessica was huge.

Due to her size and the darkness, he couldn't really see what she was doing, but each time she took a step the earth trembled mightily. Harrison scrambled through a nearby room, hoping to stay safe but also get a look at what was going on outside. Through a completely shattered window, Harrison gazed into the front yard. The last time he saw the grounds of the manor there had been a stately drive leading up to the house and a blanket of snow covering the front lawn. All he saw now was mud and craters; the road was gone and no snow remained, just brown and black soup. He could see dead bodies scattered around the yard, flattened in giant shoe-shaped impact craters. A few distorted vehicles in the distance burned ferociously.

Right in front of him, Jessica's foot suddenly slammed into the ground, a wall of red blocking his vision. The impact of her foot caused him to lose his balance and fall. When he regained his footing, her massive high heeled shoe was gone. Harrison wondered if there was some way he could help her fight. Looking out to the remains of the trees that surrounded the house, he could still see some figures moving in the shadows.

Peering just over the window sill, Harrison nearly vomited when he spotted a pile of human remains squished against the wall of the house. A jumble of limbs and incoherent flesh had fused with pieces of body armor and weapons. Regaining his composure, Harrison carefully reached down and plucked a rifle out of the pile of death. Inspecting it, it looked similar to the gun that Rich had been using earlier. He found the safety, figured out how to see if the gun was loaded, then decided he was going to use it.

Shouldering the rifle awkwardly, Harrison brought it up and sighted it out the window. He drew the silhouette of a figure in the distance, then squeezed the trigger. The gunshots startled him at first, but he found that if he gripped it tightly, he could control short bursts of bullets relatively easily. So he went to work.

After about a minute of sporadically shooting out of the house, Harrison couldn't tell if he'd actually hit anyone, but at least he didn't feel completely useless. He tried keeping an eye on Jessica, or her enormous shoes really, which kept moving in and out of his field of vision. As he contemplated a new target, out of the corner of his left eye he saw a soldier running against the outside of the house towards his window. Caught by surprise, Harrison quickly turned to fire at the man, who raised his own gun.

Just as he pulled the trigger, a massive footfall shook the ground close by and Harrison and the solider both stumbled. His mind went into panic mode, but he regained his balance and leaned out the window again. Pointing the rifle at the stunned soldier, Harrison unloaded the remaining bullets into the hapless attacker. The rifle soon clicked empty, but the man was dead. Harrison couldn't believe he'd actually shot someone successfully.

Before he could feel any pride or accomplishment, the window frame he stood next to exploded. Dropping the gun in surprise, he could hardly turn before he saw two of Jessica's huge fingers, each much longer than his entire body, come in and pinch him. Out of shock he struggled, but Jessica quickly whisked him up. Harrison's stomach turned over inside of him as the g-forces from the ascent pushed his eyeballs back into his head.

Jessica shifted her hold on him and rolled him into the palm of her hand, shielding Harrison's body from any gunfire that might reach up that high. She lifted him up to her face. Harrison, recovering from the ascent, found himself ass-down in her palm looking up at her concerned expression.

“Harrison!” she said in surprise and disappointment. “I told you to hide!”

“I couldn't leave you behind!” he shouted so she could hear him. “I had to make sure you were ok!”

Jessica laughed in amusement, then smiled. “Aww, thanks,” she said. “I'm doing just fine though.” To Harrison, her faced looked larger than the side of a house. It intimidated him, but at least he was getting used to her at this size.

“How'd you spot me?” he asked her, having to yell. “Thank you for not crushing me!”

“You're easy to spot with that white tux on,” she said simply.

“You're hard to miss too,” Harrison joked. “You know, with that pretty dress on, I could spot you a mile away!” Her giant face blushed from his corny joke. It seemed like she was in a good mood. Harrison felt relieved.

Changing the subject, Jessica told him, “Hey, let me finish off the rest of these guys and then we can talk.”

“Do you mind putting me somewhere safe?” he shouted. “I don't think hiding in that house is the best idea anymore!”

Jessica thought about it for a moment. “Yeah I can hold onto you Harrison,” she said. Looking down she spotted someone and quickly stomped them out. She glanced back up at him. “I'm sorry, I don't have any pockets though.”

“Um, that's ok, I think I can balance on your hand...” He looked around him. Her hand was large, but it was constantly moving despite her best efforts to keep it relatively still and level. Even in a seated position he continuously rocked side to side, and when Jessica spread her fingers Harrison had much less room to balance.

Jessica, watching his uncertainty, realized she didn't really want him in her hand. Even if she tried curling her fingers into a fist to try cupping him, she still had to worry about accidentally opening her hand or rattling him around too much. If he'd been a larger size, she could have just gripped him, but at his tiny size she legitimately feared she'd squish him without even trying. Thinking about it flashed her back to what she'd done to Evan not long ago. She didn't want to repeat that with Harrison.

Suddenly, she had an idea. It wasn't perfect but at least he'd be out of the way. “Harrison I'm picking you up now,” she quickly told him as her other hand descended on him. “I'm going to put you somewhere safe, just don't get squished,” she told him, plucking him up and dangling him over her cleavage. “And don't get any funny ideas either.”

Stunned, Harrison had a moment to stare down into her bosom before Jessica lowered and tucked him in between her breasts. Harrison was about to protest, but he couldn't stop wondering how he'd gotten himself into this situation. Her boobs looked gigantic, and once she stuffed him between them, he quickly found himself struggling to stay alive.

Her breasts weren't soft; they held him rather firmly. But the flesh beneath her skin was pliant, and every time he pushed he could feel the plushy resistance of her boobs pushing back against him. If it hadn't been so jarring and unexpected, he might have enjoyed it. Instead, he fought to keep his head and arms out of the warm crevice of flesh constricting him. Breathing was difficult, but not impossible. What worried him was the slow slipping motion that threatened to drag him deeper down. He pushed against the top of her breasts trying to stay up, but on the bouncy flesh he found it difficult to gain sufficient leverage.

Jessica wasn't sure why she decided that putting Harrison in her cleavage was an acceptable solution. Like many women her age, wearing dresses without pockets necessitated storing phones, lipstick tubes, or other knickknacks inside bras or cleavage. Watching him struggle between her breasts, which she'd always thought of as adequately sized but not big, made her grin in amusement. Currently, her bra and dress pushed her boobs up and together in such a way that even if he slipped all the way into her cleavage, it would be impossible for him to fall out the bottom. He probably hated her right now, but oh well. Actually, she realized, he was probably in heaven, living out some weird male fantasy. What guy wouldn't want to be surrounded by giant breasts? What a perv, she thought with another amused smile.

Quickly forgetting him, Jessica continued hunting down the remaining survivors on the ground. She'd already decimated the rest of the armored cars and troop trucks. Strolling around the ruin of Dos Palos, each time she saw movement she stomped down on it. Now that the white snow was gone and replaced with a messy slough, it was harder to see the men down below her. Kicking down trees and rampaging through the nearby forest had also proved destructive but inconclusively lethal to her little attackers. Spending another five minutes or so searching for the little pests and catching a few final stragglers, Jessica was ready to declare the area safe.

Looking down at Harrison, she saw the top of his head and his hands barely peeking out between her breasts. It caused her to giggle, which only shook her boobs and made him slip deeper down between them. Finally, she reached down and pulled him out, placing him on her hand. Flush all over and breathing heavily, Harrison looked beat but alive.

“Jessica what the hell?!” he yelled up at her. She was having none of it.

“Shut up, you loved it,” she told him playfully. “And now everyone's gone.”

Harrison labored to catch up on his breathing. He coughed a bit and realized his tuxedo had been completely soaked through with his sweat. Or her sweat. Now, sitting in her palm, he realized how cold it was outside.

“Can you shrink down now?” he asked her. As much as he wanted to scold her for what she'd done, he decided it would be better to just let it go.

Jessica paused, then looked at Harrison like she was about to ask him a huge favor. Uh oh, he thought.

“I think I can shrink myself whenever I'm ready?... But, um, this is going to sound really dumb,” she admitted, “but I really have to pee right now.” She'd been holding her bladder for a while and now needed to go, and looking at what remained of the house, she was going to have to pop a squat no matter what size she was. Her admission surprised Harrison.

“Alright, I'm just gonna go real quick behind the house,” she told him, “but I need both of my hands.”

“You can't be serious!” Harrison shouted out as her fingers picked him up again. Before he knew it, he was back in her cleavage. Trying to yell at her, he kept slipping down which distracted him from berating her further.

Jessica gingerly stepped over the ruined mansion. She pulled up her dress, moved her panties to the side, and after a moment of relaxation, finally relieved herself, making sure her feet were planted out of the way. The sensation of Harrison feverishly struggling in her boobs only annoyed her as she focused on the euphoria of releasing her bladder.

Once done, she readjusted her underwear and dress and plucked Harrison out of her cleavage again. Not listening to him, she stepped back over to the front side of the house and placed him on the ground, trying to be careful but ultimately dropping him into the mud. Concentrating on her body, she focused on bringing herself back to her original size. After a short time of trying, her body rocketed back towards the ground.

Finding it difficult to stand on the churned-up ground in her heels, Jessica fell back onto her butt. “You ok?” Harrison asked, trotting over to her. His white tux was muddy, scuffed, and ruined. The black carnation he'd once worn was long gone.

“Yeah I'm fine,” Jessica said. Harrison reached his hand out and she took it, and he pulled her up. “Lemme just get these off,” she said, bending over to slip off her high heels. It crossed Harrison's mind that those shoes had snuffed out hundreds of digital lives. Soon Jessica's bare feet stood in the mud, her heels dangling from her right hand.

“Where are the others?” she asked him as they stood together. The scene was eerily quiet, though the gentle sound of burning vehicle fires crackled in the silence. The stillness of the night gripped the wrecked mountain top.

“They're gone,” Harrison said. He explained to her what had happened in the basement, how they'd found the mysterious door. “I didn't think it was right to just abandon you in VERSA, so I stayed.” Jessica looked at him warmly.

“Thanks,” she finally said.

“I don't know how to get out of here though or where to go next,” he admitted with a shrug. “I'm pretty sure the door we used to enter this world is long gone now.” The destroyed landscape around him proved his point. “And I don't think we can get into the basement of the house anymore to follow the others.” As if on cue, another section of the house collapsed behind them.

“Harrison,” Jessica said, stepping closer to him, her bare feet sloshing in the mud. “I really appreciate you sticking around for me.”

Trying to deflect her warmheartedness, Harrison countered by admitting, “No, thank you for saving all of us. What happened to you tonight?” He stared at Jessica, slightly fearful but devoured by curiosity. Jessica looked back at him stoically, trying to pick her words.

Harrison continued, “It was her, wasn't it? Did you see her?”

“The woman?”

“Yeah.”

Jessica gave him a knowing look.

“Did you talk to her?” he asked, concerned.

“I did,” Jessica admitted, feeling relieved. “She saved me actually. Upstairs this guy was attacking me, I think he was going to rape me, and she appeared and shrunk him down.” Harrison looked at her in concern. A nearby fire danced yellow light across her face. Jessica continued: “She told me she'd give me powers to defend myself in the future, but I'd have to do something for her in return. Something you promised her too.”

Now it was Jessica's turn to look at Harrison quizzically. She immediately noticed shame in his expression, but it soon yielded to apprehension.

“Yeah, I did promise her something, but only because she gave me no choice,” he finally said. He looked away from her into the abyss of the night.

“What deal did you make with her?” Jessica asked him.

“Well, when my ex brought me to her, after telling me about herself she started grilling me on what the world was like beyond VERSA. Our world. The real world. I figured she was going to kill me but she offered me my life if I helped her get out.”

“Get out of what?”

“Get out of VERSA,” he said, turning back to Jessica and looking her straight in the eye. “She wants to de-sim like us and see what's beyond VERSA.”

“But that's impossible!” Jessica said, incredulous. She suppressed a chuckle.

“I know,” Harrison replied seriously. “You see our problem now?”

Jessica's amusement vanished as she grasped the gravity of the situation. “Fuck,” was all she could say. She started thinking about it.

“Yeah, I don't think she's going to let us de-sim either until we give her what she wants,” Harrison speculated. “And when she finds out we're just bluffing, she'll probably kill us. God I hope that de-sims us, but I think she somehow controls now whether you live or die for real in VERSA. I think that's what happened to Kevin.”

“What about Kat and Rich?” Jessica asked him. “You think they'll be able to get out?”

“Sure hope so,” Harrison admitted. “Kat said if she got out she'd manually de-sim us both from the control room. That should still be a safe way of leaving. So let's hope for that.”

“I still don't understand how they found a door in the basement that led directly into a different world, without going through the side space. Don't you think that's weird?” she said to Harrison. “I've never seen a door like that before.”

And then it kicked Harrison in the gut. He'd seen a gray door before that led directly to a different world. It had led him into a windowless concrete room. And it had been deliberately created by the woman in black. Fuck.