"Well, that's antisocial. Can you open the door or should we make small talk till I shake off whatever's wrong with me?"

"I anticipate having no trouble opening the door. There remains the question of what we will find on the other side."

"Good question. I suppose we can park until I'm to my usual standard of dealing with questionable things beyond doors."

"Sounds like a plan. What is your usual standard?"

"Pretty good. Yours?"

"If the solution to our problem involves murder, I can accomplish it."

"...Okay. Well, I have not decided whether or not the guy who drugged me should be murdered, but it's nice to know that if he should this would present no obstacle."

He smiles slightly.

She decides not to ask if he's a vampire too, because the range of answers on that is not necessarily to her favor.

Mark stands still and stares meditatively out a painted-shut window.

"Anybody out there?"

"Neither visibly nor audibly if so. And I can see and hear quite a ways."

"Well, I suppose that's better than the alternative." She flexes her hands. Her grip strength's pathetic. Ugh.

"Mm. Yes. If you've met Miles, though, I expect he'll be along to rescue you sooner or later."

"I'm not sure why he'd notice I was missing to begin with."

"Wait and see."

"I mean, it's still Tuesday, right?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"Well, do you remember it having ceased to be Tuesday any more recently than last week."

"I have not learned the day of the week at any point since arriving on this planet."

"Oh. Oh well."

"I'm not sure we'll need him, mind you. But if we do, he will show up."

"I mean, if there's nobody out there waiting for us to emerge I'm not sure why we shouldn't just wait until I can move normally, exit, optionally cooperate on finding whose idea for a reality show 'dump people in a terrible house' was, and move on with our lives."

"There could be someone out there waiting for us to emerge who is inaudible and either invisible or outside my limited line of sight. Or they could have set up primitive monitoring equipment."

"Possible."