text: > Look around
  During the day, the hallway's cool shadows provide relief from the California sun. But at night, it's simply dark, because the scattered wall sconces aren't close enough or bright enough to provide decent illumination.
  
  Yesenia's flowered suitcase is parked beside her apartment door.
  
  Yesenia is standing in front of her own front door. It's open.
  
  > look in the window
  The apartment windows are too far away for that.
  
  > look at the suitcase
  It's a large blue suitcase patterned with pink and white flowers. It's new, durable, and easy to spot at the airport.
  
  > examine the door
  Someone has propped open the front door with a triangular rock.
  
  Yesenia feels a familiar flare of annoyance, but it's a relief this one time, since her keys are in her purse and her purse is at the restaurant.
  
  > look at the rock
  Someone has propped open the front door with a triangular rock. A few scratch marks show it's not the first time.
  
  > open the mailbox
  The mailbox is locked. Yesenia will have to unlock it first.
  
  > examine the sun
  Yesenia gazes for a moment into the setting sun. It doesn't hurt her eyes. It never has.
  
  > look in the mailbox
  In her mailbox are some crumpled letters.
  
  > take the letters
  Yesenia pulls the mail out of her mailbox. Among the advertisements and junk mail (promptly discarded into a convenient recycling bin), she discovers three white envelopes.
  
  > open first
  According to the postmark, this envelope was mailed from Santa Barbara three days ago.
  
  Yesenia rips open the first envelope, revealing a letter.
  
  > open second
  According to the postmark, this envelope was mailed from Santa Barbara two days ago.
  
  Yesenia rips open the second envelope, revealing a letter.
  
  > read second
  (the second letter)
  Yesenia unfolds the second letter.
  
  It's typed in simple serif letters.
  
  I'm trying to help you. You don't have to hide from me.
  
  > open third
  According to the postmark, this envelope was mailed from Santa Barbara one day ago.
  
  Yesenia rips open the third envelope, revealing a letter.
  
  > read third
  (the third letter)
  As Yesenia unfolds the letter, a playing card falls to the ground.
  
  At the sight of it, Yesenia's stomach clenches, and goose bumps prickle across her shoulders.
  
  It's typed in simple serif letters.
  
  Call me, or I'm coming to see you.
  
  > take the card
  Yesenia picks up the playing card.
  
  > examine it
  It's a standard playing card: paper coated with plastic, with a blue design on the back.
  
  Yesenia turns it over. As she expected, it's the Jack of Spades - which means the Jack of Shadows.
  
  Chris, she thinks, and glances around apprehensively. Is
  Chris already here? She always drives, because she hates the bus.... ....
  
  > look at the lot
  Yesenia scans the parking lot again, taking her time. She doesn't know what Chris is driving these days, but she knows it'll be a cut above the norm.
  
  And it is - a sleek, matte black car with a T-shaped logo on its nose, sitting three cars down and barely a centimeter off the walkway. The large black crystals hanging off the rearview mirror seal her suspicions.
  
  > look at the crystals
  The sun's failing light glimmers through the large black crystals.
  
  > Focus crystals
  Yesenia considers the black crystals. The sun is touching them, and she's in the sunlight, but... what could she do with them, except damage the car? There are easier ways to damage the car.
  
  > focus on the car
  (the sleek black car)
  While Yesenia could focus on the sleek black car, that would be... indiscreet. And she strives for discretion these days.
  
  > Unlock car
  (the sleek black car)
  Even if Yesenia could get inside (and she's not sure she can), what could she do with it? Hotwiring was never her specialty, and she's getting an unsettling high-tech vibe off the car that suggests hotwiring wouldn't be enough.
  
  > take the crystals
  The crystals are hanging from the rearview mirror, and the rearview mirror is inside the car.
  
  > look in the car
  (the sleek black car)
  Yesenia can't see inside, since the sleek black car is closed.
  
  > look under the car
  (the sleek black car)
  Yesenia finds nothing of interest.
  
  > open the car with the card
  (the sleek black car with the playing card)
  That doesn't seem to fit the lock.
  
  > touch the sun
  It's a little far away for that.
  
  > read the crystals
  The sun's failing light glimmers through the large black crystals.
  
  > look through the crystals
  The crystals are hanging from the rearview mirror, and the rearview mirror is inside the car.
  
  > open the car
  (the sleek black car)
  It seems to be locked.
  
  > Unlock car
  (the sleek black car)
  Even if Yesenia could get inside (and she's not sure she can), what could she do with it? Hotwiring was never her specialty, and she's getting an unsettling high-tech vibe off the car that suggests hotwiring wouldn't be enough.
  
  > examine the lot
  Yesenia stares grimly at the sleek black car. If anything, Chris loves her cars even more than Camilla does, and she certainly keeps them in better condition.
  
  > climb tree
  Not only would that be indiscreet, but it might damage the trees.
  
  > Rub card
  Yesenia rubs the playing card.
  
  > hit the car
  (the sleek black car)
  Yesenia takes a deep, centering breath and then slams her foot into the black car's front bumper. She's reserving her strength; after all, there's no need to punt it across the parking lot, and there would be awkward questions if she did.
  
  The car launches an strenuous protest, flashing its lights wildly, shrilling an alarm, and honking its horn - not polite little beeps, but bewildered, angry blares. If Chris is anywhere around, that should get her attention.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  There's a sudden clatter from the apartment building, and then Chris explodes from within.
  
  Chris is tall and well-coiffed, as always, but her brown eyes are wide with rage, and if she has a perfect manicure today, it's concealed by her clenched fists. "What the hell are you doing? What the
  hell are you doing to my car?"
  
  "Getting your attention," Yesenia says. "It seems to have worked."
  
  (To speak with Chris, TALK TO CHRIS.)
  
  > talk to Chris
  Yesenia says, "What are you doing here?"
  
  Chris says, "You don't belong here. I came to bring you back."
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > talk to Chris
  Yesenia says, "You're not welcome, Chris. It's time for you to go."
  
  Chris shakes her head. "Jack. Call me who I am, and remember who you are."
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > talk to Chris
  Yesenia says, "Sending creepy letters is not the way to open a conversation. Especially when I've been gone for a week."
  
  Chris says in a reasonable tone, "Well, I didn't know you were gone."
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > Keep going
  Yesenia says, "You need to leave. Now."
  
  Instead of answering, Chris glances west to the setting sun. It's so familiar a gesture that it makes Yesenia's heart ache, and for a second she even forgets what it means. But Chris is the Jack of Shadows....
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > continue
  Yesenia says, "I gave enough of my life away. I'm done."
  
  Chris says, "You can't ever be done. That's what it means, to be what we are."
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > Keep going
  Yesenia says, "The eastern seaboard got by for some two hundred years without me. It can do it again."
  
  Chris says, "Those were more innocent times. You can't turn your back on responsibility."
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > continue
  Yesenia says, "If you did something to Camilla, you will regret it. I mean that more than I have ever meant anything."
  
  Chris says, "So that's her name." She smiles faintly. "Pretty."
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  > Continue
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  The setting sun slips beneath the trees, and both women are immersed in the shadows stretching across the parking lot.
  
  Chris says, "I'm sorry it had to be this way," and she thrusts a hand toward Yesenia.
  
  Yesenia dodges down the walkway, but she's too slow. The air itself catches her in a vice grip, and she's dragged across the concrete to fall at Chris's feet.
  
  > Continue
  Yesenia opens her mouth to snarl defiance, but Chris tightens her invisible grip, and Yesenia's words abate into coughing and the struggle to breathe.
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  Chris turns to stare at the damage to her front bumper. "That really wasn't necessary," she says.
  
  > Continue
  Yesenia opens her mouth to snarl defiance, but Chris tightens her invisible grip, and Yesenia's words abate into coughing and the struggle to breathe.
  
  The sleek black car flashes its lights, honks its horn, and shrills for help.
  
  The sound of conversation drifts up the walk, and Chris spins to look. No one's in view yet, but someone's clearly coming.
  
  "We can't stay out here," she mutters, and the grip of air pulls Yesenia upright like a doll. "In we go."
  
  As an afterthought, Chris grabs Yesenia's suitcase on her way into the building.
  
  Tradewinds has always been Yesenia's refuge from the tourist-laden town. Yesenia likes how her neighbors don't trade rumors, or complain about odd noises, or speculate about Camilla's actual profession. But right now, a little more nosiness would be nice, because there's no one in the lobby and no one in the hallway.
  
  Yesenia seethes as Chris hauls her into the elevator, and she continues to seethe as Chris hauls her out again on the third floor.
  
  During the day, the hallway's cool shadows provide relief from the California sun. But at night, it's simply dark, because the scattered wall sconces aren't close enough or bright enough to provide decent illumination. It couldn't be a better environment for the Jack of Shadows if someone had planned it that way. Even by day, Chris's power would wax in a place like this, and Yesenia tastes despair at the thought.
  
  The door of Yesenia's apartment stands wide open. There's a folded note taped to it.
  
  Yesenia can also see Chris here.
  
  > wait
  Yesenia hangs limply in Chris's grip. There's nothing to do but wait.
  
  Chris drags Yesenia across the threshold of her own apartment.
  
  > take the mail
  (the crumpled letters)
  Yesenia pulls the mail out of her mailbox. Among the advertisements and junk mail (promptly discarded into a convenient recycling bin), she discovers three white envelopes.
  
  > examine the first envelope
  According to the postmark, this envelope was mailed from Santa Barbara three days ago.
  
  > examine the second envelope
  According to the postmark, this envelope was mailed from Santa Barbara two days ago.
  
  > read it
  According to the postmark, this envelope was mailed from Santa Barbara three days ago.
  
  In the first envelope is a first letter.
  
  > read the letter
  (the first letter)
  Yesenia unfolds the first letter.
  
  It's typed in simple serif letters.
  
  We need to talk. Call me -
  
  and a number that Yesenia doesn't recognize. There's a 305 area code, though, and that's the Miami area.
  
  > open the second envelope
  Yesenia rips open the second envelope, revealing a letter.
  
  > read the letter
  (the first letter)
  It's typed in simple serif letters.
  
  We need to talk. Call me -
  
  and a number that Yesenia doesn't recognize. There's a 305 area code, though, and that's the Miami area.
  
  > read the second letter
  (the second letter)
  Yesenia unfolds the second letter.
  
  It's typed in simple serif letters.
  
  I'm trying to help you. You don't have to hide from me.
  
  > open the third envelope
  Yesenia rips open the third envelope, revealing a letter.
  
  > read the third letter
  (the third letter)
  As Yesenia unfolds the letter, a playing card falls to the ground.
  
  At the sight of it, Yesenia's stomach clenches, and goose bumps prickle across her shoulders.
  
  It's typed in simple serif letters.
  
  Call me, or I'm coming to see you.
  
  > examine the cars
  Yesenia briefly scans the cars with an uninterested eye. She notes Camilla's battered white coupe parked two rows back.
  
  > examine the camilla's coupe
  Camilla's car is fairly new - a 2014 Subaru - but it looks like it's been through a minor war. It always puzzles Yesenia how Camilla can love driving so much, yet be so unwilling to go to the body shop.
  
  > hit Chris
  Yesenia steps into Chris and reaches out to throw the other woman. Chris dodges sideways.
  
  Chris says, "Can't we talk about this?"
  
  > focus on Chris
  Yesenia reaches her mind toward the sun. It's setting rapidly, but there's still enough light... and she seizes that light and focuses upon Chris. She doesn't want to hurt her - but she closes her power all around her. There's just enough vibration leaking through for Chris to know what's happening.
  
  Chris freezes immediately. "Think about what you're doing," she says in a tight voice.
  
  "I thought about it," Yesenia says. "And I want you to go away. And leave me alone. Now." She waits a few breaths longer, to make
  sure Chris gets the point, and then releases the power.
  
  Chris glares at her, but then she goes to the car. A door handle extrudes as Chris reaches for it, and she gets inside the car.
  
  Yesenia watches the sleek black car back up, and she watches it leave the parking lot, and she keeps watching until it vanishes down the road.
  
  > go inside
  The front door has been propped open with a rock, but there's no one in sight. Yesenia kicks it out of the way - why doesn't anyone understand security around here? - and swings her suitcase into the familiar darkness of her apartment building. Two flights of stairs later, she reaches the door to her apartment.
  
  Tradewinds Apartments - Hallway
  During the day, the hallway's cool shadows provide relief from the California sun. But at night, it's simply dark, because the scattered wall sconces aren't close enough or bright enough to provide decent illumination. It couldn't be a better environment for the Jack of Shadows if someone had planned it that way. Yesenia never realized that before, and she feels sick at the idea.
  
  The door of Yesenia's apartment stands wide open. There's a folded note taped to it.
  
  > Enter
  There's a muffled sound from within the apartment, and Yesenia calls Camilla's name as she crosses the threshold at speed.