Chapter 1 - Familiar Faces

There were any number of ways to wake up. Most people had a few groggy moments of sleepy confusion as they were dragged into wakefulness by alarms or ‘helpful’ family. Some woke in comfortable beds, cradled by down and feathers and soft fabric, while others woke up to rain-slicked cobbles and the stench of piss and stale beer. Some even swam back to consciousness only to find dirt and blood, with the screams of men and dying horses ringing in the air. But while those were all bad in their own way, Avallac’h was suffering through something truly special. He felt thin as he slowly forced his eyes awake, surfacing through a sea of sickly uncertainty. His body burned with fever and trembled with weakness as he tried to blink his eyes clear, hands unwilling or unable to reach up and simply wipe the sleep from his eyes. No matter how hard he strained, his muscles refused to do more than tremble helplessly, leaden weights that lay on either side of him.


Thin was a good word for it, he decided as he stared up at the ceiling. Like too little had been spread too far, stretched and rationed and stretched some more until there was nothing left. He couldn’t even feel his magic, the faint thrum of power that had always lived inside of him absent, leaving an emptiness in his chest that he had never imagined before. He tried once more to at least wipe his eyes, but the effort was too much, and darkness rolled in like a tide, carrying him away. 


Avallac’h had been a sage in his own sphere, a man of power who moved in a world of comfort. His needs and whims were taken care of and catered to by his servants, and even as he had worked to help Ciri, he had kept a certain standard of comfort, never quite stooping as low as a human might in similar circumstances. It was easy, for a man with his power and prestige, to remain comfortable even in another sphere. But when he awoke for the second time, he truly understood how far he had fallen. The sheets that lay across his body were thin and scratchy, the bed little more than a finger thin mat of some slightly spongy material that let him feel the iron beams and braces of the bed frame beneath. The pillow under his head was as lumpy as bad dough, and the air reeked of sweat and damp and something chemical that cut at his nose. 


His lips, though, were no longer parched. He was being given water, and from the fact that he felt stronger now than he had, he suspected he was somehow being fed as well. While his limbs were still weak, they were far stronger than they had been, moving slowly and feebly as he marshaled his strength, forcing himself upright, leaning back against his pillow and the wall behind him. He almost wished he hadn’t bothered, for the room he found himself was beyond appalling. It was dark and dimly lit, the majority of light spilling in from the window, jarring and ugly light that was the harsh blue-white of lightning, the sickly pink of some sunsets as well as the creeping crimson of blood. It flashed and flickered and mingled in a deluge that left the elf disgusted and his vision struggling to make use of the uncertain light. 


What he could see of the room left his lips pulling back into a sneer. The walls were plaster of some kind, cheap and off-white and darkened with damp. The floors were hidden beneath a rug that was a mix of beige and grey and covered in unknowable stains. There was a table, against one wall with a pair of battered plastic chairs pushed up to it. The room had only a single window that let in the putrid light, though perhaps that was a blessing as the regularly flickering left him feeling nauseous. There were a few other odd bits of furniture he didn’t recognize, some kind of wardrobe next to a long counter, and a few small boxes of uncertain function. But every single item was battered, scarred, and made tawdry by the flashing light. 


“Unacceptable,” he mumbled, swaying slightly as he tried to shake his head, the simple motion leaving him dizzy. This was what you got for trying to help a jumped-up ape, humans always liked to try and drag you down to their level.


A wet, ugly sound dragged at his attention, pulling his gaze away from the window and toward a portion of the dimly lit room near the foot of his bed. Two figures were standing there - no, one was standing and the other was kneeling. The one who stood was a huge, bulky human that had to be well over six feet and nearly as wide at the shoulders. Muscles slid beneath coal dark skin and bulged out the shirt that clung tight to his muscular frame. Metal seemed to gleam in the uncertain light, the man was wearing some kind of armor on his arms. Except… except the proportions were all wrong, it wasn’t bulky enough to be armor, and it almost looked like the metal was part of him, partially buried in his skin.


He at least recognized the woman, her pale skin standing out in the gloom like a beacon. Ciri knelt before the man, looking remarkably small beneath his bulk. She’d always seemed like a strong woman - at least, strong for a human - with such a vibrant presence that she’d always seemed bigger than she was. She filled a room just by entering it, the force of her personality and strength projecting out to make herself the biggest and most commanding presence. But at the moment, she seemed small and defeated, practically cowering at the feet of this hulking giant of a man. 


“I don’t give a shit about your sob story,” the man was saying, his voice a rumbling growl that left no room for discussion. “Everybody has one, and none of them put eddies in my account. I told you the deal when you moved in here, you either pay with money or you pay with your ass. I’ve let you stay here for two fucking days, and I haven’t seen a single damn bill come my way.”


“Look, I-I just need a little more time,” Ciri began, her voice shaking in a way Avallac’h had never heard before. She’d faced down monsters and worse, and yet she seemed cowed, defeated.


“Time to do what? You haven't left your apartment since I let you move in. Hell, you only have food because I *brought* it to you. Well, no more free ride. Either pay up right now, or I’ll have my boys come and rough you up a bit before they throw you out.”


“I… I don’t…”


“Tick tock, bitch. I don’t have all day to sit and play with you. Three…. Two…. one…”


“Okay! … okay,” Ciri said, her voice meek and scared. And then her shaking hand reached up and slowly undid the front of the mans’ pants as her face twisted up in disgust. 


Avallac’h watched, through eyes blurred by sleep and fatigue, as what had to be well over a foot of charcoal meat popped free and slapped down onto Ciri’s delicate features. It was thicker than her wrist, and covered half of her face as it lay heavy on her skin, as black as her skin was pale. 


“Knew you’d do it,” the man said smugly as he ground his cock against her face. “All you white cunts are good for is taking black dick. That’s why you came to this part of town, isn’t it? Couldn’t get your fix anywhere else.”


“I just… I needed a place that was cheap,” Ciri mumbled, to the man’s obvious displeasure. His hand swung out, slapping against her cheek and jerking her head to the side, the force leaving an ugly red mark and dragging a cry of shock and pain from her. 


“Don’t lie to me. You brought your pretty little white ass down here because you wanted the biggest, blackest and most augmented dick you could find, didn’t you?”


“Y-yes.” The words came out of her lips reluctantly, but it seemed to be exactly what the man wanted to hear, because he smiled broadly and his cock lurched, twitching heavily and drumming against her face. 


“Good thing you did, anywhere else in town and they’d have thrown you out for being such a pathetic whore. But don’t worry, ol’ Bryce will give you a place to crash long as you keep playing ball. Now get to it.”


He kept smiling as Ciri whimpered submissively and started to work at his shaft, kissing and licking her way up his length as she had for the few little dalliances she’d had back in her home sphere. There hadn’t been nearly as much cock to cover with those men as there was with her landlord, but they’d seemed to enjoy it well enough, and before long she was at his tip, her soft lips brushing across his sensitive head as he waited for her to take him into her mouth.


And he waited….


And waited...


“Seriously, bitch? That’s the best you can manage?” he asked, sounding genuinely disgusted as Ciri licked timidly at the crown of his cock, her little pink tongue curling, and gliding around the broad curve of his helmet. She was making no move to start sucking him properly, and annoyance was writ large across his face. “You ever even fucking sucked dick before? Or you just relied on being an unaugmented little snowbunny to get a guy off?” 


Ciri didn’t answer him, she was too busy trying to keep from gagging at the taste of his cock. A thick, meaty flavor that washed over her tongue and stung her tastebuds, mingled in with salt and acrid sweat that made her cringe. It was awful, every lick was like dragging her tongue over hot coals, and it was only from sheer force of will that she wasn’t recoiling to spit and try to rid herself of the taste. He could at least appreciate the effort it was taking not to try and rid herself of the foul flavor. But he grabbed her by the hair, wrapping her ponytail around his fist as he squared his hips, and it was obvious he wasn’t appreciative at all. A sharp yank of her hair made her scalp burn, and Ciri found herself being repositioned at the end of his cock, the tip laying on her bottom lip as he hooked a thumb in her mouth, forcing her jaw wide open. 


“This is how you fucking suck a dick,” he told her, and then rammed his hips forward. His cock surged into her maw, jaw clicking as he forced her to open her mouth painfully wide. The spongy head slammed against the back of her throat, smearing thick pre across her tonsils as she gagged violently, nearly throwing up from the sudden, brutal thrust. But the man didn’t let up, bouncing her head backward as he humped at her face, only to drag her back by the hair, face fucking her with what wasn’t even half of his length. Pinning her tongue to the floor of her mouth as he used her tongue like a doormat, wiping his taste off onto her tastebuds as she sputtered and squealed and tried to pull away. 


“Damn, when somebody else is pulling your leash you really are a natural,” he laughed, sounding genuinely pleased as Ciri’s eyes watered and her whole body shook as she gagged again, shoulders jerking. “Fuck that’s good. Warm and natural… you can just fucking tell when it’s real, ya know? Can’t fake anything as good as the real thing, no matter how many mods you put in.” 


He yanked her up and down his cock, jerking himself off with her lips as he groaned in contentment, ignoring the way she was trying to strain against him and fight the motion. And he could easily ignore that struggle because his bicep was as thick around as her thigh, and there wasn’t enough strength in her body to fight him off as he bobbed her up and down his shaft. A particularly hard thrust managed to wedge the tip of his cock down into her throat, letting it drool sloppy pre right into her gullet as she gurgled around it, struggling to breathe.


“First natural throat I’ve ever had, and it’s every bit as good as people say,” he continued, popping his cock out of her throat and returning to working her along the sloppy, dripping length of his cock with lazy motions of his wrist. “But I have to admit, I like being balls deep in a girl, just doesn’t feel right only getting the first third of my dick wet…”


Ciri’s eyes went wide, and she made frantic noises as she tried to shake her head, tried to tell him no. She could see where his thoughts were going, and with her throat bulging out already she had no intention of following them to the conclusion. But every shout she tried to make only massaged his cock, throat working around his shaft as the hum of her voice vibrated against him, tickling his length and tempting him further. She saw the smile on his face, felt the muscles in his arms tightening. 


“Be a good bitch now, and maybe I’ll throw in some dinner,” he told her. And without waiting for a response, he slammed her down. His cock crushed past the back of her throat and down into her esophagus. It hurt, burning stretching pain that left Ciri breathless with tears running down her cheeks. She was a proud Witcher, used to combat and physical feats, but she’d never been forced to do something like this before, and she’d never felt pain like it. It was deep and intense, and it paired with a horrifying sort of damp, creeping pleasure that left her confused and disgusted.


Confused enough that she couldn’t fight back, anyway, her pussy aching and clenching as her landlord drove his cock deeper and deeper into her throat, one hand in her hair and the other gripping her neck. He felt himself shoving deeper, her neck bulging out under his hand as his cock dug itself further and further into her soft, yielding body. Her landlord was almost as much metal as he was flesh, and it had been a long time since something completely natural had been wrapped around him like this. Ciri’s throat was as snug as a second skin, and so velvet soft he would have cum already if he wasn’t dialing the sensation way back so he could drag this out. 


When her lips finally kissed his pelvis he let out a long, rumbling groan and held Ciri tightly there, luxuriating in the stupid snowbunny’s soft throat. Soaking in the heat and the wet tightness as he felt her muscles spasm and clench around him, trying to force the intrusion out and failing to do anything other than giving him more pleasure. Ciri, for her part, looked horrified as tears ran down her cheeks, shame bubbling in her mind as her hands clenched at her side, aching to dip down between her thighs and do something about the heat that was beginning to pulse there. 


Avallac’h watched the display and wondered if he should try to help her.


But trying to help Ciri was what had gotten him here. Not that he’d acted out of any altruism, of course, who gave half a damn about the fate of a human? But her power was simply too great to be allowed into Eredin’s hands, and so he’d appeared and offered her his help. With her raw power, and his great knowledge as a sage, they’d opened another portal, one that led far away - at least, as such things were measured in the space between spheres - to a place different and far gone from their own, and the portal had ripped them away through the empty darkness. A portal trip usually took less than a heartbeat, but this time it had stretched for nearly a full minute as the magic had pulled them through the dark. It had left them both drained, their magic exhausted beyond anything Avallac’h had felt in his entire life. When he called to it, there was nothing there but emptiness and the faintest, weakest flicker. 


And the effort had left them both here, on the hard ground with the ugly light stabbing down at them. There had been shouts and a great, metallic noise, and his body had simply given out, too exhausted to do more than let him stagger a few feet before collapsing. Ciri must have brought him here, carried him to safety, and hidden him away in case Eredin managed to follow them. Well, safety for him, anyway, Ciri didn’t seem to be all that safe. 


Even as Avallac’h watched the human mating ritual, the hulking man snarled and laid a slap across Ciri’s breast that left the pale skin red. The elf couldn't help but make a noise of disgust, shaking his head as he watched the shameful display. It wasn’t that he felt particularly bad for Ciri, he wouldn’t have been here, weak and injured in whatever nasty sphere this was if it wasn’t for her. It was more of a generalized disgust for humans and how they acted, he couldn’t even begin to imagine an elf treating another elf in such a way. Even in what should have been an intimate and delicate moment, humans were little better than brutes. The noise seemed to draw attention, though Avallac’h had no idea how the dark-skinned man heard the soft sound over the racket Ciri was making. 


“Lookit that, your friend is awake,” the man growled, jerking his head toward Avallac’h. The elf felt a slight stirring of fear in his chest that he swiftly crushed down. He was not Ciri, he was not afraid of some mere human and even on his deathbed, he would not flinch because some ape looked at him with those ugly, murderous eyes. Even without magic, even weakened and exhausted, Avallac’h simply could not bring himself to believe he might meet his end in such a pathetic and unseemly way. Killed by a human - how could he ever face his ancestors?


“I am,” the elf managed, voice quiet and rasping. “I do not suppose there’s any food, Ciri?”


The young Witcher gurgled something, but the man seemed to have no interest in letting her come up for air, much less in letting her speak. So, instead, she had to point with a shaking hand as her head was worked up and down the last inch of the man’s shaft. Turning, Avallac’h found a glass of water and a few shiny, foil-wrapped bars on a cardboard box next to the bed. He reached out for them, struggling to lift the water with his weak limbs. It tasted of metal and chemicals, and he had to force himself to drink it instead of spitting it out.


“Help yourself to as many as you want, your friend is paying for them right now,” Bryce said. He was working his hips in a circle as he spoke, stirring his cock around in Ciri’s throat, the head pressing hard against her throat, bulging it even further for a moment as the man enjoyed the way her throat spasmed around his cock. For a moment the man’s hunched stance reminded Avallac’h of a scavenger over a stolen kill, ready to fight to protect what he had rightfully taken.  Ah, of course, the matter of superiority. Humans did so like to enforce their dominance on others, just like the apes they were. He was probably lucky the man didn’t start beating his chest, the elf thought dryly.


“But listen, ears, I don’t care that she’s letting you live here. I don’t even care if you watch. But this is how she’s paying rent, and I don’t want to hear a peep out of you about it, got it? You got a problem with how things work around here, and I’ll toss your broken ass out onto the curb.”


There it was. Avallac’h sighed inwardly at the utter predictability of humanity, so desperate to seem tough and in control. Still, the man managed to have more manners than many he’d met in Ciri’s own sphere.


“I have no problem at all,” he replied levelly. “She worked this agreement out with you, and she can uphold it. You will not hear me complaining about it.”


“So she ain’t yours?”


Avallac’h didn’t even try to hide the expression of disgust that blossomed on his face at the thought. Being attached to a human? Romantically? The man might as well have asked if Avallac’h fucked horses in his free time, it was equally as disgusting. His king, Auberon Muircetach, who had been dead set on reclaiming what had been stolen from the Aen Elle had needed what had turned out to be a lethal dose of aphrodisiac to overcome his disgust at the idea of mating with a human.


“I think I would rather have my genitals removed,” Avallac’h replied honestly, trying not to cringe at the thought. It was just… ugh. Even if he hadn’t seen her covered in spit and stained with pre he wouldn’t have been able to muster the slightest interest in her, but after seeing her manhandled and brutalized, and knowing he would be sharing her with such an animal? He almost lost what little food he had in his stomach.


“Glad to hear. It doesn’t really matter if she’s spoken for or whatever, but I like to know if I’m going to have to deal with an angry boyfriend or something. It can be a real pain in the ass when some idiot doesn’t know how to chill and just let his girl pay the rent.”


“Oh, no. She’s a friend, I suppose you could say, but since you’re not interested in killing her - you do plan on letting her up to breath at some point, I hope?” Avallac’h arched an eyebrow. It didn’t seem like the man wanted to permanently hurt her, no matter how carried away he might get, but it was prudent to make sure. The elf rather enjoyed watching her discomfort, she deserved it after putting him in this bed, but she was his ticket home and he needed her alive.


“At some point.”


“Excellent. As long as you are not interested in killing her, I do not begrudge you taking your price from her body. And she is a lot more pleasant when you can not hear her whining, I have to admit,” Avallac’h laughed.


The two men spoke as if Ciri wasn’t even in the room, paying her no more attention than they would have paid to a piece of furniture or a piece of art on the wall. She wasn’t important to their conversation, even if they were talking about her, so while the landlord continued to hollow out her throat, neither man so much as glanced at the suffering Witcher as they casually talked above her head. 


“Glad to hear. Now, it’s been nice talking to you, but you don’t mind if I get back to business, right?”


“Not at all. From the sound of it, we’re only here because of your generosity, so I would not dream of keeping you from it.”


“Ha! You should listen to your friend, he’s a hell of a lot smarter than you,” the man laughed as Ciri glared daggers at her companion. But Avallac’h ignored her, focusing instead on trying to open the little package of food with hands that shook and fingers that could barely grip. 


“Course, it’s easy to be smarter than some white bitch with black dick where her brain should be,” the landlord growled, his voice shifting back down into the tones Ciri was far more familiar with. The pleasantries over, his mind was back on the only thing that mattered at the moment - wrecking her throat. 


The wet noises of it filled the room, Ciri’s gurgling sobs mingling with the slap of wet flesh on wet flesh, the heavy *plap* of Bryce’s balls hitting her chin, and the drip and drop of thick wads of foamy churned up spit that pattered to the floor. It was enough to put a man off his appetite - or, would have been, if Avallac’h wasn’t so drained and ravenous. As it was, he managed to keep his stomach in check as he finally tore the little bar open and delicately took a bite of the food inside. It was… chewy and crispy and soggy all at once, some kind of mash that had been glued together into a single bit of something indescribable. He chewed for a few minutes, as disgusted as Ciri was. 


“I have trouble believing this is the best food you could get,” Avallac’h said as he grudgingly swallowed down the lumpy bar of unidentifiable mash. “Is this even food? It tastes like nothing but salt and sugar, and… is that woodpulp?”


“Mmmghg!” Ciri’s voice was a furious, muffled moan as the landlord continued to hammer at her face, slamming her head back into the wall with dry, crunching thuds. Spit bubbled up from her lips and drooled down her face as the cheap plaster behind her head cracked and crumbled under the brutal, hammerblow assault of her landlord’s oversized black cock. He was complaining about the taste? She hadn’t eaten for two days and was currently being treated like a Novigrad whore, and he was complaining about the taste of the food? It would almost have been funny if it wasn’t for the tears that stained her cheeks as the taste of meat and salt was ground into her tongue again and again. 


“Yeah, she’s keeping the good shit for herself,” Bryce laughed, answering for her as he kept his hips moving. There was no mercy in his motions, each thrust of his hips putting the full force of his strong body and potent cyberware behind it like he wanted to fuck her all the way through the wall. Or maybe just rattle her brain around enough that he could claim to have actually fucked her stupid. “And I doubt she’s gonna share - I don’t feed every pretty face that comes walking through my door.”


“For which I am grateful,” Avallac’h replied dryly, making the man laugh again.


“Glad we’re on the same wavelength, ears, you’re just not my type. Now this bitch on the other hand…”


His hands clasped Ciri’s skull like it was a ball, fingers wrapped casually around the whole of her head as he dragged her away from the wall, no longer content with just fucking her throat and wanting more from her. What more he could take from an unaugmented white slut he wasn’t sure, but his body was practically trembling with pent-up lust and aggression, and he just needed to do *something*. 


“Thank me for dinner, bitch. Most landlords ain’t nice enough to provide food along with the room.” 


Ciri gurgled something, and the man hauled his hips back, ripping them from her mouth in a spray of spit, leaving her coughing and gasping for air as she clung at his thigh for support as her body jerked and spasmed. When she’d finally caught her breath and managed to look up at her landlord's face, he simply spat down on her, a thick glob of gooey, foamy spit splattering across her cheek, clinging to the curve of her lovely features - at least until he slapped his cock down in it, splashing it around as he beat her face with his meat. The ugly, flat sound of the cockbeating echoed through the empty apartment, the uncivilized display turning Avallac’h’s stomach. And to think, brutes like this had managed to enslave his kind in Ciri’s sphere… it was almost unbelievable. 


“I said fucking thank me for feeding your dumb ass dinner,” he growled, punctuating each word with a slap of his dick that left a red mark on the woman's pale features. He beat her with it like it was a club, spit and throat slop smeared all over her pretty face as he grabbed her hair and ground himself down into her face, making her taste and smell every spit-shined inch of that black monster.


“Tha-nnngh. I-I said th-mmmph!” 


Every time Ciri tried to obey, the man would fuck with her. Heavy balls would smush against her lips, smothering her voice in hot, churning weight. Or the tip of his cock would dip into her mouth, pinning down her tongue as he bulged out one of her cheeks. 


“This is the thanks I get?” the man demanded, his voice thick with amused anger. “I bend over backward to help out you and your boyfriend-”


“Not her boyfriend, thank you.”


“And you can’t even be bothered to thank me?”


“I'm trying!” Ciri practically wailed before she was slapped across the temple so hard she saw stars. She would have slumped to the floor if her landlord's dark fingers weren’t tangled in her hair, holding her upright as her scalp burned.


“Then try harder.”


“Thankyouforgivingmedinner,” the battered and defeated Witcher babbled, barely managing to get the words out before cock was once more shoved into her throat. Bryce let out a sigh, obviously miffed she’d managed to follow his orders, but he wasn’t going to let it bother him much. He could feel a heavy load brewing in his balls, and this was just the first visit of many he was planning on making. He’d let her have this little win, as long as she needed a place to crash, he’d be winning in the long run.


“Then eat up,” he grunted, tightening his grip and grinding her lips against his pelvis, making her kiss the base of his cock as the monstrous slab of meat twitched so hard the bulge in her neck visibly moved. 


And then he was cumming, dumping what felt like a pint of hot, sticky cum right down Ciri’s unaugmented throat. The poor girl’s eyes went big as she felt the first blast pour right into her stomach, a wave of sickly warmth settling heavily in her guts and making her stomach ache. More kept coming too, and while Ciri never could have swallowed it fast enough, her landlord wasn’t giving her a chance to waste a drop. He kept his cock buried deep enough that every thick wash of fuckmuck was deposited directly into her stomach, feeding her more than a meal’s worth of creamy, augmented cum. Balls that were as much cyberware as flesh worked overtime until the white slut’s stomach was visibly bulging, and cum was backing up to pour from her stretched lips and even dribbling from her nostrils. Ciri’s face had gone red, her hands beating at his thighs as her landlord laughed, watching her practically drown under the flood of cum. 


“I thought you were hungry,” he mocked, enjoying the sight of her eyelids fluttering and starting to roll up in her head. Only then did he yank his cock out, hand stroking his still twitching shaft to milk the last few ropes of jizz out onto her face as she coughed and gagged, hacking up thick wads of cum all over herself.


“The rent is a thousand eddies a day,” he said as he took a lock of hair to wipe his dick off, scrubbing the thick smear of cum and spit from his shaft as Ciri retched, cum pouring down her chin and splattering thickly onto her thighs and all over the slope of her breasts. He turned to Avallac’h when it was clear she wasn’t listening. 


“You got that at least, ears? Thousand a day, and meals aren’t included for you. She can eat for free whenever she wants.” 


“I will let her know,” Avallac’h said dryly as Ciri fell forward onto her hands and knees, still struggling to breathe through the thick cum that clogged her throat, gasping and panting desperately as both men ignored her. 


“Good. If she can’t come up with the money, me and my boys are going to take what we’re owed out of her ass, and they aren’t as polite and well mannered as I am.” 


“I am sure she will come up with the money somehow,” Avallac’h said reassuringly, with the calm certainty of a man who knew that was someone else’s problem. “And if not… well, I’m sure you’ll all have fun.”


The big man barked a laugh, teeth shining in the dim room as he grinned broadly. “I know we will, it’s hard to not have fun with a bitch like that. Feel better soon, ears.”


“Thank you for the kind wishes.”


The landlord reached out and ruffled Ciri’s hair playfully before giving it a yank, forcing her to look up at him as he smiled, as though her fate had already been decided. “Me and the boys will be by tomorrow night,” he told her before letting go of her hair and letting himself out, the door clicking shut behind him. 


