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[powerof_water]

29 November 2013 | The Hotel/First Beach

After Adam makes it back from the Hunger Games arena with Issac a little worse for the wear, Bella takes him to her own home to let him destress.

All Ages

We are the greatest pretenders in the cold morning light

[weighted_reality]

By now, Arthur thinks he should know not to trust the doors. If one pulls at him behind the heart, it should be a signal to walk in the opposite direction and not return. It's a shame he was never good at resisting a locked door; maybe if he'd been better at it, he wouldn't be a dream criminal. He also wouldn't be richer than someone of his origins deserves to be.

But this particular door puts a bad feeling in his gut when he pushes down on the handle. The cold, fetid air that blows through is painfully familiar and soon Arthur is standing ankle deep in rapidly-graying Chicago snow, staring at boarded-up businesses that were his hometown mainstays when he was a kid. The people who walk by are almost as gray as the snow, looking a little more downtrodden than he remembers.

He knows if he turns left, he'll walk down to a small house that was his. He'll go back to parents who would hardly recognize him in his Armani suit and slicked back hair. He's not the Arthur they'd know.

If he goes right, he can take the L and go to his barely-used penthouse, to the place where he can be the Arthur he's become, but now it's all so uncertain.

So he stands just beyond the doorway, snow collecting on his hair and jacket.