You stay. The tea is good. Nobody says anything for a while and it is, genuinely, comfortable.

Maya is still half undressed, and she has stopped caring, which is worse than caring.

Then Maya starts the sentence she started the first time.

MayaYou came! I knew you'd come.

And you have never met her.

Except you have. Except you know exactly what she is going to say next. Except the room is warm and the chair fits.

The loop is not a cage. It's the only place that has ever kept the light on.