Disclaimer: I so totally don't own the X-Men, but if I did, Marvel would probably make a lot more money...or would that be me that was making all the money? :)

A/N: I don't think I like the name for this chapter. So if anyone can come up with something better I'd love to hear it...or I can just leaved it un named, that might work too.

Ooh, when I started typing this it was September 19 which is National Talk Like a Pirate Day! So argh me mateys! There be some swashbuckling or someone be walking the plank! LoL yeah, my friend tried to have a whole conversation like that with me...I was laughing so hard I nearly cried.

Another Note: I tried to put Omega Red in here, and I was confused about something I may have read about him so if you think something I say is totally wrong, please send me the info stating otherwise, because I read in a bio that his metal tube thingys could suck life force out of people and I don't know how accurate that is.

Episodic: Always have to give a shout out to you. Be excited and very happy because HYDRA, Viper, Gauntlet, and Omega Red are finally coming back into my story!

Curliest Guru: Thanks for reading, I know I am such a pest, and I know you generally don't give a crap about the X-Men, but you can "blame" that on your mommy. Oh, and Angela is the one that "died" (dun dun dun!) in the last chapter. As you will quickly see, X23 is very much alive.

Anyone else who has reviewed: THANK YOU!!!!!! you couldn't hear it, but I was kind of singing that.: )

Whew! That is much too long, its sad that my first page is almost nothing but my silly drabble, but I don't do it often.

All right, finally, on to the chapter damn it!

Chapter Ten: Memory Lane

She slammed into the brick wall, her vision colored with bright vein looking bursts of red and orange. The warmth of her blood trickling down her face hindered her night vision, which was vital in the dark alleyway where she'd been blind-sided. Cold metal tubes wrapped themselves around her, squeezing, draining the life out of her. Cuts blossomed everywhere on her body, bruises beginning to flourish and spread like a disease beneath her skin. Everything inside her was going cold. She couldn't feel anything anymore. If she'd had enough breath, she'd probably have screamed. This is what it felt like to die. A cold empty nothing. She'd felt it before, and she didn't like it.

Just when she thought the pain might actually break her, she found herself falling to hit the ground with a squelching splatter of blood. She spat a gob of congealed and fresh blood onto the pavement. One arm curled against her chest, rendered useless, as she slowly tried to crawl away. She wanted to go to sleep. She wanted to curl up in a corner and cry. She wanted to be able to kick the crap out of this guy. She'd been mentally cursing herself since this fight began for being so stupid. She knew she wasn't going to be able to get away. She weakly tried to extend the claws in her hands. The metal slowly ripping its way through her already torn and shredded flesh inch by inch spreading fire through her entire body. She never saw the blow that would knock her unconscious.

"Rise and shine!" The voice sarcastically yelled in a singsong way, sending a splitting pain up her spine to throb right at the base of her skull. She knew whoever had spoken was not going to be someone she would be getting along with. "If you want your phone call, I suggest you get out of bed." X23 opened her eyes and was immediately blinded by the cheerful sunlight through a cheerful little cell window. Grateful that she'd been out cold so the likelihood of her claws being extended was slimmer than if she'd been dreaming. Now, the only mutant give away would be her miraculous recovery depending on when she got here. Just to be sure though, "How long have I been in here?" The warden or so X23 was assuming, a stocky shapeless blob of a woman swinging keys on a chain in front of her cell bars gave a cold little smile.

"Since about two yesterday morning. Mighty fine recovery time you had." Shit. Slowly hauling herself to her feet, she stumbled her way to the bars. Her hair was matted with dried blood so that it hung in natty, heavy clumps from her head. Her shirt was practically shredded to nothing. It too was full of blood. A shame so much of the blood was hers. Her jacket, well let's just say it definitely wasn't a jacket anymore, more like a dust rag. One of her pants legs was practically completely ripped apart at the knee. X23 winced, not a scratch in sight. She was still fuzzy after that beating, and she was definitely confused as to why she was in jail. She was about to ask when the warden cut in through the fog, "Move it or lose it sunshine." The warden opened the door and X23 stumbled out into the corridor.

After a couple of faltering steps X23 got the hang of walking again and managed to make it to the phone. While staring at her reflection in the ominous black phone, her face distorted by the curvature, she was suddenly struck with a quandary: she had no fucking clue who to call. After nearly kicking the crap mentally out of what little pride she had and several unnecessary prods from the warden, X23 finally picked up the phone and began to dial. She really hated to do this.


"Hello?" A little girl of about seven with glasses too big for her face and cute little pigtails answered the phone. After listening for several seconds she put down the phone and screamed at the top of her lungs, "LOGAN THE PHONE'S FOR YOU!" Then promptly turned and skipped back to the couch where she'd been watching The Powerpuff Girls. After about three minutes Logan came down the stairs and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Logan? Crap, I told her to get the professor."

"Who is this?"

"Oh, no one important just some of your spawn that happens to be sitting in jail."

"What di—never mind, I'll be there as soon as I can." With that they both hung up the phone.


X23 had been conscious in jail for about an hour and she was going stir crazy. Short of pacing the cell like a caged tiger or always the more fun route of foaming at the mouth, you wouldn't otherwise have known she was so uncomfortable. Growing up in a prison had endowed upon her a little bit of claustrophobia, but it had also given a much larger chunk of patience than people gave her credit for. However, she'd reached her limit right about now and the warden wasn't helping any. If she'd had cigarettes she'd be frantically chain smoking them. As it was she sat pressed up against the wall, knees to her chest, doing something she hated to do: think.


"If you promise to behave you can come out now." The miniature X23 emerged from a dark, airless room, quite literally a tomb afraid and broken. This is why she feared death. She knew what death did to people. Death locked you away in a cold abandoned room where no one could find you anymore, that is if anyone was bothering to look. Deep inside the shattered pieces of herself something was growing. She took a step forward and without thinking whipped out her claws in her right hand and stabbed the man. The rage she was known for was born in that moment and the high that it gave her would last her a lifetime. She grabbed the keys and gingerly stepped over the body. She calmly walked back to her "room" which she now realized was nothing more than a prison cell, and locked herself back in. For the first time ever, X23 gave the closest thing to a smile.


"Hey you made bail!" The warden so rudely interjected. As she opened the door to the cell she added sarcastically, "I don't think I need to tell you to stay in town." X23 just shoved past her and walked to the lobby where Logan was waiting for her.

"You wanna fill me in?" He asked her.

"Fuck. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me what's going on." Logan sighed. By now they had reached a battered pickup truck covered in mud and Logan turned to her, "First of all, why don't you tell me what you do know. They told me you were pretty beat up. I had to do some fast talking to explain why you were all healed up." It was X23's turn to sigh. Then she frowned. She'd hoped no one would hear about her getting her ass beat, ever.

"Okay, here's what I do know. I was minding my own fucking business when I got blind-sided by some asshole. Now you're probably wondering why I didn't kick their ass, but I was in an open area, and in case you haven't noticed, it's not very cool to be a mutant right now. Then I was knocked unconscious and I woke up in jail."

"They said you attacked some guy and nearly decapitated him and I have to admit, if it weren't for your clothes, I might tend to believe them. And why are you calling me?" X23 didn't respond. "Earth to X."

"Screw it. Because you're the only one I could think of that would come for me." With that she turned to the window away from him. The rest of the car ride was spent in silence.


The first priority when they got to the mansion was a shower for X23 followed by finding some clothes for her. Of course Roger and Alan always up for causing trouble tried to sneak a peek at her while she was changing which of course resulted in an amusing scene of X23 chasing down and beating the crap out of Alan and Roger in jeans and a bra. Most of her clothes came from Rogue's closet so she ended up wearing black jeans, a very dark green tee shirt, and a pair of combat boots. X23 disappeared for awhile but turned up later with a waist-length black leather jacket. No one really wanted to know where she'd gotten it. It was probably better not to ask. X23 had her own fingerless gloves that she wore. They kept her from tearing up her own hands too much when she extended her claws. After some searching, she managed to pilfer a ponytail holder from someone's room and she put her hair up in a ponytail. After her little fiasco with Alan and Roger, X23 thought it better to find a place to hide. Besides just because the wounds were gone didn't mean that the pain disappeared with them. She was still sore and very tired which made her very crabby. She was smart enough to stay away from stupid people before they pissed her off.

She'd been wandering around the Institute when she came upon what she hoped was an abandoned room. She hurriedly walked in and closed the door, only to realize that it was very dark. As she walked towards what she hoped was a light switch, even with her superior nightvision, she managed to trip over something. That something was Kurt. After much scrambling, X23 managed to untangle herself and flipped on the light.

"I am sorry." Kurt said.

"It wasn't your fault. If I'd know the room was in use I would have found a different one to hide out in."

"Vhy are you hiding?" Kurt asked looking at her with his strangely demonic eyes. "Are you a new student? I don't think I've seen you before."

"No, I'm not a student. I'm just hanging out here for awhile. You can call me X."

"That is your name? One letter?" X23 sighed and surpressed the urge to roll her eyes, or strangle him.

"I don't have a name because I'm a mutant experiment. I've been raised in a lab to be the ultimate fighting machine and all they ever gave me was the number X23. However, I find it cumbersome to have to say the number all the time and not that I care what people think, it tends to make them uncomfortable. So yes, one letter."

"Vait, you are ze girl, ze one that helped Logan? I owe you thanks." X23 was taken aback. She wasn't used to being thanked for anything, hell, she wasn't even used to normal conversation if this could pass for it.

"Um...you're welcome I guess." An awkward moment ensued, but X23 didn't want to lose whatever it was that was going on right now. That and she really didn't have anything else to do. "So why are you hiding here?"

"I still scare some of ze students. Since I had some free time I thought I'd come up here and..."

"And what?" X23 felt that she was misjudging the situation. She felt as usual, she was doing more harm than good.

"Vell. Pray." X23 looked at him in confusion.

"Pray? What is pray?" She asked pronouncing the foreign word slowly, trying to get a feel for it. She also asked it fairly bravely considering she hated to admit weakness and stupidity. It was Kurt's turn to look shocked. He was used to people trying to get him to deny his faith, he wasn't used to people lacking any knowledge of religion. For the next couple of hours, Kurt tried to explain the basics of Catholicism.

"Basically, when you pray to God, he listens and he tries to help you anyway he can. It may not always be the solution you want, but he does answer, you just have to learn to listen." X23 sat crossed-legged across from him on the floor. She had propped her chin on her arm, which rested on her knee. She listened to him intently and over the past couple hours watched him become more animated, more comfortable. Now she raised an eyebrow skeptically at him. Kurt continued, "And if you do good things, and ask for forgiveness of your sins, you will receive the reward of heaven when you die." X23 actually pondered this statement. After awhile she finally said, "That's nice wishful thinking, for me anyway." She rubbed her head. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this intellectually stimulated, this challenged. It didn't matter that she didn't understand.

At this point, Logan came upon them. "Do you know how long we've been looking for you two? We thought you'd gone and done something stupid to piss her off and they you'd left again." Logan directed the first to Kurt and the second to X23.

"Don't go all parental on me now, Logan, it's a little late for that and I'll have you know I'm not always out slicing and dicing. I have slightly more of a life than that." X23 practically taunted. It was so easy to jerk his chain.

"Well, the professor is not happy. Kurt's missed most of his classes today, and you, you were supposed to behave."

"I think I've been very good actually. And it's not like I forced Kurt to stay here against his will." By now, X23's blood had begun to boil, and they were almost practically yelling. Kurt prevented the eventual fight by doing something no one had heard him do yet: he began to laugh. He was laughing so hard he was nearly crying.

"What's so damn funny?" X23 and Logan asked in unison. X23 kept clenching and unclenching her hands, a sure sign she was about to extend her claws. The question posed in tandem made Kurt laugh all the harder. Eventually Kurt managed to gasp out, "It's just, you two are more alike than I thought you would be." That having been said, he teleported out leaving behind a shocked, awkward silence, and the smell of melted brimstone.


After explaining to the professor what had happened and receiving a detention that would help him make up his classes, he teleported out to the roof to relax for awhile in the darkness. He liked the darkness, people couldn't see him in the darkness. People couldn't be afraid of him then. As he was sitting on the roof looking out into space staring at nothing and listening to the silence, he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye.

The tree closest to the Institute was rustling slightly, or at least he thought it was. There was no breeze so Kurt came to the conclusion that someone was sneaking out. Kurt had nothing else to do, so he decided to follow whoever it was sneaking out. He crept over to the edge of the roof and peered over being careful to stay in the shadows. At first, he thought he'd missed the perpetrator, but finally a shadow dropped from the tree and moved craftily towards the surrounding fence. Kurt knew to avoid teleporting since the "bamfing" sound it made tended to give him away. He, just as stealthily as the shadowy figure, jumped from the roof to the tree and carefully picked his way through the branches and dropped quietly to the ground. Again, he thought he'd lost the person, and once again the shadow appeared making it easy for him to follow.

The shadow had made it past the fence now and was making it's way to the surrounding woodsy area. At one point the shadow stopped and looked around her in a circle. Kurt was forced to bamf if he was going to stay hidden. By now, he could tell the shadow was a girl and he had a pretty good idea who the girl was. Then Kurt did lose the shadow girl. He spent five minutes trying to locate her, but she'd given him the slip, so he bamfed back to the institute. As he appeared at the doorstep, Logan opened the door.

"Where is she?" Logan growled, but underneath there was something more, concern perhaps?

"She vent that vay." Kurt said indicating which direction X23 had gone. He hadn't even needed to ask who Logan was talking about. Maybe she was more predictable than she thought, maybe.


X23 had been chilling in the room they'd let her use when she'd first sensed him. Thankfully they'd stuck her in a room by herself and not with some annoying roommate. She could handle being all by herself. As said, it was while sitting in the room so graciously bequeathed to her, okay so she was in a foul mood, what else was new, when she got chills up her spine. Only one could do that to her, and as far as she knew he was dead. Hoping to check things out without too much interference or property damage she opted for a search and destroy. Within seconds X23 was out the window and down the tree. One good thing could be said for HYDRA, they certainly did train her well.

She'd been aware of Kurt following her, though she had to give the blue boy credit. She had gone quite a ways past the fence before she'd realized he was tailing her. Now, a good while later, she had come to a clearing. She was coiled tight, ready to spring. The night had grown quiet. The only sound breaking the hush was the sound of her ragged intakes of breath. This was the part of battles that she both lived for and detested. This was a pivoting point where everything and anything could happen. This is where life and death really hangs in the balance. Where if you predict wrong from where your enemy would attack, the battle would be over before it even started. This was the only moment where your enemy could truly surprise you. She wished she wasn't so tense. She wished she wasn't so tense. She wished she wasn't breathing so harshly. If she wanted to be prepared for the first move, she really should be a lot calmer than she is. She couldn't calm down though because her mind was reeling. What was about to take place should not be possible.

The clinking whoosh of claws extending came from the bushes at the right and a shadow launched itself at X23. With viper-like reflexes X23 fell flat on her back and extended the claws in her feet and brought her legs up to catch the assailant in the midriff and launch them over her head to land face down in the dirt. She quickly got to her feet and whirled, claws in her hands whooshing out. She would be ready. The body on the ground began to shake uncontrollably. When the shadow raised its head, she realized it was laughing. Due to the timbre of the laugh it was obvious that the shadow was male. His laugh took on a maniacal pitch.

"23, you haven't changed at all. Good to know some things never change." Having said this he was on his feet, but X23 had already run off into the woods. This could not be happening. He was dead! If she wasn't hallucinating, she was in trouble.


Logan was about to commandeer Kurt to have him show Logan where X23 had gone when the girl in question came crashing through the front windows that had just been fixed, completely bloody and broken. She lay prone on the floor practically unconscious. Someone laughed from where they crouched in the window frame.

"I think you've lost your touch little 23." The masculine growl sent shivers down Logan's spine. That voice was his voice. The man who stepped down from the ledge was not a clone thankfully. Logan wasn't sure if he would have been able to handle that. They shared the same broad-jawed face with the same eyes that always seemed to glare out at the world. Logan's hair was longer, and the kid had no sideburns. Logan was taller than the stranger by a couple of inches but they still shared the same blocky build. The stranger was decked out in a black jumpsuit. Odd pads were arranged at his knees, elbows, and chest. He wore a strange pair of gloves that only covered his thumb and last fingers. His black boots made a soft thud as he crunched down on the broken glass that lay scattered across the floor. The man grinned. An eerie thing to see, like looking in the mirror only to find your reflection sticking its tongue out at you.

"Don't mind us, me an' X are jus gonna take a little trip down memory lane." He quipped as he grabbed X23 by the hair and jerked her to her feet dragging her back across the windowsill and into the night.


X23 had not only been jerked back to her feet by her hair but she chose that moment to also jerk back into consciousness. She let out a gargled yowl and began to ferociously struggle, as she was drug across the windowsill, which of course only resulted in her cutting herself multiple times in multiple places. Once across the windowsill the stranger threw her to the ground where she lay panting dazed and disoriented. She'd forgotten how hard he hit, how mean he was. She slowly gained her feet, but like he'd wanted, she'd given him the time he needed to hide. Hopefully, the same time could be used for her to heal.

Inside the mansion Logan had ordered Kurt to find the professor, and any of the other adults. Roger, whose room was closest to the commotion came sleepily down the stairs and immediately made a crack about the broken windows only to have Logan tell him to shut it. Then Logan ordered him to make sure that no one got hurt on all the broken glass. After he was done barking orders he moved for the door, only to be nearly impaled by a set of claws. When the claws retracted he noticed a strange burn mark was left on the wood. He would have taken more time to ponder it, but he could hear the fight moving away from the house. He whipped open the door and went running into the night.

X23 had been taken by surprise in round two of the fight. If she hadn't ducked at the last second, she would have been impaled instead of the door. She had to get him away from the school. She didn't need the obstacles of cluttered rooms and staircases to get in the way. When it came down to an out and out brawl, X23 preferred to be in a wide-open space. They were in a large grassy area a little ways past the Institute's backyard, but before the wooded area behind the house. Things were moving too quickly for her to really come up with a working plan, but that didn't matter. She was a creature of instinct, she was designed to be. The only problem was so was he.

"I find it interesting to find you hooked up with the man you sought to destroy." Great, here came the taunting.

"Why are you here Jared?" X23 called to the darkness finally giving a name to the face. It seemed his voice was coming from all direction, so tracking him by making talk was not going to work in this situation. Damn.

"Why do you think? You are one of HYDRA's projects and they have not finished with you yet. I see what they mean about the temper. You are to be taken back to see if you are salvageable, or exterminated if you are not." X23 gave a snort, then she gave what she would never admit was a giggle and finally burst into bitter laughter. She never did find out much else because he launched himself at her again. This time he was relentless, slicing and hacking what he could. Right as Logan and the others whom Kurt had notified arrived, Jared grabbed X23, shoved some kind of dart into her throat, and dropped her.

"Have a nice stroll down memory lane." He quipped again, his point being made. He turned and fled. Logan chased after the stranger, but didn't give much chase. X23 lay face down on the ground, eyes glazed as if she were dead, while a dark pool spread out beneath her, black glinting white in the moonlight.


The room was spinning wildly around her in shades of black and white and grey. She was drowning, gasping for breath and inhaling water instead. Just when she thought her life would expire, she cold breath again. However, by the time she got out of this tank, she would wish for death. The only thing she can associate with this time in her life is pain. Harsh, burning, throbbing pain that still pulses through her every time she extends her claws.


X23's pulse was spiking rapidly and everyone who'd gathered around her in the medical ward was getting worried if not panicked as rapidly as her heartbeat was increasing. Logan, Gambit, and Scott were trying to restrain X23 who'd begun to spasm violently and avoid getting stabbed at the same time.

"What did that bastard give her?" Logan snarled out. Storm had taken a sample from the dart and she and Hank had been trying to analyze what had been given to her, but so far no results matched anything that was in any known database.

"Let me try." Elijah suddenly appeared next to Storm, already knowing what the substance was. It had been hours since the injection had been given and they had nothing else to lose. He jacked into the computer and streams of data began to dance across the screen.

"Hmmm."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hank asked nervously.

"He's changed it." Elijah could barely be heard. Storm and Hank exchanged glances. Storm ran out of patience first.

"Will you please tell me what is going on?" Elijah merely unplugged himself and ran back to where X23 was twisting and jerking on the medical table. She was still bleeding profusely, a fact that not been lost on Logan. Elijah shot her up with a sedative and the group gave a collective sigh of relief.

"Don't get too comfortable. I'd say that'll only hold her about, oh, five minutes or so."

"What the hell did that bastard give her?" Logan asked for a second time. "And why isn't she healing the way she's supposed to be?"

"He gave her a mixture of drugs that really have no name when combined. Think of it as being doped up on speed, meth, and acid all at once. Throw in a little codeine and you effectively have a way to keep her where you want her. This reaction she's had is only because it's been out of her system for so long. It was the only combination of drugs HYDRA could find that was guaranteed to knock them out long enough for some of the scientists to get some sleep. They kept them addicted so they wouldn't run away. You think this is bad now, wait until she hits withdrawal." Logan had gone very still. Every muscle in his body was drawn taut and hard. No wonder she had wanted to kill him. Right now, he couldn't say he blamed her.

"As to why she's still bleeding, well that's Jared's doing too. When he was put through the Weapon X process, something went wrong. He doesn't exactly heal properly and his body had a bad reaction to the whole thing. The metal inside his body and on his claws is still reacting and it creates a kind of acid that inhibits your naturally advanced healing processes. A fatal blow from him could actually be fatal for you. However, a fatal blow by you can also be just as deadly for him. His own acid could eat him from the inside out."

"Is there anything we can do for her?" Hank asked.

"Stay out of her way and make sure she can't bust out of this room." Elijah said with a shrug. Then he left followed slowly by everyone else. On the roof, Kurt could be heard praying.


"You weren't supposed to use the drugs." The large blocky figure growled with a thick Russian accent from the shadows. Two snake like coils sprang for the arrogant boy's head. For one instant it looked like they would actually connect, and then the boy was not there and the coils slammed into the wall showering brick fragments everywhere.

"And miss my chance to fuck with her head? No, I think my approach will work much better. Perhaps it will even scare her a little." The blocky figure just stood in the shadows.

"This would have been over earlier had you not interfered. I think you would be wise to never do so again. Now we wait."

"Aye, aye cap'n." The boy saluted cockily. He couldn't remember the last time that he felt this good. He almost felt like giggling.

The Russian man had left his two partners in crime and made his way to a pay phone.

"He's becoming a liability."

"I figured he would be." What should have been a sultry voice became a harsh ugly hiss. "However, the only way to get rid of him along with that girl is to keep him close. No more mistakes. Complete termination of this Genesis project is all that will be accepted. Nothing gets left behind, nothing."

"Yes ma'am."

"From now on you and Gauntlet run the show."


She was hunched in a corner of a room that seemed fuzzy at the edges, like an artist had rubbed all the lines, blurring them. Somewhere inside of her she knew this wasn't real. It was funny somehow, how much she'd managed to forget. She was crying, how she hated crying. It never accomplished anything. She'd been locked up for the night, and it was here that she hated the most. They were still watching her. She knew the cameras were there, knew that their cold, glassy eyes were fixated on her no matter where she moved.

Sometimes she felt like going crazy, just smashing everything to bits. She had the power, but they had the numbers. She'd tried to puzzle it out many times. She'd tried to manipulate the scenario every which way until all her thoughts were swirling aimlessly in the cesspool of her mind until she felt like her head would explode. Her thoughts were literally dizzying. To make matters worse, she was beginning to crave whatever it was they had given her. It got to be if she wasn't administered a hit at the end of the day she went crazy.

She hated them. If she ever made it out of here, she wasn't going to kill them. She was going to destroy them. She'd had only one reason so far for cooperation: she had no choice. As long as she was drugged, she was stuck here. She'd tried to find a way to avoid the injections, but so far nothing had worked. She'd gone a couple of times without the injection but the withdrawal seemed worse than the drug. To put it bluntly, she was screwed.

Time in her memories fast-forwarded. The endless drills and training sessions with no rewards and only punishment. Logan had finally entered into the equation and suddenly she had another reason to survive. She wanted to make him pay. Whenever she began to give in, whenever she began to break, she had only to think of him and let her rage take over. If she'd looked within herself she would have known it wasn't Logan she really hated. It was herself.


She came out of her drug-induced coma like a bullet snarling and ready to tear up anything that was in her way. Thankfully, Logan had anticipated this and had moved away from the table. This time his war wounds consisted of a couple of scratches on his chest. She was drenched in sweat and her breath came in harsh, spastic gasps. She fell off the edged of the medical table and vomited. Clutching the edged of the table she crouched with her head on her knees.

"Please, just leave me alone." She whispered on a strangled sob. Without a word being said, Logan left, quietly closing the door behind him.