This scene was absolutely dripping with tension the whole way through it, from the initial interactions that let an unsettling air build up whilst Salem's exact intentions are kept a mystery to the reader, to the trickle of more and more deliberate actions taken to inflict terror - and their impact on Billie as she travels through the faint hope it's nothing to realising exactly what's about to happen. I almost wish there weren’t so many direct references to horror movies, because it so perfectly captures the feeling of that genre and medium that drawing attention to it takes just a hair out of the immersion I felt in the scene, but enough cool things are done with the framing that it never becomes an issue.
There were tonnes of little fragments that just stuck in my brain reading through this too, that I don’t feel equipped enough to analyse why, but want to shout out a couple just as cool little turns of phrase;
“no amount of desensitization could make up for becoming a character in one of those stories yourself”
The conclusion is also spectacular, Billie’s determination and resistance in the face of someone who holds a huge power imbalance over her in many ways managing to leave a final mark for Salem to remember her by, and Salem immediately reacting with full force the second he realises his dominance is not absolute. It highlights the flaws of the victor, and the strengths of the vanquished in the last moments, and was a great way to round things off thematically.“He paused there for just a moment, just long enough to let the crossing of the boundary sink in”
Excellent work Skraal & backslash!
