In New Orleans in July 1970, Addie and Luc dine in a hidden French Quarter bar when Luc tells Addie, “I love you.” Addie refuses to call it love, but Luc presses that Addie’s body and heart react to him, and Addie is unsettled by the possibility that he might be right.

Luc produces a small black box containing a simple brass key and says it leads to “home.” He guides Addie to a yellow house at the end of Bourbon Street and has Addie unlock it, making the key—and the access—feel unmistakably real in her hand. Inside is a furnished, empty-with-possibility space, and Luc declares it Addie’s, a home of her own.

Addie is tempted by the permanence and warmth of the offer despite the old warning in her bones, and she briefly lets herself feel happy. Walking the Quarter arm in arm, Addie pauses at a closed shop window to admire a black leather jacket; Luc wordlessly puts it on her, sparing her the years of cold and want she has endured.

On the way back, Luc breaks away, telling Addie to go “home.” Instead, Addie follows at a distance and watches Luc approach a shop marked by a glowing palm. An older woman locking up meets Luc without panic; she repeats, “A deal is a deal,” and admits she is tired, which Addie understands all too well.

Addie sees Luc as the woman sees him—lean, wolfish, inhuman—and then sees his true nature as darkness folds around the older woman and swallows her whole, calmly and completely. Shaken, Addie returns alone to the yellow house, drinks cold white wine with the balcony doors open, and when Luc appears behind her and holds her, Addie cannot forget the way he held the woman as he took her.