The brick walls dissolved first. The candles went next, their warm light replaced by the cool glow of Aurora's living room lamps. The wine-colored sheets disappeared from beneath us, and the impossible rain-slicked city outside the windows collapsed into Aurora's actual windows showing the actual campus and the actual moon hanging over the actual Pacific Ocean. The bed vanished and we materialized exactly where we'd been sitting before I activated the Sanctum, which was on Aurora's couch, which was approximately six feet from Aurora's television, which was currently playing what appeared to be a competitive cooking show at low volume.
Aurora sat at the opposite end of the couch with her legs tucked beneath her, wearing the same cropped white sweater and grey shorts from earlier, a blanket pulled over her lap. A bowl of popcorn balanced on the armrest beside her. She held the remote in one hand and a glass of something amber in the other.
