Book Three: Double Feature — 22.

With power out yet again, Valentine, Salem, and a new enforcer, Juneau, enter Van’s room to take him for execution or coerced sacrifice. Shackled in bondage mittens, Van notes Valentine’s threat: volunteer to die as King Sorrow’s substitute or watch Donna be beaten to death.

They march Van through dim corridors where emergency lights and armed men underscore the siege atmosphere. As fluorescents flicker back on, Van realizes it is only late morning—far too long to hold out until nightfall and any hope of Sorrow’s intervention.

In the stairwell descent, Valentine explains a prisoner’s-dilemma rationale, insisting self-interest will force Van to sacrifice himself. Van counters that the logic fails because it presumes both siblings remain available; if one is removed from the equation, the “game” collapses.

On a landing, Van abruptly headbutts Juneau, breaking her nose, forcing Salem to catch her. Van body-checks Valentine and sprints upward toward the roof level, laughing with a sudden, lucid resolve and recalling steadier times with Arthur and moments of clarity about Allie.

Reaching the top landing, Van takes a final look at the sea through a narrow window as Salem closes in. He then vaults over the banister and falls four stories, choosing suicide over being used to compel a bargain with King Sorrow and denying Valentine’s promised spectacle of coercion.