Ninth illustration from “Olga & Trotsky,” a short story by Katja Hofmann.

(9) While Trotsky swiped around them with his claws to keep the icy fingers of the dead at bay, with a wrench Olga finally forced her thumb and index finger to bend enough to pick up the key. Tears ran down her cheeks and dripped from her chin, freezing into tiny icicles, as she used her last ounce of strength to stick the key into the lock.

‘And? Open the stupid thing!’ Trotsky was jumping up and down like a vicious, spitting gnome.

— Translation by Steph Morris.