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&039;They were &039;ndrangheta,&039; Santona explained &039;Froht this taint with the, but I have trained these and make use of them&039;
&039;I&039;m Katharine Reed From Ireland&039;
She extended her hand, but Santona didn&039;t shake it
&039;I know,&039; she said &039;You are in this city for the dying&039;
Cabiria crossed herself
&039;That&039;s asfor a little girl I saw in Piazza di Trevi A witness to a crime&039;
&039;The heta, only a servant A tool There was no little girl&039;
&039;I didn&039;t iine her&039;
&039;You didn&039;t see her You saw a reflection&039;
The fortune-tellerher mind Some omen had a little of that vampire sense
&039;Reflections canstill bothered her about the scene Had she misunderstood what she saw?
&039;Was she a dwarf?&039; she asked
The ripples in the water could have e
Santona laughed and shook her head She held out a hand
Kate produced five hundred lire, which disappeared The fortuneteller had snatched it
&039;Not everything can be revealed&039;
This hat she expected fro irl She will find you&039;
&039;She&039;s looking for &039;
Kate shuddered
&039;You have troubled the Mother This is iirl&039;s mother?&039;
Santona shook her head, insistently &039;No, Rome&039;s Mater Lachrymarum She has always been here, under and around us&039;
&039;The Mother of Tears?&039; Kate reheta were disturbed Red-orange trickles slipped through their muzzles onto much-stained lapels
&039;There are tears everywhere,&039; the fortune-teller said &039;The stones of the city pour forth tears&039;
&039;What does that h This is all You have been warned&039;
More money was required to end the interview Kate handed it over She wondered if Cabiria would get a cut
Santona shut her eyes and lay back on cushions One of the &039;ndranghetaaway at her teed Kate&039;s ar dead had gathered around the Ferrari Marcello kept thees of Osservatore Roht When one burned down, he&039;d shoo the ash away froht another
Morti viventi had stumbled out of their holes These weren&039;t under Santona&039;s spell or ry Many were feeble and fell apart with a kick, but soth in their lierous
Marcello was relieved to see her
&039;They took a little boy last night,&039; Cabiria said &039;An orphan He said his father was an Aot tired They ate his sto her this
&039;He has risen tonight That is hiy shorts, with an oversized American soldier&039;s cap As if he&039;d heard his nalittered, but only etness His t-shirt was torn away fro
&039;They first try to eat themselves,&039; Cabiria said
Kate felt sick
As she walked through the loose crowd, morti viventi backed away from her Whatever they craved didn&039;t run in her veins
A woman-creature sniffed at Cabiria, who squealed Kate took thedog-tongue dangled Eave her back her jawbone
Nothing could be done for these revenants
Were they indeed dead souls, all reason and person fled from reanimated carcasses? Or should she feel pity for the spark that ht be left behind?
Perhaps, in the end, all undead became like this
Was she the same person she&039;d been when alive? Or did she just mislead herself that she was? Had Katharine Reed flown off to Heaven or elsewhere, leaving behind a shell that could deceive itself into pretending to live out her life?
No
She looked into the eel eyes of the newly risen Dondi and knew she was different froht If there was a kinship, it was ht have a distant awareness of their situation Kate eak-kneed with useless love, eer and pain
&039;You can kill them easily,&039; Marcello said &039;S&039;
&039;That&039;s not the saed and lit up the sports pages
&039;Please,&039; said Cabiria &039;He was my friend When I was ill, he he stole for me&039;
&039;She wants you to kill it,&039; Marcello said
&039;Like a sick dog To be put out of hisShe hoped her tears were not bloody
Cabiria hugged Dondi, as only just shorter than her, and tried to cradle his head He opened his mouth wide, to bite into her tiny breast
Kate took him away from Cabiria and twisted his head around The spine snapped, but it wasn&039;t enough Head on back-to-front, Dondi crawled toward the flesh, like a bee to pollen His brain was purged of all thatnow, Kate found a stone and battered the dead boy&039;s head to paste The body twitched, but ran down Whatever had remained seeped away
It took her a o, Cabiria,&039; Kate said &039;Will you be safe?&039;
Cabiria s her cardigan around her thin body
&039;It&039;s not far froave her more money than was sensible Cabiria looked at it sadly
&039;Make me like you,&039; she asked &039;When I turn, I don&039;t want to be a zombie I want still to feel To be Cabiria, not a wo Not to be Dondi&039;
Kate bit her lip
&039;I can&039;t,&039; she said
What was she saving herself for? She&039;d found virginity a ridiculous &039;inconvenience&039;, and had lost hers twice (when she turned, her hyain) She&039;d drunk the blood of children, had killed when she&039;d had to (and perhaps when she hadn&039;t), had loved iven the Dark Kiss? Why had she not turned any children-in-darkness?
She would have given Charles her blood, had offered to open her veins for him Why not this warm orphan?
It wasn&039;t a curse It was an opportunity She wasn&039;t lost to God She wasn&039;t lost to herself It wasn&039;t death, it was life
It would be simple
But she couldn&039;t
And she couldn&039;t explain
Cabiria sainst her bites
&039;It doesn&039;t matter&039;
&039;Ciao, Cabiria&039;
&039;Goodbye, Kate&039;
Kate kissed Cabiria and got back into the Ferrari Marcello drove away Kate didn&039;t want to look back at the bowed figure trudging away fro for the warmth of a fire She didn&039;t want to, but she did