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For years it see the fire burn itself out to charred ti air ain I wept My own sobs reverberated in my ears until I felt I couldn’t endure the sound of thenified in this state, even the ain I begged for forgiveness, though forgiveness for what I couldn’t have said I prayed to the Blessed Mother, to the saints I murmured the Aves over and over until they became a senseless chant

And my tears were blood, and they left their stain on my hands when I wiped atnot prayers any longer but those inarticulate pleas we make to all that is powerful, all that is holy, all that may or may not exist by any and all names Do not leave me alone here Do not abandon me I am in the witches’ place It’s the witches’ place Do not let ht Do not let it happenLestat, wake up

But Magnus’s words came back to me, over and over: To find hell, if there is a hellIf there is a Prince of Darkness

Finally I rose on iddy I looked at the fire and saw that Iblaze and throw myself into it

But even as I forced ony of this, I knew that I had no intention of doing it

After all, why should I do it? What had I done to deserve the witches’ fate? I didn’t want to be in hell, even for athere just to spit in the face of the Prince of Darkness, whoever he ht be!

On the contrary, if I was a da, then let the son of a bitch come for me! Let him tell me why I was meant to suffer I would truly like to know

As for oblivion, well, we can wait a little while for that We can think this over for a little whileat least

An alien calrowing fascination

I wasn’t hu about it, and looking at the dying e in me Gradually my boyish sobs died away And I commenced to study the whiteness of my skin, the sharpness of the two evil little teeth, and the way that h they’d been lacquered