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He makes his decision in an instant; the butterfly knife seeic I juh the plastic He does this deftly, in one srab the Firebird, and I can get the next sliver of Paul’s soul back again--

But immediately Paul shoves me into the closet so hard I hit the back wall It’s not cruelty; this is his idea of keeping me safe "Don’t move until I come back for you Do you understand? You must notme in total darkness

I miss my cell already

Paul will come back for me I’ll have another chance I take deep breaths and try to tell unfire

At least Paul brought me to a safer place Protected me The man I love is in there after all, just buried deep

My father would kill you rather than let you be taken, he said Taken by who? A rival gang? The police?

I on I have no way to know until Paul comes back for me And what if it’s not Paul who opens the door?

I don’t want to be here Maybe I don’t have to be here

Even now, I don’t want to escape this place before I’ve had a chance to rescue that splinter of ain and ask to s--hire a detective to locate hiettingdown, back on the floor, I kick up at the doorknob with both feet, hard The wood starts to splinter; this closet wasn’tbut brooms Two more kicks, and the door wobbles open

I ju away frouns kept anyone frohso hard the world goes dark and sparkly around the edges, I push myself forward; there are no second chances, not with this

The corridors bend, bend again, like the walls of a s’ baseood If so, there are many ways out, and I only have to find one

By the tiun battle behind ht filtering in froests this is for utility service Which rid cohtly beneath et to the top, I press both hands against the grid--and it doesn’tcross-hatches into th anyway Still it won’t budge

Breathing hard, treo down the ladder and find another exit Two, go down the ladder, but to search for sorid open

Just as I’rid I look up to see a backlit figure--

--who then crouches down so I can see his face I shout, "Theo!"

"Marguerite!" He drops to his knees "Thank God Are you okay?"

"I’ers, which he takes for just ahere?"