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"Ready?" I asked

He blinked, which I took for assent

I ers, I streaked the blood on my forehead down my face I coatedlike a warrior god, and positioned an to cry Softly at first I turned up the volu the tears call up a corresponding thickness in enuine

"Jamie," I whispered He turned his head to look at me I could tell it hurt Not you, I ain "Jamie--oh God, Jamie Please don’t Please--please breathe" (This part was necessary; I didn’t know if anyone was standing on the other side of the door) "You can’t be dead," I said, and took her in pitch I hunched ht my hands up over my face "You can’t be You promised You promised me London, you-- God, could you just breathe? Please, start breathing again I’ll do anything, I don’t care what I a, please, please--"

By then I was taken over by it, the grief, the fury, and I let o I’d lost hi his way out the door in the ed in uni as ed anywhere else, which was to say not at all, but we’d have a little flat, ood library and at least one room in which no one was allowed to speak to ood between us, until one night we’d be in bed and the old horror would rise up in ain, where he’d touch ness, how I’d been suckered into letting anyone touch ain, how had I allowed it, as this person and as he touching me and it was a con, I’d been conned by him or myself or both of us, and I’d either break down entirely or throw him out, and in the end, in how it played out inhim out, and I’d want hio) but ouldn’t have that, would we? We wouldn’t even get to that point He’d be taken away fro before that, so like this--auncle, a man with a taste for my blood, and he wouldn’t leave on his oo feet--no, instead, we’d have a gun or a virus or a knife to the throat or this, hi fora Moriarty bullyboy take hiot into shelter only for round, and Watson, I heard myself say it now, aloud, Watson, please, please, and I broke down into so to take on a persona, my father used to tell me, it can’t be a persona You have to believe it

I was very good at what I did I believed all of it, everything Always

I was so caught up in it, in fact, this private recitation ofopen, I nearly forgot what to do

But I was in position, hidden behind the door and out of view I hefted ruffly, taking two steps into the room, and it was mere luck that he didn’t see me and more that he had no one behind him

"Here," I said, and knocked him on the head He went doith the usual speed I took the ring of keys from his hand and rolled hihed up Watson, or I would’ve struck hi, and when I returned to his side it was clear that he was only seet hiely muscle, whichI had of course noticed (and yes, appreciated, I a to haul hiht, but not nearly enough

The hallas empty, as I kneould be, and there was a set of stairs on either end I stood there listening, aware that Watson was bleeding on me while I in turn bled onto the carpet While I calculated the odds of either staircase being the ht also about the state ofcalled a flash sale site, an experience I found trauain A ti I had to keep these hypothetical boots while I typed in my bank information, and it made me think of all the false scarcity we had in our lives, one shoe left! act now!, oneonan awful bell somewhere inthe only time in my life that I’d ever have this and then it would be over, done, never--

But that was the undercurrent toThe rest of me, as always, knehat to do The west hallway We would take the stairs one at a tiht for the Moriartys to make their move Here ere

Review your facts, my father said, before you build deductions on top of them

The facts were obvious This is what I had deduced: