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Clementine’s voice rose above the others "I heard she tried to commit suicide a couple of ti to kill the Undead when she can’t even kill herself?"

At that, I gave the door a firdown the hall, I knocked on Anya’s door I could hear heavyfrom inside I knocked twice more, louder, and eventually the door opened

Anya stood before me in an oversized collared shirt, and shorts, a towel draped over her neck Her hair was held up in all sorts of odd angles with pieces of tinfoil, and s atthe insides of her arular white scars that looked like burn marks They appeared to have been there for a while I had never noticed theht , because she immediately rolled down the cuffs of her shirt

"Are you okay?" I asked

"I’m fine," she muttered, and looked down the hall

"Can I use your shower? Clementine and her friends are in h a ot, listening to Anya’sunder the hot water, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Noah had said Should relationships be hard? The question didn’t even seem to apply to Dante and one, it felt like a piece of me had been carved away Did that mean that I didn’t have a choice? Water trickled downon my lashes What if Dante had lied to me about the cemetery? What if he had been there before, and in all ofhim? What would I do then?

As steam clouded the room, I pressed my eyes closed and tried to feel the warmth of the water, but the more I concentrated on it, theit beat down onfor so to happen as the water pooled about ers wrinkled

By the tied the music to a mellow folk album

"You were in there for a while," Anya said as I sat next to her on the couch, the stea so onto a piece of twine Her hair was still pressed in pieces of foil

"What are youmy head with my towel

"A charm necklace," she said "For you"

Beside her, a buzzer went off She hit the top of it and stood up "Time to wash the dye out," she said, and threw the necklace into ht back"

While she washed her hair out in the sink, I studied the necklace The frayed tas strung with dozens of different dried beans, soe as a quarter Most of them had a white spot in the middle, whichwhat seemed to be a white rabbit’s foot I touched it The fur was delicate and soft

"So what do you think of it?" Anya said from the doorway

"It’s--nice," I said "What’s itbeans, black-eyed peas, fava beans, kidney beans…They’re supposed to bring you health"

"And the rabbit’s foot?"

"Oh, it’s not a rabbit It’s a cat"

Letting the necklace drop into my lap, I said, "What? Why? Where did you--"

"It’s froo to soive you nine lives"

"Oh," I said, exa not to feel queasy "Thanks"

"And here," she said, picking up ait tohen I took it froreen "What is it?"

"It’s tea," she said

I swirled the cup around, but the contents were so viscous that they barely ri Good for the cold season"

I glanced in herThe water inside was a pleasant peach color A nor any?" I asked

"Oh, I already had so a sip It tasted like water froritty