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"He’s kind of handso TV and his face appeared in a comhed about it then, but now that I’m in a scarlet district, Jenna’s for in a place like this, she must have learned how to see all the ardens, which are mostly patches of weeds and buds, encased in loire fences The strawberries, though, are growing under a weatherproof tarp "You should see theiddily "Strawberries and tomatoes and blueberries so fat they explode between your teeth" I wonder where she gets the seeds They’re so hard to coetables seee

She shows me the other tents, full of antique furniture, silk pillows piled on the dirt floors Only the best for her custoy with sweat At the last tent, which is all pink, she turns to faceit out and watching the way it falls fros, but I don’t flinch as it’s ripped froirl like you is wasted as a bride" She says the word like vasted "A girl like you should have dozens of lovers"

Her eyes are lost She’s staring through s out the humanity in her For the first time I can see her eyes under all that makeup, see that they’re brown and sad And oddly fah I’m sure I’ve never seen anyone like this woman in my life I never even dared to peek into the shadows of scarlet districts nestled in alleyways back home

I was never even curious

Her lips curl into a s a bleary pink underneath

We’re standing by a heap of rusted scrapa faint yello One of Jared’s projects, I assume Madame raves about his inventions "Contraptions," she calls the device for the soil My Jared thinks it will make it easier to plant crops in the winter," she tellsone of the rusted pieces

"So, what do you think of my carnival, chérie?" she asks "The best in South Carolina"

It aarette ever falling fro in too s fill with color as she e dreahost of a dead society and some bits of broken irls are napping now that it’s daytiuards see between tents, tilling, priht smelled of her

"It’s not like any other place I’ve seen," I admit, which is the truth If Manhattan is reality, and the mansion a luxurious illusion, this place is a dilapidated, blurry line that divides the two places

"You belong here," she says "Not with a husband Not with a servant" She wraps her arh a patch of shriveled, snoildflowers "Lovers are weapons, but love is a wound That boy of yours," she says, unaccented, "is a wound"

"I never said I love hi with creases It strikes one And no one will be left to knohat old age looks like Twenty-six and beyond will be a mystery

"I’ve had many lovers," she tells ether A beautiful little creature with hair that was every shade of yellow Like yours"

"What happened to the brave Madame has prodded and scrutinizedher oeakness

"Dead," she says, picking up her accent again The hu the and tucks my hair behind my ears, tilts my chin, inspects my face "And I ahter as I did Not in this world in which nothing lives for long You children are flies You are roses You multiply and die"

I open my mouth, but no words come What she says is horrible and true

And then I wonder, does ether, one after the other, beats in a pulse But I will be first to leave it That’s what I’ve been proine an e soap bubbles through ers?

When I die, will he be sorry that he loved me? Sorry that ere twins?

Maybe he already is

The tip of Madaarette flares red as she breathes deep Lilac says the smoke makes her delusional, but I wonder how much of what Madame says is truth "You are to be loved in moments Illusions That’s what I provide to reedy"

Gabriel When I left hi silently I noticed the stubble growing on his chin; he’d been re-dressed in his attendant’s shirt, which was ripped where the bodyguards had pulled at him I orried for the purple skin around his eyes, his raspy breaths