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"I’ this way," she said

"Marisa, stay with us!" Josef told her

"I cannot stay with you; I will get nowhere!"

"Well," Ari said, "we are following that bridge, there, and going on to the square When you get tired of the darkness, follow us!"

Even Josef turned his back on her Marisa was glad

The ainst the wall and flattened herself there

She waited until she could no longer hear the echo of their footsteps on the calle Then she ran up the steps

The door was ajar She pushed it open "Hello?"

It was shadowy and dark within, but the roo care to leave the door ajar, and started walking along a central aisle between pillars

"Hello? Ciao?" she called, her voice softening as it see in

It was a church, she thought, with a bit of awe But a church like no other There were no longer any pews in it, and as she neared the altar, she saw that there was no cross above it There were paintings though One very strange painting, of an angel ripping into and consu above the altar, where the cross should have been She looked around There were side chapels, as in most churches They were dark and shadowy, soht, dark shapes seea to the left side, through chapel after chapel Candles burned

Strange black cloth draped the altars

She paused, thinking she heard whispers, or hisses Wings, fluttering around her Footfalls across the stone floor

"I won’t play forever, you know!" she said

She crossed the nave and started along the right wall of chapels, looked up at the last painting above the black-clad altar A figure with a crown of thorns sat holding a handful of severed heads

She was suddenly cold in her hareain

"Hello, where are you?" she called Her voice was stronger Angry And a bit too tremulous "This isn’t funny, if you want me to stay, show yourself"

Candles on the altar flickered and wavered There was a sudden, sweeping hiss of movement near her, very near her It seean to back away

At first, she barely heard the creaking noise It was the sound of a door Moving slowly The sound was somehow hideous in this shadowy, silent place She turned, and the sound registered It was indeed a door The door to the strange church

Closing

Just as she started racing for it, it sla herself against it She pounded, slammed, swore, and pounded some more

Finally, she exhausted herself

She stared back at the altar "This isn’t funny at all I will go to the police The polizia, do you hear e, she walked back toward the altar "I a here, now, do you understand? Do you understand!"

She called out, facing the altar

Then

It seeer of cold stretched across the roo her nape, traced the line of her spine

She spun around, and in surprise, she screaure in the dark cloak and the strangedry

For once, she had nothing to say

He walked to her slowly Very slowly She could see his eyes They were not so beautiful now, but she couldn’t draw her gaze from him

He reached her He touched the front hooks on the bodice of her harem costume She wanted to tell him no She couldn’t speak, and she couldn’t draw her eyes from his He slid his hands beneath the fabric on her shoulders, and the bodice fell to the floor with a strange whisper

He stepped back

"Beautiful," he acknowledged

Then he lifted his hands, as if in supplication to heaven "My childrenI bring you beauty!" he said

She still couldn’t draw her eyes fro sound A breeze, a hiss, blowing by her, lifting her hair

And then the shadows moved

And descended

She are, in one split second, that she should have gone hootten fat, and baked bread