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The last lantern was extinguished, and the rooh the s

He turned his head and stared at the inconsequential light Thoughts and ret, of shame

He ree, the hulking scarred htened child-wife It had seemed like an oasis to both of the the homeless with a warm fire and a hot plate of food

It hadn't seened a covenant of faith and donated their wordly goods-nothing-to the Believers, and i-

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cally, they had a hoed It didn't matter that they didn't sleep in the same room; they never had It didn't matter that they couldn't speak for more than fifteen minutes without permission from the elders; they'd never had nes was her presence, and all she'd ever needed from him was protection The Believers had fulfilled them both

He sighed quietly and crossed his ar He rery young girl with a black eye and a broken wrist, searching through garbage pails for food

He'd approached her cautiously, flipping her a dollar piece She'd grabbed it and run away But he'd coan to wait for hiiven her the money

He still remembered how he'd felt around her For

the first time in his life-and he'd been thirty-four years

old-he wasn't just a big, scarred man with one bad

hand and a lifetines's

brown eyes and saw himself as she saw him A savior

In the years since he'd asked her to marry him, he'd

told himself that he did it for her, but now, alone and in