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ll?’ I asked her,on the doll’s head, only to feel her snatch it away frolared at me

“ ‘A child who can’t die! That’s what she is,’ she said, as if she were pronouncing a curse

“ ‘Aaaaah…’ I whispered

“ ‘I’ve done with dolls,’ she said, shoving it away fro with so she wantedhold of it and closing over it I knehat it was, had noticed it before A locket fixed with a gold pin I wish I could describe the passion that infected her round features, how her soft baby mouth was distorted

“ ‘And the child who did die?’ I guessed, watching her I was picturing a doll shop, dolls with the sa hard on the locket so the pin ripped the taffeta It was fear I saw in her now, a consu panic: And her hand bled as she opened it frohter,’ she whispered, her lip tre

“It was a doll’s face on the sment of porcelain, Claudia’s face, a baby face, a saccharine, sweet mockery of innocence an artist had painted there, a child with raven hair like the doll And theat the darkness in front of her

“ ‘Grief…’ I said gently

“ ‘I’ve done with grief,’ she said, her eyes narrowing as she looked up atto have your power; I’er for it’ And she turned todeeply, so that her breast seemed to swell under her dress

“A violent frustration rent her face then She turned away fro her head, her curls ‘If you were a rily ‘If I could only show you nantly, defiantly at me ‘…I could make you want me, desire me! But you’re unnatural!’ Her ive you! What can I do to iveto caress them like a man’s hand

“It was strange, that e because I could never have predicted the feeling her words incited inwaist, saw the round, plu lips She never dreamed what the mortal man in me was, how tormented I was by the blood I’d only just drunk Desire her I did, more than she knew; because she didn’t understand the nature of the kill And with a man’s pride I wanted to prove that to her, to humiliate her for what she had said to me, for the cheap vanity of her provocation and the eyes that looked away froust But this was rant eternal life

“And cruelly, surely, I said to her, ‘Did you love this child?’

“I will never forget her face then, the violence in her, the absolute hatred ‘Yes’ She all but hissed the words at me ‘How dare you!’ She reached for the locket even as I clutched it It was guilt that was consuuilt — that shop of dolls Claudia had described to y of that dead child But guilt that absolutely understood the finality of death There was so as powerful She had her hand out towards ers there, pressing the close to her, her hair brushing my face

“ ‘Hold fast to roide, her est, listen all the harder for the beating of my heart Hold and say over and over, “I will live” ’

“ ‘Yes, yes,’ she was nodding, her heart pounding with her excitement

“Her hands burned ontheir way into ht; don’t take your eyes off of it, not for a second, and say over and over, “I will live” ’