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But she didn't hear hih these slu her lips to

I was fall with his blood I felt it washing through ainedso quickly consumed it, and then I walked slowly, quietly as I could, as if she could hear when she could not, and stood at the end of the piano looking at her

What a se and pale blue eyes But look at the bruises on her face Look at the blood-red scratches on her cheek Look at the field of tiny red bleeding pinpoint wounds on her teht out by the roots

She didn't care The greenish-black bruises on her bare ar to her She played on

How delicate her neck was, even with the blackish swelling iraceful her s up the sleeves of her thin flowered cotton dress Her strong ashen eyebrows caazed before her at nothing but her lilting, peakingher titanic and indoth

She let her gaze drift tothat momentarily pleased her; she bowed her head once, twice, three tih she were nodding to me

"Sybelle," I whispered I put ers to ers marched on

But then her visionspeed from her, her head jerked back with the effort of her assault on the keys And the Sonata sprang once again into its most triumphant life

Soulfed me It was a power so total that it utterly surrounded me and sucked me up out of the roo, out of my senses

"Noooo, don't take me now!" I screamed But an immense and empty blackness sed the sound

I was flying, weightless, with my burnt black li pain This cannot bethe black flesh sealed toevery tendon of ernails bent and blackened like bits of burnt horn No, not my body, I cried, Oh, Mother help me, help me! Benjamin, help me

I began to fall Oh, there was no one who could help

"God, give ive ive up my reason, God, let , God, where is the church, God, where is the bread and the wine, God, where is she, God help me, help me "

Down and down I fell, past spires of glass, past grids of blind s Past rooftops and pointed towers I fell through the harsh and ailing of the wind I fell through the stinging torrent of snow I fell and I fell I fell past the here the unure of Benjamin stood with his tiny hand on the drape, his black eyes fixed on el I fell down and down, the skin shriveling and tightening onon onizing explosion of raw pain, I struck hard-packed snow

My eyes were open an