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That hurt. I climbed to my feet and reached out to touch her shoulder. "I was talking to her for your
sake."
She turned. "For my sake? Matthew, please don't lie to me again." There were tears in her voice.
I m not lying. I was arguing that Selene shouldn't use any of your time."
"It was a very . . . short argument." Her voice began to catch. "And I find the ... conclusion rather . . .
inconsistent" Her control was cracking. Tears spilled out of her eyes. Her hand was white on the handle
of the tool caddy.
Guilt and her pain tore at me. I chased through my head for something to comfort her. "Mandy, I "
I bit my tongue but it was too late. She shrieked like a stricken animal and came at me swinging.
There was a poker in her hand.
I backed away, throwing my arms up to protect my head. Amanda might not be athletic, but she had
all her released emotion and Selene's sinewy gymnastic strength behind that swing. What probably saved
my life was that she did not have Selene's conscious coordination. The poker only brushed my forearm
before smashing into the stone of the fireplace.
I forgot to watch out for the rebound. Pain lanced up my arm. I went down, bouncing my head off
the edge of the hearth shelf as I fell.
Amanda screamed again. I tried to roll sideways but my body would not respond and I steeled
myself for the second, almost surely fatal blow. But, instead, there was the thud of something dropping on
the floor. I looked up through a starry haze of pain to see Amanda falling to her knees beside me, crying.
"Matthew Matthew, I'm sorry. I didn't meant to hurt you." Her hand stroked my forehead. "It was
the name you called me. I hit out at the name. I know what happened wasn't really your fault Selene
started it"
I started to frown. It hurt hellishly. There seemed to be silver wrapped around the edges of my vision,
too. "Selene isn't the evil genius you think, Amanda." My voice sounded thin.
"Don't defend her. She's just like her mother, and my father told me what she was. Selene's been
after my time ever since her mother died. Now she wants everything that makes my time worth living,
too." She clutched her hands together, lacing and unlacing the fingers.
I was appalled. This kind of thinking had been going on behind her Madonna's serenity? "You can't
really believe that."
"She probably let me catch the two of you making love so I'd throw you out and she could have you
to herself." Amanda sat back hugging herself as though cold. "I know what she's doing but I don't know
what to do to stop her. If she were a cancer, I could cut her out. How do I cure myself of this this
parasite of the mind?"
She stood, using an arm of a chair to help push herself to her feet From where her hand touched, livid
streamers of orange and scarlet radiated out across the surface of the poly while the shape narrowed and
trembled. A marbled pool of the same colors spread from her feet into the carpet. She stood with her
eyes searching the cabin as though she expected to find an answer there. Her gaze fixed on the kitchen.
"Cut her out," she said.
She ran for the kitchen, her feet leaving a path like bloody stepping stones.
"Amanda," I called.
I tried to sit up but my head weighed a thousand kilos. I managed to turn over on my side and, as
though down a silver tunnel, watched Amanda jerk open a drawer. She reached in. I gritted my teeth
against the nausea the effort of moving brought and lurched onto my hands and knees.
Her hand came out of the drawer with a thin knife.
"Amanda!" I crawled toward the kitchen, dragging the weight of my head with me. "Amanda, what
are you doing?"
The arm the poker had hit gave away, dropping my head and shoulders onto the carpet The shock
sent a new wave of nausea through me and muffled my vision and hearing in black velvet.
I could not have been out more than moments. When my sight cleared I was staring into polycarpet
turned murky green. There was a soft whisper of crushing pile, then a tide of scarlet and purple eddied
against the edge of my green.
I m going to cut her out, Matthew," Amanda's voice said from above me. It was tow but trembling,
a breath away from hysteria. "She only comes to dance. I read once about a horse whose tendons were
cut just a little, but he never was able to race again."
"My God!" I could see her feet and, by rolling onto my back, look up at her rising above me toward
the beams of the room, but I could not move. My head seemed nailed to the floor. The knife gleamed in
her hand. "Selene," I called. "I can't reach her. Help me."
Amanda cried, "Matthew, don't " Her eyes widened with horror. Her mouth moved again.
But this time it was Selene's voice, firm and brisk, that spoke. "I think we'd better have a talk,
Mandy."
There was another twisting of the facial features. Amanda, her voice rising, said, "You can't do this,
Selene. You're cheating."
"I can't let you ruin my dancing career."
"It's the only way I know to make you go away and leave me alone."
Amanda backed as she spoke, until she was stopped by a wall. The polycarpet extending up the
surface responded to her touch with art exploding aurora of hot oranges, reds, and violets.
I've tried living with you," Amanda said, "but it doesn't work. Now I won't have anything more to do
with you!"
"You have no choice." Tendrils of green and blue wormed their way into the pattern. "I'm as much a
part of this body as you are. Hamstring me and we'll just both be cripples."
Scarlet wiped out the blues and greens. Amanda cried, "Let's see."
She swooped toward her ankles with the knife. The long skirt of her dress bung in the way. Before
she could pick up the hem, her left hand stiffened.
"No," she screamed. "Selene, let go of my hand!"
Behind the left shoulder the polycarpet turned bright blue. The left hand reached for the right wrist.
Amanda wrenched herself sideways, stabbing at the left hand. "Leave me alone."
The left hand dodged. "You don't seem to understand, Mandy I can't. We're joined indissolubly, till
death us do part," Selene said.
"All right!"
The knife turned toward her own chest. Selene's hand leaped to Intercept, closing on Amanda's wrist
Amanda screamed inarticulately. Her whole body convulsed with the effort to tear loose. Selene held on.
Slowly, Selene twisted the wrist back and down while the poly around them swirled in wave after wave
of color pulsating with every labored breath of the struggling body. The maelstrom spread out across the
floor and up the walls, even affected the chairs so that they, too, raged with color and pulsed to " the time
of Amanda's breathing.
Amanda's wrist bent back farther. Her fingers fought to hold on to the knife, but with each moment
they loosed more.
Amanda sobbed. "I'm going to kill you, Selene. Sooner or later, I'll kill you."
"No." Selene's voice came through clenched teeth. "I won't allow that, Mandy. And I won't retire.
You'll just have to live with me as always."
"I won't I can't bear it." Amanda screamed once more as the knife dropped from her fingers.
Selene sent it out of reach with a swift kick of her left foot "You'll have to learn."
"Selene," I said, "don't push too hard."
Amanda was looking wild, her eyes darting around like those of a trapped animal.
"You're stuck, Mandy," Selene said. "There's no way out"
"No, no, no, no."
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