Exiting from the tent with Damien in her arms, Katherine paused, gazing upward toward the house. There, poised on the roof was Chessa, a heavy rope in her hand, cheerfully stretching it upward to show it was wound around her neck. Beneath her the crowds began to turn, smiling in confused anticipation as the small clown moved forward to the edge and held her hands out as if readying a high dive into a pool of water. "Look here, Damien!" she shouted. "It's all for you!" And in a single movement she stepped off the roof, her body plummeting downward, snapped back up by the rope, then hanging
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