You run over to the lamp as quickly as you can and lift it over your head as he comes up behind you. You strike at his head with the porceline lamp, but feel a sharp jerk from the back of it, just as it is about to connect. The damned thing is still plugged in, and the cord won't quite reach.

The man laughs at this and sticks you in the gut with his knife, his face inches from yours. "No one fucks with the Morenzi's." He says into your ear as he twist the knife.

It hurts like nothing else has ever hurt. Only the loss of Cluadia hurt this much, but it was a different kind of pain. Cluadia was an emotional wound that would never heal. It killed you inside. This knife is more of a rending, tearing pain. A physical pain. It kills you on the outside.

And then suddenly the man is gone, and nothing hurts anymore. Claudia is standing there surrounded by an intense white light wich somehow does not bother your eyes. She holds a hand out to you and beckons for you to rise. You take her hand and stand on you feet, catching her in a loving embrace that will last forever.

She is in your arms once more. This must be heaven.