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Show 246 caught between the wall and the legs of the overturned bureau and beat rapidly against them hoth. Blood was welling from the abrasions on her ankles. Her whole body was rigid; the muscles in her shoulders and neck (she wore only a slip) were bunched and knotted, and her arms, including the one she lay on, were straight at her sides, her fists clenched. When he touched her she was hard. The cords in her throat were like bowstrings, her lips pulled back from her teeth, one of which had cracked, and her nostrils were distended abnormally. Her eyes were locked into a wild stare, the irises completely surrounded by white. But it was the shaking that scared him most. She didn't thrash; it was the violent quivering of - muscles holding something together that was going to be stronger than she was in the next minute. Except for the pounding of her feet against the wall and the bureau, she didn't make a sound. His first impulse was to pull her away from the bureau before she damaged her legs. He did this clumsily because her body was so hard he couldn't get a firm grip, but eventually he worked her free of the enclosure, and she suddenly screamed and rolled onto her back. She lay there, not shaking now but glaring at the ceiling, the spittle flying from her lips as she breathed furiously, her chest heaving. He knelt down next to her and took hold of her hand, which she pulled away. He passed his hand over her forehead and she turned her face away. He spoke to her gently as she struggled to get up, and held her by the shoulders, the elbow, the back, in an effort to help her, and she said, "It's all right. Please go away." She fended him off with her elbows and got to her feet at last, teetering, gazing hotly around her as though she hated everything she saw. She tried to walk and bumped first into the edge of the closet door and then into the wall, all the while making a strange sizzling sound with her mouth. He hurried in front of |