Unbearably sweet lips. (I suppose it was the taste of the liqueur.) It was as though burning poison were being poured into me, and more and more. …
I tore away from the earth and began revolving as an independent planet—down—down—following an uncalculable curve. …
What happened next I am able to describe only in an approximate way, only by way of more or less corresponding analogies.
It never occurred to me before but it is true: we who live on the earth, we are always walking over a seething red sea of fire which is hidden in the womb of the earth. We never think of it. But imagine the ground under our feet suddenly transformed into a thin glass shell; suddenly we should behold … !
I became glass-like and saw within myself. There were two selves in me. One, the former D-503 , Number D-503 ; and the other. … Before, that other used only to show his hairy paws from time to time, but now the whole other self left his shell. That shell was breaking, and in a moment. …
Grasping with all my strength the last straw (the arms of the chair), I asked loudly (so as to hear my first self), “Where, where did you get this poison?”
“Oh, this? A physician, one of my. …”
“ ‘One of my! one of my’ what?” And my other self jumped up suddenly and yelled: “I won’t allow it! I want no one but me. … I shall kill anyone who. … Because I. … You.” … I saw my other self grasp her rudely with his hairy paws, tear the silk, and put his teeth in her flesh! … I remember exactly, his teeth! …
I do not remember how, but I-330 slipped away and I saw her straightened, her head raised high, her eyes overlain by that cursed