High Leverage From The Financial Product Innovation Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1575 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? From 2000 to 2003, the Federal Reserve made the interest rate target to 1%. This was done to soften the effects of the collapse of the dot-com bubble and of the 911 terrorist attacks. On the other hand, Globalization and trade imbalances made up the large inflows of money into the U.S. from high savings countries, such as China. These two factors lend a cheap credit for the lenders who can take a much higher leverage than before. The default of sub-prime lending Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "High Leverage From The Financial Product Innovation Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Between 1997 and 2006, the American house pricing increased by 124%. Easy credit, and a belief that house prices would continue to appreciate, had let many subprime borrowers to take mortgages. The term subprime refers to the credit level of particular borrowers, who have poor credit histories and with a large risk of loan default than other borrowers. Subprime borrowers who found themselves unable to repay the high monthly payments will begin to default. High leverage from the financial product innovation The term financial innovation refers to develop the financial products, which designed to achieve their clients objectives, such as offsetting the risk. Examples related to this crisis included: the adjustable-rate mortgage; the bundling of subprime mortgages into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) or collateralized debt obligations (CDO) for sale, which also can seemed as securitization; and a kind of credit insurance called credit default swaps(CDS). The usage of these products was widely over the world in the years which the crisis happened. These products are very complexity and they easily be bought or sell between the financial institutions. The CDO was a kind of financial instruments which was created for investors fund subprime mortgages and some other lending. It improved the debts liquidity and which also was the one of the main reasons that results to the housing bubble. Firstly, the different kinds of mortgages were pool together. Then a cash payment was allocated specific securities in a priority sequence. Those securities obtaining cash first received investment-grade ratings from rating agencies. Lower priority securities received cash thereafter, with lower credit ratings but theoretically a higher rate of return on the amount invested. Miss grade of credit rating The rating agencies usually were asked to give a higher rating to the MBSs comparing to other instruments. The higher ratings of the MBSs get the easier to sale. Sometimes, more liquidity means more expensive and valuable. The high ratings also misleading the investors because in their opinion, they thought the MBSs were rated higher, and they were safer. So the investors pull more money in these MBSs which was booming the MBSs value. But actually, the values of underlying assets of these MBSs were decreasing. This also means the probabilities of default were increasing. And the rating agencies could not reflect this on time. These four factors created a great situation for the GFC and the crisis was so heavily to collapse the financial system all over the world. Australian banking system is far more stable than our overseas counterparts. This isnt just rhetoric; it comes down to a number of factors. Australian regulatory framework has proven to be one of the most effective in the world. Australian banking system is far more conservative in our approach to risk than many of our US counterparts. Lenders, in Australia, also tie the re-payment of mortgages to the borrowers, not just the house, which meant Australia didnt see the jingle mail that happened in the US where home-owners simply mailed their house keys to the bank when they couldnt keep up with the mortgage, or burnt their houses down rather than hand them over to the banks. And Australian banking system didnt undertake the kind of subprime housing lending that was one of the initial landslides in the earthquake that became the GFC. The conversion of mortgage securities from huge, illiquid assets owned by local banks into liquid financial instruments that could be sold across the world combined sophisticated U.S. financial services dangerously with relatively unsophisticated financial services elsewhere. The subprime lendi ng and the jingle mail phenomenon, combined with an excess supply of housing, were a toxic combination that set the credit crunch in motion. And Australia doesnt have these three factors. But its obvious that the Australian banking industry has been impacted by the GFC. A quick scan will show that consolidation in the industry has reduced the number of regional banks, and almost all the regional banks are about to be bought out or taken over. And governments are now charging banks more for their wholesale funding guarantee. Earlier 2009, David Morgan, the former Westpac CEO, spoke about the future of Australian banking. In his speech he indicated that any standalone financial institution with a credit rating much below AA will, at best, struggle to obtain funding on a cost competitive basis with the Australian majors. Federal government intervenes to stop the unemployment rate increasing and stop consumption rate failing, and try to slow down the failing stock market. The government started shoring up the economy in a variety of ways. There was a $700 billion guarantee of bank deposits to last for 3 years, and establishment of a $20 billion Building Australia Fund to speed up infrastructure development as one of several new nation building funds amounting to $42 billion in all. The economic stimulus plan included payment of a tax bonus to tens of thousands of Australian taxpayers, enhanced grants to first-home buyers, and a variety of rescue arrangements for industries in serious difficulty such as child-care centers and the automobile industry. These interventions were both timely and necessary and potentially avoided a major financial crisis here in Australia. However the initiatives also had the effect of distorting our competitive banking system, particularly in the area of wholesale funding. The head of the ACCC, Graham Samuel, has spoken out of his concern about the growing concentration of power of the big four banks. Currently, there was another crisis around the world, especial in the European area, which called European debt crisis. Compare with the global financial crisis of 2008, it seems that both crises were result from the lacking of confidence. But actually, the current European debt crisis is quite different from the global financial crisis. In 2008, lots of questions were asked that whether the banking sectors ability to absorb major crisis shocks. The banks were unwilling to lending the money since the confidence in the market fall. This also results to the illiquidity of the market and it also made the crisis worse. This period was before the Lehman event, so it was called post-Lehman period. Nevertheless there is one slight difference subprime mortgages have now been replaced by US debts that do not have the same toxicity, so in at least in this respect the current crisis is on better footing than the crisis of 2008. In addition, tensions observed in the Interbank lending market in which banks lend to each other are much lower than in 2008. Especially since the European Central Bank (ECB) launched an unlimited loan program in order to make a total economic gridlock almost impossible. But, just as in 2008, the markets are calling into question the capitalization of banks. Do these institutions have enough capital to cope with significant losses? Although a vast movement of recapitalization was already launched across Europe, the markets do not seem to be responding in any significant way to this effort. Now, just as then, debt is the main problem. But the debt in the 2008 financial meltdown was largely private sector debt (households and businesses), which the government simply took in order to jump-start the economy. While this plan did help reinvigorate the economy it eventually led to an over-indebted public sector. At the end of 2010, public debt in developed countries accounted for 92% of their gross domestic product (GDP), as opposed to 78% before the Subprime Mortgage crisis. So in many ways, we never fully solved the problem of the 2008 crisis we simply moved the problem from the private sector to the public sector. Whereas in 2008 we suffered from a massive Private Debt Crisis, in 2011 we are currently experiencing a massive Public Debt Crisis. On October 8, 2008, after the shock of Lehman Brothers collapse, seven central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, joined forces in order to respond to the crisis in a coherent and unified manner. In 2011, the political and economic rhetoric remain the same everyone agrees that the US and Europe need to form a unified front to deal with the crisis yet it seems that actions have fallen short of promises. In Europe, several nations launched the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in 2010 with a glimmer of hope, but divisions between European national governments slowed down the implementation of its tools and prevented it from finding a lasting solution to reassure markets of the strength of the Euro Zone. In the United States, internal differences have triumphed national cohesion. The differences between Democratic and Republican economic thought has led to deep disagreements on national policy and in the end resulted in the adoption of severely watered down economic policies. Last but not least, on both sides of the Atlantic, political and economic leaders have exhausted their cartridges interest rates are at their lowest and the coffers of the state are empty. Thus, the major difference between the economic crises of 2008 and 2011 is that today there is no more room to maneuver.

The Battle Of The Confederate Army Led By William T. Sherman

On September 1, 1864 Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, Commander of the Military Division of Army of Mississippi with his Union troops, had successfully captured Atlanta from the Confederate Army led by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. At that time Atlanta considered as the heart of the South for the Southerns and for the Confederate Army. On the other hand â€Å"Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant General in chief of the U.S. Army believed that the Civil War would come to an end only if the Confederacy s strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken† . So after the south had lost their most important railroad junctions and their important productive manufacturing centers, Sherman would now fight the last battle to make it more difficult for the southern Confederacy. On November 15, 1864 Sherman and his 60,000 Union troops left Atlanta and start marching to Savannah port on the Atlantic Ocean, expecting to face 13,000 troops from the Confederate Army led by LTG. William J. Hardee. On December 12, the Union army arrived near Savannah, and on the night of December 20–21, the Confederates filed out of their trenches and headed north and left the city without protection. On the morning of December 21, 1864 Mayor Richard D. Arnold formally surrendered Savannah to the Union army, Sherman had telegrammed Washington D.C presenting Savannah as a Christmas gift to President Lincoln. Here in my essay, I will write through research and analysis about a specific subjectShow MoreRelatedThe Civil War : The Greatest And Most Catastrophic War Essay1275 Words   |  6 Pagescombined. The Civil War was the greatest and most catastrophic battle in the Western world. It was caused because of stubborn differences between free and slave states over the government on whether or not to prohibit slavery amongst territories that were not yet states. Once President Abraham Lincoln was elected and pledged to prevent slavery in those territories , seven slave states withdrew and formed a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Abraham Lincoln’s administration refusedRead MoreJohn J. Crittenden1245 Words   |  5 PagesCharleston harbor in South Carolina. The attack from the Southern army at Fort Sumter started the Civil War between the Northern and Southern States. Abraham Lincoln sent help to the Union Army with food and resources that were short to Fort Sumt er. However, the Confederate Government, the Southern and slave states, decided to capture the Fort instead of allowing the Union to ship the resources to the fort. The Confederate Forces, led by General P.G.T. Beauregard, fired at Fort Sumter until the UnionRead MoreShermans march to the Sea1391 Words   |  6 PagesWar. A General of the Union army named William Tecumseh Sherman helped lead a campaign that started in Georgia go the sea in Savannah, and finish to help aid the main forces in the Carolinas. During this march the soldiers lived off the land and the Southern people’s food and burning anything that could be of military use to the South’s forces. This march helped decisively end the war, and struck many blows to the South’s forces and its people’s morale, that Sherman’s army could march unopposed throughRead MoreCivil War Weaponry1085 Words   |  4 PagesKetchum Grenades In August of 1861, William F. Ketchum patented the Ketchum Hand Grenade. Shortly after, in the years of 1863 and 1864, the grenade was implemented in the American Civil War. With a lemon-shaped piece of iron and a tail made of paper or cardboard, the handheld explosive greatly resembled a dart. On the front of the grenade’s body was a plunger, which held a percussion cap filled with explosive material.When the the grenade fell onto its nose and applied pressure to the plunger, anRead More The End of the American Civil War Essay2366 Words   |  10 Pagesthose people who were involved on the battlefield towards the end of the war. The war started in 1861 and was beginning to end by January of 1865. By then, Federal (Federal was another name given to the Union Army) armies were spread throughout the Confederacy and the Confederate Army had lost a lot of men. In the year before, the North had lost an enormous amount of lives, but had more than enough to lose in comparison to the men of the South. General Grant became known as the Butcher (GrantRead MoreGeneral Sherman And The Match Of The Sea1919 Words   |  8 Pages Holland Carvalho HIST342 17, July 2015 General William Sherman and the match to the sea Introduction General Sherman s contribution to the Civil War will forever be remembered in history, although he made some miscalculations, his mistakes did nothing to his reputation unlike his brilliance in strategizing . His military exploits went far beyond getting the attention of American military historians; it went all the way to the shores of Europe. Military historian Basil LiddellRead MoreWhat Distinguishes A Hero From A Villain?1129 Words   |  5 Pageshero from a villain? When assessing William Tecumseh Sherman’s goals and actions on the battle field, the lines aren’t always so clear. General Sherman commanded the Union army during the bloodiest war in American history: the Civil War. His march to the sea during the fall and winter of 1864 stands out as one of the pivotal successes for the Union, because of the brilliant tactics used to expose weakness in the Confederacy. Cutting off his supply lines, he led 62,000 soldiers from Atlanta to SavannaRead MoreWhy was the ci vil war so long and so bloody?1555 Words   |  7 PagesLouisiana and Texas had set up a new nation called the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as their President. When the war began it was a slight shock to both sides, this was due to neither one truly wanting, or believing, that they d fight. In the North, it was viewed that the talks of fighting was just a counter in politics, and threats were used to get what you want, calling their bluff. The South on the other hand didn t realise that the Federal Union meant so much to the NorthRead MoreThe Battle Of The Civil War2279 Words   |  10 Pagesmind are the Confederates Robert E. Lee, who is arguably the best general to have ever served in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant who was one of the finest Union generals that Abraham Lincoln found, but there was one general that turned the chapter for the union in the Civil War, William T. Sherman. The Union underwent a stage where they needed help badly. They had absolutely no advantage whatsoever against Robert E. Lee and the South. They lost the 1st/2nd Battle of Bull Run, Battle of FredericksburgRead MoreTaking a Look at Abraham Lincoln833 Words   |  3 Pageswas born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12th, 1809. As the Leader of the Union, he fought against the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis in the Civil War. Lincoln won the war with General Ulysses S. Grant by his side. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th 1865. He died of his gunshot wound at 7:22 the next day. â€Æ' William Tecumseh Sherman Born in Lancaster, Ohio, Sherman was only sixteen when he entered West Point. He is the colonel of the 13th Regular Infantry. He was also

The Forbidden Game The Kill Chapter 7 Free Essays

Gebo, she thought, one flash of coherence, of memory, just before her head slid under the water. Gebo, the rune of sacrifice. Oh, Tom. We will write a custom essay sample on The Forbidden Game: The Kill Chapter 7 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Dying was painless-but sad. It hurt to think of the people she was leaving behind. She kept picturing her parents, imagining what they would say when Dee and the others got home and told them. If Dee and the others got home and told them. Her thoughts were very scattered, like dandelion fluff blowing erratically on the wind. Mr. and Mrs. Parker-Pearson-Summer’s parents -had been so hurt when they lost Summer. Jenny hated to think of her parents hurt that way. And Tom †¦ what would happen to Tom? Maybe Julian would let him go. No point in keeping him after Jenny was gone. But that didn’t seem likely. Julian was a Shadow Man, he belonged to a race that didn’t have gentle emotions. They weren’t capable of pity. Julian might take out his anger on Tom instead. Please, no, Jenny thought†¦ but it didn’t seem to matter that much anymore. Even her sadness was fading now-breaking up and floating away. She was dead, and she couldn’t change anything. Strange, though, that a dead person could suddenly feel pain-physical pain. A burning. The frigid water had stopped hurting a long time ago, and since then she’d had no sense of her own body. Trapped in absolute darkness and utter silence, too numb to feel any sensation, she didn’t seem to have a body. She was just a drifting collection of thoughts. But now-this burning had started. At first it seemed very distant and easy to ignore. But it didn’t stop. It got worse. She felt heat: a tingling, prickling heat that demanded her attention. And with the heat she began to have a body again. Hands. She could feel her hands now. And feet, she had feet. She had a face, defined by thousands of tiny red-hot needles. And she was aware of a vague, fuzzy glow. Open your eyes, she told herself. She couldn’t. They were too heavy, and everything hurt so much. She wanted to go back into the darkness where there wasn’t any pain. She willed the light to go away. â€Å"Jenny! Jenny!† Her name, called in tones of love and desperation. Poor Tom, she thought dimly. Tom needed her-and he must be frantic with worry. She should go to Tom. But it hurt. â€Å"Jenny. Please, Jenny, come back-â€Å" Oh, no. No, don’t cry. It’ll be all right. There was only one way to make it all right, and that was to come back. Forget how much it hurt. All right, do it, then. Jenny concentrated on the fuzzy glow, trying to make it come closer. Pulling herself toward it. The pain was terrible-her lungs hurt. But if she had lungs, she could breathe. Breathe, girl! It hurt like hell, and darkness sucked at her, trying to drag her down again. ‘ â€Å"That’s it, Jenny. Keep fighting Oh, Jenny †¦Ã¢â‚¬  With a tremendous effort she opened her eyes. Golden light dazzled her. Someone was rubbing her hands. I did it for you, Tom. But it wasn’t Tom. It was Julian. Julian was the one rubbing her hands, calling out to her. Golden light danced on his hair, his face. It was a fire, Jenny realized slowly, and she was in another cavern, slightly bigger than the last. She was dry, somehow, and lying in a sort of nest of white fur, very soft, very comfortable. The heat of the fire was bringing her back to life. The pain wasn’t so bad now, although there was still an unyielding knot of ice in her middle. And she felt weak-too weak and exhausted to think properly. It was Julian, not Tom-but she couldn’t really take that in. It didn’t even look like Julian †¦ because Jenny had never seen Julian look afraid. But now the blue eyes were dark with fear and as wide as a child’s-the pupils huge and dilated with emotion. Julian’s face, which had always seemed molded for arrogance and mockery, was white even in the firelight-and thinner somehow, as if the skin were drawn tight over bones. As for the dangerously beautiful smile that usually curved Julian’s lips †¦ there wasn’t a trace of it. Strangest of all, Julian seemed to be shaking. The hands that held Jenny’s had stopped their rubbing, but a fine, continuous tremor ran through them. And Jenny could see how quickly he was breathing by the way his chest rose and fell. â€Å"I thought you were dead,† he said in a muted voice. So did I. Jenny tried to say it, but only got as far as a hitching breath. â€Å"Here. Drink this, it should help.† And the next moment he was supporting her head, holding a steaming cup to her lips. The liquid was hot and sweet, and it sent warmth coursing into the cold, hard knot inside her, loosening it and chasing away the last of the pain. Jenny felt herself relaxing, lying still to absorb the fire’s heat. A feeling of well-being crept through her as Julian laid her back down. Gently. Julian was being gentle †¦ but Julian was never gentle. He belonged to a race that didn’t have gentle emotions. They didn’t feel tenderness, weren’t capable of pity. She probably shouldn’t even accept help from him-but he looked so haunted, like someone who had been through a terrible fright. â€Å"I thought I’d lost you,† he said. â€Å"Then you didn’t send the water?† He just looked at her. It didn’t seem to be the time for recriminations. Oh, she probably ought to say something-maybe list the kind of things he’d done to her in the past. He’d hunted her in every way imaginable. But here, now, in this little cavern surrounded by rock, with no one present but the two of them, and no sound but the soft roar and crackle of the fire †¦ all that seemed very far away. Part of a past life. Julian didn’t seem like a Shadow Man, didn’t seem like a hunter. After all, if he were a predator, he had his quarry right here, exhausted and helpless. He’d never have a better chance. If he wanted her, she wouldn’t even be able to put up a fight. Instead, he was looking at her with those queer dazed eyes, still black with emotion. â€Å"You would have cared if I died,† she said slowly. The eyes searched hers a moment, then looked away. â€Å"You really don’t know, do you?† he said in an odd voice. Jenny said nothing. She pulled herself up a little in the white nest, so she was sitting. â€Å"I’ve told you how I feel about you.† â€Å"Yes. But †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Julian had always said that he was in love with her-but Jenny had never sensed much tenderness in the emotion. She might have said this, but for some reason it seemed-inappropriate-to say it to someone who looked so lost. Like a child waiting for a blow. â€Å"But I’ve never understood why.† â€Å"Haven’t you.† It wasn’t even a question. â€Å"We’re so different.† Madness to be talking about this. But they were both looking at each other, now, quietly, as they had never sat and looked before. Eyes unwavering-but without challenge. It meant something to look into someone’s eyes this long, Jenny thought. She shouldn’t be doing it. But of course she had wondered, she had wondered from the beginning what he could possibly see in her. How he could want her-so much. Enough to watch over her since she was five years old, to pierce the veil between the worlds to come after her, to hunt her and stalk her as if he thought about nothing else. â€Å"Why, Julian?† she said softly. â€Å"Would you like a list?† His face was completely blank, his voice clipped and emotionless. â€Å"A-what?† â€Å"Hair like liquid amber, eyes green as the Nile,† he said, seeming utterly dispassionate about it. He could have been reading a page of homework assignments. â€Å"But it’s not the color, really, it’s the expression. The way they go so deep and soft when you’re thinking.† Jenny opened her mouth, but he was going on. â€Å"Skin that glows, especially when you’re excited. A golden sheen all over you.† â€Å"But-â€Å" â€Å"But there are lots of beautiful girls. Of course. You’re different. There’s something inside you that makes you different, a certain kind of spirit. You’re -innocent. Sweet, even after everything that’s been thrown at you. Gentle, but with a spirit like flame.† â€Å"I’m not,† Jenny said, almost frightened. â€Å"Audrey sometimes says I’m too simple – â€Å" â€Å"Simple as light and air-things people take for granted but that they’d die without. People really should think more about that.† Jenny did feel frightened now. This new Julian was dangerous-made her feel weak and dizzy. â€Å"When I first saw you, you were like a flood of sunshine. All the others wanted to kill you. They thought I was crazy. They laughed†¦ .† He means the other Shadow Men, Jenny thought. â€Å"But I knew, and I watched you. You grew up and got more beautiful. You were so different from anything in my world. The others just watched, but I wanted you. Not to kill or to use up the way-the way they do with humans sometimes here. I needed you.† There was something in his voice now besides clinical dispassion. It was-hunger, Jenny thought, but not the cold, malicious hunger she’d seen in the ancient eyes and the whispering voices of the other Shadow Men. It was as if Julian was hungry for something he’d never had, filled with a crippling need even he didn’t understand. â€Å"I couldn’t see anything else, couldn’t hear anything else. All I could think about was you. I wouldn’t let anyone else hurt you, ever. I knew I had to have you, no matter what happened. They said I was crazy with love.† He had gotten up and walked away to the edge of the firelight. As he stood there, Jenny seemed to see him for the first time, looking at him with new eyes. And he looked-small. Small and almost vulnerable. Nothing in the universe was moving except her heart, and that was shaking her body. She had never thought about what the other Shadow Men might say to Julian. She knew he was the youngest of a very old race, but she’d never thought about his life at all, or his point of view. She hadn’t thought about him having a point of view. â€Å"What’s it like, being-† She hesitated. â€Å"Being a Shadow Man? Watching from the dark places everything happening on the worlds that aren’t full of shadows? Earth has colors, you know, that you never find here.† â€Å"But-you can make anything you want. You can create it.† â€Å"It’s not the same. Things fade here. They don’t last.† â€Å"But why do you stay here, then? Instead of just watching us, you could-† Jenny stopped again. God, what was she saying? Inviting the Shadow Men to her own world? She took a deep breath. â€Å"If you could change-â€Å" â€Å"I can’t change what I am. None of us can. The rest of the nine worlds keep us out; they say our nature is destructive. We’re not welcome anywhere-but we’ll always be near Earth, watching. From the shadows.† There was something in his voice-too quiet and closed-off for bitterness. A-remoteness that was bleak beyond words. â€Å"Forever,† he finished. â€Å"Forever? You never die?† â€Å"Something that isn’t born can’t die. We have a-beginning, of course. Our names carved on a runestave, a special runestave.† He said, almost mockingly, â€Å"The stave of life.† There had been something about staves in her grandfather’s journal. A picture scrawled in ink, showing a sort of tall, flat branch with runes on it. â€Å"Carve our names on the stave-and we come into existence,† Julian said. â€Å"Cut them out-and we disappear.† It seemed very heartless to Jenny. Cold-but then the Shadow Men were cold. Not flesh and blood, but creatures that came into being through a carving in wood or stone. How cold to be a Shadow Man, she thought. And how sad. Condemned by your own destructiveness to be what you were forever. Julian was still standing at the edge of the firelight, face half in shadow, gazing at the darkness beyond. It gave Jenny a queer hollow feeling. What would it have been like, she wondered suddenly, if he hadn’t tried to force her? From the beginning Julian had used force and trickery. He’d lured her into the More Games store and enticed her into buying the Game, knowing that when she put the paper house together it would suck her into the Shadow World. He’d kidnapped her. And then he’d appeared and bullied her: forced her to play his own demonic game to try and win her freedom. He’d threatened her, hurt her friends-killed Summer. He’d done everything to try and wring submission out of her. â€Å"Couldn’t you just have come and asked?† she murmured. She’d said the same thing to him in the tower of the paper house. Didn’t that ever occur to you? That you could just appear at my front door, no games, no threats, and just ask me? But in the tower the words had been part of a ruse to get free, and she hadn’t really thought about them herself. Now she did. What if Julian had come to her, appearing some night out of the shadows while she was walking home, say, and told her that he loved her? What would she have done? She would have been afraid. Yes. But after the fear? If Julian had come, offering gifts, gentle, looking as vulnerable as he did now? If she had accepted his gifts †¦ It was a strange future, too strange to visualize, really, but queerly thrilling. It was too foreign to imagine: herself as a sort of princess with a prince of darkness as consort. For just an instant Jenny got a rushing, heady glimpse; for a fraction of a second she could picture it. Herself, wearing black silk and sable, sitting on a black marble throne in a big stone hall where it was always twilight. Growing paler and colder, maybe, as she forgot about the ordinary world she’d left behind -but happy, maybe, in her power and position. Would she have little Shadow World creatures to order around and look after? Servants? Would she be able to control the elements here the way Julian did? Or maybe not a black gown-maybe white, with little icicles all over it, like Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen. And jewels like frost-flowers, around her neck and a blue-eyed white tiger crouching at her feet. What would Dee and Audrey think if they saw her like that? They might be afraid at first-but she’d serve them strange drinks, like the sweet, hot stuff in the mug, and after a while they’d get used to it. Audrey would envy the pretty things, and Dee would envy the power. What else? Julian had said she could have anything-anything. If she could have anything in the world she wanted, with no limits, no restrictions on her imagination-if she could have anything †¦ I’d want Tom. She’d forgotten him for a moment, because the picture of the big stone hall was so alien. Tom’s warmth and strength and lazy smile didn’t fit there at all-which of course made sense because Julian would never let him in. But any world without Tom was a world Jenny didn’t want. The vision of the white gown and the jewels disappeared, and she knew somehow that it would never come back, not the way it had for that one moment, when she could feel it and believe in it. She would never forget it, but she would never be able to recapture it, either. Just as well, she thought unsteadily. She didn’t want to think about this anymore; in fact, she thought it was high time that she got out of here. She was tingling all over with a sense of danger. â€Å"I’m warm now,† she said, pushing the white fur away. All she could think of was that she had to leave. She should thank him, maybe, for saving her life – although it wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place if not for him. He was looking at her. Jenny looked away, concentrated on getting her legs under her. When she stood, they were wobbly. She tried to step out of the white nest, and stumbled. He was there in an instant. She felt his warm hands close around her arms, steadying her. She stared at his chest, bare under the leather vest and lifting quickly with his breathing. The firelight touched everything with gold. She didn’t want to look up into his face, but somehow it happened anyway. His eyes were still hugely dilated, the blue mere circles around pupils dark and bottomless as midnight. His pupils always sprang open for her, she realized, but just now there was something haunting about those lonely depths. â€Å"I’m sorry,† she whispered, hardly knowing what she meant. â€Å"I have to* leave now. I’m sorry.† â€Å"I know.† In that instant he seemed to understand better than she did herself. He looked very young, and very tired, and heavy with some knowledge she didn’t share. Face still solemn, he leaned in slightly. Jenny shut her eyes. It was different from any kiss they’d ever had. Not because it was softer-Julian’s kisses were usually soft, at the beginning anyway. Not even because it was so slow-Julian’s kisses were almost always slow. But it was different, in a way that sent Jenny’s mind spinning into confusion. Feeling †¦ that was it. Not just sensation, but emotion. Emotion so strong that it left her shaking. It was such an innocent kiss, so-chaste. His warm mouth touching hers. His lips trembling against hers. How could something that simple move her so much? Because she could sense his feelings, she realized. When she touched his lips, she could feel his pain, the almost unendurable pain of someone whose heart was breaking with sadness. What she tasted on those warm, soft lips was unbearable loss. If he’d been dying, or she had, she would have been able to understand such a kiss. He’s suffering like that-from losing me? Jenny had never been particularly modest, but she could hardly believe it. She might have rejected the idea outright-except for what she was feeling herself. What she felt †¦ was a shattering inside. When he stepped back, Jenny was in something like a trance. She stood there, eyes shut, still feeling everything, unable to move. Tears welled up around her lashes. But Tom. The time in sixth grade when he’d broken his leg and sat in a tide pool, white but still wisecracking, holding on to Jenny’s hand, not letting anybody else see how bad the pain was. All the many times he’d held Jenny for her sake, when she got scared at movies, or when she cried over the stray animals she took in. He’d stayed up all night when she thought Cosette, the kitten she’d rescued-from a vacant lot, was dying. He had been part of her life since she was seven years old. He was a part of her. And Julian had hurt him. Julian had blown his chance right at the very beginning, when he’d done that. Jenny opened her eyes, the trance broken. She stepped back, and saw Julian’s face change. As if he knew exactly what she was thinking. â€Å"Tom needs me,† she said. Julian smiled then, grimly, in a way that chased the cobwebs out of Jenny’s brain. The lost, haunted look was gone, as if it had never existed. â€Å"Oh, yes. Tommy needs you like air. But I need you like-â€Å" â€Å"What?† Jenny said when it was clear he wasn’t going on. â€Å"Like light,† Julian said, with the same bitter smile. â€Å"You’re light, all right-like a flame to a moth. I told you once that you shouldn’t mess with forbidden things-I should have taken my own advice.† â€Å"Light shouldn’t be forbidden,† Jenny said. â€Å"It is to me. It’s deadly to a Shadow Man. Light kills shadows, don’t you know? And of course the other way around.† He seemed to find this amusing. He’d done one of his quicksilver mood changes, and looking at his face now, Jenny almost wondered if the last half hour had been a dream. â€Å"Don’t think that just because I pulled you out of the water, the Game is over,† he added. â€Å"You need three gold coins to get to your precious Tommy. And time’s tick, tick, ticking. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I’ve got one, remember. I-† Jenny broke off with an inarticulate noise, feeling in her jeans pocket. The Swiss Army knife was still there, but the gold doubloon he’d tossed her in the cavern was gone. â€Å"But I had it. It must have fallen out-â€Å" â€Å"Sorry. Only one turn to a customer. No replays. Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars.† â€Å"You-† Jenny broke off again. Her anger drained, but she felt something inside herself harden, ice over. All right, then. She must have been crazy, feeling sorry for Julian-Julian!-but now she knew better. They were opponents, as always, playing against each other in a Game that was as cutthroat and pitiless as Julian himself. â€Å"I’ll get the coins-if you give me the chance. I can’t do much in here,† she said. â€Å"True. Exit doors are to the left. Please watch your step and keep moving. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.† Jenny turned and saw a rectangle of dim light. It hadn’t been there before. She took a breath and started toward it, careful to walk straight. She didn’t mean to look back. But as she got close to the door, close enough to see that it looked like an ordinary double door, like the kind that led out of Space Mountain at Disneyland, she threw a quick glance over her shoulder. He was standing where she’d left him, a black silhouette in front of the fire. She couldn’t tell anything by his posture. She turned away and stepped through the door, blinking. She could see tiny distant lights, lots of them, sparkling and wheeling in a dazzling display. â€Å"What-?† she whispered. Something grabbed her. How to cite The Forbidden Game: The Kill Chapter 7, Essay examples