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When Vasilisa left for home the demon, being tired of her gossips, breathed with relief. Victoria was watching the woman walking away.
‘What time shall I come to you tomorrow?’ Kharon asked to switch her thoughts over to him.
‘I’m gonna get my insurance for work and… that’s really difficult. Let’s meet at three at the Arbat? I’ll be waiting for you in the beginning of the street. Deal?’
‘Deal. May I kiss you?’ he asked for permission carefully.
Vic smiled and reached her lips to his.
‘I wanna tell you something.’ Kharon whispered after he had torn his lips away from hers.
‘Speak,’ Vic glanced at his eyes.
‘Be careful with your friends.’ The demon smirked in a slyly way. A serious hint sounded in his voice, that made her heart shake.
‘What does it mean?’ Vic got nervous. ‘Why are you speaking like this? Kharon!’
‘Because I can hear and see what people think about… And today I’ve seen and heard…’
‘What was she thinking about?’ her heart was beating like a drum.
Kharon kept on smiling. He stopped embracing the girl and focused on her face.
‘Sweet dreams, dear.’ He stooped to her and whispered, ‘at three at the Arbat, tomorrow.’
The man turned around and went in the direction of the park.
‘Kharon!’ Vic cried. ‘Wait!’
But the demon rapidly walked into the darkness, covering with a dark shadow.
‘Kharon!’ Vic screamed again and rushed for him.
The girl was running so fast that she almost got under a car, crossing the street. When she came to herself there was nobody in the distance.
‘Where did he get?’ she whispered, stopped before the road.
It was silence around …and only a thought: I don’t have friends any more. “Be careful with friends” was a terrible warning! What did it mean? What did Vasilisa think of that Kharon decided to warn? Why did he do that? To disappear with no explanations…
Victoria was alone among the empty street and looked at 1905 station where life was still burning near.
There was her cell in her hand. Vic was phoning her friend.
‘Vic? I’ve forgotten anything in the cafе, have I?’ the girl got worried at once.
‘No. I wanted to know what you think of Kharon?’
There was silence on the phone. Vic was looking at the frozen part of the park without moving.
‘He…’ Vasilisa said, ‘he’s nice. Handsome.’
‘Nice and handsome?’ Vic asked quietly.
‘Romantic.’ The friend added.
‘Did you like him?’ Vic ask straight staring at a tree.
‘I liked him as your man. You both look great! Don’t worry.’
‘I don’t. I just wanted to know your opinion. Ok, I’m going to bed. See you.’
Nice. Handsome. Romantic. Be careful with friends. Victoria sat on a bench near the entrance. There was only one thought jumping in her head – no meetings with any friends. Plus, the demon’s warning did its part. What was Vasilisa thinking while she was looking at the man whom Victoria had sold her soul for?
Vic closed her eyes. Morning. Maybe afternoon. It was her own place near her house at Bolshoy Predtechensky alley. There was nobody here. Suddenly a tall broad-shouldered man appeared with an insane mask on his face. With his big paws he shook the girl and asked for money. She cried and mumbled something not understandable through her closed with his hand mouth.
He drugged her behind the garages, threw on the ground and stabbed. Victoria screamed and rushed to help the girl but… she was back-strapped to do anything. She was a discorporate material. Victoria tried to catch the man’s hand but her fingers, her own fingers went through his hand like in damn horror films.
No matter how many times Vic tried to catch his hand she did nothing and it certainly brought her into a gargantuan horror. The man kept on stabbing the girl one by one. With her last strength the girl cried that the man confused her with someone whose name was Yana. She begged him to stop…
Victoria opened her eyes. Darkness. Her entrance. There was nobody. There were cold sweat and atrocity in her soul.
The girl stood up and barely stepping headed to the mischievous garages. There was a body of that girl, whom Vic had seen in her visions, between the garages near the wall. It was in blood, half covered with a bag.
Having closed her mouth with her hand not to let herself cry, Vic moved back.
‘Tell ‘em…’ she heard a quiet voice.
Victoria lifted up her eyes. There was a living girl’s spirit near its body… Moreover, it could speak. It was difficult to get its words, but she understood. It sounded like a TV or radio electronic interference affecting its words.
Victoria shivered and ran home, praying under her breath. But the more she spoke the pray the stronger her tattoo hurt on her blade and the quiet voice of the cadaver affected by metallic sound didn’t leave her head.
‘No!’ Vic screamed as she came home and slammed the door.
‘What’s up? What are you screaming?’ Olga Vladimirovna appeared in the hall.
‘Nothing. I’ve been speaking on the phone.’ The girl lied along the way.
‘You look very alarmed. Vic?’ her mum called her and added some more light. ‘You’re pale… Are you ill? Vic!’
‘It’s ok, mum.’ Vic answered finally.
‘It doesn’t look like it’s ok…’ Olga Vladimirovna was about to touch her daughter’s forehead, but Victoria stopped her.
‘I told you, I’m ok.’ Vic tried to smile. ‘Ok. Go back to bed. Work tomorrow?’
Victoria had to pull herself together not to let her mother be suspicious.
‘Are you?’ Olga Vladimirovna felt that something went wrong.
‘Mum!’ Vic screamed, stepped back from the door at least. ‘I did tell you! Why shall I say it fifty times in a row?’
‘That sounds that you’re ok. I’m gonna back to bed. I work tomorrow… and please, don’t scream like this.’
‘Ok, mum.’ Victoria smiled, closing the door behind herself in her room.
‘Dinner’s in the kitchen. If you’re not hungry, take it to the fridge.’ Her mother said after her.
‘Yes, I will…’
A half of the night Vic was turning around in her bed trying to fall asleep. There was a real apocalypse in her head like a horrible war of thoughts. Everything connected with Kharon destroyed everything connected with the terrible vision. Her heart and soul wanted to think of her beloved man, his beauty and hellish existence, him in all his way. But her head tried to get what was going on to her exactly. What was the reason that spirits worried her? Was Lucifer’s mark to blame? What attracted spirits to her? She didn’t get struck by lightning and face apparent death. Nothing of those happened to provoke that vision…
… Or could she be crazy? A crazy fool who made up different nonsense, believed in it and pile of questions was breaking her mind at that moment. She had to believe none of those had happened. It was just her mind games.
5
September 2013 (Thursday)
Having successfully completed her plan, Victoria came out of tax agency building. She was going along the street trying not to look at people, being afraid of seeing again empty eyes of lost souls. She was afraid of facing someone supernatural.
Victoria was heading to metro to get to Arbatskaya station where Kharon and she had agreed to meet.
There were different thoughts because of which the girl felt uneasy. Victoria had been already tired of thinking, but her mind kept on its weak-willed terror.
There was music playing in her ears not to listen to the outward things. She didn’t want to listen to anyone not to get crazy completely. She was scared to feel her own mind leaving her body. Vacuum. She could understand nothing but perfectly see her own mind walking without saying goodbye.
What could she do? How was it possible to make her own mind to stay? It was terrible just because of one thought that she was a mindless cretin. A vegetable that was going to be fed on medicine in an asylum.
Victoria was in a good mind nobody had to know of her new ability otherwise an asylum would be exactly for her. Nobody had to know who Kharon was and where he had come from and what had been done for it. Nobody had to know of the meeting with Lucifer…
The girl was walking ahead with no lifting her head up, doing her bag right over her shoulder. She sniffled, tucking her hair behind her ears and talked to herself. She persuaded herself: “let’s keep it in a secret?”, “Sure, we will! It’d have been blindly to blub out about what happened”, “Right, but you had to tell about the killed girl”, “No, no, I’d be put into prison. What would I tell the police? A spirit of the dead girl came up to me, threw me a little bit in the past and I saw the murder in detail? That some psycho cut up carelessly the poor girl like confetti just because he confused her with someone else because his mind dived into madness? What if this madness will come to me? No, none of that happened…”
Victoria dared to look up when she was near the very Arbat and bumped into Kharon with her eyes.
He was standing near the first building, looking up at something there.
He looked like an angel, looking at the heaven which he had been thrown down from for a long time ago. Here he was, wearing the black, having a bunch of bright blood-burgundy roses and a strange smirk, looking at the azure clouds.
The hot sun was gently touching his black shirt, feeding with its unmerciful warmth, tendering his face which was so unscrupulously looking at it and even didn’t narrow his eyes.
The man saw nobody, he was interested in nothing but in the blue height.
Victoria was stock-still and staring the demonic creature of an unbelievable beauty and unusual behaviour.
There was a woman wearing a swinging dress in the wind. It was light turquois colour and shining. The woman passed by Kharon so closed that beneath of her dress grabbed the demon’s legs into its tender embraces. Kharon gave a smiling look at the smoothing dress over his trousers and then at the woman walking away. She looked at him back playfully and disappeared in the underground passage.
Victoria, staying near the passage, was waiting for the fabulous woman to obtain a better view of her. But she didn’t appear like if she disappeared into a thin air.
Suddenly Kharon sharply turned his head in the direction where Victoria was, his frown took her, and he smiled. Victoria smirked, shook her head and went down to the underground passage. She was rushing to her beloved at full speed and even didn’t notice her bump into a man.
What astonishment was when she understood that that man was Kharon who had been staying at the Arbat with no motion for a moment ago.
‘Are you running to me?’ he asked, embracing her.
‘How did you get here?’ Vic closed her eyes, pressing herself to him. ‘People can notice your sudden appearance.’
‘No, they can’t. They are too busy with their life streams where they must dabble. You noticed me at once, didn’t you? I felt your devouring stare at me. How strange it was crawling over my face, shamelessly trying to look under my shirt… Victoria… Your thoughts are luxurious, I’m looking forward to your letting them come out… no, capture the reality.’
The man kissed her. Victoria was melting in his arms, because of his curious kisses, of his words and whispers. She enjoyed every second that Kharon gave her.
‘Let’s have a walk, you’ll tell me how wildly you hated people in queue in the tax agency.’ Kharon slowly took her by the hand and led to the exit out of the passage in the direction of the Arbat. ‘Oh, I’ve forgotten,’ he stopped and stared at the girl at the loss. ‘I saw men give the woman flowers… Is it romanticism?’
Kharon stretched the bunch of flowers to Victoria. Finally, the girl had a chance to examine the flowers and she was shocked with the beauty of their petals. They were really of blood colour like if someone put a brush into a venous stream and then painted the flowers. The tips of the petals were velvet literally. There were specks of dust, weightless but visible ones of endearment which a human could scrutinize. The buds were very thick full of life energy.
‘Kharon,’ Victoria whispered being fascinated, unable to tear herself from the flowers. ‘They’re so beautiful. I’ve never seen such prodigious colour.’
‘That’s ok,’ the demon smiled. ‘These flowers weren’t grown up on the earth.’
‘What do you mean? Are they from Mars?’ Vic asked seriously.
‘Of course, no, they aren’t. I took them from the place, as you like calling it – hell. We have such flowers there. There are no such on the earth and it’s hardly they’re gonna be.’
‘The flowers from hell. Form the demon. Kharon, am I ok?’ the girl confusingly looked at her companion.
‘Absolutely. You believe in my existence, but you don’t believe in the world where I live, and such flowers can be? You’re so strange.’
‘Strange is better than insane. You see, that’s you and you know yourself all your entire life, you’re not surprised with yourself. And I’ve known different things all my life. I’ve been grown up like an atheist for my 20 years as well as sceptic and materialist. I’ve been laughing at others who believe for 20 years. My mother is resuscitation specialist. She will never believe that a dead body has a soul and it goes somewhere to travel. Of course, I feel stupid when you appear.’
‘I always had fun at the way people react to my appearance. I’m something unusual in their lives. But I don’t usually need to prove them anything. It’s different with you… I’m in your world with you, in your life… in reality.’
They were walking along the Stariy Arabat, hands in hands. They were like other millions over the world, they weren’t different. The demon in the shape of a man stayed unnoticed as the girl with her sold soul.
Kharon examined the world having no tiredness. He observed people doing that or this, dressing, combing, what bags and jewellers they had. He had been building the picture, immersing himself into a human life, trying to understand what social cell he needed to get to be comfortable.
Victoria was thinking of his warm hand, his fingers between hers, how pleasantly his thumb was gently and rhythmically touching her index finger and how pleasantly his finger could have been touching her body…
The demon smiled as he heard the girl’s thoughts. He liked the things she imagined, and he looked forward to having all those spilled out of her mind into reality.
‘Kharon,’ suddenly the girl stopped. ‘I gotta tell you something. Yesterday when you left, I saw a girl be killed…’
‘Are you speaking about your vision? I’ve seen everything already through your memories and eyes that happened to you yesterday.’
‘Then you have to know what it was.’
‘It was a vision of a past.’ Kharon shrugged his shoulders.
‘Do you think it’s ok?’ Vic couldn’t understand imperturbable calmness of the man.
‘Yes, it is. I see the same every day.’
