The Mist and the Lightning. Part VIII

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“I will climb first,” said Karina.

Chapter two

In the dungeon

The hatch was very narrow; she, resting her legs and arms, carefully descended lower and lower into a yawning blackness. Nikto was following her. At some point, she was afraid that his shoulders were wider and he would not get into this hole, but he apparently was emaciated, because with great difficulty, but he squeezed there. Soon Karina heard the murmur of water, the pipe ended and she plopped down into the icy water, painfully hurting her knees.

“Watch out! It’s high here,” she cried, barely having time to crawl to the side when Nikto plopped down almost on her. And he again grabbed her hand and pulled her somewhere, as if some unknown seventh feeling was leading him.

“Well, wait, let me at least to take the flower out!”

He obediently stopped, and as soon as she pulled out a long-suffering flower from her bag and put her hand in his one, he immediately rushed deep into these catacombs, squelching through the water, as if not noticing it. And generally not noticing anything around.

“We will get lost here, die from hunger and cold, and they will never find us,” thought Karina. She was scared, not because of Nikto, although he looked creepy and acted like an animal, she was not afraid of him now. Although she clearly understood that he would kill her in a second, even in such a state, blind, she won’t even have time to squeak. “He is really very dangerous, like a sharpened blade. But unlike other girls, I can handle cold weapons,” smiled Karina. Maybe he took her with him in order to eat her later and to survive here? Sooner or later, get out somewhere on the surface, can this really be possible?

***

“I'm tired, I can’t stand it anymore,” said Karina after some time, during which they walked and walked, circled, and sometimes crawled into some very narrow skin-scraping hatches. No, they’d never be found there.

Nikto put a finger to his lips and nodded. She didn’t get it. Her feet were wet. In general, she was all dirty.

“Nikto, please, let’s take a break…”

He nods again and… continues to drag her further.

“Nik! I don’t know how you can go so long, and what leads and supports you, but I can’t do it anymore! No matter what you want!” And Karina stopped resolutely, pulling her hand out of his hand.

He shook his head, again showed this strange movement, as if drawing an arch.

“Output? Are you showing the way out?”

Nikto nodded.

“Do you know where it is?”

Nikto nodded again. This inspired Karina, she seemed to get a second wind, if he knew where the exit was, then there really was no need to sit there to relax, rather they needed to get out!

“Then let's go!” She held out her hand to him again.

It was not long before he stopped in some rather large hall, in fact it was the largest room that they passed here. It seemed to her that the room had a round shape, but the flower couldn’t illuminate it enough to say with confidence. And to Karina's unspeakable surprise, Nikto let go of her hand and sat on the floor.

“Nik, did you decide to rest? Where is the exit? Are we coming soon?”

Nikto nodded.

“Well,” Karina crouched besides, since the floor in this room was dry. She put a “stone flower” next. It was completely uncomfortable there. How did he manage… In these narrow underground catacombs, Gods knew what for they were intended, all these hatches – not to drain the sewage? So, how did he manage to find there such a large room of some strange round shape and such a high ceiling?

Did he really know where the exit was? Maybe he just lost his mind and was seeing things. Karina looked at Nikto, he closed his eyes, sitting, cringing as if sleeping. In the obscure light of the “stone flower” his hair seemed light green, for some reason, Karina thought it was beautiful. In general, everything in her head mixed up in a heap, and didn’t sort out on the shelves. She was unthinkably tired and nervous, and the dumb Nikto couldn’t support her, but she went to him for advice! Everything turned completely different. If he knew where the exit was, then why didn’t he lead them further? Was he tired? But he didn’t collapse in exhaustion, which meant he could still go, she generally had the feeling that Nikto could go for a very long, endlessly long time.

In his movements, there was nothing superfluous, no fuss, he acted as a mechanism. It forced to respect his strength and endurance, respect him, and at the same time, at some instinctive level, it frightened her, as if there was something alien to human nature in him. She suddenly remembered how easily he had survived a ninety percent fatal wound in his stomach, how he then got up from the floor and went down the stairs, mounted his horse… now the same thing. Maybe her father was right in something? And Karina started shaking. Now his hair no longer seemed beautiful to her, on the contrary, this green shade gave them some ominous color. And he was on his mind, strong, hardy. Did he really need her help? Well, maybe just to get out of the chamber. And then? Why did he follow her if he had a plan in his head? The plan of escape in the exact opposite direction. Why didn’t he immediately run to the hatch? Why were all these chases and killings needed? Why did he carry her everywhere with him? “I won’t manage without you.” And Karina suddenly clearly understood, he would manage, he would open the hatch, and this room… What were they doing in this underground hall? How did he find it? Wasn’t he waiting for salvation, for some friend from the other world? No, of course, she didn’t believe in the devil and all this nonsense… or she did. In such a gloomy atmosphere, it was not difficult to believe in anything. Why did he bring her here and sat down? What was he waiting for? Karina grabbed the bag, her hands went in a sway. Apparently, having heard her swarming, Nikto turned his head to her. He was still blind, and strangely enough it reassured her a little.

“I want to give myself an injection,” she explained, “with a restorative, or… my nerves have gone to hell.”

He pointed a finger at himself.

“Well, I'll give it to you too, just write what,” Karina handed him the notebook again, and this time, he wrote what she wanted from him. At last! Not “What day is it today?” or “I want to die.”

Karina was relieved to read the name of his usual “restorative”, which meant that Nobody was recovering.

She pulled out a clean syringe and an ampoule with a rather weak (according to Nikto, Arel, Lis and others) stimulant, Karina with difficulty, and it was terrible (it was good that Nikto couldn’t see this disgrace), at third attempt got into her vein, her hands were trembling. Then, hiding, as she decided, “her syringe,” she pulled out, as she thought, “infected” syringe of Nikto. She made a solution for him. He immediately reached out, as if seeing, was he guided by sounds or by smell?

“Do you want to try yourself?”

Nikto nodded, and Karina gave him a syringe. Well, his hands were free, though a heavy handcuff with a chopped chain remained on his right wrist, well, let him try it. If he so wants. He didn’t roll up his sleeve, as she expected, and didn’t do something else, any preparing. He just put a needle to his neck, somewhere under the collar and… ten seconds hadn’t passed when he held out an empty syringe to her.

“You… you… well, cool you are!”

And Nikto, she was ready to argue, tried to smile at her, a little out of the corner of his lips.

Karina felt the trip from the stimulants. They needed to move on, a picture of what to do cleared up in my head. They had to look for a way out. What was he waiting for?

“We have to look for a way out,” said Karina. She got up and went, ran somewhere, faster, or didn’t run. There were some kind of corridors, or she still had visions, and a bright light: “I found a way out! Output!” The light was melting before her eyes, like a mirage in the desert, again a wall, and Karina again wandered through the narrow and dark corridors: “Where is the exit?! Output! Output!” Some strange walls, Karina looked under her feet, near the floor there was something like a thin white strip. Gods! This was not paint, it was a thin slit and bright light was beaming from it, these walls, they were like a curtain around her! She just had to lift it, and everything was so simple, there was freedom! How could she not have guessed before?! Karina already saw the bright green grass of a hilly field, and the blue-blue sky, and the forest near the horizon, and most importantly this fresh wind stupefying with its purity!”

Gathering her last strength into a fist, Karina made a jerk to rip off this dirty curtain, imitating masonry, to run through a meadow, through green grass, fill the lungs with clean air, instead of the musty stale air of the dungeons, and… again appeared in this terrible round room that looked like some ancient temple, and again saw Nikto sitting nearby. He was sitting next to her, as if he had not changed his posture, and the flower was still illuminating his hair with light green.

The wild disappointment of the first seconds of returning to reality was immediately replaced by fear and anxiety. She was cut off by this fucking stimulant, and it was not known for how long! Yes, she woke up rested and full of strength, only they were still in this underground room. When will it be over!

“Fuck, Nik! How much did I sleep like that? Why didn’t you wake me up? Stop sitting here, we have to go!”

And as if in confirmation of Karina’s words, they heard distant voices and signal sounds of horns. The soldiers found the hatch!

“They will find us now, Nik, we have to run!” Karina tried to pull Nikto’s hand, he reluctantly got up, as if obeying, but obviously was not going to go anywhere.

“They will find us sooner or later, don't you understand that?! We need to do something!” He didn’t react to her words, Karina pulled him along, and then… he didn’t follow her, he rested, and besides, grabbing her arm, he pulled her sharply to him, pressed her back to his chest and gripped her wrist with force. At that moment, when she realized that he didn’t want to let her go, Karina was covered by such a panic as she didn’t expect from herself, considering herself bold and cold-blooded. Suddenly all the warnings of her father surfaced and became so clear and understandable. “He fooled you! The demon in human form, the son of the devil!”

Nikto was waiting for something in this place, for something or someone. After all, he had many “unclean” friends who could make their way everywhere if they wanted. What about his servant with a dog’s head! From one memory of this creature, Karina felt sick, and the earth seemed to shake under her feet, no, the earth really seemed to sway. Gods! No, here it no longer smelled like “unclean” friends, but really by Dad himself!

“Gods!” Karina looked under her feet round-eyed, because the stone floor was trembling. It vibrated as if somewhere far away, someone was wielding a powerful jackhammer. At first, these waves were shaking at intervals, but very quickly they merged into one. “Now he will sacrifice me,” Karina thought somehow calmly and doomedly, this cannot be, but it will happen. He lured her here, deceived her.

“You could have done without me,” said Karina, angry at Nobody and her impotence. “Why do you need me?”

Nikto shook his head in a negative gesture. His face, eyes, the steel grip with which he held her hand. “But I, unlike other girls, can handle cold weapons,” she thought some time ago, ha, what arrogance! As if in response to her panicky thoughts, they again heard the screams and signals of a hearth echoing among themselves among the guards. “They'll get me out!” – it flashed through her head, like salvation, and she screamed, or rather, tried to scream with all her power.

Her scream was immediately drowned out by Nikto’s palm, he clasped her with his arms, clutching to him and clutching her hand with one hand, and holding her mouth with the other. It seemed to Karina that the revolving walls were added to the trembling floor. Her eyes darkened, everything around her started spinning and turning around, she felt only Nikto’s body, his steel grip, his icy palm on her lips, and lightheadedness, as if she was being turned inside out. Now I will die, flashed through her mind, and yes, Nikto let me down. As my father said. He needed her to open the chamber door, take off the shackles, and he pretended to be weak and miserable. But he was not like that, now she understood it, these suspicions crept into her even earlier, when he so famously cracked down on the guards. She got caught, caught, and he was a demon. But why did he follow her if he had his own escape plan? Why did he need her? Maybe to take revenge on her father? This thought literally pierced her through, and she jerked so hard, trying to break out of her steel embrace, at some point she even thought that Nikto was forced to loosen his grip, it seemed she still managed to scream before losing consciousness.

Chapter three

The ring and the mask

Kors was sitting at the table, looking at the things lying in front of him. The mask and the ring. The mask made of a strange material a bit like suede leather, worn and scratched in many places, it could be seen that it had been used for a long time and often, and a men’s ring with a dark blue sapphire, Kors took it away from Arel. And Nikto gave it to Arel. Nikto… And this was his mask lying on the table in front of Kors, and he was looking at it with an empty gaze.

Everything turned out to be completely different from what he had expected; quite, completely different. And Kors again and again sorted through scraps of memory and tried to understand why? Why?! Why everything happened as it happened? He searched and found no answers.

Nikto deprived him of everything: Iness, the son to whom he never managed to come up with a name, and now he couldn’t, so he left him nameless, calling him just a son, not daring to name him, like the others, Nikto. To some extent, agreeing that it was so, he was not named, not accepted and has not become a full-fledged person due to the sharing of essence from the lower plan. So for himself Kors called it. Therefore, Nikto had the correct name, it reflected the essence, probably… Or maybe it was too cruel.

In any case, now the demon living in him deprived Kors of his last joy, his Karina. He took her, took her away, and Kors had no doubt Karina died. The demon will destroy her, crush her and deprive her of will, as he did before with Arel, and even with Lis, whom neither the “reds” nor the “blacks” could break. But Nikto broke him the ridge. And him, Kors, too…

Arel, the unfortunate Arel, with a black tattoo on half of his cheeck, starting from the corner of the eye and ending under the chin. Arel with one eye already redone too. Arel, also squinting from the light and turning away from the window. And there were the rings thick like little fingers inserted in his ears and nipples.

Lis was in a collar, and Kors suspected that this was only the beginning. And now Karina. What will the demon do to her? He will take her to his other slaves, and what Arel and Lis will do to her? Lis, scars made by whom have already remained on the body of his poor Karina. His beloved daughter, who is now in fucking hell. He understood this, he never had any illusions about this world, she lived in illusions, and the more painful it would be for her. He recalled their punctured hands, Nikto’s and now Prince Arel’s too. Yes, and Lis probably also had there traces of injections. But Kors knew very well that Arel had never injected himself before. Squint-Eye, but not Arel. Now his veins were festering from the infection no worse than Nikto’s. And thinking about it, at such moments, Kors wanted only one thing, no matter how terrible it might sound, so that his girl would die as soon as possible, so as not to reach the state that his son had reached, and to which Arel was approaching.

His son, a living corpse, a walking dead devoid of eyes, the ability to speak and see. And the worst thing that Kors understood now was that his son still really lived in this body, but Kors already didn’t know how to help him. He wanted to take revenge on the demon, humiliated him and tormented him, but it turned out that he humiliated and rejected his son too. What did he do wrong?! What did he need to do, what to do? At that moment when he saw Nikto, yes, he believed that it was his son, he really was very similar to Iness, very much. His bright eyes in fluffy dark eyelashes, pale skin and a little childishly puffy lips. And also… and Karina could not know this, but, Nikto looked like Kors himself, when he was twenty and when he made this fatal mistake, leaving Iness unattended. Kors seemed to see himself in his youth and… still Nikto was not more a human. Only the outer shell, the shell, which was used, but not spared. Not at all. And this killed Kors most of all, the way the demon was ungrateful and careless, but rather even intentionally sadistically used the human physical shell, mutilating and distorting it. And by the will of fate this man, this carrier of sharing essence, turned out to be his second child. Because, having killed Iness, they sold the baby to the witch, and she performed this terrible ritual.

And now Kors was sure that from the very beginning Nikto-demon knew who was in front of him. He knew that Kors was the father of the shell, and cynically used it, pretending to be a lamb, pushing on paternal feelings of Kors, and inside mocking how Kors behaved. How he felt, seeing his boy, his eyes down, a little naive, but sincerely trying to answer the questions. And he was already sitting on a chair at the table, already smoking a cigarette. What next? If Kors really believed him and admitted his son, he would open, hug him with tears. What would happen then? He didn’t know, and this question tormented him. Where did he make a mistake? Then, when he entered into open confrontation? Not succumbed, and moreover, answered with a blow? What would happen to Karina now if he tried to find some compromise, tried to negotiate with the demon, maybe make a deal, in exchange for the safety of his girl? He was too confident in his strength, and Nikto looked so weak, humble and submissive. And Niko deceived him and struck with a death blow. With this blow he killed both Karina and Kors himself. And Kors didn’t know what to do.

In front of him was the mask of Nikto and the ring of the Kors family.

Chapter four

Forest

Karina opened her eyes because the wind blew around her face. Recovering, she jumped up, looking around in surprise, and not believing her eyes. They were in the forest. Karina stood on the ground with young green grass, and the setting sun beautifully illuminated a small, cozy forest lake.

“Portal… Nik! Was it a Portal? Gods! How did you manage to find it? Feel? Open finally! Or does it open there itself periodically? You didn’t seem to do anything… Although, if to believe this story with Rosa, you have already dealt with Portals…”

Nikto was sitting nearby on the grass, as if stunned, the last rays of the setting sun hit him directly in the eye, but he didn’t squint or turn away, didn’t try to move aside. From this Karina made a disappointing conclusion that he was still blind.

“Gods! Well, when will you normalize? When will you recover?!”

He shook his head in the negative and lay down on the grass.

This gesture scared her:

“Will you stay that way?! Don’t scare me like that, brother! Arel will kill me if I don’t return you safe and sound! We need to understand where to move now…”

Seeing a small hill nearby, Karina decided to climb it and look around if possible. It was not clear where they this portal threw them. Was it generally not harmful to the body? She heard somewhere that people were going crazy using portals, dying of a broken heart. What if they’re generally somewhere in the western limit, where there are a lot of “unclean” colonies, or forests for many kilometers around! And Nikto gotnumb not in time!

“I'll go, look around a bit,” she announced to him her actions. He didn’t even move, continuing to lie on the ground on his side, his eyelids with traces of a black paint half-covered. Oh, how out of place and unsuccessfully all this happened to him! Karina didn’t even want to think about the fact that he might not recover and will remain so.

She climbed a pine-covered hill and was relieved to see the pointed spires of the town in the distance. Well, they were at a safe distance, but not as far as she was afraid. Apparently, the stimulant introduced by her continued its action, because Karina was overcome by a thirst for further activity.

Going down the hill, she began to collect dry branches along the way, intending to light a fire.

“I want to make a fire,” she said to Nikto, still not getting any reaction in return. He wasn’t sleeping, she saw his eyelids tremble when he blinked, and the expression on his face… he had such a sad, sad face, lips, his mouth so beautiful, had the corners down, he was so sad. She went to him, sat down next to him:

“My dear,” she touched his hair, straightened the lock that fell on his face, “well, don’t be sad! We got out!”

He was sweet and miserable, lying quietly looking with his blind eyes into nowhere, and a lump came to Karina’s throat, she forgot all her recent fears and thoughts about him. “He is a child, a miserabletormented child.”

“You know… if I didn’t know that today… well, or it was yesterday, I’ve completely lost time, you turned 25 years old… as my father says, I would never have believed! You are like a little one, and your facial expression is like that of an offended child. Well, or a teenager, well, not of an adult man! And you know… I don’t regret that I did so. That I helped you. Well… here, write me something? I can’t talk alone all the time.”

He obediently got up and picked up the already familiar notebook, which lately only served as a bridge of understanding between them. He handed her what was written:

“I need you.”

“My dear!” Karina laughed. “I’m not going anywhere and will be with you, you know, you are very, very pretty, you look like our mother, you generally look like a girl,” she laughed. “A guy cannot be so cute, it’snot surprising that both Lis and Arel molested you, they are off their minds, I would have molested you myself …if you had not been my brother.”

And he smiled at her, practically laughed. She managed to stir him up, cheer him up! She managed to pull him out, she saved him! She encouraged him now, and therefore, she will be able to restore him. Everything will be fine!

Karina lit a small fire.

“I need to collect more firewood before dark, and wash my clothes in this lake, and wash myself, my hair stinks of shit, I apologize for such details. It’s good that I have a bar of soap with me in my bag, I need to wash myself,” she looked at Nikto, “and wash you too.”

From the improvised means, Karina twisted something like a washcloth, without taking off her leather pants and jacket, (it was more convenient) she wiped all the dirt from her clothes. Then she forced Nikto to rise and go to the water’s edge, too, wiped him off, forced himto go into the water to wash his boots. He meeklyfollowed her instructions.