Ви Корс - The Mist and the Lightning. Part 10

Lis obediently pulled Karina by the forearm.

Until the morning she cried in the room. Until Arel came for her.

“We talked all night, he is very kind. Go, you can talk to your brother, the Demon left him. He can do this for a while, but he must always return. I begged him to leave for just an hour. I can't take it anymore. He said that when I calmed down and began to trust and not be afraid, he would leave for a longer period. He says that he himself is sick of everything here and that he is still holding on because of me.”

“Later I want to talk to the Demon too,” said Karina, sadly with tears. “Ask him to leave my brother when he leaves. When he finishes all his business here,” Karina tried to wipe away her tears; she looked tortured. “All your tasks. And return his voice and vision.”

“Come on, talk to your idiot. I hate him!”

“But for what?!”

“For making Nik weak.”

“Do you think it's really her brother?” Lis asked, he spoke slowly, but did not lisp at all.

“So what?” Arel didn’t understand.

“Maybe he's just making fun of her. Breaks comedy?”

Arel laughed:

“Maybe so. You're already talking, Lis, great!”

“Yes. But it really hurts.”

“And in my opinion, you got out, as always!”

Karina cautiously and embarrassedly entered the prince's room. Nikto, to her surprise, was not sitting on the bed as usual, but just on the floor next to her, with his back against the wall. He lifted his head in response to her steps. And for a second it seemed to her that she was there again, in the prison tower. And Nikto sat the same on the floor in front of her, just not on the dirty straw, and his hand was not twisted, chained to the wall. But he was still shrinking, sick, lonely.

“Gods,” she whispered, taking out the prepared notebook and pencil. “How can I withstand this… Hello.”

He only smiled slightly in return. Very tortured, very crooked. The Demon did it better.

Karina sat down next to him:

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” She tried to make her voice cheerful. “Maybe we can sit on the bed?”

But he literally recoiled from her, and she was frightened.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't think. I didn't think it was so painful for you…”

He extended his left hand, his left hand really worked better. She put their means of communication in his fingers. He quite confidently wrote to her: “Hi Karina.” Then he hesitated a little and added: “Please leave. Go away. Get out of here. Save yourself!”

He wrote and wrote as if trying to convey the meaning to her in different words.

She shook her head, forgetting that he didn’t see her:

“No. No, I'm not leaving! Don’t worry about me! I will talk to the Demon, I will ask him to leave you when he finishes all his business here. Do you understand? And Arel says that he has not much to do. You are still young. You will recover. I want to ask the Demon to return your eyes and voice. But even if he doesn't, I thought… Dr. Balthazar Nate will be able to repair the ligaments, and the eyes …”

Nikto shook his head violently and quickly wrote: “He's fooling you! He's fooling you. He fooled you.”

“I understood you. But I want to believe in the best. Please listen to me! Obey me now, don’t interfere with him, don’t resist, let him do everything that he was ordered to do and leave. It seems to me that it would be better not to disturb him. Don't you understand? Otherwise, he will completely destroy you.”

Nikto smiled wryly again, as if telling her “hah, right away!”, and she was amazed at his courage, he fought the Demon one on one, interfered with him and, it seemed, was not going to give up.

He wrote again: “He deceived you. Run before it's too late.”

“Gods! Why are you so stubborn?! Why can't you come to an agreement when it so happens that you are sharing one body? Yes, I understand you hate him because he possessed you. But he himself told me that the Demon world is full of restrictions and orders. And each Demon follows the instructions of a higher Demon. He was simply ordered. He is as much a slave as you, in a strange body and in a strange world, and… He is not so bad, and sometimes he is very cool, this Demon of yours, and quite fair. Why were we able to make friends with him, but you did not? Let's try together, it will only make everyone better.”

Nikto wrote, “He took your souls. I'm sorry.”

“Why are you so stubborn?!” Karina screamed in despair. “I'm trying to save you!”

Nikto with a sigh ran his hands over his face, hair, pulling them back, and wrote: “What is the date today?”

This question always knocked Karina out of her rut. She was horrified only by the thought that he was living in fits and starts, wasting days, months, and maybe years. Now she understood why he seemed younger to her: probably, if you put everything together, he lived in consciousness not for twenty-five years, but much less.

“How do you feel when he is completely in you?” She asked quietly.

And he shook his head and wrote, “Nothing.”

“Like you fell asleep on Friday and woke up on Monday?”

He turned away, he didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to listen to her. And she only had an hour. What to do?

She sat in confusion, and her brother also sat with his back against the wall, and was silent. It looked like this was his favorite pastime. Maybe he really was mentally retarded, as Arel said. Arel knew him better than anyone, now she understood it. And now she respected the prince for that. For insight and fearlessness.

“Nik?” She called, finally realizing that he didn’t intend to continue the conversation and fell into his favorite stupor. He shuddered, he responded to Nik.

“Nik, he left for only an hour. Do you want a cigarette? Or wine? Feel the taste for yourself.”

He shook his head.

“Maybe… “restorative”?” She asked carefully. And he again shook his head negatively, then he thought about it and wrote: “Water.”

She got up and poured water from a jug, gave it to him, put it in his hand, he took a few sips, and the water ran down his chin. The paralyzed side of his face didn’t move. He wiped the water off with his hand. The hand also moved badly.

“Why are you so opposed to him? Do you know something more? About his plans? What else does he have to do here? You know?”

“He spoils the souls of people. Now he is collecting them. He has collected a lot. You gave him a lot of strength.”

“Let him collect them! What does it matter to us? Think about yourself!”

“I think. He didn't take mine. I will not obey. I will not submit.”

“Then he will just smear you!!!”

“You have already been smeared,” her brother Nikto wrote.

“You are crazy! He will make Lis the king of the Reds in this world and, perhaps, he will help me too, so that I become his queen, I will ask him about it, why not? And you… will you continue to interfere with him like a ram?”

Nikto wrote, “Yes.”

And Karina, no longer able to stand it, shouted:

“Arel! Lis! Come here!”

She noticed how he tensed as they entered the room, responding instantly to her call. She silently handed them the notebook.

“Hi Karina. Please leave. Go away. Get out of here. Save yourself! He's fooling you! He's fooling you. He fooled you. Run before it's too late. He took your souls. I'm sorry. What's the date today? Nothing. Water. He spoils the souls of people. Now he is collecting them. He has collected a lot. You gave him a lot of strength. I think. He didn't take mine. I will not obey. I will not submit. You have already been smeared. Yes.”

“You see what he writes,” she complained to them.

“Can I hit him?” Arel said when he finally read what he had written. Lis had read it earlier and turned away.

“No, though,” Arel changed his mind. “I'll give him a duel! Hey bro, can you fight?”

Nikto nodded.

“He’s blind,” said Lis.

“He seems to know how to fight blind,” said Karina. “I saw it in prison.”

“Then let's go! Where is Nik’s sword? Come out into the yard!”

“Let's go,” said Karina, slightly pulling her brother's hand, and he got up. Without resisting, he followed her.

They went out into the courtyard, Lis put a sword in his hand, with which Nikto-Demon fought.

“And if he kills you, Arel?” He asked suddenly. Because the blind Nikto took the sword very confidently, as if he himself wanted it.

“Me?!” Arel laughed. “He won’t kill me. And I will just make him run a little.”

And he began to bypass Nikto, twirling his weapon in his hands. And Nikto was standing. But when Arel lunged to poke him, Karina's brother sharply parried the blow and attacked towards Arel. Arel was a little taken aback, but continued to circle, and for some moments they clashed fiercely and with all their might. Nikto seemed to try to constantly maintain contact with the blade of the enemy's sword, and he also guessed or heard where the blow would come from. And it was creepy. As always, at the last minute he preempted the blow, and Arel only managed to knock him to the ground a couple of times, but Nikto immediately dodged and immediately got up. And he moved very little, trying to always stay in place. He let the enemy get closer, and then tried not to disengage with him with the sword.

“Ah well!” Arel got angry and tried to attack him again. Nikto managed to deflect the blow again. The atmosphere grew more and more tense, and Karina became afraid. Her blind brother didn’t let Arel approach and didn’t look like a human now, but quite the opposite.

“Lis, I don't like this. Tell them to stop!” Asked Karina.

Unfortunately, Lis now always, leaving the house, hid his jester’s makeup under a mask, and Karina didn’t see the expression on his face, but she was sure that he also didn’t like what was happening.

“Arel, that's enough!” She shouted. “It was a bad idea!”

The prince turned to her cry and received a crushing blow, he fell, and Nikto pressed the blade of the sword to his throat.

“No!” Karina screamed.

And Nikto’s hand suddenly trembled, and he literally flew away from Arel, fell backward, as if he had been hit with all his strength in the chest, and then, rising, he shouted:

“Arel, what are you doing?!”

Arel sat down, shaking his disheveled head, pressed his hand to his cut neck, blood ran down his fingers, he raised his eyes to Nikto:

“Damned motherfucker! Which one is the Demon? You look more like a human than he is!”

Nikto ran up to him, hugging him, examining the wound.

“Your brother is cool,” said Lis to Karina and headed towards the house.

And Karina, stunned, stood and looked at the Arel and the Nikto-Demon, who seemed to be more cheerful, kinder and more humane than her brother.

Arel closed his eyes as Nikto put a rag soaked in healing medicine to his throat.

“Fuck! Nik! I don't envy you, how do you live in his body?!”

Nikto laughed:

“It's not that bad. But don't do that anymore. What if my human part kills you?”

“Could he do it? To spite you?”

“He was able to spite me to cut himself like meat, and you – in general, easily!”

“Don't leave like that anymore! Don't let him loose!”

“Are you afraid?” Nikto laughed and, taking a glass, took a few good sips of wine, and Karina noticed that he didn’t miss a drop.

“Okay, okay, he just wanted to teach you a lesson. He actually loves you!”

“Really?” Arel asked, and there was doubt in his voice.