Darina Grotto - Unlimited

‘Wait! If you want to kill, will you ask a permission?’

‘As I told you some demons lie…. If I wanna kill someone so to chatter and make him agree for his own death is not an unusual thing. If Abaddon is in front of you, he will never ask you. He will just tear off your head and eat it. In fact, Victoria, every spirit, demon and deuce has its own personality. Some will want to play with you, others – to speak, and someone just rips you onto micro particles and atoms…’

For a long time, Victoria was torturing Kharon with her questions about the hell structure. The demon humbly answered all of them and almost told the truth.

Suddenly he thought Victoria wasn’t the worst company in the world. Moreover, he liked her. Certainly, he understood his nature inclination to women. He liked them all but only for a night. Kharon never communicated with them not before sex nor after. Victoria was the first woman of human world whom the demon had to spend time with. An idea crossed his mind that he was interested in a human life puzzles, he wondered what a human went through, what he felt. Kharon had always seen people through dreams… He used to know that a dream was something that didn’t exist. In dream those people knew nothing about sincere feelings, about shame and confusion. It was faceless existence in the shade of his own consciousness. Kharon was really interested in how much people could live into reality, forgetting about their own personality.

‘I think it’s my turn to ask, isn’t it, dear?’ Kharon opened the door, let the girl get in.

‘Looks like this,’ she smiled at him and suspiciously took him by the hand.

‘Why do you reject my endearment?’ he squeezed her fingers but kept the distance between them. If he let himself something more to the girl, she immediately lost self-control and no one could get any answers after.

Victoria looked aside. Here was it! The shame and confusion in one bottle, firmly twisted with each other. Red cheeks, puppy eyes. Kharon listened to her shameful thoughts and smiled.

‘I told you… romanticism.’

‘Yes, right, I remember… I just don’t understand when its terms are over. How much time do people need for romanticism?’

‘Kharon, you’re asking such questions which unfortunately I can’t answer. I’d like to but I really don’t know. It’s unpredictable… Just let’s live and I’ll be enjoying your presence… then others. Excuse me.’

The girl pulled the cell out from her bag.

‘Hi, Vasilisa!’ Vic gave silent Kharon an excuse smile. ‘Yes, sure. What’s happened? Yet? Meet?’

Victoria looked at Kharon again with blameful eyes. She was confused. Her friend needed to meet to share her feelings and emotions. On the other hand, there was Kharon whose feeling, and emotions Victoria wanted to know not less.

‘Fine, when are you gonna be at Mayakovskay? Well I’ll be waiting at the square… Kharon,’ Victoria said to Kharon. ‘You’d come with me, I will introduce you to Vasilisa. She is my… friend.’

‘Friend?’ he asked. ‘A friend sounded very interesting from a person who denies friendship with her all might because she was betrayed by friends not once. Why do you believe people and call them friends again? Didn’t it hurt? Did the disappointment strike you to the depth of your heart? I can see your remembrance… Does it here hurt when you’re betrayed by these who you love?’ He took her by the hand and put it to her chest. ‘Too much hurts… I can feel your every neuron. Where do you get strengths to call anyone a friend again?’

There were tears in Victoria’s eyes. He was still holding her hand pressed to his chest and the girl remembered the pain again.

Of course, he dug perfectly in her past. He clearly saw those people’s faces whom she used to call friends then they betrayed her, tramped down her heart, having spitted into her soul. He moved her painful past again like pitchfork pierced through the dry straw.

Vic said nothing but looked at his eyes, being shocked with rushed memories. The tear was coming down her cheek. The demon was gazing the wet trace left on her velvet skin. He brushed away the tear and kissed her cheek.

‘Don’t…’ he whispered, ‘Tears are very strong particles having lots of information. You shouldn’t shed. Any past, any bad past should be being thought of but not shed. You should thank your past for that today you’re like you. Your friend has to come out of the second carriage already and can’t understand where she has to go next.’

Victoria laughed, brushing away the tears. Kharon smiled, memorizing where betray pain located.

They both stayed at the square in fifteen meters far from the metro entrance. Finally, Vasilisa appeared from behind the doors.

Having seen her Victoria was glad and nervous at the same time. Kharon and she didn’t make up a story of their first meeting… Vic didn’t want to lie. But to say “this is Kharon, a man from Hell and I sold my soul to The Devil to get Kharon’s love” wasn’t a good idea.

A woman walking near Vasilisa cooled Vic a few.

‘Vic, hi!’ her friend shouted from far.

‘Hi!’ she answered and nodded at the woman.

She said nothing but silently looked at Vic in replay. Victoria shrugged her shoulders and switched over to Vasilisa.

Her friend was looking at Kharon. It was understandable. Kharon was very attractive. You just wanted to look at him…always and everywhere. His features would be good for everyone.

‘This is Kharon.’ Victoria introduced her company.

‘Vasya..lisa.’ The girl wasn’t even going to hide her admire, desire to look and flashed envy. Vasya shifted her eyes at Vic, expecting her to explain the strange and unexpected acquaintance.

‘Kharon and I… Hm…’ Vic hesitated without knowing how to say and the most important what.

‘Victoria is my girl!’ the demon saved the situation.

‘Well, that’s great!’ Vasilisa said having got nothing. ‘So, you both will tell me your story in a café as I’m devilishly hungry.’

With no discussion they moved to the underground passage. Each of them felt strange at least. Victoria didn’t plan to meet with her friend that day. Besides she was embarrassed because of the woman walking near Vasilisa. Vasilisa didn’t introduce her! As there was no woman!

Kharon was thinking about his phrase – “she’s my girl”. What was he supposed to do to make Vasilisa believe him?

Kharon and Victoria sat at the table and Vasilisa and the woman went to buy meal. The girl was burning her “boyfriend” with her eyes.

‘What’ve I done wrong?’ he asked finally in a low voice.

‘No, no, it’s ok. I like what you said Vasya about us… Now we have to make up the love story…’

‘Oh’ the demon interrupted her, ‘you can trust me and don’t forget to play up to me.’

‘Jesus, everyone has got crazy! I hardly bought my meal. God damn it. Well, tell me: what, when, how?’

The demon glanced at his girl. Vasilisa was staring at both of them, eating the sandwich with almost its cover.

‘Maybe we’ll start from you?’ Vic asked carefully.

‘Nope!’ the friend shook her finger. ‘I’ve got a usual after-three-months breaking up. But you…you’ve got something unusual. Where did you meet, Kharon?’

Vasilisa addressed her question to the man having got that her friend was shy.

‘Three months ago, I was in metro… I saw a girl who was reading something in her notebook without stopping. She was leaned over her writings like a kite, having hid herself in her red hair. I was watching her and didn’t move to scare her. Honestly, I was frenzied. There was something… demonic in the red devil. I couldn’t tear myself away from her. After two stations passed by, I understood that I wanted that girl to look at me. No, I didn’t want but I craved for it. Probably with the help of a thought power I made her eyes tear away from the papers and look at me. Her dark-olive eyes were staring my face for several seconds and it was enough for me to understand that I had to know her name and phone number at least.’

The demon stopped speaking and smiled. The both girls were looking at him, having opened their mouths. Vasilisa forgot herself to be hungry. Victoria was listening to a beautiful story, being a little bit upset with that the reality was different from what the demon was telling.

‘What happened next?’ Vasya asked with her mouth full of meal, after she finally remembered about it.

Kharon kept on telling his fascinating story. Victoria looked at the woman sitting near Vasya. She was silent. She had so whitish eyes. Vic had never seen such eye colour before. They were empty, terrible and colourless like transparent lenses sold for a half of a coin at a second-hand sell. The pupil was dirty with fat fingertip prints, the colour disappeared. You could hardly have looked at such eyes: you would look away because you’d feel sympathy or sick.

Victoria didn’t feel quite herself because of the way the silent woman was looking at her in. Victoria felt like that because of the woman’s paleness and white-pink lips, chapped thoroughly. Her lips were so dry that Victoria instinctively wanted to give water to that woman just to help her in any way.

‘Who’s it?’ Vic asked, interrupted Kharon’s story.

‘Where?’ Vasya looked around.

‘The woman sitting near you. You haven’t introduced us.’

‘The woman?’ Vasilisa asked in surprise, looking over the empty chairs near her.

Kharon was frowning. His face was so serious as if he was in the edge of discovery of something unusual. Maybe it was. Vasilisa smiled, put the rest of her sandwich at the tray and instantly pierced into her friend with her eyes.

‘The woman, right?’ she summed up. ‘What woman? What’s wrong with you, Vic?’

‘This one!’ Victoria said but not in such a confident voice as before, staring into the stranger’s eyes.

‘Listen, you started scaring me. There’s no woman.’ Vasilisa demonstratively got up and sat down on the empty chair.

It seemed like no one, but Victoria saw a greyish fog cloud raised up after Vasilisa sat on “the woman” and next second it came down again at another chair still near Vasilisa.

Little by little Victoria started understanding what woman she saw who no one else saw.

‘You don’t see her, neither, do you?’ Vic asked Kharon with fear.

The man shook his head confusingly, taking the last hope from Victoria to believe her not to be an insane.

‘You mean that you’re still seeing her?’ Vasilisa asked.

‘No.’ Vic said quickly and looked away from the woman. ‘No, I’m just kidding.’

‘I’m glad that it was your trick.’ Kharon decided to say anything.

He, of course, understood more than others that there was nothing about jokes. He perfectly remembered Lucifer’s words and was too afraid of that what was going to happen in future. The wandering witch near the demonic essence was bad for the witch and the demon…

‘Fine.’ Vasilisa exclaimed and turned her eyes to the man. ‘You’ve met in such a romantic way, Kharon!’

‘Yes,’ the man destructed himself from his thoughts. ‘From that very minute it seems to me that I’ve been faced love and I wanna it be nearby.’

Vasilisa mercilessly tortured the poor demon with questions which he answered let his amusing imagination be free. He studied to speak in reality, carefully following the girl’s reaction. He was important to understand what she liked and did not. It was an attempt to put, immerse into a human psychology that the demon thought was something impossible and changeable. He spoke something funny as he thought he expected the girl to laugh but there was confusion and perplexity on her face. He tried to speak of serious things, and she smiled. What could be in her head? How to work with it he didn’t know also.