Darina Grotto - Unlimited

‘Go, my friend, and I hope your own energy doesn’t harm you!’

‘Lucifer! You have to answer me!’

‘Later.’ The lord, tired, gave the air.

‘No. Not then and later.’ Kharon careful grabbed his Lord’s wrist and with the entreaty in his eyes looked at him. ‘Now. Answer me now.’

Lucifer silently looked at his friend with soulful eyes. He seemed to understand that Kharon was right and he had no need to delay the answering not to let the situation happen again.

‘What’s your question, please,’ The Lord turned to Kharon. ‘I can’t understand exactly what question you want to be answered. You have a jumble of question in your head.’

‘How does the witch harm me?’

‘Actually, as I told you before she can’t do anything serious, but she can take all your energy. She can devastate you completely.’

‘Are you serious now?’

‘Absolutely I am. I didn’t want to tell you I just couldn’t imagine that you would have been so foolish to bring the witch in hell…’

‘I wonder… Can I make up for the loss if something goes wrong?’

‘Of course, you can! But not at once. And it’s not a good idea to lie paralyzed… Get a second thought before you’re gonna do anything.’

‘I’ve got it, Lucifer. I’ve got it. The only thing I can’t understand is how I can make up for the loss if I were with no moves? To get my energy back I have to move!’

Lucifer smiled, in depth being happy that his friend was still able to think.

‘It’s sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. I have got couples of ways to play. The best one is if I knew about your misfortune or someone of our friends would take you up and your task would be to ask them in your thought to send me to you. The worst one is if people found you in such a state. I have no door number three. By the way, with your energy disappearance the witch can bare your genuine countenance, having seriously destroyed your beautiful mask.’

Kharon was listening to his Lord and Lucifer seemed to him to be mocking more and more.’

‘Lucifer,’ Kharon said to him, ‘if I ever put you into a rage then tell me when and how, because I don’t really understand why this karma dumped on me.’

Lucifer longed in the chair, pursed his lips and lowered his eyes. Recent days he had felt tired and wanted to have a rest and he was bothered with questions. He ran his hand across his forehead and, squinted, looked at his friend.

‘You make me find excuses,’ he told having took a sigh, ‘I didn’t mean all this happen. You see, future is not subservient to anyone, neither me nor my father. I wanted you to have fun, have a rest from millinery drab existence. If I wanted to penalize you, you’d have been crawling like a maggot without eyes in some dungeon, having fun with only echoes of your memories. But just to throw a woman under the bus wasn’t too much humanely, was it?’

Kharon smiled bitterly. He was confused with no realizing what was going on in his head.

‘Lucifer, can I ask you as my friend not as The Lord?’

‘Sure.’

‘If you ever decide that I’m bored or my life suddenly becomes unbearable for me and out of your kindness you want to shake it up with something, please, run your ideas by me first, ok? Probably it’s just seeming or something like that. Don’t jump in feet first. Doubtlessly I appreciate your care and many-sided help but now I’m in full panic mode. Forgive my plainness.’

‘Ok, my friend, I’ll take your wishes into account. Now go.’

Lucifer rose up, embraced his friend and Kharon disappeared.

13

th

November 2013 (Wednesday)

Kharon appeared in the flat when there was no one. The man fatefully leaned against the wall in the hall, out of the corner of his eye looked at the note on the table.

Victoria had left for work in a perfect mood. Certainly, when she opened her eyes, she was ready to be paralyzed and she was so surprised when having opened the eyes at the sound of the alarm clock Vic understood that she could move not only the limbs.

Being a little bit shocked and happy simultaneously she rushed to the kitchen to make delicious breakfast for her beloved, but she didn’t find anyone in the bed.

Victoria called Kharon but an automatic female voice said that the subscriber was unavailable. Being sure that Kharon stayed at his own home, Vic cooked bacon and eggs, thinking of why she was full of energy and power this time. In some time, she found an explanation for this phenomenon. They had sex at the demon’s territory in artificial place where Victoria hadn’t been able to relax completely and that’s why she didn’t give all her energy. Her subconsciousness took care if she had needed to run or even worse fight. She had to keep power at any price. That was the only one rational explanation which Victoria could provide for her unusual activity.

Kharon pulled off his shoes and came up to the table, carefully took the two-fold piece of paper.

“ Сhéri ,

I couldn’t call up for you, so I’ve decided to leave the note. I hope your mood is as in the groove as mine. I don’t know what happened but I’m full of strength! It scares me and it’s wonderful simultaneously. Your breakfast is on the oven, juice is in the fridge. Coffee is near the oven. See you in the evening. Madly love you.

Thank you for the night and expressed trust.”

The demon was sitting at the table and drinking coffee studying the note, imagining what a mess the girl had in her head now.

Victoria was on the train in the metro, leaned against the doors. She was in a really good mood. Without hiding the smile, she examined the dejected countenance of passengers, remembering the night.

At one of the stations Victoria noticed something unusual. In the middle of the carriage something came in. Her heart began beating with fear while she was looking at the creature coming into the carriage. Victoria didn’t understand what exactly drew her attention to it. It looked like a human. The man was of middle aged and at his face genuine indifference was to everything froze. But something wrong was with that man, something that usual people didn’t have. He was completely different… But only Victoria saw it.

Having come into the carriage the man stayed nearby the doors but then he shifted his gaze purposefully at Victoria. When their eyes met Victoria understood that he wasn’t just a human. He was looking at her straight and a cynical and presumptuous smile crawled his lips.

For counted seconds, like the 25 thframe for a second, the man turned into a black figure 2 meters and a half in high, humpbacked, bent head under the ceiling. He had wide-spread wings like wings of a bat but blacker and thicker. He had horns on his head like a Caucasian goat had. His face was mutilated but Victoria couldn’t understand with what. It looked like his skin was eaten by severe erosions and mischievous sores. There were scars, cuts, repulsive and disgusting. His teeth resembled a predator’s ones. It was huge, long fangs, jutted out in a mess in his mouth, imposing a great horror. His skin was black like that creature had come out of a burnt building.

It was big and massive. Victoria saw the monster only for several seconds and then it turned back into a usual man.

He smiled again at the scared and understanding nothing girl and headed to her.

Vic got nervous with no ideas where she should run as she saw the creature coming up to her, while in its human shape some ugly unhuman freak burst in its human shape and scared her.

The man came up to the girl. He was nearby her about 50 centimetres. Victoria felt stinky smell and instead of a human there was a smiling picture of something incomprehensible over-tall deuce or demon or something else. The human shape disappeared at all and didn’t even try to appear again.

Victoria said nothing and studied with fear in her eyes something from the infernal regions. The girl had no doubts that the creature was exactly from those regions. She heard her own heart beating in her temples, giving way to panic. Her breath was becoming heavier and fear was coming closer.

The girl heard a voice and it scared her more. The creature was silent, but Vic just knew that the voice belonged to it… Its inner voice.

‘You see me…’

The whisper was horrible and ominous, stuck between irony and fun.

Vic was looking at his black eyes. There were no neither pupils nor white but just black holes as like its eye sockets were hollow. As the girl couldn’t understand what was going on, she was feeling worse.

‘I know you see me true.’

That was the same whisper in her head, gripping her temples in a vice.

‘Abkhor! At your service!’ The creature bent its head and left the train the next station.

Victoria followed the unusual passenger understanding nothing. The only question tortured her – what was it?

The girl almost got over the diagnose of a mentally deficient and she didn’t want to whisper herself about another madness attack. She was tired of it. That’s why she thought over that had happened and tried to forget, mopping the sweat from her brow.

Having got to work Victoria stole into her office with no one saw her, that was located near Gregory’s one, and settled to her project.

She couldn’t work that day. She wasn’t just able to focus on her project. The memories of unusual nights, unusual place and the morning meeting with a monster were getting into her head.

The girl called Kharon again and two tones she heard quiet and deep voice.

‘Yeap, love,’ the man smiled, and Victoria clearly saw his smile.

‘Is everything ok?’ she asked, having settled back in her chair and thrown back her head to look at the ceiling.

‘Yes, it is. Why are you asking?’

‘No reasons. There’s nothing confuses you, is there?’ the girl examined the ceiling.

‘Are you about the way you’re feeling?’

‘Yes. It’s unusual, right?’

‘It’s ok…’ Kharon came up to the window. ‘It happens when you’re in a different dimension. The body starts working different.’

‘It was an astonishing night and the dimension, indeed. You’re fantastic, Kharon!’ Vic said in a low voice.

‘I’m glad you have an ocean of genuine positive emotions and that I’m the reason of it flutters me doubtlessly.’

Her cheeks turned red and eyes closed. The girl still felt ashamed and confusion being with the demon, listening to his speech, feeling his hands.

‘The breakfast you’ve made today consists of more thanks and deification than usual, by the way. I take it for granted, sorry for it. I’ve been eating with gusto, looking back at the pictures of the depicted morning past where you were cooking breakfast, putting your soul in.’

Vic was red in the face and with an imbecilic smile on her lips. She liked the demon’s words, praise and recognition so much. She was ready to make any sacrifice to listen to them again and again.

‘You can answer me nothing,’ Kharon kept on with a smile, ‘I know all that’s going with you now and what feelings are overwhelming you. I can feel them at distance. They’re beautiful, Victoria. I’m waiting for you in the evening.’

The girl listened to the phone hanged up, finally feeling the redness go away from her face and shame weakened its clutch. From one side it was so great that Kharon was unobtrusive in comparison with other human men. But from another side Victoria needed some more intense.

Vic drew herself up and was almost about to jump in the chair because of unexpectedness after she had seen Gregory in the office.