Kitabı oku: «Film About the Demon. Daughter of the Dawn», sayfa 3
Just one soul
Moscow city center
“Come in, sit down!”
Kiril’s legs were numb. It was hard to believe that the superstar herself invited him, a simple guy, to her hotel room. And the room did not look like a hotel room. There was a pyramid-shaped fountain at the door. Multicolored lotuses floated in the water. Incense smoked on the tripods, which made his head spin. In the wall alcoves were statues of the beast-like Egyptian gods. They seemed to be squinting at the guest. Probably, this effect is created by smoke and semi-darkness. It looks like it’s not a living room, but a temple.
Only a bed under a thick canopy reminded of palace luxury. But the place for the guest was set aside on the couch. On a mahogany table was a tray of brandy and two rock crystal glasses.
A first aid kit would be more useful to him now than alcohol. He nearly fainted outside the cinema from blood loss. There he was found by agent Athenais, gave him his business card and explained where and when to come. So you can get caught in the arms of the mafia. What if the star keeps drugs, collaborates with criminals and is looking for a fool among fans who can be framed? Instead, Kiril thought only about whether to buy roses and condoms before going up to the top floor of the skyscraper hotel. The hotel was called Akhetaton, like the cinema. The building was somewhat reminiscent of the pyramids. Inside, everything is in Egyptian style, except for amphorae with lush bouquets of red roses. They are more like Roman ones.
“Go away!”
Is it the flowers whispering? They are so deep red that they remind of blood. And he was still wondering whether to buy roses for her. There are more of them here than in the flower shop! And the hotel itself inside resembles an ancient temple.
“It was like I got inside the film,” Kiril looked at Athenais. Live she was even more beautiful than on the screen. She didn’t change. A chic scarlet robe with wide, like a kimono, sleeves now replaced the dressing gown. The dragons embroidered on it with gold thread grinned menacingly. It seems that in some old film he had already seen a similar robe. And that movie was not with Athenais.
“I know your brother,” she admitted suddenly.
So that’s why she invited him here! Kiril felt uncomfortable. Everything is decided by connections! And he hoped that he liked her.
“You’re different,” Athenais looked at him appraisingly. “Mikhail always pokes his nose into other things. One day he will run into it.”
What to think and say now? Kiril was effaced. Athenais suddenly got up and walked around him. The dragons on her robes seemed to come to life. Is this some kind of visual effect? Or an optical illusion?
What kind of lighting and effects can be applied in general to make an actress look like a real deity. Up close, there was no trace of makeup on Athenais’s face. She didn’t even have makeup. No mascara, no eyeliner, no brushstrokes of powder or foundation, and the impression is that she’s a statue coming to life! This was impossible to achieve without the efforts of the makeup artist and operator. But he is now not inside the film and not in a dream. His star is really close. This moment is worth enjoying.
Why does he feel that not everything is cloudless? Because this moment will eventually end and be kicked out of here? Is it possible to expose someone from the tomb, which seems to be a hotel? They say that those who voluntarily enter the realm of ghosts remain in it forever. And it doesn’t matter that this idol lured you here. The pyramid is a symbol of death and eternity. And the Akhetaton hotel is a copy of the pyramid.
“I have always believed that one soul can be more important than all the souls in the universe. Once I promised that if I met such a soul, then for her sake I would spare the whole world. But a lot of time has passed since then. I’m not going to keep my promise, although I like you. And the priest to whom I promised this has long been dead. In this era, I am going to act by the method of exclusion, destroying in turn all the souls that might interfere with my plans.”
She did not read an excerpt from the script, although what she said was suspiciously similar to the plot of the first film with her participation. Kiril looked at her slightly dumbfounded. The wound on his wrist opened again. Under it, something like letters, or rather hieroglyphs, appeared on the skin. Athenais grabbed his wrist. She really has marble fingers.
“It’s real,” he guessed. “You don’t act in films, you live inside them, like in this hotel. Therefore, it looks like a pyramid both outside and inside. And I am not sleeping now!”
“People sleep all their lives, and I come to open their eyes to the truth,” a fire flashed in her pupils. Are there any orange pupils? They looked like two bonfires. Visions immediately hit my head: a fire under the pyramids, demons or ancient gods dancing around it. Some are practically indistinguishable from others. They dance to call upon someone, and from the sands of the desert something rises that threatens to destroy the universe. And then Athenais walks with a sickle across the field, killing Egyptian plowmen. Their blood irrigates the fields, from it, as from seeds, instead of the harvest, monstrous figures rise. And above all this, the bloody moon shines.
So who is this movie star in front of him? She came from those ancient times or straight from space. Lufcraft wrote something about strong cosmic beings, which weak people naively mistake for gods and demons. What if she is such a creature? Then who would have thought that aliens are so beautiful and seductive.
But the touch of Athenais was not pleasant. She squeezed his hand, kneading the meat and crumbling bone. The pain would have been enormous, if not for the hypnotizing look of a movie star.
“What did you want from me when you stood in the rain?” Athenais’s voice changed, becoming like a hiss of a cobra.
Kiril himself no longer knew what goals he was pursuing. At first, the fact that she invited him to her seemed like the ultimate dream. Now he realized that he had fallen into a trap, but he did not want to change anything anyway. He had to come here, had to see her with his own eyes. We can say that fate called him here.
“I wanted my routine life to end,” unexpectedly even for himself, he poured out everything that had boiled over the years in his soul, “so that I didn’t have to go to work that I didn’t love in the morning, didn’t have to go back to an empty apartment and see neighbors around who unpleasant to me. Ever since I saw the first movie with you, all people around the world have become disgusting to me. I only wanted to see you once so that I could return home in the evening, turn on the CD with your film and open my veins. Your film is one minute against your whole life. Better to leave this minute and take away everything else.”
“I think so too.” She let go of his wrist. Blood flowed in a stream. “Those who watch films about demons let them into their world, and then they won’t kick us out.”
“Go away!” The roses were still whispering. Now it became noticeable that their petals were indeed in blood, and the warning was not in vain. But he was not going to leave. Better to die in the arms of Athenais today than live your whole life without her. She hugged him with cold marble arms, and it was as if another movie had begun. Only it happens not on the screen, but in real life. Death at the end will be real. The dragons on the robes of Atenais hissed in displeasure. They wanted death right now. But in the beginning it will be a whole night. Athenais smeared herself with Kiril’s blood. Blood is the price of any intimacy with a demon, even an autograph. And he came here because he was subconsciously ready to pay this price from the very beginning. The demon called him from the screen. And now this demon was holding him in his arms. And a demon’s embrace can only end in hell and death.
Payback for self-interest
A new film was starting somewhere. He will not see this film. Anton got an autograph and ran away. Someone in red was chasing him. Although is it possible to say chased about someone who suddenly grows up ahead of the road, wherever you turn. You run, and he just stands on the sidelines. A monstrous black face with rings in its nostrils looks out from under a red hood.
Out of breath, Anton stopped. Many screens in the showcase showed fragments of a film about a beautiful demon who subdued the rulers of Ancient Egypt.
“Kings rule the world, but I rule over kings!” came the cruel voice of Alais. Pharaoh’s torn out heart beat in her palm like a living red flower. Her path was littered with bones and corpses, but she herself lived among gold.
Probably everything that was said about her was true. And the fact that her bodyguards are not people, but real ifrits. And the fact that the owner of the film studio is not its producer, but its slave. And the fact that she herself is a demon.
All these stories were so consistent with the plots of her films and ran counter to everyday realities that Anton did not believe them in the least. Usually, he approached for autographs to all foreign stars who came to Moscow. Friends who worked part-time in the crowd helped him get the necessary information about the location of the events. He managed to arrive on time in the lobby of hotels, to the doors of cinemas or restaurants where eminent guests dined. All he needed was a stroke with a pen in a notebook, so that he could then put up an autograph for sale. Many guys earn money like this – they take autographs from famous singers and actors, so that they can then sell them on Avito or on other sites where you can sell used junk from your hands.
He decided to keep Athenais’s autograph for himself as soon as he saw her, but it turned out that she took something from him. Namely, the blood tax.
Anton winced, remembering how the ballpoint pen, which he held out to the star, fell into a puddle, and something resembling blades stuck into his fingers. For the first time he paid for an autograph himself. His blood was used as ink. And now he was still being pursued.
The wounded arm hurt as if it had been torn apart with a float. Athenais’ focus was not at all like taking blood in a medical office. Her nails are the edge of scalpels and knives. It is likely that they are smeared with some kind of drug or even poison. In any case, when she hurt him, it began to seem to him that she really had not a bodyguard behind her, but ifrit.
It was pouring rain in the center of Moscow. It got stronger and stronger. Streets and highways, oddly enough, seemed completely deserted. There are few cars, there is nothing behind the shop windows. Not typical for Novy Arbat. Many computer centers appeared all around, which he had not seen here yesterday. Monitors, laptops, televisions for sale worked everywhere. A film with Athenais was shown on each screen. And the monster from this movie was walking right behind him.
Where to go? he wish he could meet or call a taxi. But everything is empty, the smartphone does not work. The battery ran out, as luck would have it. Previously, there were telephone booths everywhere, which nowadays do not exist. Their mobile communication survived. The cell phone is empty and there is no connection with the world. And all around is emptiness. Moscow suddenly turned into a deserted desert of asphalt and concrete buildings.
“Athenais turns everything into a desert.”
Did the pursuer say that? Anton nervously turned over his shoulder. The dark-skinned monster in red itself somewhat resembled the shadow of the ancient pharaoh. Why is he so attached?
Anton was not a believer, but suddenly thought to go to church. There was not a single church on the streets of the center. This is also not typical for Moscow. Many visitors from abroad like to repeat that there are more churches here than shops. And whole monasteries meet right in the center. And suddenly not a single building with domes and crosses. But the golden ankh, desert dunes and black angel wings flicker on advertising screens.
Some wretched creatures that look like starving vagabonds crawl out from under the sewers, from basements, from dark corners between supermarkets. They look like gray relics, stained with ash. And suddenly, frayed wings open behind them.
“Athenais always wins,” the dark-skinned pursuer whispers already very close, putting his claws on the boy’s shoulder.
“Let it be so, but why pursue me?”
“Self-interest is punishable.”
He already paid for the autograph in blood. Where else to punish? Anton looked around at Moscow crowded with fallen legions of demons. The feeling was that he got inside the film on the same set with Athenais. But she herself was not there. She stayed in a fashionable hotel with people. And he somehow got straight into the heat.
As beautiful as a fresco
Michael woke up with the feeling that he was still in the temple. Many tired people feel even in their sleep that they are still sitting at work. This déjà vu is understandable, as the doctor explained to him. But why is it not connected with the fulfillment of everyday work duty, but with a rare visit to the churches empty after the service?
It’s like someone is waiting there.
But Michael was no longer going to church. What for? After all, the fresco, which he loved so much to look at, was mercilessly mutilated by restorers after renovation. Nothing remained of the beautiful angelic face, except for the picture, layered with fresh colors, mediocre. Sometimes updates are only harmful.
Together with the fresco, it was as if part of him had been destroyed. His soul was empty. This is probably why his conscience once woke up in him, and he did something that a secret service employee did not have the right to do – he forgot about his duty, so as not to feel selfish.
That same night he had a strange dream. Someone winged and incredibly handsome was present nearby.
“You did what no one else would have done. I admire you and owe you,” the divine voice whispered on the verge of reality and dream. “What do you want? Only wish!”
Sounds like drug intoxication as it is described! He himself never tested such euphoria, because he did not use any prohibited substances. He tried not even to drink energy drinks and alcohol in order to have a sober head. Where do hallucinations come from?
What did he do? He went after a strange fakir in a wild country, suspecting him of conspiracy with local terrorists. The man climbed the walls like a monkey. Well, okay. What circus performers do not exist! He went into the temple, smashed idols, overheard someone else’s conspiracy, somehow understanding languages that he had not even learned.
It was like a nightmare. But the agreements and the work done during the day were real. A couple of conversations, strong hints, a few forced killings. The interests of foreign countries, not just the homeland, were at stake, but he intervened anyway. His colleagues would have condemned him if they knew. Perhaps he was able to prevent something terrible, like world war, nuclear attack, destruction of an entire nation. So what? Any Christian would do the same. But he was an employee of a serious organization, not a holy fool from the porch. He needs to remember that even people in robes can be used solely for intelligence purposes, if he took them with him.
What’s done is done. He did not report anything to anyone. There was a risk of being tortured himself if his hastily thought up plan failed. He behaved lightly. He was lucky that he was alone on the trip.
Now he was alone in the bedroom, because the woman he loved had long since died. For a second, a crazy thought arose in Mikhail’s brain: what if he really had one magical desire? Would he have spent it to resurrect Iliana?
He almost wished it, but changed his mind in time. Why remember the traitor? Better to forget. Fantastic desires are still unrealizable. Unless only on the screen of the cinema, but he has not gone to the cinema for a long time.
But the authorities demanded from him that he contacted one outstanding movie star and extorted all her secrets. He was not usually involved in this kind of work, although he knew that sometimes celebrities were used for espionage purposes. Only this time, the hint was a much more serious threat. Mikhail did not believe that because of which actress something irreparable could happen, but an order is an order. It needs to be done. The photo of the star could not be attached to the instructions. Mikhail himself easily found it in the very first newspaper that was handed out in the subway passage. The girl’s resemblance to the drawings of angels struck him unpleasantly. He saw the same face in a fresco in the cathedral that was no longer in existence. Here it is! Printed on cheap offset paper! Here it looks even more beautiful than it was on the wall under the dome. So why isn’t he glad to see him again? Something deathly, frightening came from the face of the movie star. Next to such sublime beauty, a person begins to feel like just an insect.
Why, in connection with such divine beauty, did wars, terrorist attacks, torture and murder climb into his head? He drank all of this. His work was intense. For the peace of the whole world, sometimes it was necessary to show tactlessness and cruelty.
In his free time, he could only sit for hours on the curb of the Friendship of Nations fountain at VDNKh and ponder why people only think about enmity, war and strife. The golden figures of different nations stand together so peacefully, but living humanity needs conflicts. And he has to resolve these conflicts.
So today he went to the main entrance of VDNKh, clutching a newspaper with the fatal photo in his hand, sat down on the edge of the fountain, and almost fell into the water, noticing that the central of the golden figures had turned into a movie star from the newspaper, looking like an angel. The golden wings opened behind her, the golden body arched proudly upward, golden eyes stared at him.
It just so happened that a movie star named Athenais played exclusively the role of angels. But she was definitely not a sculpture. The golden hand reached out to Mikhail. The pool of the fountain, which shared it with the statues, was huge, but there was a feeling that a hand made of gold touched and burned him.
Where did the golden girl in the national Russian costume, kokoshnik and with a sheaf of ears of corn in her fingers go? Why does he see a living winged body of gold instead?
Mikhail pulled out his weapon and scared everyone. He had to explain to the guards and show his ID. He had the right to bear arms, but he did not have the right to hallucinations. When performing, he needs a sober quick-witted head, and he behaves like a mental patient.
He used to have dinner at eateries near the fountain, but today his appetite is gone.
“You want blood,” someone annoying whispered over his ear. “Blood is our food, and you are one of us! You killed the woman you loved because she was not of your race, but of a human race. Your path lies in the Cathedral of Thunder. Your food is the blood of people. You should have eaten Iliana’s heart when you killed her. Then you would already be with us.”
Hot sweat ran down his forehead. Michael brushed it off. He walked at random, passed the Stone Flower fountain and found himself at the pavilions, which had a fountain with a rocket and models of old planes. He needed the other way. From here you can only go to the Botanical Garden, which in former times was the estate of the Sheremetyevs, and from there you can take a bus to the outskirts of Moscow rather than to the center. Now his dwelling is in the center. It is comfortable and convenient there, not like in rented apartments where he used to hang out. He needs to return to the massive arch of the main entrance. Behind it are the planetarium and the road to the metro. He would have driven around the city by car, if not for frequent traffic jams.
As a child, he and Iliana walked around the Botanical Garden and Ostankino Park exclusively on foot. The walk stretched for many kilometers, but it was pleasant. As a child, Iliana was empty-headed and outgoing; when she grew up, she became selfish. She took flowers and gifts for granted. What is loyalty, she did not understand at all. If he had not found her in the arms of a man who threatened the well-being of the whole country, she would have been alive now. It occurred to her to get confused with a foreign intelligence agent. Mikhail did not understand: did his weapon misfire or did he shoot Iliana on purpose?
For a moment it seemed to him that the fountain with a stone flower was gushing not with jets of water, but with its blood. And the corpse of Iliana in a shiny evening dress floats limply between the figures of gilded sturgeons.
Iliana loved dresses with plunging necklines, beaded handbags, which are usually carried with them to the theater, and fashionable haircuts under the bob. This is how he remembered her: slender, dressed in an evening dress, with curls no longer than her earrings and with a bullet in her forehead.
Rip out and eat her heart!
How could such a thing come to mind? Such advice is given only in scary tales to people who want to acquire witchcraft.
Mikhail went back to the fountain with golden sculptures. Plantings of multi-colored roses smelled fragrant around him. Couples hugged on the benches. Flashlights flashed. Here is a favorite place for tourists. After all, the fountain was erected back in the days of the USSR, as a symbol of the unification of sixteen nations into a single state. Each female figure on it is cast in the national costume of one of the states that became part of the country. And in the center of the figures, jets from a huge gilded sheaf are gushing, and the water flows down along the recesses that resemble large shells. The USSR collapsed long ago, but the fountain remained as a monument to its former prosperity. Many people said that this is the most beautiful fountain on the planet. Mikhail liked the meaning inherent in its construction more. All people should love and support each other, blurring the line of interracial hatred. Unfortunately, not everyone shared his opinion. Most of the onlookers came here just to admire the sparkling figures, only a few amateurs walked around the curb, trying to figure out which nationality each figure belongs to. This Georgian woman with grapes, this Moldavian woman, and that gilded girl over there, embodies the Autonomous Republic of Karelia. Michael himself was looking for the golden angel, but he was no longer there.
Someone clicked the camera, in the lens of which a fountain was reflected, surrounded by exclusively golden winged figures. Again obsession!
Mikhail walked by quickly and bought hot corn and a hot dog at a park stall. You need to eat and hurry home. For some reason it was scary to turn around, and at the same time he didn’t want to leave. It seemed that Athenais was waiting for him at the fountain. Alive, not gold. She is wearing a scarlet robe, the color of which is so bright that it burns the eyes, and dragons embroidered with golden thread move on the robe.
“Go to the cinema!”
The voice was definitely not Atenais’s. He was hoarse and unpleasant. The Kosmos Cinema and Concert Hall was located right behind the highway in front of the VDNKh entrance, but Mikhail was not going to go there.
For a long time he had no time for his own entertainment. Work has become for him the main occupation in life, because if you distract from it for a moment, you will die. This is probably why he did not pay attention to the huge posters in front of the cinemas, which depicted Athenais. The same as she seemed to him at the fountain – in a red robe and with a golden sickle in her hand, on which runic symbols appear. She looks more like a deity than an actress.
“Who are you?” Mikhail whispered in the face of a poster hanging on a billboard near the highway. The taxi driver stared at him in bewilderment. Through the rearview mirror, you could see his eyes widen in horror. It’s probably scary to carry dubious types around the city. You never know who will attack you with a knife. It’s easier for bus drivers. They are separated from passengers by a glass partition.
Mikhail leaned back in his seat and pretended to relax so as not to frighten the taxi driver. His thoughts wandered around the boss’s directions.
“What would you do if one beautiful young creature colluded with a whole gang of criminals in order to lay a program for the destruction of the whole world into the mechanical progress of cinema? Find out: did you drag her into this or is she herself the author of the project? Previously, this did not affect us, but now it has reached Russia. This means that soon we will begin what is already happening in other countries.”
These are all the instructions that he remembered, and now he was pondering. What exactly is happening to others? He recently traveled abroad and did not notice any crisis. True, he visited those countries where cinema is not in vogue. This means that you need to take a closer look at the situation in wealthy states, whose residents have funds for entertainment, and not at the third world countries. True, even there he heard something about a movie that drives you crazy and which you can watch for free in the most unexpected places, for example, in mounds, caves or tombs.
Well, almost free. Some poor shaman mentioned that you have to pay with blood and souls. Then Mikhail decided that it was about filming executions and torture, but now he realized that the matter was even more dangerous. Films with Athenais somehow influenced the psyche of people in a special way, forcing them to commit strange and destructive actions.
Divine beauty, captured in frames, brings evil! Who would have thought?
When Mikhail returned home, the TV was on. He definitely didn’t turn it on. On the screen flashed frames from the film with Athenais. She was even more beautiful in them than on the advertising poster. Usually stars are different. One picture is easier to retouch than a whole video.
Athenais either walked through the palace halls of Ancient Egypt, then filmed torture exclusively of priests and clergy with a hand-held camera. What the hell is this? History alternated with modernity, presenting a contrast close to surrealism. The beautiful angel tore out the hearts of modern priests, then ancient priests.
“You only love gold, but I take debts not in gold, but in blood,” she repeated. “You know me! So why did you contact me?”
The footage terrified even an adult man accustomed to difficulties. Mikhail tried to turn off the TV and could not. All buttons on the remote control stuck, the control panel did not work either. And all the bulbs in the chandelier suddenly burned out at once. He fell asleep to the accompaniment of how a beautiful angel tortured the princes of the church. And with this angel he will have a meeting in the morning! Mikhail instinctively reached for the loaded pistol he kept in the bedside laundry drawer. The angel flashing in the frames taught him that even in a dream it is better not to let go of the weapon.
