Unlimited. Darina Grotto
the meeting had been finished, Vic tried to subdue her jitters in her legs and hands, being happy that her vision and the reality were just a coincidence and that’s all.
Staying in the hall, Gregory looked at Vic with the smile while she was losing herself in the corners of her mind, had no idea how to behave.
‘Have a good day,’ he said.
‘Thanks… you too…’ Vic turned back and went to her work place.
‘The Devil’s bride…’
The girl stopped dead. Having turned around she saw in the lobby the same old woman’s ghost. It stayed and intently looked at scared Victoria.
‘What did you say?’ Vic asked out of foolishness.
The old woman silently raised her hand and wagged her finger at Vic after she disappeared.
Vic was paralyzed. For the whole time of being with the demon she had got over that she could always see something or someone other couldn’t. She didn’t know what exactly she saw – spirits, ghosts or something unknown. But the girl couldn’t get over the fact that those guys started speaking with her and not just speaking but labelling her.
‘Kharon,’ she whispered on the phone after she had heard the man’s voice. ‘Meet me at 6.30 near Barrikadnaya metro station.’
‘Your voice is very odd, dear.’ The demon said puzzled.
‘It is probably, I need to talk to you.’
‘Oh, why? I’ve never had any serious talk before. How am I supposed to react? Wait, keep silence. A serious talk… Well. The word serious doesn’t cause any positive thoughts if to put it logically. Hey, Vic, what’ve I done?’
Despite of her being in panic, Vic smiled. Guessing Kharon distracted her from her thoughts of the ill-fated old woman.
‘You haven’t. That’s not so bad. Just meet me, ok?’
‘As you wish. How do you feel, love?’
‘Love?’ Vic smiled again.
‘You’re so…like me, asking about every word I tell.’ Kharon smiled, too. ‘I got you. At 6.30 near Barrykadnaya metro station. I bet I’ll guess the carriage you’re gonna be in.’
‘Try your best.’ Vic almost forgot about the accident at work.
The memories were destroyed with the pictures of Kharon’s face. His nice smile and gentle gaze conduced the girl’s sooner rehabilitation.
Vic heard the phone hang up, grinned and already looking forward to meeting.
At that time Kharon was walking along the city, revelling in the view of streets and beautiful women, persistently collecting all information about human behaviour. Ideally curiosity made him flirt with girls, using all conceivable and inconceivable tricks to see what would happen next. He was interested in reading their minds and he liked to listen to their voiced answers. He had fun.
“By accident” he stepped on some girl’s foot, stumbled and almost fell. She was about to attack the awkward man, say him many bad words. But Kharon started twittering in Spanish that he was so sorry to be so an awkward not to notice the girl while he had been seeing the sight of Bolshoy Theatre vault.
The girl immediately smiled, having forgotten about her dirty suede shoe. Kharon went on saying sorry in bad Russian. Of course, his foreign splendid accent, innocent eyes, beauty of his face played its role.
The next conclusion was drawn: Russian women weren’t so angry as they wanted to look like. Their mean faces very fast turned into bright smile with sincerity and they were already ready to help. Kharon saw it better than any other men. The sexual energy he had, charmed women when they were awakened.
To other couple, that had drawn the demon’s attention with its passionate kisses in the middle of Alexandrovsky Sad, Kharon said that he could predict everything. He turned into a blind old man, took the girl by the hand and whispered in a hoarse voice:
‘The wedding is on 10th of October.’ Looking at nowhere, strongly holding her hand, the demon was reading her mind. ‘You’re waiting for the wedding. Everything is bought. He’s your fiancé. But he has a mistress already.’
The man got pale and contradicted, banishing the old man from his sight not to let him talk nonsense. The demon insidiously smiled, his eyes flashed which had nothing in common with old age and kept on telling some things that nobody could have known but the couple themselves.
Indeed, the tear-stained girl punched him with the thorn roses in the face, threw away the ring and ran home in tears.
‘You, freakish old grumbler…’ he hissed, clenching his fists.
‘You’re gonna be an impotent in a year, young man,’ the demon predicted in a sepulchral voice.
Having had fun with the passer-by Kharon went down in metro as crowded as a can with sprats. People went home, tried to smile, pretend they were fun and glad the day was over. By the way they didn’t forget to shout at others, having wolf-looks, hated them.
When the carriage was at Kuznetsky Most a great crowd invaded into and Kharon turned to be almost at the very corner. There was a nice-looking girl before him, and she looked at everything around with understanding in her eyes. Her shoes were stepped on, someone pushed her, but she thought that it was ok, none of those were on purpose.
The demon was too close to her and without hesitation staring at her face. It had sadness and sorrow a bit and some desperation. Kharon saw her eyelashes freeze, her eyes were staring ahead at his chest.
The door opened and more people got into the carriage, pushing and kicking each other. The demon had time to set his hand against the wall not to let him press the girl.
‘Unbelievably…’ he said quiet looking at her scared eyes.
Looking at her face you could see the girl waited for the man to be about to fall at her with his body, tramp her foot or make a nasty trick. Her eyes got scared while Kharon’s eyes smiled.
The train steamed out of the station and people mechanically waved aside but the demon kept his hand against the wall not letting large-tonnage wave come down on the girl. The smile played across his lips while he was looking at the understandable confusion.
The girl tried not to stare at the man who was heroically covering her with his body. In the glimmering of the carriage Kharon gazed her cheeks were overspread with a faint flu and her eyes looked lower.
Using his position and potential coming closer together the demon moved to her. He did so close he could feel warmth of youth. The girl felt too the atmosphere and lifted her eyes.
‘I’m sorry.’ He said quiet slightly bowed to her.
The train was running down, and the wall of passengers leaned upon the demon’s back. He, of course, couldn’t hold himself such pressure and the crowd bumped him into the girl.
Instead of screaming and going into hysterics the girl smiled and turned to the door in the glass of which leaned on her demon was reflected.
Daria… The demon closed his eyes and let the thought stream so uninteresting break into his head…. I’d like to go in this way eternally… Mine is incapable of anything like this… Cans are on his head… the cell is in his hands… here the stranger is like a protection from everything. I don’t wanna you go out…
“Go out” came Kharon back to reality, letting out the girl’s thoughts from his head. He shifted his eyes to get what the station was.
‘This is Barrikadnaya station, change here for the orbital link…’
Kharon smiled once again, glanced at the girl interested and left the train.
He was in the middle of the station having his eyes closed and listened. No. He didn’t listen to neither people nor unceasing clatter and chatter around, mechanical voices… He tried to listen to her.
Then some visions flew one by one: an intimate atmosphere,