Unlimited. Darina Grotto
in your mind?’
She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth because of the man’s pressuring, threw back her head and soundlessly squeaked. At that time the demon was covering the twisted corridors and halls of consciousness and subconsciousness looking for the answers.
‘Here they are,’ he whispered, stronger pressing the girl’s head. ‘You can stand it a little more… I’ll get them out.’
A minute had passed before Kharon let go of the exhausted girl. He relaxed his hands, gently kissed her lips and stepped back, having turned away from Vic.
‘I’m not a murder, dear.’ He said with his back on her.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m not a murder but you make me be.’ Kharon turned to her. ‘I’m really sorry that it’s me who has to do it as no one will.’
‘What are you talking about, Kharon? You’re scaring me…’
‘Tell me, Victoria, what on earth prompted you to think so?’ He folded his arms. ‘What was your logic?’
Vic frowned and had a blank nervous look, looking at the man.
‘Now you don’t understand what I’m speaking about, do you?’ the man came up to her again, grabbing gently for her shoulders. ‘You make me kill your hope.’
‘My hope?’ Victoria had a lump in her throat as she started getting what a hope murder Kharon was speaking about. ‘No, Kharon, don’t. Don’t shoot from the hip…’
‘I saw it in your thoughts. Is that old woman who gave it to you? Why did you believe her so ridiculously?’
Someone coughed and steps were heard. Kharon let the girl and stepped back. It was the first time in his life he felt so strange. He looked at a stranger, at his leaving shadow and didn’t understand his feeling that had appeared with the stranger together. That was the first step of shame.
‘The Devil’s bride doesn’t mean, dear, that you’re the one. There are no weddings in my world.’
‘No, there aren’t, but there are in my world!’ Vic interrupted him, grabbing his hand. ‘There are weddings in my world. There are brides and fiancées… There’s love. All of it exist in my world. And I have right to dream about it. You can’t make me stop doing it. You can’t. There are lots of things in my world which hardly can happen in yours and they’re immune to you. But it means nothing, does it? Jesus, Kharon…’ Victoria put her hands on her head, being shocked with the conversation. ‘I’m in shock indeed! I’ve never thought that living in your world is torn to pieces and wounded with stereotypes and prejudices which you’re not able to get rid of!’
The girl experienced great desperation. No, it wasn’t about the man. No. She was upset with that fact that some things didn’t depend neither on you nor your surroundings.
‘What’s it, Vic?’ the demon asked, touching his left side of his chest. ‘I can feel your feelings. How do you call it? I wanna know…’
‘It hurts now, and I feel desperation because of your words. I don’t like it and I’m hurt. I would call all of it disappointment…. Let’s go. We’re wet through. This conversation happened too early and now I’m catching up to it. Not for all the world borrow this dispiriting feeling for yourself. Nothing can change my feelings to you, but death can.’
Disappointment. What was the level of it? Was it a strong sense? What was going to be after? There was a small of human senses into insensitive depth of the demon and now he was preoccupied and tried to understand what and why. Most of all he wanted to know why. Why could people experience those terrible feelings? Why couldn’t they reject to experience them, harking after other feelings? Why did people like being disappointed? For a month of being with people Kharon had time to know what joy meant. Why not to use this perfect ability to be happy… What stupid things those two-legged creatures were. They had so wide range of positive thinking, but they ate dirty and garbage without stopping.
‘Ok, Victoria. At this time of day, I got your mind. Thank you. I’ll take this lesson into account. I’d like to tell you something about the man you had dinner with. There’s a thing for you creeping in his heart that you call affection. Certainly, it’s not a love. I don’t feel him feeling the way you do towards me. But as I see all people can fall in love. But, saying it in your language he’s ready to let you see what can be done in his bed.’
Victoria was listening so-called exciting story about her boss and instead of understanding the news she tried to realize if there was a share of jealousy in Kharon’s words, whose love she wanted to arouse. Just a little of jealousy… But she was either deaf or there was no jealousy. Kharon just spoke like a morning greeting or what’s up.
They went away from the Garden Ring Road to Tverskaya Street at Mayakovskaya metro station and headed towards the Red Square. It was the first time they kept silence for a long time. They both had something to think over. At that moment they both were ok. Kharon couldn’t and didn’t want to get into Victoria’s mind and one could hardly get into his except Lucifer. They gave a little time to each other to think over something, work on misunderstandings.
When they were at Pushkinskaya Square Kharon stopped and looked at a big building, proudly elevated behind the monument.
‘Why did you never tell me what a building it is?’ he asked Victoria.
‘This one?’ the girl nodded at the building. ‘This is a cinema. You’ve never asked me.’
‘What’s the sound?’ Kharon asked under his breath turning to Vic. ‘You… Is this a chatter of your teeth? Why are you doing it?’
‘Kharon,’ she smiled, rubbing her sniffly nose, ‘people usually do it in two cases: when we’re afraid or cold.’
‘You have no fear now that means you’re cold… Cold…’ Kharon repeated mysteriously, ‘I see, once I saw a young man put his jacket on a girl in the cold evening… I’ll give you my coat.’
Victoria kindly smiled and stared at Kharon watching him build his logic chain in his head and she looked forward to waiting for it to be done. Kharon quickly unbuttoned his coat, easing down when undid the last buttons.
‘But it’s wet… through. It’s the same as yours and that’s why your teeth are chattering… Oh people… What’s going on in cinemas? Can we go there to get warm?’
‘Sure, let’s go. Moreover, we can watch a film. A cinema is the place where you can watch films.’
‘Really?’ Kharon ‘Then let’s go. By the way why do people go to the cinemas if they have TV and internet at homes where they can watch the same?’
‘Oh, Kharon, it’s so meaningful question it can be answered for a long time and in a variety of ways. Any cinema isn’t just a place to watch a new film, catch a break with no sleeping. You can get new emotions, sympathize or be happy for the main characters. You can be upset a little bit because all that is showed in films never happens in life. Or you can breathe a sigh of relief that things you see are just film and nothing more. So, any cinema is nothing more but the place where you can get emotions. Couples often go to the cinema. They are there to enjoy each other and don’t care about the actions on the screen. As a rule, if you ask them what the film is about, they hardly would remember its title.’
‘Umph…’ the man looked at the girl attentively and smiling. ‘Then we have several reasons to get there.’
There was a world drama on the screen which everyone knew by not a generation. It was the Titanic.
First twenty minutes of the film Kharon was busy with his girl. He kissed her fingers, warming them up with his breath, rubbing her skin, warming up her chilled hands. He embraced Victoria softly rubbing her shoulders, awaking her endless passion. The man intently looked at the sitting near girl. He wasn’t interested so much in actions on the screen. He was more interested in Victoria.
Twenty minutes later the demon glanced at the huge screen and… Victoria lost an interlocutor in him.