“Come to us!” voices from the tree sounded very close. But there are no thickets near the pavilion. Here, flower beds with rare flowers are almost invisible.
“And under that tree they killed a famous actor, a well-known sex symbol,” said the manager, who obviously went out to smoke and found the two of them talking. The guard immediately hurried back to his post, and Daniel looked lazily at the elderly man. He that thus prophesies the fate of today’s unlucky sex symbol. Or is he just joking? But the manager continued without irony.
“His adorers then took scores with their lives at the place of his death.”
“That is, under the same tree.”
“Well yes.”
“Why didn’t I know about it before I came to such a gloomy city?”
“Because you are never interested in anything.”
“And what was the name of that celebrity who died here such an inglorious death before me?”
“Who cares? You barely remember even those you are filming with in pairs. But friendship with them is your chance to create additional advertising for yourself.”
He was clearly hinting at Jane.
“You’d better tell me more about that tree,” Daniel cleverly changed the subject.
The manager shrugged.
“Usually the trees on which someone hanged themselves are immediately cut down so that others do not have a desire to repeat it. An old belief! It is believed that such trees spread negative energy and inspire others with the same desire. But no one hung on that tree. People only cut the veins underneath. Blood flowed to the roots. The tree itself is stupid to blame for mass suicide. Simply, actresses and actors are often at odds with their own psyche. Yes, and their life is tense, today you are a star, and tomorrow your roles are given to others, how not to throw a tantrum and not attempt suicide. And there was only one fault on the tree: it was too close to the film studio and looked quite defiant, it looked very much like a set for a horror movie.
“Where is this tree?”
“Somewhere!” the manager suddenly laughed. “If it exists at all. In my opinion, these could be different trees, and everything else is a fiction of the local press. Losers will find a way to commit suicide. Try not to become one of them. And the tree – I personally think it’s a myth.
“Not a myth,” Daniel tensed. “I saw it.”
The recognition cost him a lot, but the interlocutor was not at all impressed.
“Do not think about the trees of Lucifer, it is better to study the scenario about a nobleman who has just returned to his estate from the war and about a devil that he accidentally released. Have you already got used to your role?”
Daniel glanced briefly at the sheets of text that were thrown into his lap.
“What’s wrong?”
He noticed a strange detail just now.
“According to the script, the hero’s name is Rozovsky,” Daniel read uncertainly. And from which he had not discovered it before. You need to carefully review everything in advance: both scripts and documents.
“So what? For a Russian, the surname is quite suitable.”
But it was precisely this surname that his real family bore. Does this mean that the whole story is taken from the annals of his ancestors?
“We will not change the name of the hero,” the director declared in an indisputable tone. “It is taken from a real nobleman who lived and died in those days.”
“Killed?” Daniel didn’t like it at once.
“But the story itself is fantastic.”
“And what does not suit you?”
“Yes, so…” it was not in his habits to be cowardly in front of omens. What you play will repeat in life. He didn’t really believe it. Nevertheless, I knew such actors who refuse some tragic roles, often to their detriment. But who told him that the ending of this scenario is tragic? By the way, he never finished reading the script.
Film about the golden creature
Daniel arrived much earlier than twelve. Although the invitation, as he recently considered, was designated precisely this time. His blood soaked into the cardboard, and the letters and numbers were visible again. The block letters had an unusual look with curls. What printer can this be printed on? Reminds of calligraphy of the last century. It’s strange why Cordelia didn’t say right away that the time of the session was still definite.
It was so dark at the entrance that Daniel had to turn on the flashlight in his smartphone to see the road. Some animals, remotely resembling bats and lizards, darted underfoot. The graceful figures of the sphinxes at the entrance gleamed gold even in the dark. How beautiful they are! Half lions, half women with crafty faces. Daniel wanted to touch them with his hand, but he noticed that a rat with a ripped throat was stuck between the pedestal and the claws of one of the sphinxes. The impression was as if the sphinx caught it and crushed it with his paw. The gilded claws were stained with blood.
It’s just a dead pest! But Daniel for some reason immediately felt creepy and unpleasant. There was a dim light inside the theater itself. The fountain in the lobby was working. Near the lotus in its center, lights were turned on, and the streams of water were painted alternately in all the colors of the rainbow.
The angel statues were rearranged so that only one of them stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the cinema halls. The other six figures were placed right on the steps, at a great distance from each other. Each sculpture is one step higher than the previous one. It seemed that they flew up there on their own and deliberately avoided each other. Unusual decor! And everything is so luxurious. Truly a VIP zone! But why doesn’t anyone at the entrance ask for an invitation? And why are there no other visitors here? Have they already entered the hall?
The absence of guards was also striking. Since the cinema is still functioning, it must be guarded so that, for example, a gang of hooligans does not break in here. Daniel even doubted that the invitation to the session was not a joke, because there were no attendants around at all. Only flocks of blue moths nested in the corners of the floor and ceiling. The rustle of their wings made his head ache. Apart from them, there is no one in the whole building.
Daniel stretched out his hand to the flock fluttering in the corner, and immediately felt painful bites to blood. Moths don’t bite! This is against the rules of nature. And their wings definitely cannot be blue.
Cordelia came out of the hallway leading to the cinemas suddenly. Behind her evening gown was a long train, all made of blue butterflies. Silk? Yes, they are alive. They flutter. How did she sew them. Alive? Or it seems to him. He didn’t drink today. I didn’t want to fall asleep during the session, moreover, in such a strange place, far from the city. Who knows, suddenly he will be cut alive here himself, if he doze off and become vulnerable.
“Everyone here is vulnerable.”
And again voices in his head. What’s with him? Now he is no longer standing by the creepy tree, but the feeling is as if his hands are still in the ashes from the bark.
:Come on! Coming soon!” the girl did not even greet him and did not even throw a cursory glance at the invitation, which he nervously crumpled in his hands.
“They don’t even guard the doors,” Daniel complained.
“So what,” she casually waved her hand, on which a scarab bracelet flashed. The adornment looked like a very ancient museum item.
“There is no fear of a terrorist attack, robbery, hooliganism?”
“There is nothing more to be afraid of!” Cordelia walked forward along the corridor without even turning around.
“I’m sorry what?”
“We have good security. Do not worry!”
“But I didn’t see anyone.”
“You have nothing. You came to watch a movie, not meet the guards.”
She was obviously teasing him, although how could she know that this morning he met the guard specifically in order to inquire about the local creepy sights.
“By the way, what’s the name of the film?”
“Didn’t you read the title on the invitation?”
The question shocked him. He was ashamed to admit that he did not understand the words that were printed there. From the sight of the letters either his head began to ache, or it seemed that these were not letters at all, but some obscure symbols and hieroglyphs. Indeed, he needs to drink less. His director is right.
Before entering the cinema, Daniel dropped his smartphone. How embarrassing! One movement, and the means of cellular communication with the world immediately shattered to smithereens. Now, even if they begin to kill him inside, he will not be able to call and warn anyone. Everything seems to be calculated in advance?! Daniel immediately dismissed the thought. No one is to blame that he did not get enough sleep that he had everything to fall out of hand. Some of his former agents liked to admonish him that the most important thing for a star is to get enough sleep in order to properly control his actions. Not having enough sleep, you look worse, and play badly, and you can blurt out something completely unnecessary to the public or journalists. And now, from fatigue, he controlled himself so badly that he could smash his head against the door lintel, and not just a smartphone.
“I’m not going further with you,” she said at the door. “There is no spare place left for me.”
“But there are plenty of places!” Daniel saw from the doorway that the whole hall was empty.
“There’s only one invitation for you,” Cordelia explained to the dull.
“And what does it change? The seats are all unoccupied, and there are five minutes left before the session, no more. Usually, in cinemas, no one is acting up, if a more convenient place is free, then the audience can easily change seats on it. Apart from special screenings, the auditorium is never completely occupied at movie shows. And here there are just no guards who will expose the free rider.” Why is Cordelia hugging so tight? Is she too proud to enter without a ticket?
“Anyone else coming?” Daniel asked after all. “Or I’m the only guest.”
“Take your seat and wait for the beginning,” she nodded dryly.
“Where is my place?” he didn’t even look at the invitation. Since Cordelia is here in charge of the controller, then let him conduct it herself. But she did not step into the hall. She just explained:
“In the very center!”
And that’s it! Her chic train of butterflies rustled behind the slammed doors. Daniel felt trapped as they closed. It looks like there will be no more spectators. The whole room is empty. The screen is blank. No one is around. Only the luxurious rows of chairs upholstered in purple velvet. The hall itself is good! It’s beautiful here, like at the royal court. The velvet is clearly real! The walls are gilded. The curtains at the entrance are also velvet. More like a sophisticated theater than a movie. But the blank screen in the center spoils the impression.
An animal slipped between the rows. He nearly fell as it ran over his leg.
He did not immediately notice the seven marble winged figures, which were scattered on the sides of the auditorium and one even at the stage. Did they come here themselves? Or are they just duplicates of the statues he saw at the entrance? It seems that there is nothing surprising in the fact that such eerie decorations are present here as well. It was more fitting for them to stand in a crypt or in a cemetery. Monuments on graves are most often decorated with such sculptures. Although here they may turn out to be just papier-mâché mannequins, light decor details. The appearance of marble is probably only an illusion. He wanted to get up and touch them to check it, but for some reason he did not dare. The beautiful white faces of the angels looked so sinister, especially when combined with pointed ears and long claws on white fingers. And their smiles are too predatory. It seems that they see everything with their empty white eyes without pupils.
Daniel turned away from the figures. For some reason he immediately got sick of watching the film in their presence. This will not be a session, but hell. It feels like seven white pieces are watching him closely. And why are there exactly seven of them, as well as in front of the entrance? Does this number mean something?
He did glance at them again. The light had already started to go out. The figures at the end of the rows were indistinguishable, but the same mystical decorations suddenly appeared in the seats of the auditorium – winged statues sitting right in the chairs and made so skillfully that their hands lay flat on the armrests, and their wings surrounded the back of the chair. There were also exactly seven seated figures, and they were scattered throughout the hall at a decent distance from each other. Well, the decoration came out of them cool and mysterious, but why didn’t he notice them when he entered? All the chairs a minute ago were empty. Or did the figures become visible only in the darkness? Did some kind of lighting turn on inside them? They are slightly phosphorescent. And if they had just been dragged into place, then why did he not hear any noise. He never went deep into his thoughts so that he did not notice anything around him. And now, Daniel noted that the light went out too suddenly. Usually in the cinema it is extinguished in stages, allowing the audience to get used to the semi-darkness, and then suddenly full darkness came at once. Only the figures in the chairs shone. Their presence was very uncomfortable. They are not alive, but the feeling was that they themselves flew here.
The instinct of self-preservation actively warned that they would now attack him. Someone walked through the rows. Daniel clearly heard footsteps and the grinding of metal on the floor, but turning around, he could not make out in the darkness even just a vague silhouette of the controller. But one of the angelic figures suddenly turned its head right at him. More precisely, he did not see how it turned its head, but before all the angels looked at the screen, and not in the direction of the chairs. And now, suddenly, one of the marble faces stared straight at him. The angel was sitting right in his row, only a dozen chairs away. Has he really sat here before? When Daniel took his place, the whole row was definitely empty. The feeling was that the next moment the marble fingers would touch the arm of his chair and squeeze his hand until he fainted.
Everything could be attributed to the 3D effect, but the film has not even started yet, and Daniel himself has no glasses. Or are there special ways to impress the viewer in this privileged area?
From somewhere behind there was the mechanical rustle of a spinning reel. A golden scarab was crawling across the screen. How did he get there? No, it’s not real. Daniel looked more closely. In fact, the show has already begun. The screen lit up, as if some gates had opened from within. No commercials before the movie starts. Amazing! The credits went straight away. He had never seen a gold title before. And the letters are strange. He couldn’t read them. Or double in his eyes? The scarab crawled between credits in every frame.
Someone touched Daniel on the shoulder. He did not turn, fearing to see that one of the statues was already standing right behind him. Better not to spoil your nerves once again. All the same, the doors of the hall are now closed, there is nowhere to run. Until the session is over, it is worth enjoying the film. However, instead of enjoyment, many questions arose. At the beginning something like “Lady of the Pharaohs” flashed in the credits. Strange, but still understandable. Probably, it was about some kind of goddess. But the next line, highlighted in especially large print “And his name is Dennitsa” evoked frightening associations. Dennitsa is one of the names of the devil, it seems, the one under which he gained fame in paradise. The name of the most beautiful angel! Bible! Daniel remembered some of it. But how are the biblical devil and Ancient Egypt connected? In those days, no one had ever heard of the Bible. Therefore, no one knew about the devil either.
Daniel was confused. The feeling of being inside the screen was strong and without the 3D effect. Rapidly flashing footage of ancient palaces mixed with some kind of horror, as if sucked consciousness into a funnel. What if this feeling does not go away, but remains with him forever. Consciousness swept through the ancient Egyptian halls and pyramids, past bloody wars, witchcraft and the rituals of burying mummies, as if in search of something. Luxury mixed with horror, which only intensified the all-encompassing nightmare effect. It seems that this is not horror, and not a historical drama, and not an action movie, or a biblical story, but all together. And it all has a kind of crushing realism.
The film was about a golden creature that has conquered rulers since the beginning of time. It crept across the screen. Its claws were palpably close. Palaces, temples, pyramids remained behind it in the frame as a background. The time of action was in fact not only the Ancient Egypt, but all eternity, from the war in the heavens to the present day. But the main action, apart from numerous digressions to the twenty-fifth frame, was concentrated precisely on Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten. His commander Taor, who returned with a great victory, at the moment of honoring the hero noticed a beautiful winged creature whispering advice to the pharaoh, and fell in love with her. This creature was the biblical devil who ruled the local kings like puppets. This creature, contrary to biblical descriptions, had a girlish face and body. The creature was called Alais, and this name contained some kind of magical wording. Alais was cruel to the point of horror and sacrificed people to resurrect the army of demons from the desert sands. Taor was noble and inclined to self-sacrifice so much that he could be called a true Christian, although no one knew about Christianity at that time. And such a generous guy, ready to beg Pharaoh for forgiveness even for those who intended to kill him, fell in love with a creature performing bloody rituals. Love for Alais so overshadowed his brain that he was ready to give up all his own beliefs. But Alais, as it turned out, is not capable of loving anyone at all. The rejected young man, not finding a place for himself, wandered through the deserts and met the Archangel Michael himself, who put a dagger with two dragons on the hilt in his hand, capable of killing Alais.
What a special effect! It was even painful to look at Mikhail, so he shone, and the dragons on the dagger moved and hissed as if alive. And here is the only goodbye kiss in the tomb. Taor sacrificed himself only so that a monster would come to replace the angel. Everything fused from gold plates, clawed, multi-armed, like Kali, vaguely resembling a precious scarab.
The frames flashed like a top. Pyramids, mummification rites, a fallen army rising from the sands, deserts, rivers, palaces. And everywhere it is. Dazzling! Overshadowing the mind! Spooky! And beautiful.
It was already crawling across the stark darkness of the screen. It reached out with golden claws to Daniel’s throat. It breathed heat and fire into his face. It was near. Already in the hall. Between his row of seats and the previous one. He was willing to swear it. He even had a chance to feel the touch of hot metal claws on his neck, to look into bleeding sand-colored eyes, sparkling from under a pile of thin gold plates twisted with bizarre symbols.
Is this a creature from hell or from Egypt? In any case, it is here and now he will die, as all the pharaohs who did not obey him died.
And suddenly the light came on. There was no golden monster around. And the film did not come out of his head. For some reason, the story of Taor and Alais felt like a cutting pain in his mind. Daniel was never sentimental, but now he involuntarily wondered: why did all the greatness of history end in tragedy? Why these two, as if created for each other, could not stay together.
Of course, he did not voice the question out loud, but someone’s ringing voice boldly and mockingly answered him from the other end of the hall:
“Because she was the devil!”
Dead star
No one around. Even the figures of marble angels disappeared somewhere. One and all. Daniel looked around in vain for the speaker. Could someone bend over and hide behind the empty chairs? Is it worth walking through the rows and checking? The hall was quite large.
Daniel frowned, not knowing where to go now. I didn’t want to leave at all. There was an unbearably strong desire to see the same film again. The story stirred up the blood, and the shots with alternation of luxury and horror did not go out of his head, almost driving him crazy. Daniel suddenly realized what exactly flashed in the frames, incredibly frightening. Rise of the angels and their overthrow. Fight winged, clawed and flaming creatures. Their transformation into monsters. Fall into the desert, burnt symbols in the sand. With the army of the devil, everything is clear, but there are many questions about Alais herself. If he is allowed to watch the film again, he will be able to understand everything, but who to turn to in order to ask for a repeat of the session and whether his request will be fulfilled.
Daniel sat motionless for ten minutes, waiting for someone else to talk to him, or at least that the exit doors would finally open, but neither one nor the other happened.
He was suddenly struck by burning jealousy for the actor who played Taor. This is handsome! A white-faced brunette with bright blue eyes. Doesn’t look like an Egyptian at all. And he played above all praise. Daniel, even in his best works, could not compare with him. I wonder what his name is? For some reason, his name was not indicated in the credits. And he is one of the main performers. Daniel remembered about the stupid Hollywood style of marking the first old but famous actors in the credits, who play only small roles, bypassing the main characters who were played by newcomers. This often caused confusion for the audience. But here all the actors except a few were completely deleted from the credits. There was clearly only one name. Starring – ATENAIS.
So she’s playing Alais? An actress who doesn’t even have a last name? The name seemed vaguely familiar to him. It seems that not so long ago it was very famous. Daniel saw him often in newspaper reports. He was not particularly fond of other stars besides himself, but all newspapers and magazines trumpeted Atenais for a while. She was at the peak of popularity, and then the press suddenly fell silent. After the tragedy. Daniel stumbled upon the recollection of one article like a sharp blade. Atenais died in a terrorist attack several years ago.
The guy felt that he could not get up from the chair. These associations struck me like thunder from heaven. It seemed that there was nothing to live for. Atenais is not the lively and capricious actress with whom fate will one day bring him on the set. This beauty has been like a corpse for years. Only her mystical image lives on the screen. She herself is dead! Why hadn’t he been so upset about her death earlier, when the news was fresh? Yes, simply because I did not watch a single film with her and did not know how beautiful she was.
They say love is like an arrow in the heart. He lived without receiving it, that is, without seeing the object of this very love, and when you see it, you understand that you cannot continue to live on. Everything is decided by one meeting, one glance, and life loses its meaning. Especially if you fell in love with a dead woman.
This is stupid. Daniel tossed his bleached strands of hair, and it fanned out over his shoulders. It is likely that if you wash off the makeup from Taor, he will be no more handsome than an ordinary guy. And it is even more likely that the early death of the actress gives the supernatural charm to the whole appearance of Alais. It was not for nothing that Edgar Poe sang the charm of the death of a young maiden, when death, as if by mistake, takes a girl too early. Those who died young and will never grow old acquire some kind of special appeal. And the impression left by the film is just the detrimental effect of an overdose of the twenty-fifth frame on the psyche.
And yet how painful! Head squeezed like a hoop.
Above the exit door, someone had just raised the curtain. The door itself is probably already open too. Daniel stood on bending legs. He sat motionless too long. How long did the movie go? An hour and a half, two hours? It seemed like an eternity. It is worth leaving the cinema, and he will find himself in the new millennium, and the golden creature will be waiting for him there.
The floor swayed underfoot like the deck of a ship. It only seems so, because the legs hardly obey. The cinema doesn’t seem to want to let him go.
Something stirred behind the curtain at the exit. It seems like a wing. Someone raised a finger to his lips, urging him to be silent. How beautiful this face is, and how cold it blows. It’s like drawing on top of the frame. Is this a poster or another statue? Daniel pulled the curtain with all his might and saw her – the star of the film.
To say that he was dumbfounded was to say nothing. The girl was the same. With or without makeup, but the look of Alais from the movie. The picture from the screen came to life. He had never experienced anything like this, although he quite often met women in his life, whom he had previously watched only in films or on TV. He had such a job, and he already knew how much the actresses live different from their ideal looks in the films.
Only the beauty standing next to the pharaoh in the film actually turned out to be even more beautiful. Pale, slender, graceful. The golden curls and eyelashes seemed to be natural, not dyed, no matter how unusual it may sound. What country breeds girls with such an unusual hair color and the grace of a fallen archangel?
“Did you play the main role in the film?” His heart beat like a bird in a cage.
The movie star is here! He didn’t even ask when the movie was filmed. Let even millennia ago. Get her autograph. For the first time in his entire biography, he would have asked for a painting, not from him. But where to get a notebook, a pen. The smartphone crashed at the entrance. You can’t take a selfie with it. It’s worth a try though. She dived into the shadows. Well, okay! He still wanted more from her than an autograph.
“Alais!” he did not even think that he called her after her heroine. It’s even good! It can be considered an achievement when an actress is called by the name of her character. This means that she performed the role perfectly. Another thing is the stars, who are known only by their promoted name and only thanks to advertising campaigns. She is no match for them.
“Don’t disappear!” he himself held the curtain that had slipped on the door with his hand, but the girl was already standing by the armchairs. The hall immediately became somehow dark, and the darkness behind her seemed to fold into two large black wings.
“You look like a jewel from an ancient treasury, thanks to the color of your hair,” Daniel never said such poetic words to anyone, but now poetry was closest to reality. All this is not a movie illusion. He saw golden scarabs adorning her shoulders and arms. A blush like ruby dust painted on her cheeks. Curls of hair like red snakes. Truly, it looks like a jewel that came to life and fled from the royal treasury.
“Looked – you will go blind!” a whisper came from the topmost row. There, on the back of a chair, is a winged animal. It hardly speaks well.
“Did you come for the next session?”
“I’m here all the time,” her voice rang out for the first time, and reminded the clink of gold coins falling to the floor. “And you are late.”
“At this time, everyone is already asleep.”
“Not everyone, someone comes here in search of adventure, and we delight them with films that are ready to satisfy the most demanding taste. Be that as it may, people get what they are looking for. But the entry price is sometimes too high for them.
“It’s not surprising if each session is designed for just one viewer. In such a huge hall,” he defiantly looked around. The animal from the upper row disappeared somewhere. “Do they show old films here?”
“Sometimes even the ancients.”
“I’ve never heard of such. A museum piece, a palace, a crypt may be ancient, but not a film.”
“You should get used to the local vocabulary if you want to watch something else from our film program.”
“I did not mean anything bad or judgmental. It’s just that in the places where I visited the cinema, even last year’s films are no longer in the box office.”
“Updates are regularly made here too.”
What did she mean? As in the already shot and edited film that goes to the cinema, you can make updates. Or was she talking about something else? In any case, the phrase sounded mysterious.
“The world is changing, the frames of films too. Nothing stands still, except for the cinema building itself.
“By the way about the cinema. Why is it officially considered closed? I heard there was some kind of tragedy? Something like a terrorist attack during an old premiere…”
She somehow became sad, looked away. Fans of golden eyelashes fell on her cheeks. Eyelashes are definitely not false, but how long they are. And the scarabs on her skin, as if alive. Are they moving?
“You need to live for today.”
Did she say that or did he just hear it?
“I’m sorry if I disturbed any bad memories,” Daniel apologized hastily.
“I have no memories. Everything was filmed a long time ago, like a film.” She nodded at the long-extinguished screen, on which nothing else was crawling.
Daniel scanned the rows of empty chairs. The feeling was as before, as if the golden monster was still in the hall, crawling between the rows and was about to cling to its legs.
“Truth, lies, hidden truths… Everything is not important until you capture it in the frame. People are interested in sights, not memories, and we give them more than they want. In a similar way, the desires of the public were fulfilled in the amphitheaters of Ancient Rome, only the audience there was not touched.”
“It’s hard to understand you.”
“But it’s nice to look at me,” she stepped towards him, and he was so frightened of what that he backed away, stumbled over one of the corner chairs and nearly fell. Looking up at Alais was the same as looking at a deity. She was all glowing, and the darkness behind her was forming into two patterned wings.
Something seemed to be crawling between the seats. Daniel heard claws scraping on the floor, he even saw suspicious claw scratches on the carpet. This is definitely not a cat scratch. Moreover, not five, but six claws were imprinted. There are no animals with six claws on their paws. Or has he just not heard of such?
His first agent liked to say that all actors are extremely dumb, but Daniel persisted in thinking of himself as an educated guy. And even if he managed to unlearn at the university only one course before he received a dubious offer to act in film, for which he dropped out. But he has a wide outlook, he traveled a lot, moving from one shoot to another, he managed to see a lot. But he had never seen anything like it. The cinema is unique. Maybe that’s why they spread a rumor about it that it was abandoned so that people would not besiege it in droves in the hope of peeping at the local miracles even through the keyhole.
This is good! Thanks to the rumor about the tragedy and the dilapidation of the building, he sat alone at the session, like a king. And if everyone had access here, word of mouth would work in a matter of days, and all tickets would be sold out a year in advance. Young people love thrills, and the cinema provides them in abundance. After it, you do not need to visit any fear rooms or attractions. The impressions from one session will last for a lifetime. Daniel himself did not know where to go after watching the film, except for the nearest tree on which to hang himself. If he met Alais in person, he could commit any extreme.
The extinguished screen indicated that the golden era of the film was already over, and there would be no continuation. But the star of the film stood by. Thanks to her presence, even someone’s heavy claws, scratching the floor here and there, did not cause much fear.
“Who are you?” it was probably stupid to ask, but the silence strained. “Athenais? This name is shown in the credits.”
“Athenais,” she repeated the name as if she had heard for the first time and twisted her face in displeasure.
“Well, yes, you are an actress. Probably, Athenais is just your nickname.”
“I’m not an actress!”
Her harsh objection burned like mercury. So, the act of terrorism was not invented in order to scare away annoying viewers from the plebeians from the elite cinema? And then it turns out that Atenais really died, and does not stand in front of him. But even her clothes are almost the same as in the film. Only now, in a strange Egyptian costume, details of something modern appeared. He just now saw that under a sophisticated top with stones and chains, he was wearing the most ordinary newfangled low-waisted jeans. Notice the piercing on the flat stomach and the scarab ring threaded into the navel. Involuntarily he glanced at her. Everything went well with her. And she’s definitely not dead. Her skin is pale and slightly phosphorescent, but not rotting.
Why does this feeling that she left the screen, having just crossed the line of two worlds, offscreen and real, does not leave him? And the cinema itself is like a portal between these two worlds.
“Alais!” he called her the name of the heroine from the film, without even thinking about the consequences. What if she gets offended? After all, the beauty at the end of the film was beheaded by Taor. Daniel has long ago noticed that for many people, even unbelievers, there is a certain set of beliefs and will accept. Not everyone is happy when he is compared, for example, with the executed Marie Antoinette, even if she was a queen during her lifetime.
“Okay, you can call me that,” the girl responded vividly. “I also give you permission to come here in the future whenever you want. You haven’t seen much here yet.
“There are sessions here not only at midnight?”
“There’s a lot going on here. And you can see even more.”
“That is, there are many such unusual films shown in the cinema?”
She nodded.
“There must be variety.”
“But I thought that nothing better could be done. It was just a masterpiece. It is impossible to repeat it.”
“You’re wrong.”
“In any case, I was only given an invitation for today.”
“It’s just a souvenir,” Alais attached to his invitation either a pin or a hard sticker in the shape of a scarab.
So is the scarab a symbol of the cinema or is it a sacred blue lotus? Daniel did not dare to ask directly about it. You never know how you can offend a stranger. Many people he worked with were nervous about some topics that most people find funny or completely harmless. Everyone has their own phase shift, developed in the course of difficult family relationships or hard work. And according to Alais it was clear that she was especially sensitive to some local traditions known only to her.
“My permission is enough to always let you in here.”
It’s good if she didn’t exaggerate her importance. It is unlikely that such a young fragile girl is capable of running everything here. Unless she is the owner’s daughter.
“And I hope that’s enough to make you feel safe here.”
The guards in front of the entrance would have increased the sense of security much more, but, of course, he did not tell her about it. Why be rude to a girl who charmed you so much. You can go to hell for such a beauty. He even feared that he would hardly leave this place, as it would turn out that the whole cinema was just a fantastic dream. And there will be no repetition of such a dream.
The exit door suddenly flung open by itself, and the beauty easily stepped into the auditorium, overcoming several steep steps at once.
“Alais!” he still called to her before leaving. “You’re not dead after all.”
She was not even offended by such unhealthy curiosity. She just shrugged her shoulders casually.
“As you see!”
Casual viewers
Old newspaper headlines turned alarmingly black on the glowing screen. It was worth buying a new smartphone and reconnecting the Internet to see it. Missing People, No Corpses Found, Tragedy in the Blue Lotus, Victims of a Terrorist Attack or the Devil?, “The terrorist attack brought a hell of a fire”, “The dead take revenge.”
All of the articles retold the same story in slightly different ways, in which too many details remained unclear. Basically, journalists only made assumptions based on a few known facts. The cinema was seized on the night of the premiere, one of those present was armed and resisted, somehow their actions provoked a fire. Atenais certainly died among the first victims. According to reports for the summer of 2013, the entire cinema burned down, but in the fall of the same year, people who entered it out of curiosity began to disappear in its building. Where then did the building come from if it burned down? Several months are definitely not enough to rebuild it. The cinema itself could not be reborn from the ashes and grow in the same place like a tree.
A tree? Daniel tensed at the memory of a hellish trunk with faces and ashes. Is it possible? Was it that tree?
For such thoughts, they may be considered insane, and, of course, he does stupidly, wasting time looking for information instead of studying the script. So tomorrow he will not be able to work again, because again he will not get enough sleep, and in the end they will really decide to replace him with someone else. He should focus on pressing problems, and not look for a clue to what happened many years ago. But Athenais was so hooked on him that he could not think of anything else. Why hadn’t he noticed her before when she was still alive? Surely, her face flashed in all the glossy magazines and news bulletins. Judging by the abundance of information about her in the press of those years, she was overly popular, and he did not even see her. And if he saw it, he would certainly join those fans who began to die en masse after her death. This is not surprising! She possessed the gift of strongly influencing the psyche, frames from her film penetrated into consciousness and continued to spin there by themselves, even when the screen was already extinguished.
A golden creature, Egypt, ceremonies with blood and demons, a winged beauty behind the throne of the pharaoh, a bloody sickle in her hands… All this contained some special symbolism. The frames were etched into the memory and, together with admiration, caused fear.
Was this movie scheduled to be shown at the premiere where Athenais was killed? Probably, after that tragedy, the film never got into wide distribution, because otherwise most of the world would have gone crazy from watching. Probably because of this, some knowledgeable group of people undertook the act of terrorism. The film was planned as a secret weapon capable of penetrating viewers’ psyche and depriving them of their will to live, the ability to think. Daniel still felt himself there, in the halls of the Ancient Egypt. The reality is almost completely erased after viewing. Alais seemed to be standing next to him and knocking into his mind.
“Let me in this world!”
And next to her, a dazzling golden monster crawled across the dark screen, multi-armed, like the Indian Kali, and even more dangerous than a sharp razor.
After the tragedy, people began to disappear in the cinema. At first, those who carried out the examination disappeared. Police officers, detectives, investigators, forensic scientists, even the sheriff – all disappeared into nowhere or became victims of accidents. Trees collapsed on some inquisitive professionals or passers-by, some were crushed by debris, and most were hit by such a terrible hurricane that they were thrown with their heads right on the pavement and smashed their skulls. The elements were so raging in that place, and the disappearances of people became so frequent and mysterious that all investigative commissions were eventually recalled. If one of them, of course, survived.
Moreover, it was not clear in the press reports whether the investigation was carried out in a still-preserved building, or there were only ruins. Information and conclusions, as well as descriptions of what was happening, often contradicted each other. If the journalists knew everything, then one could say that they are deliberately hiding the facts.
Daniel had already read dozens of articles, and his idea of the tragedy was still very vague. One thing was clear – everyone who came to the premiere died. There were about a few thousand people. Such a calculation is quite reasonable, given the huge auditorium he saw. If we add to the victims the guards and the terrorists who attacked, then the purely victims increase. He did not even count the dead investigators. Apparently, there were quite a few of them.
Then the suicide victims began. They were all fans who could not survive without Atenais. Well, then the disappearance of people in the “Blue Lotus” area has become countless. True, the bodies of the disappeared were never found.
Even assuming that not all of the missing people are dead, the conclusion is that the Blue Lotus is too dangerous a place to visit. But Daniel was going to go there anyway. What has he got to lose?
The hotel where he was given a room was not very comfortable. And the room could not be called spacious. But it had a good TV with an antenna that picked up all the channels. Only after the session in “Blue Lotus” did all the films and TV programs seem completely unworthy of attention. Daniel unplugged the TV and threw the remote control somewhere. It is a pity that even if the screen is broken, the film about Egypt will not return. The film with him remained there, inside an abandoned cinema.
Daniel wanted to go there again. But he just left there.
In the middle of the night, he dreamed that the disconnected TV turned on by itself, and something was crawling across the screen. The Egyptian film is on again. The frames are spinning. A reel on a tripod is somewhere nearby, and someone in a red hood is turning the lever with its claws. Alais sits in a chair in the corner of the room, legs crossed casually. Instead of a dog, she has some kind of hellish creature on her habits. She says something about filming now. Daniel notices that his bed is covered in blood, and the golden creature, instead of a screen, is already crawling over it, pressing his body into the bloody sheets.
And the movie is coming to an end! No, this dream is coming to an end. He wakes up screaming.
In the morning everything was quiet in the studio. The caretaker explained to him that everyone had gone to shoot the crowd scenes in the city. Daniel’s presence was not required. All these scenes were with Jane.
“I heard that for filming they fenced off the old part of the city, where historical buildings are still preserved,” Daniel tried to start a conversation with the caretaker. “I remember it surprised me. The town is so tiny, the population is so small, there are forests and sparse highways around. And in such a wilderness, such rare historical monuments were suddenly discovered that for their sake it was worth coming here to photograph them in a film. Does your city really have so many values?
The caretaker, of course, did not know about the arrival of the group in the wilderness, solely due to the low budget and the presence of old streets in the city, which can be cheaply rented for a day or two, so he kindly nodded.
“There are many interesting things.”
Often moving from filming to filming, Daniel drew attention to the fact that all the indigenous people of even the most unassuming settlements love it when their hometown begins to be praised. Especially praise was received from tourists. And the film crew, who came here only for two and a half months, could only be compared with tourists. Some of the staff actually intended to take a short stroll around town, visiting local bars first and catching a glimpse of the sights. This attitude is already similar to travel plans. Daniel himself was considering a much narrower range of visits. He was only interested in one place. But he was not going to be considered a madman, asking exclusively about the Devil’s Cinema. By the way, why did the locals call it the Devil’s Cinema, because its real name is “Blue Lotus”. And what does the devil have to do with it? Nothing demonic was used in the design of the building. In addition to angels, there are only scarabs, a fountain with a lotus, sphinxes, a barely noticeable script of hieroglyphs on the walls in the hall, and many other mysterious symbols of the Ancient Egypt. What is the connection between the devil and the Ancient Egypt? Daniel felt that the desire to justify everything drove him into a trap. Indeed, in the film about the Ancient Egypt, which he saw there, the devil was equated with the patron saint and lord of the local pharaohs. And this devil names a seductive girlish look.
“And his name is Dennitsa” – read the title of the film, crushing all the established ideas of mankind about the world, history, religion and even love. But why does the title say “him” and not “her”, because it is more about her. Alais!
Was the girl he met after the session real, or was he just dreaming? And who is she? A dead star that rises from death only on the territory of the cinema, where did she die? Or a star who just faked her death for some reason? What if Alais is a different girl? Or is it just a dream?
“I heard that you have something like a haunted house here,” Daniel began carefully approaching the topic.
“No, definitely not at home,” objected the talkative caretaker.
“Then, probably, the building of some closed organization where ghosts allegedly live? Factory? Factory? Or maybe a theater?”
Daniel, as if by chance, nudged the interlocutor so that he himself raised the necessary topic.
“Yes, there is one such cinema,” the caretaker finally admitted. “But it is located outside the city, and there are no excursions.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not all pretend there,” the inspector hesitated, choosing his words. “Not like places where tourists are attracted by fictional ghost stories.”
“What is it like?”
“Well, people disappear there.”
“Maybe there was a gang of smugglers, criminals, and, after all, terrorists who had a weapons store there.” It was easy to assume all this after he himself had not found anything of the kind there. “I heard something about a terrorist attack that took place there.”
“Terrorist attack?” There was doubt in the voice of the inspector, as if he had not read about it in the newspapers. “Rather, a mass madness. People went there to watch films, and then did not return. And those who returned pulled others along with them.”
“And they disappeared together.”
“No, I meant…”
“What does it mean: to drag others along with you?”
“Well, there are many different strange cases in the city.”
“What, for example?”
“Those who began to behave strangely, as if infecting others with madness, and now instead of one potential suicide, a whole gang leaves them. Suicide is preceded by an attack on the police, acts of vandalism, some kind of rituals with black magic. I myself have seen the symbols that teenagers drew in blood on walls and roads.”
“Where have we stopped?!”
“Don’t be alarmed! All this was and ended several years ago. Since then, the city has been almost calm, apart from rare repetitions of the past. It’s safe to walk everywhere, but it’s best not to go to the old cinema.”
“It’s not that old,” Daniel almost let slip that he was there and nothing bad happened to him. Nobody even tried to attack him. Well, unless the film watched there hit hard in the head, suspiciously resembling the effect of a drug, after which a withdrawal occurs. He wanted to look at something like that again with just one eye. But for this he need to go to the “Blue Lotus” again.
“By the way, have many people disappeared there lately?”
