The caretaker tried to remember everyone, even bent his fingers.
“Some couple, an old film fan, various young hooligans and many teenagers – lovers of scary films. Even the police patrol disappeared there once, and no trace. No car, no radio. And last year a whole senior class disappeared there. The brave guys went to celebrate the end of school there. Moreover, neither the students nor the teachers returned.
“And someone was looking for them?”
“Of course! Someone is looking for all the missing, but they have not yet managed to find at least one.”
“Everyone was eaten by the cinema? Does he swallow people like a monster?”
“Do not laugh! Local people believe that some technical force of the future dwells there. Something cosmic or demonic. Young people in the city can even beat you up. If you start to insist that there is nothing like that in the cinema, and it is just an old building. Young townspeople are looking for legends there. By the way, it is young people who are drawn there the most.”
“Is it permissible that they become casual spectators, for example, at some night show, which is not widely announced. And only those who enter the cinema at the call of curiosity get on it.”
“Ruled out! Films have not been shown there for a long time. The last premiere was in 2013. It all ended there. A fire started in the building. All is lost.”
“Sorry, I’m bothering you like a real detective,” Daniel was making calculations in his brain. Not everything they say is true. The sessions are going on there. But even if we assume that spectators who accidentally wander into the cinema disappear on them, how? Are they being carried away directly from the session by some cosmic forces? Is a certain funnel opening between dimensions that sucks people in without returning? Or more simply: some sectarians or maniacs hiding in the cinema grab and kill everyone who wanders there? Then why did none of this happen to him? He was in the Blue Lotus and came back. No one even bit or scratched him.
“I would like to know where they all disappear,” Daniel expressed his desire aloud.
“Just don’t go there, otherwise you will also disappear like everyone else.”
Daniel was definitely not going to follow this good advice. He crumpled his invitation in his pocket. Did he have it, and did other casual spectators come to the cinema without him? Or some demonic creature roamed the city and handed out tickets to them.
Does hell have a queen
Filming began as if delirious. He was impatient to break free to once again go to the abandoned cinema. Well, or almost abandoned. During the morning, Daniel managed to ask many people and, according to the generally accepted version, the cinema, it turns out, was closed and boarded up a long time ago, and, of course, no films were shown there.
He knew something else, but prudently kept silent. In addition, while working, it is better to concentrate on revealing your character, and not on dreams about how he will spend his leisure time. The agent who convinced him to play this role disappeared somewhere. If he had been here, Daniel would have fought with him already. It was necessary to read the script in advance and much more carefully. A horror movie is not an action movie. Here, in addition to harsh phrases and shootings, you need to discuss too complex topics and think about too contradictory things. You will have to learn long monologues, even memorize poetic lines and play a former war hero, who does not yet know who he is in the plans of otherworldly forces. The plot itself touched something painful in Daniel’s mind. As if this was not a horror movie plot at all, but a metaphor for something that had already happened to him in his life. Or about to happen.
“Do you even like it?” The director patted him on the shoulder. The cameras were already preparing for shooting. For some reason, the view of the cameras immediately reminded of the rustle of a spinning reel in the devil’s cinema and Alais’s voice.
“Well, yes, interesting,” Daniel responded bleakly. It is a pity that you do not always have the opportunity to express aloud the opinion that you have in your head.
The name “Queen of Hell” would not hurt to change, if it was not intended to advertise the actress who plays the main role. The script was trivial. It was rewritten many times, but this did not give it originality. Nonsense in the spirit of Anna Rice, Tom Holland, Sheridan le Fanu and a whole list of authors who worked in the genres of historical mysticism. A handsome Russian aristocrat who has just returned from the war for Serbia finds in his father’s estate, who has died in a strange way, an ancient box with an incredibly large ruby on the lid. Of course, some creepy-looking strangers, including a gypsy fortuneteller, warn not to open it. And, of course, in his dreams a delightful woman begins to appear to him, who convinces him to open this box. With great difficulty, he finds a way to break the lock (by the way, for this he has to make a bloody sacrifice). Daniel’s hero accidentally kills a maidservant who was innocent, her blood dripping onto the ritual circle. The ruby ignites with a bloody light, the box opens and the ashes of the ancient fairy queen Medea Shai burst out of it. Once she was burned, now she is alive again, just formed from a column of ash, beautiful, thirsty for blood like a vampire and harboring such anger at the whole world that from her steps the earth begins to ignite, buildings collapse, prints of burning feet streak the pavement. Thanks to the release of Medea Shai from the box, the First World War begins, then the revolution. People are dying, and Daniel’s hero must stop her, but this is almost impossible, because he has already managed to fall in love with her. The scenes of seduction both in dreams and in reality promised to be spectacular. The blood-red lips of Medea Shaya will press against his lips in the frame, bloody wine will pour, the beauty will convince him that she alone is more important to him than the whole world. One should forget the duty to the king, to the fatherland, to the family (after all, she brought his father and many ancestors to the grave, even being in captivity she was very strong and appeared to the members of the chosen family through dreams). Of course, all eternity she waited for him, the main character of the film. But what if she’s lying? Her tongue is like a snake when kissing, during love scenes she inflicts wounds on him with claws, and fire worms start in these wounds.
Daniel never finished reading the script. Probably, the ending will be rewritten more than once in search of something more impressive. The film has only one chance at the box office. You need to impress the audience. And he has only one last chance to succeed. Or oblivion awaits him. Like an old abandoned movie theater.
Ideally, the film should have been shot in St. Petersburg, but it’s much cheaper in the wilderness. Then the scenes will be combined.
Jane, even if she is the mistress of the chiefs a hundred times, does not look at all in the role of Medea Shai. Too vulgar. The queen of hell must have dignity, grace, become… The queen of hell must be Alais.
Daniel closed his eyes dreamily, imagining how he would act in tandem with her. If she becomes his partner on the set, then he will definitely insist on the fatal ending. Let the whole world collapse, let him perish, and she herself will rule hell on the earth left after the revolution. After all, it is impossible to fight it.
Jane is not fit for such an exalted role. Could a woman who stood naked in front of the camera and surrendered herself to everyone behind the scenes play the queen? This is probably why the films suffer losses at the box office. Prostitutes are not suitable for the role of noble persons, the falsity is noticeable to the sensitive public.
Although not for him to judge. Who is he himself? In order to get the first role, he had to give way to many in almost everything. This is the world. Without connections and without money, you can’t get anywhere for one talent, unless people need you for some completely unrelated to professional goals.
Unlike modern actresses, Alais looked like a creature that never slept with anyone. This is probably why she behaved with such royal dignity. What if it’s just a game, just more skillful than everyone else? She can just pretend. Daniel immediately dismissed the thought. It’s incredible to have the talent to play like that. And yet, if he were a producer, he would have spent any money to invite her to the role.
“Do you want to give your soul for success?” voices from the abandoned cinema sounded in his head again.
Such a question could be asked to someone who has not yet had success in life. But Daniel has already experienced his peak of success. When you fall from the top of Olympus, not even the devil can help you climb back. And in general, all these tales about how to sell a soul, it is better to tell starlets and extras from the crowd. Some of them may still buy into dubious promises. And Daniel already knew the cost of the way up. More often than not, it is worth the body, not the soul.
“But your family thought the opposite.”
What did he know about the family? And what demon speaks to him through his mind? Is it possible to pour alcohol into the voice of a demon?
But besides the demon, there was also Cordelia. She played charades and said that she knew about the Rosier family. In Russia, they changed their surname to Rozanovs. She also said that Daniel could have come here to find his relatives’ estate. He knew nothing about the estate. Even if it existed somewhere nearby, it was destroyed during the revolution. Even in troubled times, the first thing they do is begin to destroy the houses of those about whom the notorious sorcerers and warlocks are in the neighborhood.
The Rosier family has surpassed this glory. You could move to different countries and change your surname as many times as you like, but at any time and in any territory the same story was still repeated. The family began to be associated with the devil.
Daniel was not affected by all these family problems. He was born in an era when the ancient curse and dependence on the ancestral line were already considered ridiculous. Try to tell someone in modern Russia, long gone through the revolution, that you are a descendant of a princely family. They’ll just laugh at you and that’s it. There were simply no aristocrats left in the country, and if they did, it was more profitable for them to keep quiet about their origin. Daniel only benefited from this. Indeed, along with the memory of belonging to the nobility or princely families, the memory of ancestral curses was erased.
Until now, Daniel considered all curses to be fairy tales. He was not cursed. He just happened to go through the stages in life through which all the actors go. First, the peak of success, then gradual oblivion. True, he has not yet been completely forgotten, and he still has not had such strong competitors as to be afraid of them. But attention to his films suddenly began to wane. This means that without the next strong work, he will simply fly out of the rating of world stars.
Atenais probably didn’t have such problems. Or did she die before she showed the weakness of her talent? How amazing that she died at the height of her genius. And the film, capable of shaking everyone, never made it to the world distribution. Or the screening for Daniel was preliminary, and the film will eventually be launched in cinemas around the world to make the audience crazy.
How cleverly thought out! There is no psychiatric syndrome in the film, nor any other violations that you can find fault with in order to ban it for wide distribution. However, viewers will be 100% victims. A strong impression arises already when he left the auditorium. You feel that you cannot get out of the world that you saw on the screen.
“Do you want your next film to be the same? Then you will be unmatched again, descendant of Rosier.”
Again voices in my head! Daniel closed his eyes. How to drive them out of consciousness? Voices had lingered on him since he was near the cinema, and now they teased him in every way.
This time they were definitely lying to him. It is no longer possible to shoot something like that film about Egypt. There is something devilish, irresistible in that film, something that you can’t jump higher. You can just bruise your forehead trying to repeat it.
“Alais can do anything,” several voices whispered at once, more like fantasies.
These fantasies need to be distracted. Daniel couldn’t concentrate on studying the script. Thoughts constantly returned to Athenais, from which one charred corpse should have remained in reality. And on the screen, a living and impressive demon remained from her.
Is it easy to cross the line between cinema and the real world? Or is that something only crazy people can do?
Now he’d better think about the scenes with Medea Shai and the director’s growing daughter Eugenia, who will presumably play a young lady who falls in love with the main character, tries to snatch him from the Queen of Hell and naturally sacrifices her life. Unless the scenes with Eugenia are deleted from the script altogether for lack of funds. But it’s up to the producers to decide.
Usually Daniel thought only about his own role, but now he was suddenly very intrigued by the Queen of Hell. Who is she? Where did it come from? There is something serpentine and angelic in it at the same time, as if the writers decided to combine a cobra and a black angel into one. Does she look like Alais? And what would happen to the audience if the dead star suddenly resurrected even for a short while to play this role, and then go back to hell.
“Someone before you already had such thoughts,” whispered again the annoying disembodied voice. “There was a man who called the demon to play a role, and then drive him back. And do you know how it all ended?”
He did not know and did not want to know where these voices were coming from. Even if they are generated by his consciousness, He did not want to discuss this problem with a psychologist. Psychologists exist only to help sort out family problems or get out of depression caused by career breakdowns. You only need to fight demons yourself – this was the motto of all the ancestors of Daniel. But why did he decide that these voices were demonic? Demons have a place near cemeteries, churches, crypts and abandoned chapels, but not at the filming.
Daniel himself did not notice how he fell asleep for the script. For the first time in his life, he dreamed of something pleasant: Jane was replaced by Alais in the role of Medea Shai. Only Alais didn’t play. She performed magic tricks without any special effects. Everything was going well, until some terrible creatures began to crawl out of the darkness behind her.
“I’m not alone,” Alais said to Daniel as if apologetically. “I never come alone. What’s a queen without an army?”
Someone in a purple robe
What if dreams are brighter than reality? Visit a doctor? Taking antidepressants? When you want to go back to the world of dreams, and there is only everyday routine around, you begin to feel like a dog on a leash. Who would have thought that such emotions are experienced by a movie star? In fact, Daniel considered his occupation to be similar to working on an assembly line: you need to play the same scene until the director announces that there is enough for today. In the process of shooting, there is absolutely no romance that the audience will see in the finished and edited film.
“Probably, that is why they take money from the public, but you get it, on the contrary,” the manager once mockingly explained to him. “Work is work. We all adapt.”
However, the film about the Ancient Egypt seemed to have been filmed in one moment. It was impossible to imagine Alais posing dejectedly in front of the camera and playing the same scene madly. In the film, everything happened so naturally, as if he had not been filmed at all, and he created himself.
“Do I even understand my thoughts myself?” Daniel asked himself, looking in the mirror at the hotel. What do you mean, the film made itself? How is this possible? This is the same as saying: the cinema has rebuilt itself. It was naturally rebuilt by people. But for what purpose? So that this film goes on forever, completely fooling the audience’s brains. Were there any other films in the repertoire? You need to crawl in the bins of the cinema, look for posters. Daniel is already used to going to the “Blue Lotus” for free and whenever he pleases. The manager’s words that they take money for watching films completely lost their reality. The cinema itself seemed somehow unreal. A pretentious building with sphinxes and a fountain immediately attracted the eye even in the impenetrable thickets. The hieroglyphs, drawn in bas-reliefs on the facade, sparkled even from afar. Completely European columns and pediments were combined with fabulous arabesques, as if taken from Arabian fairy tales. The building stood like a reminder of the witch’s gingerbread house, which Hans and Gretel fell into. Only here not only children were expected.
Daniel heard on the radio that a group of teenagers disappeared again in the cinema area yesterday. The guys were noisily celebrating something in the beer town and arguing about where to have fun at night: at the nearest cemetery or at the devil’s cinema. It was better to choose a cemetery. From there they could return if drunk they had not killed each other. And from the cinema, judging by the news, no one returned.
Are there people who have been there and survived? As he drove through the town, Daniel watched the groups of young people on the streets. They behaved strangely, like sectarians. Something about their manner was alarming. Many were dressed like Goths. Someone had a suspicious, manic look in their eyes. Halloween is still a long way off, but Daniel saw the teenagers draw with markers some symbols on the walls and asphalt, suspiciously similar to pentagrams. He nearly hit such a child who was drawing something like a hieroglyph with chalk on the road. It’s good that he managed to slow down in time. However, instead of being scared, the child suddenly raised his head and hissed at him.
“Never mind! They are preparing to celebrate All Saints’ Eve, “said a policeman who was patrolling the streets all alone and for some reason trying to stay as far away from children as possible. He touched the visor of his cap and was like that, but the hieroglyph remained on the asphalt. Another teenager had already drawn the same hieroglyph with red paint on the wall, and no one was fined for it. Everyone is crazy here. Daniel more and more asserted in the conjecture that the town was located next to some kind of hospital, patients from which, for some reason, in groups choose to walk without the supervision of nurses or orderlies. Moreover, adults behaved normally, but children and adolescents were strange. Nothing, the hospital could well be a nursery.
He drove along the narrow roads of the city and everywhere noticed the same situation. Young people huddled at the corners in small, silent companies. They didn’t talk, they didn’t make noise. They all looked gloomy. Most of the girls. Sometimes even the guys were letting their eyes black red in the manner of the Egyptians. Combined with European-looking faces, it looked a little scary. Although, who knows, suddenly a particularly fashionable eyeliner is being advertised here, which he has never heard of. Daniel himself was far from the world of fashion, although he was occasionally invited to various advertisements for men’s perfumes, sprays and shaving creams. But that was over a year ago, when he still hadn’t flopped with the latest films. Fashion houses have a strict rule: they invite either very famous actors or those who were supported by influential patrons to the actions. Recently, Daniel has been on his own, so he was stubbornly unlucky.
He drew attention to several antique Goths crowd. Evgenia would have liked them. She loved everything related to the Victorian style and on the set she enthusiastically tried on black corsets and blouses with lace frills. From her, Daniel learned that besides the antique ones, that is, imitating the old Goths, there are more modern post-punk Goths dressing in the style of the eighties, as well as wamp-goths, steampunk-goths, cyber-goths and even jeepy-goths depicting gypsies. Only for business people, as the curious Evgenia explained, the style of corporate goths is more suitable in order to combine gloomy paraphernalia with a dress code. Daniel was confused in the names, went over in his mind everything that Eugenia had told, but he could not remember a single kind of Goths, which, while maintaining the image of punks, seem inseparably connected with the Ancient Egypt.
A creature in a red robe walked among the teenagers and distributed something to them. It looks like invitation cards. In the movie theaters? At such a distance, Daniel could not see exactly, and you can’t drive closer. You can easily bump into a wall. All he saw was gnarled hands with rough black skin and black nails sticking out from under the luxurious red fabric. Under the hood was an animal muzzle that looked more like a bulldog, but this creature had a human body, tall and densely built. He could very well be a boxer who was mutilated by breaking his jaw, hence the resemblance to a bulldog. And the black color of the skin… Yes, there are not many blacks, mulattoes, Africans and African Americans who can be found today anywhere in the world. Now there is no slavery, and they are free to travel everywhere, but for some reason this creature seemed to him a slave. Although there was no collar and shackles, they were replaced by a luxurious robe, but it seemed that its wearer was both bound and fettered, and must serve someone for the rest of his days. Until the end of eternity itself.
How much imagination can run at the sight of something too fanciful. Whoever handed out the tickets looked like an exotic bird in the crowd, a red cardinal or a red peacock. He looked important and mysterious. Daniel looked at him as much as he could until he had to turn around the bend.
It was already deserted here. Where did a passer-by suddenly come from, who rushed right under the wheels? This is the same subject in red robes and a disfigured face. Daniel hit the brakes sharply, but it was too late. An ugly black face slammed into the car’s windshield. And nothing can be turned back. Glazed eyes gazed at the driver from the black muzzle. His bloody tongue stuck to the glass like a red snake. He twitched in convulsions, as if separate from the corpse of the creature. Daniel was sure he had knocked a passer-by to death. Now what? Will the police believe him that this person himself jumped out onto the carriageway right under the wheels? What will happen to the filming of the film when it is detained? The young man closed his eyes to mutter a short prayer. Not that he was a believer, just an out of the ordinary situation. Sticking in trouble, even all terry atheists suddenly begin to remember God. He also remembered. But as soon as he opened his eyes, the glass in front of him was not stained with blood. The corpse disappeared. Daniel even got out of the car to check if the crushed one was lying around in the puddles. There was no body. Only somewhere around the corner flashed the hem of a red robe.
How can a downed passer-by suddenly jump up and run like a sports champion? Probably, he dozed off at the wheel and it just seemed to him? True, before he did not think anything and under no circumstances. The visions began with a visit to this city, or rather to a cinema outside the city limits.
It was reckless to go there again. In addition, Daniel knew that soon he would have to leave the car and walk, because the roads leading to the cinema were overgrown so that you could not drive along them.
And somewhere between the thickets there is that eerie tree, with the figures of angels and demons carved into it.
“Memorial to the fall!”
The phrase sounded clear in his head. What does it mean? He drove onto the main road outside the city, and barely having driven about fifteen minutes, he immediately ran into a wall of boxwood, honeysuckle and some shrub, whose name he did not even know.
All! Then you have to go on foot. He almost left the keys in the ignition, and when leaving the car, he found that there were some scratches on the hood. It looks like a wild animal traced it with its claws.
Only there were no animals around, not even squirrels in the trees. Probably no one lives here except ghosts. For some reason, Daniel again remembered the ash tree and the ghostly children who had taken a round dance on the highway. Sometimes it still seemed that their figures were flickering in the thickets, but they are not denser than the fog that is about to disperse.
One quite tangible creature in front of the cinema nevertheless showed up – some beggar in dirty rags and clearly crippled. He walked with a limp on both legs. Beggars are much more common on the porch in front of churches than at the entrances to cinema, theaters or clubs. But here, apparently, everything is different. Daniel had some cash with him, he called out to the tramp, but he hurriedly trotted around the corner of the building and disappeared into the thickets.
The cinema itself was still free to enter. The luxurious doors with a metal openwork sheathing and stained glass inserts remained unlocked. Was there a lock on them at all? Daniel noticed only a small ring embedded in the nostrils of the head of some mythical bird, like a griffin. The head itself replaced the doorknobs. And such a magnificent building was still going to be demolished, according to rumors. Daniel did not believe there was danger inside. The structure gave the impression of being solid and completely new. It didn’t even need repairs. When he entered, he first noticed the ligature of golden hieroglyphs that adorned the walls and outside. Reliefs and bas-reliefs stretched everywhere here: in the walls, around the stucco molding, on the capitals of the columns, pediments and plinths. Mostly they belonged to the era of the Ancient Egypt, but there were also later periods.
There was no one in the lobby and spacious foyer. Cordelia and Nefert no longer played in the narrow vestibule. The corridors were empty. Only some suspicious black animal, almost the size of a man, suddenly jumped out from somewhere, bumped into Daniel and hissed fiercely, but he didn’t scratch or bite. The guy sighed with relief when it bounced around the corner and did not appear again.
Alais sat in an empty cinema and tossed gold coins. They rained down on her palm and seemed to be singing, not ringing. None fell to the floor. This is real gold. Neither fake nor low purity. Bright yellow gold, as from an ancient treasury.
She either did not notice Daniel, or she pretended not to notice. Tossing coins was like a game to her. The round yellow discs glowed like miniature suns and moons. Their brilliance fell in glare on her face.
What dexterous hands she has. Even jugglers don’t throw balls as quickly as she does small coins. Obviously, he jinxed her, because one coin was still missed. She rolled with clink between the seats and then down the steps that divided the rows. Daniel bent down, hoping to catch it, because it almost reached his feet, but that was not the case. Someone’s black claws poked out from under the seat and grabbed the coin first. It was as if it had never happened. And claws too.
“Alais!” Daniel called her before he noticed that there was no one in the auditorium. Where did the girl go? He looked around helplessly.
Everything is empty. Wherever you look, there are only rows of empty chairs. Where did the rain of gold coins in the hands of Alais go? Was it a dream?
Oddly enough, he again came on time. The light began to fade slowly. This time in stages, not in an instant. At first it became a little darker, then it was semi-dark, and a second before the light went out, Daniel again noticed a vague silhouette in the corner of the auditorium. Before he could see it, the rows of chairs had already sunk into darkness. The credits flashed across the screen. The same film began that had impressed even before the madness a few days ago. “And his name is Dennitsa.” This time, the credits were interspersed with an eerie creature made entirely of gold that crawled across the screen like a cuttlefish, and it seemed that it was about to crawl right into the audience. The first time it was also present in the film, but there was no feeling that it was as real as the chairs and walls around. It seemed that it was nearby, its numerous hands reaching out to the spectator’s throat. And now it is no longer in the frame, the same film is going on about the commander Taor, who returned from the war, where he fought not with people, but with evil spirits. He bows before the throne of Pharaoh, looks up and suddenly sees that the queen of evil is already here, rules Egypt and whispers her decrees to the king.
Not that he didn’t want to watch the movie again, but he felt a little uneasy. The film showed that there are fatal lines of fate in life, and they twist into such a tight ball that it can no longer be unwound.
As planned. Destiny? Taor and Alais. He just won his first big victory, she just experienced the first and grandiose defeat in the fight against heaven and now takes revenge, taking possession of the earth. Two heroes are like two poles. They must become great enemies to each other. But the film is built so that the viewer watched and thought: what kind of lovers they could be!
They were supposed to stay together. Why didn’t the screenwriter bring them together? To shock the audience with an unexpected spooky ending? Nothing affects the psyche worse than a bad ending.
“You just see yourself as Taor. And you don’t want to do what he did.”
Daniel turned around. The radiation from the screen was enough to see that all the rows behind him were completely empty. There was no one to turn to him with words. So maybe it was the voice of his reason. He really wanted to see himself in the role of Taor. A very winning role! How many prestigious awards could one get by playing it. Someone told Daniel long ago that the actor is famous for his successful role in a well-directed film. But this role already belonged to another. Daniel envied both the unique appearance of his opponent and his ability to adequately stand in front of the camera.
Where in the modern world can you find a guy with such a strikingly beautiful face and athletic body. No amount of sports and exercise equipment helped Daniel to develop his figure in such a way. Only scenes with Alais distracted him from contemplating Taor. She played with symbols of royal power and lured the high priest into the net.
“Show me one pure soul in the universe, and then I will not destroy the whole world,” she promised, she promised, believing that such a soul cannot be found. The owner of such a soul, of course, turned out to be Taor.
And then there was a conspiracy in the palace. Alais executed the courtier and priests and bathed in their blood. In the frame, her naked body was almost visible, with wings growing directly from the shoulder blades in the back. How unexpected it is that when you look at the film for the second time, you begin to notice a lot of things in it that you hadn’t seen before. For example, Daniel noticed that the snake bracelet on Alais’s forearm is alive and crawls up and down her arm, and her golden curls move and curl like living snakes.
Someone distracted him from watching. Another spectator entered the hall? Or has he been here before? Someone moved smoothly between the chairs, and the hem of a long robe slid along the floor behind him. The quiet but monotonous steps began to annoy. Daniel looked around. The silhouette in a bright red cape contrasted sharply with the darkness, as if the cape were illuminated from within with electricity. This cape was sewn from blood and fire.
Daniel had already seen this scarlet hood and wide old-fashioned sleeves somewhere. Is this the very same person who handed out tickets to teenagers. What is he doing at the cinema? He probably works here and sometimes goes outside to give out invitations. Nice way to lure the audience into watching, but this is kind of the VIP zone. It is not customary to admit everyone here.
Someone in a scarlet robe sensed that Daniel was looking at him and raised his bulldog face. Daniel shuddered and hastily turned away. It’s good that they are separated by dozens of rows, otherwise one could be frightened.
Self-consolation turned out to be premature. A moment and someone in red was already nearby, just in the back row. How swift he could move if he wanted to. Is he? Or is it? Daniel noticed black hands touching the back of the chair next to him. They looked more like the paws of an outlandish beast.
The creature touched his shoulder with its talons, the edge of the red sleeve nearly burning. It seemed like a fabric like silk, but it turned out to be tougher than sandpaper.
“What do you feel?”
The question was eerily sudden. Although the creature had a soft, slightly hissing voice, the thought burned through the mind that it could speak at all.
“Let go!”
Daniel lunged, but his claws were harder than metal.
“What do you feel?” It repeated as a refrain. His breath burned his ear like fire. “You look at her and feel that she belongs only to you. To the only living spectator here. Because she’s already dead. The dead may have admirers, but they cannot have lovers who own them. For this reason, many distraught fans dream of killing living stars in order to take possession of them completely. The body dies, but the picture in the frames lives forever. You buy a ticket or a video disc, and you completely get rid of jealousy. After all, the video is all that remains of it. And she’s yours. Not real, so reproduced in electronics. And who needs a mortal body?
The voice of the creature stirred a painful memory: rain, limousine, premiere, shot, belated reaction of the bodyguards. Daniel nearly died that evening. Some nutcase who allegedly came up for an autograph shot him. And the guards couldn’t help. And the marble statues in front of the red carpet… It could only seem.
“To kill a star means to take possession of it forever. Lucky you. You are in love with an already dead woman. No one will embrace her before your eyes. No one will hurt you.”
“And the film that is on…” There on the screen in the final scene Taor tried to kiss her, but ran into an angelic inaccessibility.
“The one that starred in it no longer walks on earth among people, no longer lives, therefore, watching the film, you can assume that she belongs only to you. After all, it only exists on the screen. In front of you. You look at it and you know that it is as much your property as the rolling tape or disc you bought in the store. She will not make you jealous by coming to the next premiere. She remained only inside the film. There she can no longer harm herself or others.
“Did you kill her?”
In response, only a dull, mocking laugh. Hard, sharp claws gripped Daniel’s hair and pulled his head back. He nearly hit the back of his head against the back of the chair. He had to look into the eyes of the creature that was standing behind. The madman’s eyes were terrifying, bestial.
“Everyone’s safe since she only lived in the film. Or is it not? While the body of Atenais rots many meters underground, her cast in the frames lives by itself and harasses all of us. Look! You don’t get the feeling that she is much more alive on the screen than everyone who comes here.”
Yes! Oddly enough, he had such a feeling. Daniel caught himself thinking that in some ways the creature is still right. Ono speaks like a distraught fan, ready at any moment to get a knife and stab his diva. For him, worshiping her is the same as immediately building a kind of Taj Mahal for her. It pronounces modern words, but they breathe some kind of antiquity, like from Persia or India of pre-Christian times, and it seems that it came from there. His strong black claws clenched more and more on Daniel’s shoulder, gradually getting closer to his throat. Another moment, and they will begin to choke him.
“What you need?” the guy begged.
“What do you need?” the strangler responded with a dull echo, already clutching his throat. “Why did you come here?”
“The first time to commit suicide,” Daniel admitted honestly. Now his already past desire can fatally come true if nothing is done. It is a pity that the murderer attacked him belatedly, and not before he got sick of dying. “But the second time I came here to…”
“Find out how she died.”
“Sort of,” Daniel croaked. He was gasping for breath, dense claws began to choke him, while only lightly pressing on his throat, but the air was suddenly not enough.
At this point, the final murder scene was taking place in the film. But instead of a beautiful angel head rolling across the floor, this time he saw a dazzling golden monster. At first, he crawled only in the corner of the screen, then the image scale increased. Suddenly entering the frame, the creature suddenly expanded to fill the entire screen. Its claws scraped with a heartbreaking sound and it seemed that they were about to emerge from the film. Probably, Daniel only thought that their edges slipped over the edge of the screen.
It’s time to get out of here, flashed through his head. Someone in red behind him just loosened his grip. Probably, he, too, stared at the creature ready to crawl into the auditorium. The illusion that the movie was about to end and it would burst in here was so real that it became scary. But someone from behind was not afraid, he just seemed to be waiting for this creature. A chuckle was heard behind. It was as if fire breathed in the face from the screen. The creature’s eyes looked into the auditorium. They were bright emerald green against the golden bones of the face. Then they began to sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow, like a kaleidoscope. Looking at them is like getting hit hard on the head. The look seemed to shock. Daniel quickly wriggled out of the black claws and rushed to the exit from the auditorium. Something crawled behind him, and so on to the very doors, until he bumped into the marble back of an angel standing there. Amazingly, the angel really turned out to be marble. Not a mannequin, not a papier-mâché doll, but a heavy massive statue, like in a cemetery. It is strange how Daniel did not bump into it at the entrance, because it stood almost right next to the doors.
As soon as he left the threshold, it turned out that no one was chasing him. Maybe someone in a red robe was just a joker or an unemployed actor who wandered around the cinema, trying to show his talent at least here. The claws could be false. It is a pity that they left a rather deep mark on the neck.
Daniel looked for Alais, but she was nowhere to be seen. He came here partly because he really wanted to see her again.
Only Cordelia was here today. She laid out cool paraphernalia for the upcoming Halloween on a table in the vestibule: severed fingers and ears, and a set of bloodied needles of various sizes. It all looked pretty realistic. Daniel wonder if she’s going to sew such ridiculous decorations to her dress. Or will she trade them right here before the horror movie starts, when more of the audience comes? Is there ever a lot of people here? Every time he came, everything was empty.
“You seem to be from the same family,” she said unexpectedly. “You and the statues.”
She meant, of course, the angels.
“You are very similar in faces. If you, too, were made of marble, then you would not be distinguished.”
But he was alive. Daniel felt embarrassed that he was compared to statues that would be more decent to stand on graves or in a crypt than here in a cinema.
“All of you, Rosier, are twins.”
“My family has a different surname.”
“But of course not the pseudonym under which you went to act in films.”
“Not that one,” he admitted honestly. “How do you know about the Rosier family. Few people remember these legends now.”
“There used to be one of their estates nearby.” Cordelia threaded a large needle with a thread of such a rich scarlet hue that it could not be distinguished from a blood vein.
– Seriously? I didn’t know. There are two places where ghosts live.
“And why did you decide that ghosts live here?”
“Many people talk about this in the city.” Well, not quite so. There were rumors that the movie theater was cursed, but for Daniel, there was not much of a difference between cursed places and haunted houses. Probably because he has never visited either one or the other.
“Rumors often distort the truth.”
“And you…”
“I’m just sewing,” she retorted, not letting him finish the thought. And he just wanted to ask if she knows about something that is not rumors, but the truth. It would be interesting to know the truth about this cinema. Why is it still open, although officially everyone considers it closed for a long time? Why is there bad news about him? Why was it nicknamed the Devil’s Cinema? Does the name have some mystical overtones or is it just a metaphor related to the terrorist attack that once took place here? What is devilish about this place besides the horror films that are shown here?
Cordelia was just starting to sew red thread through one of the ghastly things that looked like severed flesh. It seemed that blood was oozing from the toys along with the thread. Interesting! Will they host a private Halloween party here? And will many VIP-persons be invited to it at once, and not just one? But Cordelia didn’t hear any questions as she began humming as she sewed. Realizing that nothing could be achieved from her, Daniel turned and walked towards the exit.
“Daniel,” she called out to him, using his real name, not a movie pseudonym.
“Yes?”
“You’d better stay close to the statues and away from Alais.”
He was definitely not going to follow this advice. If not today, then tomorrow he will definitely find her here. You just need to go to the Devil’s Cinema more often.
Filming
All footage from Jane burned out. It seems that this should not have happened. In the evening, a fire broke out unexpectedly. While Daniel sat in the Blue Lotus session, his filming partner and several co-workers tried to escape the fire. There were people killed, someone was severely burned. Nobody knew exactly what happened. It was assumed that pyrotechnics broke out. There was probably some problem with it.
It is fortunate that the scenes with Daniel’s participation were not touched by the fire. The cameras and most of the equipment also survived. It seems that the fire broke out only in order to take away Jane herself and her labors, invested in the film. According to Daniel, the damage was minor. Although the actress was famous, she was not at all suitable for the role of a dark fairy.
Daniel watched people scurrying around, and a picture persistently climbed into his head: someone in a red robe was picking the film with his claws, and the film was burning from his touch.
“It’s strange that no one had the idea to use fire extinguishers,” scraps of conversations and the howl of sirens of the already departing police and ambulance cars reached Daniel. If he had come here an hour earlier, he himself could have become a victim.
“The fire started and went out by itself,” the director slapped him on the shoulder. “Well, isn’t it amazing.
“What will happen to the film now?”
“We will continue to work with you, but we have problems with the main performer.”
“Is it true that all the episodes filmed with her can no longer be restored?”
“We’ll have to cut these scenes from the film.”
“But they were the most spectacular of all that was planned.”
“There is no way to re-shoot anyway.”
There was only one burn left from the charred films. The smell was disgusting.
“How is Jane herself?”
“She was placed in the city hospital. The doctors there are not brilliant professionals. They cannot say anything for sure after a preliminary examination. And even an approximate diagnosis cannot be knocked out of them.”
“I didn’t notice that there is a hospital in the city.”
“Not surprising. The building is tiny. A couple of dozen patients can fit there at most. What is this wilderness? And what a loser Jane is. You have to be a complete fool to go where everything is on fire.”
“And what exactly happened to her here. I still do not understand: does she have fractures, or did she receive severe burns?”
“We need another star. More fortunate.”
And he went to look for her. To an abandoned cinema.
At night the Blue Lotus was always open. Yes, what’s there. It was open around the clock. Nobody knew about it. Except those chosen ones who were invited here. Take that freak in purple robes who walked around town and handed out invitations to teenagers. He chose them according to some special principle. Only those who were dressed like a goth, for example.
Daniel remembered there was a threat. This one in red robes can still attack him if he is lurking here in the cinema. Although all that happened could be a simple joke. Funny. In a horror session, different tricks are probably permissible in order to get more fear. Here is someone in red and tried. I wonder who he really was.
At night, Alais was found easily. A small buffet is located behind the lobby. There are still popcorn stalls, drink counters, sugar skull counters, and empty round tables. There was not a soul around. And the beauty was doing some tricks with fire. Orange streams curled between her palms, flew from her lips. Everything that happened seemed more like a 3D effect than a reality.
“You didn’t get into the fire?” instead of greeting, Alais looked at him with a grin. “I’m happy for you.”
“How do you know about the fire?” the question left his lips before he remembered the mass media, which, of course, should be available here as well. Surely, there is a TV or Alais herself is hiding an iPhone in her jeans pocket. She could see the summary of today’s news. They always appear on the Internet before the paper editions can report.
“Fires are beautiful, but destructive,” she said. “I love the way fire looks, but it burns you.”
“Who, us?” Daniel did not understand. And Alais simply didn’t answer. Orange highlights played in the air in front of her face, turning into pillars of fire.
“What about Jane?” involuntarily burst out from him, although how could she know. She doesn’t even know Jane, unless she watched films with her.
“Let’s just say she was kissed by an angel… with stone lips.”
Are these charades again? He felt cold and somehow unpleasant, as if a flock of ice ants had run through his body. Breath even caught for a moment. What does it mean when a statue kisses you? You can suffocate. It is possible to get fractures of all bones in the body under the pressure of stone hands. But is it possible to burn from the breath of the statue? Do statues breathe fire like Alais?
About such pyrotechnics, which allows you to create the effect of fiery sighs, he had not even heard. But in this old, long-boarded up cinema, they have stepped far beyond modern technological progress. Alais breathed out fire like a beautiful dragon. And she deftly controlled this fire, because it did not burn anything except what she liked to burn. Ordinary fire-eaters cannot do that. And no smoker can do this. Although smoke and fire are different things.
“You wanted to ask me about something?” the beauty behaved so dispassionately, as if breathing out fire, like a dragon, was something quite natural for her. “Didn’t I warn your first request?”
“Which request? I didn’t ask for anything.”
“Not aloud,” Alais just looked at him with piercing sparkling eyes, but inside everything shrank. He preferred to reflect on the fact that her eyes were like gems shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow than that he wanted to get rid of Jane. But Alais saw right through him.
“I like to fulfill wishes. Naturally not as simple as can be performed with human hands. Where people are powerless, I interfere. But your conscience is clear, you didn’t make a wish about yourself and didn’t express it out loud, you just really wanted to. When you really want something, it can come true.”
“Do you really believe that?” That if you really want something, then it will happen.
Instead of answering, another fiery sigh and a slight laugh in time with the hissing of fire. Daniel stumbled back. He was afraid that now his face would burn. But Alais was not aiming at him. She didn’t burn anything at all, she just played. Even the low headliners did not look sooty. Not to mention the walls or tables, over which the fire just hovered.
“Is there a cinema or a circus?”
“How do you like it better?”
“I suspect that under the sweat there is a whole menagerie of lions, leopards, panthers and other predatory animals.”
“Have you already heard the noise under the floor of the cinema?” She slyly narrowed her eyes and laughed.
No, he did not hear anything under the sweat, but in the cinema there was always something scraping and grinding. So the beasts, if they were present, had to be invisible.
“I remember there were excellent circus arenas in Rome, where Christians were sacrificed to lions. Those were good times. Bloody, spectacular, somewhat grandiose.”
“Do you remember? So you watched a movie about it?”
And again, in response, laughter and a light stream of fire. Daniel felt the heat of the flame on his face, but it did not burn, only warmed.
“We have films about the Ancient Rome, and about the Ancient Persia, about India, about Atlantis, about the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as about the Templars and about the French Revolution, and all with the participation of that angel who attracted you just like before you led crowds of spectators to…
She hesitated.
“For what?”
“Never mind. There are many films here. So you can come here every night. Probably, one day you will find showing something new for you. But for which film will be shown exactly on schedule, I can not vouch, this is in charge of the projectionist.”
Was it the creature in the red robe that scared him? Daniel shivered unpleasantly, as if feeling the touch of black claws again. It is better not to look around and not to look for traces of a disgusting-looking creature.
“And the films are stored on reels, or digital cinema projectors are already installed here, or even some more modern and sophisticated technology than I know. Some new cinema equipment and stereos are not being tested here?”
“How did you decide?”
“The effect is too stunning. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
“You just went to films only with your own participation and only because agents and managers forced you to attend premieres.”
How did she know? Alais did not see the contracts he signed, but spoke about the clauses of the contract with greater knowledge than the lawyer who viewed them.
“But I loved watching different films before I started filming myself.” Daniel tried to smooth out the awkwardness.
“And I like to create works of art myself more than to view what others have created.”
“And what art do you do?”
“Why are you so curious?”
“I just thought…” He was embarrassed to even say it out loud. What he dreamed of became too desirable. “We will have tests soon.”
“And you thought that I would stoop to act in films. With common people? Defile in front of the camera, probably even undress in front of the camera, as is usually done only on the panel, grimace like a monkey and obey the director’s commands?”
“I don’t know which royal family you are from, but my family was also ancient and noble, but I have sunk to that.”
“You wanted to become famous, to become a star. You can be understood. In addition, your noble family has long ago thrown their fortune into the wind. Ruin and want lead people to do many things that you would not do in the days of wealth and prosperity.”
She spoke like this, she has whole cellars here bursting with gold bars. Her wicked words touched him to the quick, but he did not pretend that he was offended.
“Have you never dreamed of becoming a star? In adolescence, for example, almost everyone dreams of this.”
“I’m already a star!” She proclaimed calmly. “For everyone who sees me. And I don’t have to do films for guys like you to faint when I show up.”
