The scratches were blackened around the edges, as if they had been burned.
Nikita looked away from the scratched lines. AВ threatening phrase came toВ mind:
“We’re all burned! There was a huge fire!”
It felt as if it was not an ordinary fire that had burned down some building, but aВ fire that had engulfed the entire planet.
The kettle was boiling. If it hadn’t come with a whistle, Nikita wouldn’t have even noticed. As he reacted to the whistle, there was almost no water left in the kettle. Nikita managed to burn his fingers. You have to be more careful when you turn on the stove, or you’ll end up with a big fire at home, too.
Before leaving for aВ business trip, his mother filled the refrigerator with food that she personally thought would be good for him. On the shelves were pickled jars ofВ sauerkraut, dairy products, kefir, sour cream. Stacks ofВ canned fish and canned stew were lined up inВ the kitchen cabinet. Nikita did not consider all this toВ be edible food. He would like pancakes or hot pelmeni now. He could find packs ofВ dumplings inВ the freezer, but he would not dare cook them himself. It was his job toВ fix the computer or fix the furniture, but he had no culinary skills. There was aВ quarter ofВ aВ loaf ofВ rye bread inВ the breadbox, and on the bottom shelf ofВ the refrigerator there was melted cheese. He could make aВ sandwich.
Nikita casually glanced at the calendar on the wall. The flip pages were torn, as if by claws. The date of his birthday had been torn off. He had lied to Athenais, writing that he had already turned twenty-two. In fact, he hadn’t turned nineteen until this September. But admitting to girls that you are too young is not a good idea. Pretty girls are more willing to meet those who are older.
There are scratches on the wallpaper in the room, too. What the hell! His mother would swear when she arrived, thinking he’d done something naughty.
It quickly became dark outside the windows. Night Moscow lit up with bright evening lights and neon signs. Nikita sat down at the computer. Athenais wasn’t in the chat room yet. But the link she had sent was gone. Nikita decided to follow the link. Maybe Athenais had her own personal website or blog. He was in for a surprise. The link was to a movie.
Could it be her favorite movie? Is it aВ good sign that she sent the link? If aВ girl wants toВ show you her favorite movie, it means she likesВ you!
Nikita racked his brains and got excited, as it turned out prematurely. The movie turned out toВ be creepy. It was aВ horror against aВ historical backdrop. The plot included kings, wars, extraterrestrial epidemics and aВ beautiful golden-blond angel, who actually turned out toВ be aВ demon. The angel was played byВ AthГ©naГЇs.
Charades
Athenais didn’t show up in the chat room until after twelve. Nikita’s head was already spinning from the abundance of impressions. Images of the scary movie were swirling around in his head like a black vortex. The horror movie was addictive and shocking. It was about the magic brought to earth by fallen angels and the leader of the fallen angels who ruled the world through the kings enchanted by him. Athenais had a fateful role.
“What did you think of the movie?” A chatty acquaintance began without greeting.
Should he honestly admit toВ her that the movie shocked him or come up with aВ more flattering review?
“Scary! Is this the movie you rushed to see yesterday?”
“No, it’s not. There are a lot of movies in that genre.”
“Is it in the horror genre?”
“It is in the angelic war genre.”
“I haven’t heard of that genre.”
“It’s better to see than to hear.”
The conversation was looking more and more like a game of charades. How agonizing is it to sit at your computer and not know who is communicating with you on the other side of the screen? Yes, there is a dazzling photo, but who is hiding behind it? Is a girl who has made a career in film, ready to communicate with an ordinary Moscow boy. He is penniless. It’s more like a practical joke.
“You don’t think I’m me, do you?” Athenais guessed his fears.
“Answer the video call, and I won’t doubt you.”
“It will be tomorrow.”
“Why it will be not tonight?”
“I’m in too dark a place today.”
“What’s going to change tomorrow?”
“There’s going to be a reshuffle. There will be a feast.”
“You mean a feast?”
“It is a sort of.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Have you ever attended a feast without a table? It is in the manner of eastern traditions or ancient Roman ones?”
The Romans ate on their beds, but in the East it was customary to sit on the floor among the cushions, but there had to be a table. Nikita could not understand his companion’s games.
“Are you talking about some scenery for a movie about the Ancient East, or about Ancient Rome, or even about the Stone Age?”
There was aВ pause.
“What is your profession?” Nikita said. “Are you an actress?”
“I am a former movie star.”
“What do you mean?” Nikita even got scared. Ambitious movie stars never call themselves exes, and she so easily admits that her career is behind her. She was probably badly injured on the set. If she was crippled or burned, that would explain why she won’t go on video chat.
The pretty picture remains, but the pretty face is gone. He is communicating with an illusion.
“Ex means dead,” Athenais dumbfounded him with the answer.
“What do you mean, dead?” She couldn’t be talking to him as a ghost, could she?
“Everyone thinks I’m dead,” Athenais confirmed. “You can read about it in the press.”
Nikita was stunned. This has got to be a practical joke! She’s either trying to scare him to death or she’s deliberately playing him for a fool.
“Are you dead?” He dared to ask her directly.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. I’m talking to the computer, not you. Let’s meet and I’ll decide.”
“Dating is risky.”
“Why is it risky?”
Nikita had toВ take his mind off the conversation for aВ moment. Ex-girlfriends were calling him through aВ dating site. He had toВ reject several video calls. Only then did he manage toВ get back toВ chatting with Athenais.
“They say movie stars aren’t as beautiful in person as they are in pictures,” Nikita quipped. This is a proven way to get a girl on a date. She has to show up in person and prove that she’s as beautiful as in the picture.
“Well, I’m not in life now, I’m in the realm of death,” Athenais instantly retorted. “Beauty is frozen here, like in the pyramids of the pharaohs.”
“Is there a working computer in the realm of death?” Highly doubtful!
Athenais didn’t answer for a long time. Either she was communicating with other site users, or the insolent question offended her.
“I’m a dead movie star,” she typed again. Perhaps the answer had a metaphorical meaning: ex means dead. Not literally dead! Dead people don’t sit in chat rooms.
After that, she passed out. It was already four inВ the morning. Nikita had sat with her inВ the chat room for too long. Now he would sleep through class again. How was it that Athenais was taking up more ofВ his time than even computer games? Talking toВ her was addictive.
Messages from Lada, Dasha, Dusya, Valya, and Mania went ignored. Nikita also received dozens of messages at once from the “red hood,” as he had already called the scary stranger to himself. His name was Aneh. That, at any rate, was how the nickname was printed. Naturally, the name might have been made up.
Aneh was creepy-looking, and he didn’t want to talk to him at all. He was probably one of Athenais’ acquaintances. Why else would he suddenly be interested in Nikita? His last message confirmed that:
“How do you like communicating with a dead star?”
Nikita ignored Aneh’s questions and deleted all correspondence with him. However, it resurfaced again. A few more attempts to delete it did nothing either. Okay, let it stay, Nikita gave up after the tenth attempt. The main thing is not to start multiplying, like a Trojan virus.
Apparently, he accidentally clicked again and answered the video-call, because on the screen again flashed aВ video with aВ black man inВ aВ red hood. On closer inspection, though, Aneh is not aВ Negro. It was like he was all burned up. Gold earring rings were threaded through his large nostrils. From the earrings stretched chains. For some reason they resembled fetters.
Did Aneh want toВ communicate or scare the hell out ofВ Nikita?
“Sorry, but I prefer to communicate with girls,” Nikita waved him off and left the site.
The computer screen began toВ crack, as if someone had punched it from the inside. Something burst from behind Nikita. Splinters flew off. The plafond ofВ aВ lamp shattered. The room went dark. And something rustled inВ the corners, like rats crawling around.
Press clippings
All night long someone’s claws had been scraping against the couch. Nikita was used to hearing his neighbors arguing through the ceiling at night, but he was not accustomed to animal wrangling. He even checked a couple of times to see if there were any mice in the apartment. Nothing seemed to be chewed off, so it was too early to put mousetraps in.
The lamp shade did break during the night. The shards ofВ the lamp were lying all over the room. It took aВ lot ofВ effort toВ collect them. Now he would have toВ wear slippers toВ prevent any small splinter from sticking inВ his foot. Nikita was used toВ walking barefoot at home. Finding homemade slippers turned out toВ be an impossible task. His mother told him toВ vacuum the carpets once aВ week, but the vacuum cleaner was broken. One week alone has passed. At the end ofВ the month his mother would come back and probably make aВ big fuss. The house had not been cleaned, everything was dusty, the walls were scratched, the new wallpaper was irreparably ruined, and the lamp plafond was broken as well. What on earth was her son doing?
Answer his mother honestly, and she would raise her son with laughter. He sat in a chat room and made contact with a dead movie star. He could be called a modern day medium. He knows how to summon the souls of dead celebrities over the Internet. Or is the pretty girl just messing with him? Let’s say she really is a celebrity who decided to trick ordinary guys. Why does a monster in red appear in a chat room at the same time as her?
There was no way to call Aneh anything other than a monster. After a short video of him, there should have been cracks on the computer screen, but there weren’t any. They couldn’t have disappeared overnight, could they? A computer isn’t a living thing; injuries don’t heal on it like they do on human skin.
Nikita ran his fingers over the smooth screen. At night he dreamed that the cracks on the computer were bleeding.
He must have thought the computer had crashed yesterday. Good thing it was working properly. The power supply and monitor came on quickly. There were no alarm warnings from the system or demands toВ reboot.
Nikita got on the Internet urgently. He was interested in the press. The sites of Metro, Vechernaya Moskva, and Zvezdny Boulevard flashed before his eyes. There was only yesterday’s and today’s news. Not a word about Athenais. Probably have to look at last year’s articles.
It’s a good thing he thought of it. Yes, indeed, there was such a star. He read excerpts about her in last year’s press. She had once outshone all the stars. In addition to the glamour publications, serious magazines had written about her. A year ago the star was killed in a terrorist attack. The attack took place at the Blue Lotus Cinema, where the night premiere with Athenais film was taking place. No details of the terrorist attack were available.
Nikita leafed through the Internet versions of newspapers and magazines, copying the articles he was looking for. Dozens of copied pages had accumulated in a separate folder on his computer. Nikita clicked the mouse and typed the name of the folder “Press clippings. Now he had a memo about the movie star and her demise. Athenais was not a dream or a myth. She lived. She was in the movies. She died. It’s all registered in the press. The movie star existed in reality, but now she’s dead.
So who’s chatting with him on her behalf?
Nikita should have chickened out and disconnected from chatting with aВ con artist or aВ ghost. However, he was not the cowardly type.
As soon as night fell, he logged onto the dating site and waited. Athenais was gone for aВ long time. From nothing toВ do, Nikita exchanged aВ few minor phrases with Dusya and Valya. He was no longer attracted toВ mere girls. The beautiful ghost turned out toВ be more attractive.
Nikita glanced from time to time at the winged photo of Athenais. She didn’t show up online until after one o’clock in the morning, and she didn’t even dignify him with a greeting. He worked up the courage and addressed her first:
“Good afternoon, are you in the middle of the night?”
The keys slid under his fingers and his fingertips were sweaty. Nikita was nervous. The beautiful photo came toВ life for aВ moment, as if it had flapped its wing.
“How are you?” Athenais asked.
Did she wonder if she was wondering how he was doing? Nikita answered sarcastically.
“I am still alive.”
“Everyone is temporarily alive.”
Is that a threat? He doesn’t think so, because she’s not exaggerating. All people are born just to live life and die. It’s a philosophy. Many people like to think that somewhere ahead there is death. Nikita had seen a picture somewhere in which death with a scythe was already standing over a baby’s grave. He couldn’t even remember which museum it was in. He’d rather talk about what’s important.
“So, are you really a movie star?”
Silence inВ response.
She’s dead and alive at the same time. This isn’t a prank.
“Did you somehow survive that terrorist attack?”
“It wasn’t a terrorist attack.”
“Then what was?”
There’s a long silence. He thought the text wouldn’t come through.
“It was a duel.”
“Was it a duel?”
“It was a duel with a man who was in love with a demon.”
It sounds like nonsense.
