5 #2
I look at Darya, whose hair looks like it’s adorned with rare white raven feathers. His eyebrow rises, but his face remains calm.
“No,” I admit, before addressing Darya. “Why don’t I understand what you’re saying?”
His eyes scrutinize my face, for what feels like an eternity.
Nathan pulls me forcefully. I feel the pain, but I don’t care. I’m dazed. Suddenly, sharp, icy fingers interlock with my free hand. Darya grasps me gently, yet firmly.
“I don’t think we’re done yet,” he says in French, but with an interesting accent I can’t place.
“I really don’t care!” Nathan sneers, drawing closer to me.
“Don’t you understand what’s happening? Who knows how many pills she took, but what she’s on is a brutally strong antidepressant and antipsychotic.
She has one or two hours, or maybe even less time, then she’ll collapse.
She’ll lose consciousness. We need to get her to a doctor! ”
“But I would gladly observe,” Darya declares, tilting his head to the side and looking at me and Nathan simultaneously.
“You’re sick, man!”
“If I were human, I’d understand what sickness is,” Darya breathes, his eyes smiling as he looks at me, “but since I’m not, I want to understand hers.”
“That’s enough. Enough of this nonsense!” Nathan shouts, forcing me towards the door, but Darya’s hand doesn’t let go.
“Get off her!” Nathan commands. “Let go, or I’ll call the police, and they’ll lock you up in the psychiatric ward, just like Lotte…”
“What?” I look up at Nathan in shock. No. No, no, no. I’m not going back there. “You said you called my parents!”
“Yes, but…” Nathan seems to be searching for the words. “I called them, okay? They said they’ll call an ambulance. You need to go in, Lotte! You’re not yourself! You’re covered in blood!”
“It didn’t even cross your mind that I was kidnapped, and this person saved me?”
Nathan looks incredulous.
“Why would I… Whose blood is on you?”
“It belongs to a monster, who…” I realize how unbelievable this will sound to others, but it’s too late. Nathan taps his foot nervously, staring at me. He shakes his head hopelessly.
“Do you hear yourself, Lotte? Monsters?” He speaks to me as if I were a little child. Bitter memories are biting into me. I’ve always been considered one.
“Lotte,” Nathan says, gently touching my shoulder. “Lotte, everything will be fine. Just let them take you in and… Oh, please, don’t cry!”
I hadn’t noticed the tears rolling down my face. I shake off his hand.
“Leave me alone! I’m not going back there! You have no idea what it’s like there!”
I turn towards Darya, sweating from the sudden movement.
“Take me away from here! Please!” I beg him. He studies me for a long time, then speaks in that metallic language he used before. I shake my head, indicating that I don’t understand. Why is he talking to me like this? Why did he only speak French before? Or… did I change something?
Suddenly, a figure appears and stands next to Darya.
The man’s hair gleams orange. The black, parallel stripe of a tattoo under his eyes stretches all the way to his ears.
His lips are purple, as if he’s cold. His pale skin is flawless.
It’s hard for anyone to be taller than Darya, but this man has to bend down to whisper something in his ear.
Darya doesn’t glance at him. His eyes remain on me, yet he seems lost in thought.
I feel a strong tug on my arm as Nathan turns me towards him.
“Enough of this! They’ll be here for you soon, and I won’t let this guy take you anywhere!”
He firmly grabs my shoulder and pushes towards the exit.
“No!” I stop abruptly. “I’ve already said I’m not going back! Let go… Nathan, just let me go!”
In the blink of an eye, the boy disappears from beside me. With one hand, Darya suspends him mid-air by the neck, pressing him against a white marble column.
“If I heard correctly, the girl doesn’t want to go with you.”
A waiter drops a silver tray, and it lands with a loud crash on the floor as approaches us.
“What do you think you’re doing…?”
The orange-haired man steps in front of him, and just one glance is enough to make the confidence vanish from the waiter’s eyes.
“Let’s rephrase this,” the tattooed man says with a smile. His eyes are so chillingly black that not only the waiter, but everyone in the café recoils.
A small whimper is heard, and I snap back to reality. The blood has drained so much from Nathan’s face, it looks part of the white column behind him.
I rush over, and without thinking, I place my hand on Darya’s arm. It feels as cold as touching the damp wall of a cave.
“Let him go!” There’s no response, so I begin to tug at him. “Please! He’s realized he’s an idiot. He understands now… Let him go!”
Darya looks at me, and the words freeze on my lips like dew. The same gaze. Silver streaks in completely black eyes. Now he really looks like a demon. It takes great strength to gently place my other hand on his arm.
“Please! Let him go and then take me away from here!”
His eyes clear, restoring their cloudy gray hue. He releases Nathan.
Darya looms over me, casting his predatory gaze on me again.
Once more, I feel like he wants to devour me.
I quickly step aside before he can grab me and kneel beside Nathan, who is gasping for air.
The rosy haze caused by the drugs has almost cleared, to be replaced by more violent dizziness and nausea, but I stubbornly resist and try not to collapse. I place my hand on Nathan’s back.
“Can you stand up?” I ask.
“How dare you, you fucking son of a bitch!” he screams at the white-haired man.
“You picked a fight with the wrong person. I swear you’ll regret this!
I’ll… Don’t touch me, Lotte!” he shouts at me, pushing me away.
My whole body trembles as I fall, the pain radiating through my spine running all the way to my head.
Strong, cold hands grasp my waist and help me. Even blindly, I know it’s Darya standing beside me.
“Lotte, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Nathan says, his voice trembling with guilt.
“Silence.” Darya’s command is chillingly calm. “Or I’ll regret not breaking your neck. You have no idea how valuable this girl is!”
It takes a great effort for me to speak.
“Let’s go,” I say, grasping onto Darya. “Can you take us from here?”
The man smiles, and in his eyes burns the fire of victory, as if it has been blazing there for centuries.
“Yes,” he responds, leading us towards the kitchen. I hesitate.
“We can’t go through the door,” he informs me. “The exterior is full of herebias. They’ve surrounded us. They’re looking for you.”
My blood freezes in my veins.
“Why? To kill me?”
There’s nothing on Darya’s face to erase his confident smile.
“Don’t worry, my little champion, ” he says, and before entering the kitchen, he runs a finger from my forehead to my chin, then further down, lightly touching my breasts. “I’ll protect you. You won’t fall into their hands.”
I want to speak, but I feel something is wrong. The silence that follows is too profound.
A chill runs down my spine as I look around. All the people are frozen, staring into nothingness as if they’ve turned to stone. If I didn’t see their chests moving, I’d think they were dead.
My hand turns ice cold. I’ve seen this before in the psychiatric ward. Truly insane souls who sit all day in one place, staring at the wall. I glance at Nathan, who is also frozen, his angry gaze fixed on me, his arm still outstretched towards me.
“What did you do to them?” I whisper, unable to look at Darya. I’m going mad. I must be going mad.
“They’ll be fine,” he reassures me. “They just turned to stone.”
I step back from him, but he follows.
“I can tell you one thing, Lotte, and I promise as much,” he says, cupping my face in his hands. Just as he touches me, I realize I’m trembling, teetering on the brink of hysteria. “I’ll never lie to you.”
He only twists the truth.
“Will you hurt them?” I ask uncertainly.
“Why would you save them?” Darya whispers. “They wouldn’t save you.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Too much for me to list,” he says in a deep voice.
This is not like it was in the cemetery. This is real now. His fingers are gently caressing my face, and as much as he looks like the kind of man I would fantasize about… somewhere deep inside, I know he’s not.
And this realization fills me with so much fear that suddenly I’m not sure if I want to break free from my previous life. But the psychiatric ward… I can’t go back there. Because if I go back, there’s no guarantee I’ll survive.
“Do what you truly desire, Lotte,” Darya says. He’s so close, his chest is touching mine. “Come with me. Of course, if you choose the monsters, I understand. That’s a kind of fate, too.”
My stomach churns as I think about the monsters. If I stay here, would they attack me again? Would I be safe here at all?
I bite my lip, and Darya looks at the motion again.
I won’t decide to go simply because I’m attracted to his…
his broad jawline, his sculpted, perfect physique, or the way he looks at me like he wants to tear my clothes off.
Somehow, I see the monster behind the beautiful mask, and I feel like he’s deliberately letting me see it.
To prepare me for something I don’t yet know.
Perhaps if I go with him, it won’t be easier.
But it will be different. And this difference promises nothing, just the possibility that there might not be any more medication. Maybe no one will see me as crazy anymore.
Darya leans closer.
“Tell me, what do you desire, my little champion?”
I have no idea why he calls me this.
“I don’t want to stay here,” I whisper, my voice trembling with the truth.
I’m somewhere else – somewhere in my past, where every dark memory surfaces thanks to the medication.
“I don’t want to be locked up. I want to leave this place.
To go somewhere where they can’t lock me up again.
To a place where… they won’t see me as crazy anymore. Can you give me that?”
He inhales the scent of my skin, as if it were a fresh page of a new book.
“Yes,” he replies, nodding.
He releases me, making circular motions with his hand as if loosening his wrist. Mist, as black as soot, forms on the floor at his gesture. Cold rises from the gaping hole. I hear the call of a bird, like a raven’s gurgling croak, and a smoky scent burns my nose.
“You said angels kill people who have demon blood,” I say, addressing Darya uncertainly. “What do you do with them?”
The man holds me tightly, his moon-white hand freeing the hair from my neck.
“We break them.”
Just as I’m beginning to comprehend this, and just as I see that sunlight is filling the room again, Nathan regains consciousness, but he no longer sees me. I press my body tightly against Darya’s before the dark patch rippling on the floor touches us and sucks us underground.