hall. He heard the hubbub of voices, but what they were talking about, he could not understand. Some weird shadows fell on the carpet. Guests either have very fancy tall hairstyles or hooves and horns! Unless it’s all actors who have pulled away from filming for a test run. Although from afar it all sounds more like a sabbath than a peaceful viewing of a film.
“In the evening! Well! I will try to be free by this time. But what time is it?” – and what does he think about when making promises, because on the set he himself can be detained until late? What if someone who was not invited follows him? Do they even give tickets or invitations? He didn’t notice the ticket booths in front of the entrance.
“Come closer to twelve,” Cordelia shrugged her bare shoulders, and again it seemed to him that their matte skin cracked like broken china.
“That is, the exact start time is not yet known?” It was somewhat amazing. Usually all theaters and cinemas have a tight schedule. But everything is unusual here.
“We’re starting late,” Cordelia said again. Nefert preferred to be silent. “The later you come, the better. Moreover, not all high-ranking guests have the opportunity to visit us during the day.”
“I noticed that the clock at the entrance stopped.”
“Time limits us so much,” Cordelia sigh expressed such disdain and weariness. “But don’t worry. The clock will be repaired by tomorrow night. And they will go again. We just need to hurry up the watchmaker.”
Could it be the hunched creature that just slipped down the hallway. Daniel shivered. Cold washed over him.
“By the way, in this costume you look like a very attractive ancient vampire,” blushing slightly, he tried to compliment her. The ability to compliment was never his strong point, but the girl smiled indulgently.
“Not a vampire, but a very skilled seamstress,” she corrected in a whisper. Why whisper? Is it necessary to hide something from someone here?
“So you want to say that you are not playing a vampire, but a seamstress… in a lady’s dress?”
“I have a difficult role,” she replied bluntly. Daniel suddenly began to think that the whirlwinds of sparkles above the playing board were beginning to form into the outlines of screaming faces, making the game resemble a miniature hell of golden sand.
Some suspicious sounds were indeed heard from the already closed auditorium. It looks like sobbing and screaming. They were probably coming from the screen, he consoled himself. Cordelia was wary.
“It’s time for you to go. You cannot stay overnight in this place. It is forbidden.”
“Will they let me in here tomorrow without a ticket?”
“Ticket,” Cordelia frowned. “Maybe you also need a royal crown, plus you need it. Or a loop around the neck is better?”
Nefert made her hold her snide tongue, lightly scratching her shoulder with her claws. Cordelia didn’t bleed, but it squeaked, as if scratching a hard surface, not skin.
“This is for you!” Nefert placed an invitation on the table, edged with gold lettering. The letters on it were half black, half scarlet, but that line was erased as soon as the blood from Daniel’s cheek suddenly dripped onto the cardboard. Everything turned scarlet.
“I messed it up.”
“It’s just a formality,” Cordelia explained.
“That is, at the control it will be easily scanned.”
In response, there was only a playful laugh from both girls.
“Well then…” the young man hesitated, not wanting to leave.
“You have to go!”
He had to leave. The gloomy building suddenly became so pleasant, as if a living fabulous creature that swallowed it in its mouth and protected it from the cruelly world around, where struggle and competition are in progress. And here there is only peace and the feeling that the walls live and whisper something to him ingratiatingly.
“You are back, son of the Rosier family! You have returned to us!”
Who here could know the old name of his family? Having moved to Russia, his family changed their last name to the Rozanovs, and he, in turn, having found a way to foreign cinema, chose a sonorous pseudonym for himself. Nobody knew his old family name, but the cinema did. Or did he have delirium tremens after drinking?
In any case, he didn’t want to leave the cinema. After all, it is so dark, warm, cozy. A good place to fall asleep here forever, dreamless sleep and get rid of all earthly problems.
The impression of peace was interrupted by obsessed cries from the closed hall. He also heard bird cries, sounds of struggle and even gunshots. He turned around. The door swung open again for a moment, and monstrous shadows grappled behind it in battle. It must be reflections from the screen.
He walked away faster. Tomorrow he will watch the film himself. And for some reason they didn’t let him in today? These are probably the rules here. Or was there not enough room for a beginner?
The hall was calm and empty. The fountain suddenly started working. The clock above the entrance began to tick. Someone hunched over seems to be hovering between the ceiling and them. In the semi-darkness it was definitely not possible to see.
“The descendant of Rosier has indeed returned!”
Daniel looked around the hall, trying to find out who said this. But there were only statues around. He bumped into one of them and almost hurt his forehead, but someone supported him in time. The question is who? There was no one living nearby. Only seven marble and somehow ominous angels gathered around.
Before leaving, Daniel turned on them and was taken aback, one of the angels, the one who stood closest to the exit, moved his wing, brought a marble finger to the same marble lips and made a sign to the young man to remain silent.
A tree from ashes
“Stain a tree with blood,
Let her into this world!”
So the children sang in a round dance. Probably, he only fancied in the light of the moon that they all had deathly pale faces, empty eyes and very sharp needle-like teeth under bloodless lips. And what kind of parents would let their children go out so late at night? Are they all from an orphanage, which eventually became impoverished? Will they start begging soon? But they only sang and looked like ghosts.
Daniel nevertheless ran his hand into the pocket of his jacket in search of the little things that were lying there, but he came across only a razor blade and injured his fingers. The pain burned. Despite the dulling sensations of the night’s cold, the pain itself was razor sharp. He recalled inappropriately that as a child, he had been injured on the beach on broken glass a long time ago. It lay at the bottom. In the water, the wound did not even ache, but it was worth getting out on the shore, and the torment became intolerable. Likewise, after leaving the cinema, suddenly the desire to shine and suicide returned.
Enough! Not everything in life is lost yet. He still has a chance to fix everything, even the last one, but it must
