of this scalding effect, he could not look at her for long. It seemed that she was the scorching sun, and he burned up in its rays and crumbled ashes at her feet. Her beauty was overwhelming, deprived of will and reason. In which case a woman is said to be divinely beautiful. When you want to die at her feet.
Waynes was never a romantic. Like all operators. His work at the studio is purely technical. Let scriptwriters and novelists enjoy the poetry of feelings. His job is to shoot the scene from the desired angle and adjust the scaling. He is the best specialist in his field. Therefore, Honor hired him. The owner of the film studio, which yesterday was on the verge of collapse, and today flourished, was himself a gloomy and nervous man. He drank a lot, looked around the corners, as if in search of house spirits, and was not at all happy about the enormous profit that he was hitting. Either money corrupted him to madness, or the difficult path to wealth cost him a mental breakdown.
The second is unlikely! Honor did practically nothing. The entire burden fell on the fragile shoulders of Athenais. She did not leave the set day and night. That’s really who made himself a star with his own hands. Waynes had long suspected that the large-scale action films that conquered the public were entirely her merit. From somewhere she recruited actors, unknown to anyone, but brilliant. Invisible helpers also grew out of the void. Waynes heard their footsteps, but did not see them. But he once watched how Athenais herself edited the films and did some tricks with the camera with her own hand. She stood behind the lens, dressed for filming. Dark angelic wings seemed to grow from her back. She filmed an empty room on camera. What for? Waynes never got it. Athenais told him to get out, and he obediently got away.
At Honore’s studio, he used to be silent and do nothing. On the one hand, it is a solid lafa to receive money for work that you do not do. On the other hand, a terrible secret beckons you. Waynes just sat in the studio for working hours and, if possible, watched Athenais. Once he saw how the cameras, placed in a close circle, filmed her by themselves and some monster that hugged her with claws. The black devil’s claws looked creepy against the lily-white skin. But the beast and the beauty seemed to be acting in tandem. The angel and the demon gave the impression of a single organism.
Later, he saw this scene in the film “Angel of Dawn” and could not comment on anything to friends who bombarded him with questions about how it was filmed and who was involved in the special effects. All former colleagues were sure that he was the main operator of Athenais. And therefore, he knows all the secrets of how the film was created. How wrong they were! But to admit that he sits in the studio and does nothing, Waynes did not dare. Let them consider him the star’s assistant. If he starts raving about ghosts, demonic claws near cameras and contracts with blank columns for employee names, no one will believe him. Everyone will decide that he is chattering incredible for the sake of a publicity.
Waynes himself did not understand why they were keeping him in the studio, a couple of secretaries, and even some black cripple named Eric, who could hardly walk on crutches. Erik was practically crawling, not walking. What’s the use of it? What is the point in contracts for films, where there are no names of actors and working filming, except for one name – Athenais!
Waynes suspected he was being hired for show. He knew that there were money laundering scams, but could there be a scam to launder a contract with ghosts? If so, he was hired to do just that. One living name among the many dashes in the treaty acts already looked like an excuse. Since there is one live employee at the film studio, it means that not all of it still belongs to ghosts.
Waynes knew a little about financial gambling. Before Honore, he worked with people who used movies and various celebrity charities to launder money from the left. Complete immorality and even criminality was often hidden behind the chic screen of stardom. But Athenais was above that. But her dishonest competitors from ruin were not saved by their adventures.
Waynes stealthily crept into Honore’s office, cracked the codes on the safes, looked through all the reports. No shameless transactions and double-entry bookkeeping! All revenues came exclusively from films. Not even an advertisement! It looks like a fairy tale! Typically, movie stars survive on promotions. Movies don’t make much money. Even if they turned out to be very successful, after the deduction of a share to the distributors and taxes, the creators have only a tiny percentage of the profits left. Athenais became an exception to all the rules. She ripped off the entire cash register. She paid no taxes at all, probably because of her connections with politicians. And the entire network of the latest fashionable cinemas with the mysterious ancient Egyptian name “Akhetaton” has long belonged to her. So who was the owner of the film studio with her? Everyone knew Honore as her sponsor. But is it really so?
There were no guards around, but someone here was definitely guarding everything. Waynes chickened out at the shuffling footsteps and hid all the documents back. He did not take anything with him and did not copy, however, someone started violent attacks on him.
With the onset of dusk, the empty film studio became scary. Someone was crawling along behind Waynes in the dark, and not only on the floor, but also on the ceiling. A couple of times the guy was caught in a black sticky web, which he hardly managed to break. And once, some creatures pounced on him in the dark and brutally tore them with claws. He woke up all in scratches, and for a moment it seemed to him that the same crippled Negro was crawling along the ceiling, which was running like a shadow for Athenais. He looked like a huge, shapeless spider, clinging to the ceiling with deformed limbs. He was angry, but the vision only lasted a moment.
It’s time to get out of this studio! He was not going to endure all this horror for the sake of one salary. Let all these are just the effects of lighting and editing, but after them there is a risk of ending up in a psychiatric hospital.
Several expensive cameras cracked and blackened in the lens, and the tripods felt like fire.
“She was filming the fire of Rome,” a creature lurking in the darkness explained with a snide laugh. “As if we haven’t seen enough of this before, but you haven’t seen it yet…”
Waynes did not answer him. He was not going to communicate with someone who was not officially listed in the staff of the film studio. So you can get confused with a gang of mafia. You never know who brought the diva to the shooting. A success like Athenais’s was probably based on something very risky.
The strange hunched creature twisted the cameras with its claws, as if it were the operator itself. But the broken lenses are no longer removed. It was necessary to warn him about this, but Neil did not waste words on the stranger. In addition, he behaved so self-confidently, as if he knew that broken cameras would be filmed for him, as if by magic.
The time was late. It was already possible to go home, but Waynes decided that he would write a letter of resignation right now. A muted orange light was pouring from the studio head’s office. So Honor is now at his workplace. Fine! And then he rarely appears here.
Waynes stopped before knocking. The door was ajar. Through the gap formed, one could see the golden head of Athenais. What is she doing at such a time in the studio of the owner of the film studio? Is it really the old fashioned way, as is customary in the world of show business – a star and a sponsor lover? Does not look like it. They are separated by a massive walnut table. And at the head of the table is Athenais, not her employer.
Everything around is somehow strange, as if special effects are about to turn on. The tension in the air is growing noticeably. The owner of the film studio is very nervous and scratches his own hands with nails until they bleed. Some unusual black animals are crawling along the curtains. And not cats, and not monkeys, but their skins are like coals. They seemed to be taken out of the oven. And their claws are like knives. There were obviously some special
