something about the fact that some sight of magic would ruin her.
Annette did not regret that she came to the cinema, although it was the path to death. The film sucked her in like a whirlpool vortex. From the viewing, there was a painful sensation, as if someone had inserted red-hot needles into her pupils. The session had barely begun, and blood was already flowing from her eyes. She hasn’t looked for ten minutes yet, and there is no way to look further. Everything around is darkening, there are some whispers in her ears.
“When you leave the hall, look around and see how many spectators have already committed violence against themselves and others after they were here before you!”
The disfigured man in the sands was right. The spectacle of magic has driven her to the point that now maddening voices sound in her brain. The red and sticky substance ran down her cheeks, turning into tears of blood. The sands underneath the pyramids at the excavations also cried in human blood, according to Leah.
The film was on. It was difficult to see behind the bloody veil. But the blood from the eyes is still a small price to pay for the fact that you want to see the real biography of the devil himself on the screen.
The cinema is full of creepy creatures, and a minute ago the chairs were empty.
Now all around was a sarcastic giggle, claw scratching and the sound of black leathery wings. Annette wiped her eyes and looked at the row in front of her. Beasts with fur-covered faces, twisted horns and spiked foreheads gazed at her. And all these animals behaved like a civilized public. This is hell!
“Go away, everyone!” Annette stepped on someone’s claws that crawled out from under the floorboards and scratched her ankle. Oddly enough it was worth breaking into a cry, as the hall was empty. Only a few heads of some spectators in front looked at her in bewilderment. These are ordinary people with simple human faces; no membranes, no horns, no claws!
The blood from the eyes stopped flowing, but there were red marks on the fingers. The eyes hurt. Annette had no handkerchief with her, and she stained her skirt and blouse with blood.
The tempting voice of Alais, who won, sounded from the screen. Her double was so severely crippled that he himself turned into a monster, consisting entirely of gold plates. The golden creature was crawling across the screen, overgrown with thorns and tentacles of solid gold. It opened many pairs of multi-colored eyes at once and stared at the audience.
Annette shuddered. It feels like it looked into her soul. Could some demon see her from the screen? Or is it the nerves are naughty? Even a nosebleed is usually enough to make even the most persistent person panic. And her blood was just pouring out of her eyes. She could have gone blind! But she didn’t go blind just to look into the hypnotizing eyes of the creature, which rearranged the letters of the name Alais and called itself Cialas. Mirror copy Alais became a monster of gold. With its golden limbs, it killed as easily as with knives. It was moving fast, like a centipede, and it seemed that it was about to slide off the screen.
The feeling that the demon from the movie was about to invade the hall was so real that Annette jumped up from her seat. And that’s it! The film ended abruptly. There were no end credits on the screen. The seats in the front rows were empty. Was Annette the only spectator for the entire session? Of course, it’s very late now, but there is always someone in the theater, at least three or four people. For a single viewer, the film is unlikely to be rolled out. But that’s how it happened. No one around. The screen is dark and empty, and the golden creature, as if slipping from it, is already standing next to her in the empty hall. How did it get here? Did it really come off the screen? Immediately, many clawed hands reached out to her face.
“The same!” dozens of pairs of sparkling, like precious stones, rainbow eyes stared at Annette’s face. “One face, but two of you! What you need!”
These claws are like knives. And they all reached out to caress her face. She seemed to be caught in a ball of sharp razors, but managed to recoil. Cialas’s claws slid only along her elbow, and oddly enough did not cut, but only burned. And then a light suddenly came on in the hall. There are only empty rows of chairs around. The golden being is no longer among them.
Many-armed deity of gold
On the asphalt, a man was drawing a pentagram with his own blood. He cut his veins with a shard of a bottle. It seems that Anette saw this guy at the last show in the cinema. Unless she was wrong. Someone was laughing from around the corner.
Several passers-by assured that the young people who came out of the cinema had such a fight a couple of hours ago that they even knocked down a lamp post. On the opposite corner, after the session, there was a terrorist attack. The victims were killed, the criminals were not captured. So many people talked about the suicides that happened under the cinema that they buzzed in their ears. Annette found herself able to hear the dialogues of people standing many meters away. She probably didn’t get enough sleep, since her perceptions were so aggravated.
The world around suddenly turned into a place of fear and madness. There were always people around, either attacking others for no reason, or performing rituals, or on the verge of suicide. Some teenager tried to hang himself from a lantern, some cute young guy was tracing the name “Atenais” with his blood on the concrete wall.
Are all her fans going nuts? This is what a great success is worth! Create one bright star, and it will pull the whole world to destruction. Although the feeling after the sessions is as if the film industry this time did not create a star, but a real demon itself.
Annette rubbed her wrist, which was burned by the talons of the golden creature. 3D effects do not burn. How did it happen that she fell asleep and was burned by something in the cinema? What can you get burned there? She didn’t even have a lighter with her. And no one was sitting next to her.
Films don’t bite or burn! At least until now there have not been such films that come to life. Nor were there those films that drive the masses of people crazy.
Everything happens for the first time ever! Leah loved to say that. Every time, leaving for excavations, she hoped to find something that would become a great discovery. And it doesn’t matter that even before her birth, archaeologists had already dug everything around. Every young archaeologist still hoped to become a pioneer. Leah was the most striking example of this. Suddenly, generations of archaeologists before her overlooked something. And this is something very significant she will certainly unearth! Leah had many ambitions and dreams. Annette loved to make fun of her that someday, like in old horror films about mummies, she would dig up a real living demon instead of a weak-willed artifact.
Who would have thought that instead of Leah, she would find the demon, Annette. And not on excavations in Egypt, but in a provincial cinema. Digging up an ancient deity requires a decent education, archaeological skills, and many years of experience. Annette did not have all these qualities. But she saw the ancient deity with her own eyes. But she could not prove that she had made a discovery. In addition to her, the film must have been watched by millions of people. Many were left under such a strong impression that they would harm themselves and others.
“You want to return to the realm of fairies to take a sip of their magic like a drug,” the children were still humming an ominous countdown. Don’t they sleep at all? Or are they ghosts of children?
Annette walked past the alleyway from which the song was coming. She was no longer drawn to the land of magic, because Cialas was waiting there. It is worth looking at the beautiful angels and fairies, and the claws of the monster
