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 to her that the movie shocked him or come up with a 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 a 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 to take his mind off the conversation for a moment. Ex-girlfriends were calling him through a dating site. He had to reject several video calls. Only then did he manage to get back to 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 in the morning. Nikita had sat with her in the chat room for too long. Now he would sleep through class again. How was it that Athenais was taking up more of his time than even computer games? Talking to 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 a video with a black man in a red hood. On closer inspection, though, Aneh is not a 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 to communicate or scare the hell out of Nikita?
“Sorry, but I prefer to communicate with girls,” Nikita waved him off and left the site.
The computer screen began to crack, as if someone had punched it from the inside. Something burst from behind Nikita. Splinters flew off. The plafond of a lamp shattered. The room went dark. And something rustled in the corners, like rats crawling around.
Press
