Darina Grotto
Unlimited

‘Once I heard a thought in our mind, more precisely it was a desire to be the only one…’ the demon undid the button of her jeans.

She numbly looked at what Kharon was doing. She could close her eyes and switch off her mind as she did before as she was scared a bit. The man pulled off the shirt burning the girl with the flames of his eyes.

‘I’m not a virgin, no.’ He tore the jeans off her. ‘But thanks to you I realized that not only virgins can have the only one.’

‘Kharon…’

‘You’re so absolutely irredeemable listener. Stop interrupting, will you?’

Victoria silently looked at the demonic creature’s eyes and a pleasant shiver ran over her body, taking out the excitement of her depth of the subconsciousness.

‘You’re the only one woman for my entire existence who dared to give her soul to Lucifer to be with me, having known that your chances are critically small to have what you want.’

Here Victoria started forgetting where she was. Her own location wasn’t an interesting issue especially when Kharon was doing magic over her body with his lips, hands and words.

‘You’re the only one human woman whom I shared my sexual skills with in reality and having experienced it I feel more power in thousand times. You’re the only one who is so close to me and still alive. You’re the only one who became the only one…’

For a second the demon stopped speaking and with a mystery on his face studied the girl, the surprise and joy ripping out of her heart.

‘You’re the only one woman…a human who’s lying in this bed…’

Kharon kissed her neck…

For several seconds before falling into the mutual feelings giving Victoria thought that she saw a lower part of the wing… as black as ink, shone and trying to embrace her.

Having realized her energies and getting back a mad enjoyment Vic was sleeping with no moves in bed. The demon in unbuttoned shirt was staying and thinking nearby the window. He had a serious reason to think.

‘Good morning, Kharon!’ A low black creature appeared behind him with legs of some hoofed animal, with human head and body but with lion tail and cow horns.

The demon didn’t even turn. He’d been waiting for that person.

‘The Lord’s waiting for you… At his apartment!’ the creature told, stamped with its hoof and disappeared.

Kharon took a sigh and went away from the window. Very quietly he came into the room where Victoria was sleeping. He sat on the edge of the bed, combed the ginger tips of her hair behind her ears that chaotically ran down her face. Vic was lying on her stomach, hands were under the pillow, and the blanket covered her legs.

‘I hope you’re worth of it…’ Kharon whispered, snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Lucifer was sitting in his arm-chair at his unusual table. His hand held a feather writing something with impudent move, filling paper with mind-blowing burgundy colour. His countenance seemed to be neutral. He saw nothing but wrote something intently.

‘Lucifer!’ Kharon let his Lord know about his presence.

The Falling Angel stopped his fast writing and looked up at the guest. Then he jumped up, threw the feather on the table and then, looking at his Lord’s face Kharon assured himself again that when deuces came on behalf of Lucifer meant really bad news.

‘Did you take leave of senses?!’ Lucifer asked in an ominous low voice having come up to Kharon.

The demon was silent head bowed, looked down. So, what could he say?

‘You’d better not!’ Strong waning came. ‘Don’t even think you can pretend to be a fool with no understanding what I’m speaking about!’

‘Lucifer…’ the demon glanced at his friend.

He was angry and it was to put it mildly. Having known his Lord and friend for so many years Kharon guessed the reason of his indignation.

‘I’m waiting for the answer!’ Lucifer turned away from the demon, fixed his eyes upon the landscape behind the window.

‘I wanted to show my home and the place where we live.’

‘Kharon. My friend.’ Lucifer beseeched flew up to the demon again. ‘How did you ever get the absurd idea to bring the witch in hell? I’d not have told anything if she were a human! But the witch, Kharon… You’ve almost made a fatal mistake!’

‘Why?’ Kharon worried. ‘You told she’s not a threat.’

‘On the earth.’ The Lord’s voice sank almost to an ominous whisper. ‘On the earth no witch is threat for us. On the earth.’ Lucifer rolled his eyes, deeply inhaled and exhaled, having stared at Kharon’s scared face.

‘What’s the threat from her being here?’ Kharon asked almost in his mind.

‘First, your blindness with her in bed.’ Lucifer intently looked at the demon’s eyes. ‘Come on, turn on your logic, my friend. What usually happens? You take all energies from a woman. Totally. Do you? Do I recall right?’

‘Yes, you do.’

‘How are you feeling now?’ Lucifer frowned and glanced at Kharon being in puzzle.

‘At least strange.’ Kharon told the truth more than ever.

‘What strange?’

‘I am not feeling that strength which I usually get from Vic in bed…’

‘So,’ for a moment The Lord’s face was distorted with a slight smile.

‘I think I’m tired.’

‘You know why?’

‘No.’

‘Victoria can’t give away her energy at our home.’ Lucifer sat to the table, nervously touching the glass. ‘She’s alive. Do you understand? She’s not a demon neither a spirit not a deuce! She’s a human! Her energy stays with her. This alone wouldn’t have been a problem, if only she weren’t a witch. Witches have a great ability to accumulate. Do you know what it means?’

Kharon shook his head realizing all sudden interest and perfectly reasonable anger of his Lord.

‘Witches accumulate energies. Being with you in your bed where she emitted a colossal amount of energy, that was she who devoured it, not you!’

A zap broke through Kharon.

‘So,’ he quickly came up to Lucifer, ‘you wanna say that she kept her energy and took mine?!’

‘I don’t wanna say I’m already saying it!’ The Lord clasped him hard around the shoulder and grinned. ‘And now she’s much more powerful. Here is my bad too I must have told you and interfered, done anything but instead I silently watched… Inexcusable error!’

‘The witch with demonic energy…’ Kharon whispered.

‘Yes, my friend, it even sounds terrible! It’s an obvious fact but I’d better say it: in the morning Victoria won’t be paralyzed and lifeless as you used to see her; with your energy she has so much power that it will be enough for a long time.’

‘I’m sorry, Lucifer.’

‘Don’t be. My bad is much more than yours. Accept my advice for future – don’t bring every Dick and Jane to home, especially when it goes about witches. If I were you, I would go home and ty to use up all the energy she has now.’

‘But,’ Kharon took a step.

‘Go, my friend, and I hope your own energy doesn’t harm you!’

‘Lucifer! You have to answer me!’

‘Later.’ The lord, tired, gave the air.

‘No. Not then and later.’ Kharon careful grabbed his Lord’s wrist and with the entreaty in his eyes looked at him. ‘Now. Answer me now.’

Lucifer silently looked at his friend with soulful eyes. He seemed to understand that Kharon was right and he had no need to delay the answering not to let the situation happen again.

‘What’s your question, please,’ The Lord turned to Kharon. ‘I can’t understand exactly what question you want to be answered. You have a jumble of question in your head.’

‘How does the witch harm me?’

‘Actually, as I told you before she can’t do anything serious, but she can take all your energy. She can devastate you completely.’

‘Are you serious now?’

‘Absolutely I am. I didn’t want to tell you I just couldn’t imagine that you would have been so foolish to bring the witch in hell…’

‘I wonder… Can I make up for the loss if something goes wrong?’

‘Of course, you can! But not at once. And it’s not a good idea to lie paralyzed… Get a second thought before you’re gonna do anything.’

‘I’ve got it, Lucifer. I’ve got it. The only thing I can’t understand is how I can make up for the loss if I were with no moves? To get my energy back I have to move!’

Lucifer smiled, in depth being happy that his friend was still able to think.

‘It’s sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. I have got couples of ways to play. The best one is if I knew about your misfortune or someone of our friends would take you up and your task would be to ask them in your thought to send me to you. The worst one is if people found you in such a state. I have no door number three. By the way, with your energy disappearance the witch can bare your genuine countenance, having seriously destroyed your beautiful mask.’

Kharon was listening to his Lord and Lucifer seemed to him to be mocking more and more.’

‘Lucifer,’ Kharon said to him, ‘if I ever put you into a rage then tell me when and how, because I don’t really understand why this karma dumped on me.’

Lucifer longed in the chair, pursed his lips and lowered his eyes. Recent days he had felt tired and wanted to have a rest and he was bothered with questions. He ran his hand across his forehead and, squinted, looked at his friend.

‘You make me find excuses,’ he told having took a sigh, ‘I didn’t mean all this happen. You see, future is not subservient to anyone, neither me nor my father. I wanted you to have fun, have a rest from millinery drab existence. If I wanted to penalize you, you’d have been crawling like a maggot without eyes in some dungeon, having fun with only echoes of your memories. But just to throw a woman under the bus wasn’t too much humanely, was it?’

Kharon smiled bitterly. He was confused with no realizing what was going on in his head.

‘Lucifer, can I ask you as my friend not as The Lord?’

‘Sure.’

‘If you ever decide that I’m bored or my life suddenly becomes unbearable for me and out of your kindness you want to shake it up with something, please, run your ideas by me first, ok? Probably it’s just seeming or something like that. Don’t jump in feet first. Doubtlessly I appreciate your care and many-sided help but now I’m in full panic mode. Forgive my plainness.’

‘Ok, my friend, I’ll take your wishes into account. Now go.’

Lucifer rose up, embraced his friend and Kharon disappeared.

13

^th

November 2013 (Wednesday)

Kharon appeared in the flat when there was no one. The man fatefully leaned against the wall in the hall, out of the corner of his eye looked at the note on the table.

Victoria had left for work in a perfect mood. Certainly, when she opened her eyes, she was ready to be paralyzed and she was so surprised when having opened the eyes at the sound of the alarm clock Vic understood that she could move not only the limbs.

Being a little bit shocked and happy simultaneously she rushed to the kitchen to make delicious breakfast for her beloved, but she didn’t find anyone in the bed.

Victoria called Kharon but an automatic female voice said that the subscriber was unavailable. Being sure that Kharon stayed at his own home, Vic cooked bacon and eggs, thinking of why she was full of energy and power this time. In some time, she found an explanation for this phenomenon. They had sex at the demon’s territory in artificial place where Victoria hadn’t been able to relax completely and that’s why she didn’t give all her energy. Her subconsciousness took care if she had needed to run or even worse fight. She had to keep power at any price. That was the only one rational explanation which Victoria could provide for her unusual activity.

Kharon pulled off his shoes and came up to the table, carefully took the two-fold piece of paper.

“Сhéri,

I couldn’t call up for you, so I’ve decided to leave the note. I hope your mood is as in the groove as mine. I don’t know what happened but I’m full of strength! It scares me and it’s wonderful simultaneously. Your breakfast is on the oven, juice is in the fridge. Coffee is near the oven. See you in the evening. Madly love you.

Thank you for the night and expressed trust.”

The demon was sitting at the table and drinking coffee studying the note, imagining what a mess the girl had in her head now.

Victoria was on the train in the metro, leaned against the doors. She was in a really good mood. Without hiding the smile, she examined the dejected countenance of passengers, remembering the night.

At one of the stations Victoria noticed something unusual. In the middle of the carriage something came in. Her heart began beating with fear while she was looking at the creature coming into the carriage. Victoria didn’t understand what exactly drew her attention to it. It looked like a human. The man was of middle aged and at his face genuine indifference was to everything froze. But something wrong was with that man, something that usual people didn’t have. He was completely different… But only Victoria saw it.

Having come into the carriage the man stayed nearby the doors but then he shifted his gaze purposefully at Victoria. When their eyes met Victoria understood that he wasn’t just a human. He was looking at her straight and a cynical and presumptuous smile crawled his lips.

For counted seconds, like the 25^th frame for a second, the man turned into a black figure 2 meters and a half in high, humpbacked, bent head under the ceiling. He had wide-spread wings like wings of a bat but blacker and thicker. He had horns on his head like a Caucasian goat had. His face was mutilated but Victoria couldn’t understand with what. It looked like his skin was eaten by severe erosions and mischievous sores. There were scars, cuts, repulsive and disgusting. His teeth resembled a predator’s ones. It was huge, long fangs, jutted out in a mess in his mouth, imposing a great horror. His skin was black like that creature had come out of a burnt building.

It was big and massive. Victoria saw the monster only for several seconds and then it turned back into a usual man.

He smiled again at the scared and understanding nothing girl and headed to her.

Vic got nervous with no ideas where she should run as she saw the creature coming up to her, while in its human shape some ugly unhuman freak burst in its human shape and scared her.

The man came up to the girl. He was nearby her about 50 centimetres. Victoria felt stinky smell and instead of a human there was a smiling picture of something incomprehensible over-tall deuce or demon or something else. The human shape disappeared at all and didn’t even try to appear again.

Victoria said nothing and studied with fear in her eyes something from the infernal regions. The girl had no doubts that the creature was exactly from those regions. She heard her own heart beating in her temples, giving way to panic. Her breath was becoming heavier and fear was coming closer.

The girl heard a voice and it scared her more. The creature was silent, but Vic just knew that the voice belonged to it… Its inner voice.

‘You see me…’

The whisper was horrible and ominous, stuck between irony and fun.

Vic was looking at his black eyes. There were no neither pupils nor white but just black holes as like its eye sockets were hollow. As the girl couldn’t understand what was going on, she was feeling worse.

‘I know you see me true.’

That was the same whisper in her head, gripping her temples in a vice.

‘Abkhor! At your service!’ The creature bent its head and left the train the next station.

Victoria followed the unusual passenger understanding nothing. The only question tortured her – what was it?

The girl almost got over the diagnose of a mentally deficient and she didn’t want to whisper herself about another madness attack. She was tired of it. That’s why she thought over that had happened and tried to forget, mopping the sweat from her brow.

Having got to work Victoria stole into her office with no one saw her, that was located near Gregory’s one, and settled to her project.

She couldn’t work that day. She wasn’t just able to focus on her project. The memories of unusual nights, unusual place and the morning meeting with a monster were getting into her head.

The girl called Kharon again and two tones she heard quiet and deep voice.

‘Yeap, love,’ the man smiled, and Victoria clearly saw his smile.

‘Is everything ok?’ she asked, having settled back in her chair and thrown back her head to look at the ceiling.

‘Yes, it is. Why are you asking?’

‘No reasons. There’s nothing confuses you, is there?’ the girl examined the ceiling.

‘Are you about the way you’re feeling?’

‘Yes. It’s unusual, right?’

‘It’s ok…’ Kharon came up to the window. ‘It happens when you’re in a different dimension. The body starts working different.’

‘It was an astonishing night and the dimension, indeed. You’re fantastic, Kharon!’ Vic said in a low voice.

‘I’m glad you have an ocean of genuine positive emotions and that I’m the reason of it flutters me doubtlessly.’

Her cheeks turned red and eyes closed. The girl still felt ashamed and confusion being with the demon, listening to his speech, feeling his hands.

‘The breakfast you’ve made today consists of more thanks and deification than usual, by the way. I take it for granted, sorry for it. I’ve been eating with gusto, looking back at the pictures of the depicted morning past where you were cooking breakfast, putting your soul in.’

Vic was red in the face and with an imbecilic smile on her lips. She liked the demon’s words, praise and recognition so much. She was ready to make any sacrifice to listen to them again and again.

‘You can answer me nothing,’ Kharon kept on with a smile, ‘I know all that’s going with you now and what feelings are overwhelming you. I can feel them at distance. They’re beautiful, Victoria. I’m waiting for you in the evening.’

The girl listened to the phone hanged up, finally feeling the redness go away from her face and shame weakened its clutch. From one side it was so great that Kharon was unobtrusive in comparison with other human men. But from another side Victoria needed some more intense.

Vic drew herself up and was almost about to jump in the chair because of unexpectedness after she had seen Gregory in the office.

‘Oh my God…’ she sighed out, smoothed her hair, lowering her eyes. ‘Good morning, Mr. Dogmanov. You as usual scared me.’

‘Good morning, Vic.’ The man answered.

‘Have you been here a long?’ the girl asked carefully, raising up from the chair, trying to find out what her boss could have heard.

‘Pretty enough.’ Gregory answered stiffly and went into the office, closing the door behind.

Vic was looking at him and feeling a raising shiver inside. She didn’t know what was going on with her and her emotions. It was just scared, and she didn’t feel quite herself. Gregory was slowly coming up to her, closer and closer, glancing at her worried face then at the table consistence, then at the floor.

‘Mr. Dogmanov?’ she called him quietly, trying to meet his eyes. ‘Are you ok?’

‘Victoria,’ the man stood next to her and confused the girl with it.

She wanted to go down the tube not to hear neither his voice nor his words, not to see his perplexed face and eyes which were like a tick that transmitted tick-borne encephalitis, clutched into her face.

‘This can’t be waiting anymore.’

‘Wait, Mr. Dogmanov,’ Vic interrupted, stepping back. ‘We have no scheduled meeting for today! My project isn’t done yet. Not all gaps have been corrected. Let’s leave it for Friday as we agreed.’

Gregory frowned and took a step closer to Victoria.

‘It’s not about your project, Vic. It’s not about work actually.’

‘Then what’s it about? I don’t understand.’ Vic lowered the eyes, nervously crisping her fingers.

She had no place to step back, there was a big window to the floor and the wall to the side.

The man stood at her and looked at her eyes, watching her ludicrous attempts to hide. He was in doubt silently berated himself for abortive decisions.

Victoria remained obstinately mute and waited for what would happen next. She understood well what Gregory want to speak about and that wouldn’t be a problem if she hadn’t need to answer him. She had no answers.

Before her eyes the pictures were like speedlights: Gregory and she were naked in bed. Victoria didn’t know whose room was it, but it wasn’t hers absolutely! Another picture showed Gregory stroked her thigh, kissing her hard, the light was fading away. The genital areas were smudgy as if they were censored. The third picture depicted their sex. The image was more smudgy than the previous one, but Victoria understood that there was a love-making itself. It was so dull and doleful… After she had seen the picture Vic realized that all of those weren’t her thoughts and fantasies. It was Gregory’s impure thoughts, doomed to fail, getting through into her head.

‘About what, Mr. Dogmanov?’ Victoria looked sideways at the silent man.

‘You.’ He sighed and met her eyes.

‘Me?’ the girl stared, at first from surprise. ‘What’s wrong about me?’

‘It’s not the point that there’s something wrong about you. The point is that…’ Gregory took her hand, ‘…I just wanted to congratulate you that your probationary period is over successfully! Congratulations!’

The man shook her hand and went away with rapid steps. Victoria stared after him in bewilderment and he stare fixed at the woman’s phantom.

‘Leave my son alone!’ Victoria heard a threatened whisper from another world.

‘Far be it from me to be with him!’ the girl snapped back. ‘If you need then you look after your son! I don’t care a damn about him!’

Vic was storming. Weren’t people really able to distinguish truth and lie? Was another world imperfect?

While the girl was grumbling at the ghost, she didn’t even notice a living person, not a ghost, staying in the doorway.

‘Delivery’s for you… on the first ground.’ The colleague said, having glanced at the girl curiously, and left the office, ‘Completely demented…’

Victoria heard the colleague call her demented and at the first time probably she realized difference between when you call yourself a psycho and when someone else did it.

The girl went down and met a bearded man’s eyes who looked antisocial. Her instinct told her that of all the people crowded in the lobby of the building this unattractive man was a courier.

‘Good afternoon. Are you Victoria Drache?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Delivery’s for you.’

‘But I’ve ordered nothing.’

‘I know. This is the gift from… just a second,’ the man got in the inside pocket, ‘it’s from Mr. Kharon… Unfortunately, he didn’t say his surname.’

Finally, a smile appeared on her confused face. A warm wave ran over her body. Vic could feel them one by one, running over the red-hot muscles and vessels. She felt slight shiver, poignant her nervous, fascinated the girl.

Vic took the package stretched to her and suddenly she understood that the man delivered nothing on the earth.

‘Have a good day,’ the man said having looked at the girl mysteriously, smiled and melt in the crowd.

Vic came back to her office, put the package on the table and stared at it. Having no ideas how but Vic already knew that there was a small box, the consist of which she could see unclearly. It was something globe-shaped, small and full of red colour. It wasn’t a ring.

The girl smiled and finally opened the package. Yes. It was a box of turquois colour. It was an ecrin. There was usually jewellery in the same. Despite its light weight Victoria understood this small thing was a great value.

‘Open it now!’ she ordered and opened the box.

There was an ideally cut crystal of red-burgundy colour, in size of a thumb nail. There was a real kaleidoscope of red tinctures in the middle of the mineral. The beauty and the unusualness of the gem stone consumed the girl’s perception and mind. She fascinatedly gazed at the stone glamming, as its light seemed to pull down, consume the viewer’s perception. A phone call broke Victoria’s careful gazing at the stone.

‘…I can see it, Love,’ Victoria heard the voice belonged to her beloved man. ‘It’s on your palm and you think that the parts of your skin that the stone touches are getting more and more alive, don’t you? I can see its unusual colour reflect in your eyes, the colour of the ripe pomegranate… It really does for your eyes.’

Her chest raised more often, her pulse was beyond the limits, established by WHO.

‘What’s it, Kharon?’ she whispered.

‘Painith.’

‘Pa… what?’

‘Pa-i-nith as people call it on the earth. Do you like it?’

‘I do! It’s really beautiful. I can’t tear myself away from it…’

‘I can understand you.’ Kharon smiled. ‘It’s one of the most beautiful stones of Lucifer’s collection.’

‘Is this Lucifer’s stone?’ Vic gave a shiver after she had heard the Lord of Hell’s name.

‘Well, no. Lucifer has similar and thinks it to be one of the most beautiful ones on the earth. I agree with him.’

‘Yea…’ Victoria mysteriously looked at the stone. ‘So do I.’

‘In two minutes a hopelessly in love with you man comes to you who this morning wanted to make you his obtrusive declaration of love… But he was in a blue funk.’

‘Jesus,’ Vic got upset having heard the demon’s prediction and being doomed, she sank into the chair, firmly holding the gift in her fist.

‘No, it’s not him,’ Kharon answered coldly. ‘I’m waiting for you at home.’

The man hanged up the phone and frowned at the cell in his hand. He felt bad: his body, organized in a different way, had a lack of energy. He needed to eat. He had given too much to the girl having nothing in return. He needed to get power…

He unceremoniously got into someone’s dream. Having seen the most beautiful nature of the Alps and not less beautiful girl skiing, the demon couldn’t help hiding victorious smile. The girl was alone in this wild empty place…

At a magic wand wave Kharon was at her, wearing ski suit and sunglasses, hiding the most part of his face. He held ski poles and his feet were fixed in skis.

Then the stranger looked at him, trying to see his face through the mask, dreaming about the man to take off the mask. The man, after he had read her low and brute thoughts, was slowly taking off the mask with no embarrassment. The rays of the fading away sun were lighting up his white-snow smile. His smile was so languishing, charming and confident in its own perfection.

A second later the girl contemplates his amber eyes at which the light falls so elegantly, making them more attractive. Despite the demon’s face was lighted up by the many thousand years luminary his pupils were still dilated like as if he were in the darkness.

The girl couldn’t tear herself away from the man’s eyes, asked him to touch her. Without a second thought Kharon put the ski poles and in the twinkling of an eye the girl turned out to be in his severe but gentle arms… The demon of lust didn’t need too much to make his victim lose her mind.

He was quiet asking her for permission to get into her soul, promising to give something that she would never be able to forget and, oh, stupid, hyper excited girl was whispering him sacramental yes.

In a second the location was changed. The snow-white and cold Alps faded away, falling like walls and curtains in the theatre, on the horizon. The next unplanned location was moving towards them.

It was a fireplace, blazing with bright fire, pleasantly crackling over the dry branches. The high pile carpet, covered the floor at the fireplace, was so fluffy and soft. It was as white as snow covered a mountaintop.

The ebony floor reflected everything like a mirror…was faceless and empty. The girl was on the pile carpet, hands stretched out. Her eyes were closed, a smile jumped over her lips. A blissful sigh was provoked by the demon’s lips touched beneath her stomach, carefully pulling her panties with his hands…

Suddenly the girl just disappeared leaving the arms empty as if she had never been in. He clinched his fists, the anger captured him. A growl. A wrathful one. Then a powerful hit in the floor and the man turned out to be in reality in his Moscow flat. Kharon understood clearly what had happened and doubtlessly he was mad with it. It sometimes happened… when suddenly a victim woke up due to some external factors.

Kharon was sitting at the table. The grimace of anger and fury froze on his face. He had wasted his energy again and enjoyed the benefits of none.

The man took a deep sigh and was about to immerse into someone else’s dream, but he remembered about Victoria’s friend – Vasilisa. Many times she had sent him different messages. The demon dialled her and in couples of the longest beeps the girl answered the phone.

With no problems they agreed to meet… not far from Vasilisa’s home as the demon knew better than the girl, that in hour there would be no one at home and her mother’s big bed would be in their possession.

Only an obstacle was left and Kharon was thinking over how to resolve it and which one of the running through his head ideas was the best one.

With the graceful carriage the girl, wrapped in a scarf around her face, was walking towards him. Only her pearl grey eyes were looking at him. It was cold. There was no snow yet, but the weather was chilly and if there had been a possibility people would wrap themselves in blankets entirely and wander along the streets like resurgent mummies.

The girl’s eyes were burning with bright-yellow fire and passion and they didn’t just burn out but burnt to hell. Though Kharon couldn’t see her face but only her eyes he clearly knew the girl to be smiling and he knew the reason why she was smiling. As the demon could see all her dreams through as well as her vulgar thoughts and was ready to make them all come true… and it would cost her a pretty penny.

Vasilisa came up to the man. The distance between them was no more than fifty centimetres. They were silently looking into each other’s eyes. Kharon was glad that there was such a moment when people had no need to say and explain anything, they just knew for what reason they gathered at a certain place.

Kharon took Vasilisa’s hand, hidden in the mitten, made of Angora wool and pulled the girl to him.

‘I’m glad to see you… So much.’ He said and carefully kissed her temple, the only place where there was no scarf.

‘You’re the most mutual person in my life,’ Vasilisa answered him with a slight smile, hidden behind the cloth.

‘I know.’ He squeezed a little her hand and slyly looked at her.