Warlock, page 29
Antony’s father smiled:
“The funniest thing that affects is pretty similar. That fact that you sit here and said to me that you said is an attribute of a great pollution…”
“Mr. Tychov can you tell about that episode with a medicine?”
Looking in one spot, Antony’s father smiled, and do not changing his face he said, raising his eyebrows:
“I thought that you knew for sure what’s happened,” he sighed and continued. “When we saw that… That that thing that happened with Antony became uncontrolled, I proposed to use sedatives…”
He looked on the Alex with his empty eyes and smiled with corners of the eyes:
“We can’t say to one another that we have our own problems… And we thought that this… Somehow, will give us strength to solve our problems… We failed…”
He put his hands on a table, and looking on them continued:
“First five days was perfect. I thought that we had a chance. Antony smiled again, stopped to moving lips like praying all the time, and even left his room unlocked once… And then, one morning, he said that he noticed a strange smell from his drink and asked with what shit we fed him? You… You can’t imagine his tone. A cold almost absent. Like talking to himself.”
He tried to take a coffee cup, but it became to dance in his hands, and he left it on a table. He continued:
“I said… I said – nothing. Then he raised his eyes on me and said with the same cold tone – you can lie to mother, she can lie to you, and you can lie to yourself, but don’t dare to lie to me. You know that I can do horrible things to you, that’s why I give you attempt to fix your answer. What’s in a cup?”
He locked his hands, unlock, and then tried to sip coffee once again. After this, much better try, he said:
“I said – nothing. Hoping that we can full him and make a prolongation of these five days…But then he broke his cup. It just crackled for a three pieces. Boom,” he showed like his two hands fall apart. “Just like that. And then he said – you afraid of me now… We’ll look at you after the punishment…”
Alex frowned:
“Punishment? He does something?”
With another empty gaze, Luc nodded and said:
“Yep. However, as I told you in our first met, it may be looking like an incident. My wife… She was intoxicated with alcohol, and I’m almost crushed in the car… But,” he looked in Alex’s face. “The funniest thing is that we checked bottle and car. They were all right. In lab and in garage we heard the same thing – unhappiness.”
“But you think that he did that?”
Luc nodded without answer.
“Mr. Tychov. It may be the rude question, but I need to ask it. Do you… Do you glad that it all stopped?”
Antony’s father nodded once. Twice. He begins to cry silently, still nodding and hanging his head. Tears dropped from his face, when he said in a whisper:
“Yes… Yes… I’m glad with what happened to him… It… It ate him from inside… And now… Nothing left…”
Alex dropped an eye on Jim, and saw that his cameraman is pale as Luc, and decided that interview closed. He said to Antony’s father:
“Mr. Tychov, I need to confess,” said narrator. His words don't have any reaction. Luc still sat with a hanged head. I took something from Antony’s room.”
And once again – no reaction. At all.
“I took from Antony’s room his diary. I can give it to you…”
“No!” whispered Luc, looking around with a mad eye. Jim was scared – a moment ago, men across him sat in despair catatonia, and like after a switch click – start behave like a mad man. “No! Keep it! The farther it would be, the less probability that it will happen again. No… No!”
He almost drunk full cup with one sip took cake with his bare hands and continue to say “No” walk outside under the rain. Jim and Alex looked after him. He walked to his car, waving with his head, and chewing pie. Rain does not bother him anymore. He stood near the car, talking something to himself, dropped a pie, and sat into the car. Luc started an engine and drove a car to the road, and only at that moment turn lights on. After a second, he drove away.
“What. Was. That?” asked Jim.
Alex waved with his head silently. They finished their meals, and sit a little more inside. Weather was pretty bad, so guys don’t hurry anywhere. They asked a tea, and drink it, looking on the stripes of dropping rain that streetlight show to them. Alex frowned looking at this picture, and said:
“I need a final shot, dude.”
Jim looked at his friend, feeling something strange:
“What kind of shot do you want?”
“Antony’s grave and tombstone,” Alex said firmly.
Helper put his cup to the table:
“Just like that?”
Alex nodded.
“Why, dude? Why? You got your story, and you got even bigger than this – you got his story. Why?”
Barns sat without moving for a couple of moments, then said, continue looking to the outside view:
“I don't have the end of this story, and I need it,” he looked at his friend. «Just… They all afraid of it too much, and like a gravity – their scare curves picture that I see. And I want to see a solid “The End.” The grave would be such ending,”
Saying this, he put his phone and dialed some number. After a couple of seconds, he said:
“Hi, Janine!”
Jim nodded and whispered:
“Say hello to her.”
Alex smiled:
“Yes, here’s Jim, and he said “Hi honey!””
Guys laugh silently, and clapped.
Still smiling, Alex said:
“Janine, I need his grave.” There was a second, and Alex changed in a face. “No! I do not need exhumation, Jesus…Just a background to a final monologue.” He nodded. Then nodded once again and said, “As always, you get the task perfectly. Thanks! Bye!”
He tapped a red button, and after five minutes, after drinking up all berry tea cast of “ABnormal” runt to their van under a hard rain.
---
“Diary entry #47.
Call me Antony… and I had my second birthday couple of days before.
It would be a long story, but I can’t dedicate much time for it, so, I’ll describe it all in several days…
That party… Fuck, I can’t remember all that happened there, but I’ll try to tell you about. I met Mary at the entrance, and we come there. It had a crowd on a lawn in front of the house, but they were happy and cheerful. Nice music played (I forgot what kind of music it was.), and we say hello to the hostess, Stephanie, and something glint in her eyes… But I don’t recognize that emotion… Unfortunately, … We have a drink… Or two… We danced a little and laugh. Mary is a nice girl and nice company. But because of all light-dressed girls that I saw there, and all booze that they drunk – we separated for some time. Then I met Stephanie. She was thoughtful about something, and… Oh yeah! There was Mara! She appeared there, looked on Steph, and asked – do I want to fuck her! That’s why… Mara helped me. She said something about special words, or something like that… Word by word… And (I can’t recall how it was happened.) we were in a bedroom. Alone.
Then I tried to fuck her, but… Hm… What was then… I was a little drunk, but I was totally ready… There was something about her, Stephanie… It seems that Mara told her something too hard, because I remember that she was like under hypnosis, and all my mood gone… The funniest thing – I was rescued by bullies… I’m tired…It’s hard to write… Next day, fucking diary…
…
Let’s continue.
So. Bullies, same one that I framed a couple of days ago – they were there too. And Steph – was a girlfriend of the leader of that gang. It was sooooo funny to watch how he asked her something, and she is only blink on him in answer. What happened next – I do not remember. At all. Excuse me, all that I can recall now – it’s a small amounts of emotions that I felt that night. As I was deadly drunk. But I wasn’t. When an ambulance brings me to a hospital percentage of alcohol in my blood wasn’t zero, but it was just a little bigger that allow you to drive with. Anyway, how’s fight started I do not remember, as well as van that hit us with the leader of the bullies. Fred also told me, that I had hurt Mary with my attempt of the affair with Steph, but hey, I do not promise her anything? Or did I? Fuck, in any case – I do not remember it. I tried to recall something about Mary, maybe I had flirted with her? It highly probably – I desperately look for sex that night… Anyway, next thing that I saw – was a ceiling of an ambulance. Hard cold light, and something wet on my jeans. I don’t feel pain at all – just numb of my legs, and something sticky on them. I prayed that that liquid does not turned out my piss or shit. Silly, huh?
And then I saw Mara’s face. Serious, with a light cold smile. She said to me:
“Soon we’ll have a talk.”
And then I passed out…But before darkness hit me second time for an evening, I saw the second person in the ambulance – it was leader of the bullies. Fuck, how can I wrote a long messages before? I’m tired. Tomorrow, dirty diary…
…
Another attempt to tell everything.
Next things that had happened – is a series of flashes of my memory. One – bright light, smell of some meds, and pain in my legs and head. Second – feelings of fire on my legs and picture of my jeans dumped in some dark red thing. “Shit” – thought I, but then “FUCK! BLOOD!”. And then – another fall into the darkness of my mind. Third – second during which I saw a face of Mara in the operational room. One thought – how can they let her here? And another well of darkness. Next time when I opened my eyes – I saw everything around me without colors – just black and white around me. Doctors doing something with my legs without any hurry – like astronauts or divers on the bottom of the sea. Mara came into my eye direction, and smiled:
“Hello, Antony”
I tried to say something, but she stopped me:
“S-h-h. Don’t try to speak,” she said. “Actually, you’re dead now”
I tried to move, or scream, but all my attempts brings me nothing, just I can’t do anything or say something.
“So,” she said, “We have a little more than five minutes to decide one little thing”
She walked around surgeons looking on their attempt to save my life. She clucked with her tongue, and turn her head to me again:
“In this state it would feel more than five minutes, but believe me, time is running”
I try to relax, and think to her:
“I listen to you.”
She nodded:
“It’s all that I want,” she did couple steps backward to the wall, jump, and leaned on it above the ground. Seems that for her wall was horizontal, and she lied on it like on the lawn. She put her hands above her head, and leg on other. Mara was totally relaxed, and that thing that she tells was too contrast because of it:
“So, as I said, you’re dying. Actually, you’re dead now. And, as you can imagine – if you’re die, I’ll die with you. And we have two options. First – spend this four minutes to moan, laugh, or what do you think to do before death. Or,” she lifts her head and looked at me. “I can help you to survive this situation.”
“Second,” even in my mind I was panting. “Second option. What do you want for this?”
“Sacrifice. And offer. You see, here’s two cases – one – make you live after, resurrection, as an act and my reward, of course.”
“Live itself isn’t a reward?”
“Yes, nice reward, actually, I can take it. So, what about sacrifice?”
I was confused, but hey, I thought that I’m already dead, so I let her to jump from one theme to other. In any case, I don’t give a shit what to answer about the sacrifice.
She looked at me and smiled – of course she knew what thoughts swarmed in my mind now:
“Let me propose something,” she sits on the wall, wait until one of the doctors run between us, and continued. “In the next room lye that scum, who beat you, and throw both of you under the van. I can take his life instead of yours.”
“You talk about?...”
“Yes, that bully was hit too, and he’s in the coma now. If you let me, I’ll kill him, and you will live.” She looks at the empty hand, as like as there was a clock and said. “Two minutes”
“I must kill him?”
She frowned:
“Oh no. I’ll kill him…”, she waved with her head. “But. Yeah, some part of yours would kill him. But for a good reason!”
I closed my eyes, and she said:
“Tick-tack, Antony. Imagine – that dick would live, and you will be buried. Mother and father of yours on the edge of suicide, and that dork… Well, hope you like his life now – I doubt that he has enough of brains to teach…”
“Agree”
“…a lesson,” she stood on the wall, being parallel to the floor she made two steps, and turn herself in a normal position – two legs on a floor. “Agree with what?”
“To kill him and give me life”
“And give me life.”
“Yes,” I said in a hurry and excitement. “I agree with all that!”
She smiled widely:
“Ni-i-i-ice. Wait a minute,”
She said this, and step through the wall. Like an echo in my ears I hear flat line signal, and after a second, the appeared in a room with bloody hands, still smiling:
“Done,” she said, and then something falls on me. Like a great wave, something pushes me to the table, and like wave that something doesn’t let me to inhale. She come to me and looked into my eyes. “Now we’ll have a fun” Moment, or millions of them I lie on the table, being enabled to breathe. “But now – take a rest,” she said and touches my forehead with her finger. She runs her finger along my forehead, and then I make long, deep inhale.
She blinks me with one of her eyes, the color of which I have not previously attached importance to – they were orange, and disappeared. And then, like from a small sources of the atomic blow – colors and sounds spread instantly from that orange dots around. Everything turns normal, and even better – sounds wand colors were sharper and louder. I tried to feel all this, but another invisible wave hit me, and last thing that I thought about was a figure that she drew on my head – it was hexagon, of course… Then I’m passed out…
My hand aching, hope that tomorrow I’ll end all this…
…
Hello, my filthy diary. Hope that you sleep well, because I was. I have one of that nice hot dreams that lead you to change your underwear. I think that this is a sign that I’ll get well soon.
I need to end all this story, and end up here.
I do not know how many times I was unconscious, but when I open my eyes, I felt sleepy, as I had sleep for half a day. Parents told me that everything that Mara said me before – was true. They were two of us, whom ambulance brings to the hospital. The bully was in the next room, and he died two days ago (so I was unconscious for two days), and yes – I was dead for a four minutes. But now, said my mother, I’m getting well perfectly. I was glad to see her totally sober, and don’t smell any signs of alcohol. Small amount of things can make me happy – life and sober mother. Then I had visitors – Fred, doctor, Ms. Prey, and finally Mara.
Fred told me all things that I do not remember from the party and that had happened in school. I ask him to say hello to the Mary. Ms. Prey bustling and worrying, but I was glad to see her and her legs in a white stocking, thinking of next nice dreams. The doctor looked at me, and told me about mine injures – broken leg, concussion, and a small hemorrhage, which caused a slight cardiac arrest. But now – it’s all right, and I quickly recover. He said that my recovering is rapid, as death of a boy that I had a fight. He even said that if to be honest to the end – he thought about our chances as about vice versa ones. But he was glad that I was alive, and in the doorway say that he hoped that rehabilitation of mine would be as fast as it begun.
“You bet!” said Mara that appeared moment before doc closed door after himself. She turned to me. “We haven’t much time to lye here, we need to meet the warlock”
I frowned and looked at her:
“What do you mean?”
“That we have a plans. You can separate from them either, but that would not be such a problem.”
“I’m afraid that I can’t understand you…”
“You’ll see. And I knew that you’ll like it. You liked our little affair couple of weeks ago? Like how that little slut looked at you at a party? Like feeling when bully died?”
I was bewildered, and looked at her with a great interest.
“That was just a beginning,” she said. “We need to begin our practices. Ask your parents to bring you diary and a pen.”
“And what is your plan?”
“To live,” she simply answered. “With that life that you had present to me,”
She smiled at me and said:
“No worry, you’ll like it.”
Saying these, she disappeared, living me with my thoughts. And you know what? I do not want to agree with her, but I really like that feelings that she mentioned. When something supernatural near me shows its powers. Something inside me.
And I do not want to think about all this now. I’m too tired. But hey! We are here and now! We did this, and we catch up all this time. Hope I’ll not lose it now.
See you, my filthy diary.”
“Diary entry #48.
Three days you were out,” she said.
I’m just open my eyes, my mind was still in the dreamland. I groaned:
“Mara…”
“No,” she said. “We need to make the plan.”
I teared my eyes, looking at her, walking here and there in my hospital room.
“Mara,” I said again. “What are you talking about?”
