Unlimited

‘You’ve seen it, haven’t you?’

‘Entirely by accident.’

‘So, what do you think?’

‘How can I say no to you?’

Victoria stopped trying not to smile. The man walking near her, left her no choice. She liked all about him. He had no imperfections. No disadvantages. He was ideal.

‘For a long time that man was trying to get rid of the desire to kiss your lovely lips… Would you let him do it?’

‘No.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t love him.’

‘To love is an obligatory for kissing?’

‘Of course! How can you kiss a person whom you don’t love? I can’t even imagine someone’s mouth touching mine! Ugh! I have you to kiss.’

‘So, you mean when people date, they don’t kiss with others?’ Kharon asked, having finally understood why Vasilisa had been constantly telling about their joint bad moves.

The demon started understanding that people preferred monogamy. At least in the beginning and in reality they did. Victoria stopped and turned to pensive Kharon and looked at his eyes.

‘Is there a definition of adultery in hell?’

‘No.’

‘No?’

‘No. What does it mean for you, people?’ he kept on walking, being thoughtful about his moves.

‘If you discover any adultery it means the end. If you don’t then it means nothing. As a rule, the end means breaking up. It’s painful for both. Someone can forgive. More precisely someone is able to say that they forgive but the thing that a beloved person did is gonna be with that couple for entire life.’

‘Would you forgive?’ the demon silly asked.

‘I’d kill.’ Victoria answered with all her seriousness. ‘I’d kill her. I wouldn’t be able to kill you but her…’

‘You’re too cruel!’ Kharon opened the door of the bookshop.

‘Thank you.’ Vic gave a seductive smile to the powerful demon and jumped into the shop under his hand, holding the door open.

‘Any adultery is always a betrayal. Betrayal is miserable and loathsome, and it hurts. All human creatures are too much twisted between each other and it goes that a thing can’t be without another one. If you don’t know what love is, you will never know what adultery is.’

Kharon was behind the girl, with the emptiness in his eyes he watched her looking through the books of the same type, seeking for the needed one. He realized that he had made a great mistake in the very beginning when his unhuman mind had had opinion of people. He hadn’t taken the people could be able to feel into account. He didn’t understand most of all what to do, how to pretend that he was able to feel also.

‘Ok, let’s go.’ Vic said sadly but fast, having put the book back at the shelf.

‘Aren’t you going to buy it?’ The demon was surprised, taking back the book. ‘You’ve been dreaming about it for a month already. What’s the matter?’

Victoria looked around. He knew already that feeling.

‘Confusion? Yes, it’s confusion. Why, dear?’

‘No, no, it’s ok. There’s no confusion…’

‘It’s a lie.’ The demon stopped smiling.

Victoria knew what it meant. In a second she turned to be in his arms and his hand carefully stroked her head. From an outsiders’ viewpoint they looked like lovers giving to each other a little of unobtrusive tenderness. But Victoria perfectly knew that the demon like a black widow was lying the threads between his hand and the human mind. In a second the spider threads turned into the most powerful wires which Kharon freakily needed when he stopped understanding the girl’s speech.

In her mind Vic pleaded the man to stop and not to get into her mind. She couldn’t stop him in reality as Kharon was too sweaty fumbling in her mind.

‘The book… is a dream,’ the demon whispered, having closed the eyes. ‘Number. Big number. The number again. The 5

of November. What’s gonna be on the 5

of Number? Vic? Come on, dear, think about it, I must understand what’s going on… The 5

of November… The 5

. Here it is – your payment day. The number is 5996 roubles…. The number is on the book. This is the cost.’

The demon opened his eyes and looked at her face definitely. She was excited. Her eyes were lowered, she had rose cheeks of childhood.

‘This book is too expensive and you’re not ready to spend that kind of money but you’re waiting for your payment and you’re gonna come here again. Have I collected right your incoherent ideas?’ he asked giving the book to the girl.

She couldn’t look at his eyes. She was ashamed. She was greatly ashamed because being well-paid she all the same couldn’t spend easily almost 6000 roubles.

‘Have I understood you right, dear?’ the demon repeated his question again, gently touching her chin, trying to catch her ashamed eyes.

She silently nodded and her eyes were dim with tears. She didn’t want Kharon to see her crying again.

‘Can I buy it for you?’ he asked, without letting the girl turn away.

He was important to look at her eyes to understand how her emotions were shown. He needed her real emotions. The demon recognized, however, rather rapidly that without reading minds he could just look at the eyes and get all the necessary information out of there.

‘No, Kharon, it’s too expensive. As all the other art books. I’ll get paid and…’

‘I’ve put it in a wrong way,’ the man interrupted her, taking back the massive book, ‘I’ll buy it. No objections can be accepted.’

He turned away and went to the checkout lane. Victoria was open-mouthed staying near the bookshelves, understanding nothing how that could happen.

‘I can hear your pulse accelerating,’ Kharon said in a low voice with the smile on his lips when Victoria came up to him in the queue.

‘Kharon…’

‘I know the reason. You’re waiting for this book! You’re glad! These are emotions of happiness and joy. I’ve rather well known these because they are the brightest, strongest and purest you can ever have.’