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
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.