Devil’s Cinema. Crypt of the Seven Angels

– You didn’t come to see the film?

Who is speaking? The voice is definitely female. And the laughter that follows him resembles a chorus of several voices. Daniel shuddered and began to blindly look around. There should be no one here. The cinema has long been abandoned. But this does not mean that someone could not enter here the same way he entered. Through an unlocked door. And why isn’t the door locked? Probably someone hacked it. Have any teenagers decided to set up a hangout here? It is good to. They can borrow a can of beer for an autograph.

Instead of teenagers, he noticed the pale glow of the figures on the pedestals in the hall. Mannequins or statues? It was impossible to distinguish exactly in the dark. Figures hung over the floor as if ready to fly.

“Come to us!”

The voices were not calling from the hall. He noticed something shiny in the distance. Some balls were spinning like tops. They are probably suspended by fishing lines. There was a quiet knock with which checkers are usually moved around the board.

“No ticket needed! Join us for free… while for free.”

And again the murmuring laughter. Now there were exactly two voices. Both are female. Daniel went to the sounds and stumbled in the darkness at the edge of a round fountain, which is located right in the hall. Naturally, there was no water in it. It seems that it has not worked for a long time, but the stone lotus in its center for a moment seemed like a living plant, stretching its roots behind the guest.

In the hallway leading to the closed doors of the cinema halls, there was an artificial tree with red hearts on the branches instead of the usual leaves and flowers. They were bleeding. Is this some kind of effect? Daniel wanted to touch them with his hand, but a ringing female voice distracted him.

“Do you want to play?”

How had he not noticed a tiny vestibule and a beauty sitting on a curbstone at a miniature table before? The table was no larger than a barrel, on which a board and figures vaguely resembling chess were laid out.

The girl beckoned him to sit on an empty curbstone on the other side of the table from her, and Daniel obediently sat down. He even joined the game, although he did not fully understand how to play it and why he was actually doing it. The pieces on the board were spinning by themselves like tops. He barely followed them. The girl’s old dress, clearly related to theatrical costumes, involuntarily admired, as did her intricate hairstyle.

Daniel thought it would be nice to introduce himself, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the girl outstripped him.

“I know who you are.”

Nevertheless, she did not ask him for an autograph, she did not even try to take a selfie.

“Who are you?” he was intrigued, and oddly enough, most of all he was attracted by the lack of any interest on her part in his star person.

“Call me Cordelia,” she said casually, almost singing. He had never heard such a strange melodious tone from anyone. It was as if some admiring creepy creatures crawled into her voice from the darkness. Probably all this is also an optical illusion. After all, cinema and cinemas are a world of illusion. Everything here is unnatural.

“Let ‘s play!”

“But we are already playing.”

“Let’s play charades. Only in unusual charades. I will assume, and you tell me what I assumed wrong, and at the end there will still be a surprise for both of us. This is what I think: you are a movie star, but no one knows that you are also a descendant of a damned family, you came to the Rosier estate and forgot about filming, sitting down to chess with a demon.”

“But you’re not a demon. You are a winged beauty. Wings suit you. My film studio has not yet learned how to sew such costumes.”

But the claws did not fit her. She scratched the board with them. Once they are attached to such a graceful hand.

“Cordelia?”

“I’m not one of them. When I left, I was warned… but now I have a dark sister.”

Daniel did not understand the meaning of these phrases. Is she still playing charades? He noticed what looked like black wings behind Cordelia. What is it? Decoration? It seems that when a girl speaks, she reads the text of a role.

He concentrated his gaze on the game spread out on the table, and suddenly something spun in his head, like frames of an old black and white film. First, some creepy creatures crawl alongside, and then angels in the cinema. The reel is spinning somewhere nearby. The film is associated with falling. The feeling is as if he is falling. The footage flashes something about Dennitsa’s fall… He almost went crazy, and Cordelia signaled him to be silent.

“This is an optical illusion! Don’t look too closely at the board.”

“Is it magic?” he hardly came to his senses, averting his eyes from the golden-white fields on the board. “And all these statues in the cinema. Sphinxes, a fountain… What is all this for?”

“Do you know that the lotus is a sacred plant?” Cordelia continued to play the game with either gold chips or balls already alone.

“What is this game called?”

“It’s from the Ancient Egypt.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“And what do you even know about the Ancient Egypt. You’re an actor. You have never studied history.

In addition to those moments when he read the scripts of historical films, he wanted to explain it, but stopped short. Something told him that from such a confession the girl over him would laugh even louder. She loved to slander.

Her friend appeared suddenly, as from a hatch in the floor, and instead of a greeting she grinned so predatory that Daniel felt uneasy.

“Nefert,” she introduced herself.

Whether her name is curious or is the name of the heroine she is preparing to play. The costume on the girl reminded of the royal fashions of the Ancient Egypt. Daniel often saw similar outfits with gilded inserts in wardrobe studios. But he had never noticed that an actress dressed like that looked like a kind of mythical character.

Not yet having time to join the game, Nefert, as it were, accidentally touched him with her hand and severely scratched him. Well, her nails! Rather claws. And, for sure, invoices. She must be hard with them. They are so long and sparkling that each one resembles a miniature braid. And she scratches just like a cat, while not even making any effort. She just ran her hand over his cheek, and blood was already flowing from the cheek. Daniel winced in pain.

“More like Bastet than Nefert,” he joked.

“Oh,” she raised her round eyebrows, lined with gold paint, in amazement. “And you know something about us.”

This is a joke? Daniel wiped the blood off his cheek and thought about the reprimand he would receive when he returned to the shooting. Probably due to injury, the shooting will now be canceled altogether. It is unlikely that makeup will be able to hide such deep scratches. And he should look handsome in the frame. He was hired only for his appearance.

What is he just thinking about? After all, he came here only to succumb to suicide. And it was worth seeing here two predatory beauties and thoughts of suicide suddenly disappeared somewhere. Pleasant company had a much more salutary effect on him than long conversations with an understanding psychologist.

A strange game with golden tops, as it turns out, is meant for three. And at first it seemed to him that it was only for two or generally for one. When he entered, he could see Cordelia playing alone, unless there was a ghost with her.

“Are you sisters? Well, at least cousins?” he noticed that the friends are very similar, only their hair color is different. Nefert is a brunette, Cordelia is a brown-haired woman. And neither of them are wearing wigs. Although with the modern technique of dyeing hair and eyebrows, changing the color is easy.

“No one here is tied by ordinary kinship,” Cordelia said. The spinning top spun under her fingers, exuding a swirl of golden sparkles. It was somewhat reminiscent of a miniature hurricane in the desert.

“And you’ll probably barely wash off the coloring mousse, both of you will turn out to be blondes,” Daniel joked.

“I was blonde,” Cordelia admitted, “but since I got here, my hair has started to darken.”

“So you painted them to get a role in some local project?”

She looked at him as if he were an idiot.

“Well, yes, to get the part,” she reluctantly confirmed aloud, though her tone was clearly a mockery.

“And you, like everyone else, came to the seance?|