The Mist and the Lightning. Part 19

“No, Nik, these rags can’t be called clothes. What is that shabby fur on your shoulders?”

“This is my blouse!”

“Is it knitted?”

“Kiss my ass!”

“Nik, this is the edge, don’t wear it ever again. I gave you good clothes! Or do you now refuse to wear them?”

“No, I don’t refuse. Not only your clothes got wet,” oddly enough, but Nik tried to explain.

He carefully peeled the band-aid from his neck, slightly touching the indentation from the healed “well” with his fingertips, and put the needle of the refilled syringe under the hoop of the golden collar.

Kors turned away.

“Nik, let me help you with your treatment,” he said a little later, waiting for a moment.

“I'm fine.”

“Are you taking the medicines I gave you, the ones the doctor gave you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you still have any left?”

“I have.”

“Do you remember that they need to be taken regularly at the same time?”

“I remember.”

“I still have some left to share with you?”

“I told you, I still have some!”

“Can you show me your face?”

“What? No!”

“Show me what’s wrong with your scar!”

“Nothing.”

“What happened to your face?!” Kors couldn’t hide his excitement.

“I said nothing!”

“Is the scar inflamed? Yes? What’s happening? You bandaged your face too much. What’s up with your scar?”

“Nothing.”

“But you bandaged your face for some reason!”

“I got a tattoo on it, okay? Is that all?”

“What?!” Kors froze, shaking his head. “No, no, this is stupidity. Are you kidding? You’re lying? Is this a stupid joke? Don’t joke like that, I’ve always said that humor is not for you!”

“Leave me alone!”

But Kors couldn’t stand it:

“I can’t take it anymore! My strength is gone! I’ll break all your needles! I’ll pour out all your colors! Do whatever you want with me! Blind, humiliate, beat me, I will endure everything, but I will deprive you of the opportunity to disfigure this body, at least now, while we are on the road!”

“I can do it with my own syringe if I want to. Soot, urine and a needle from a syringe – that’s all, I don’t need anything else,” Nik answered calmly, not reacting in any way to the fact that Kors switched to screaming.

“No! You can’t lie, I’m about to die! Be honest! I can’t stand it if you get more tattoos! I still can’t come to terms and accept that your face has a brand on it, like cattle!”

“Yes…”

“People write with ink on paper, and not on the forehead, it would be better to learn this!”

“I can write on paper!”

“Yes?”

“Yes!”

“I didn’t notice that you wrote at least something at least once on one piece of paper during this time!”

“It’s just that you never asked me to write. I can write!”

“Come on, write then!”

“Now I won’t write anything for you!”

“You only know how to write on your forehead! Admit it, you can’t lie to me, were you joking about the tattoo?”

“Yes, I was joking,” Nik agreed.

Kors breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don’t joke like that anymore, it’s stupid. Poison began to come out of your scar, as Cassiel had warned? Answer me!”

“It constantly flows from it,” Nik reluctantly answered him and bent to his leg, slightly lifting up his trouser leg.

“Oh,” barely calming down that Nik was joking about the tattoo, Kors got nervous again, “what is flowing out?”

Nik didn’t answer, carefully examining his leg.