Contents

1. Devil’s Cinema
2. A movie star from the hell
   1. Summer, 2013, Blue Lotus Cinema
3. A celebrity in the slums
   1. Our days
4. A tree from ashes
5. Film about the golden creature
6. Dead star
7. Casual viewers
8. Does hell have a queen
9. Someone in a purple robe
10. Filming
11. Claw marks
12. Session
13. Rising star
14. Keyhole
15. Egyptian
16. Distribution of tickets
17. Annals of memory
18. Demon on the set
19. Oracle
20. Fire from the lips of the diva
21. Darkness in the auditorium
22. Hearts on the branches
23. Games of Alais
24. Prisoners of the Blue Lotus
25. Flickering frames
26. Memorial to the fall
    1. year 2013
27. Magnificent beginning
    1. year 2013
28. Ancient creature, eerie mystery
    1. year 2013
29. Meet the dream
    1. year 2013
30. Bloody scenes
    1. year 2013
31. Starlet
    1. year 2013
32. Cruel truths
    1. year 2013
33. Autographs signed in blood
    1. year 2013
34. A terrible decision
    1. year 2013
35. Success code
    1. year 2013
36. Stencil on ash
    1. Our days, November
37. Deleted episode
38. Love is like a weapon
39. Second Ujai
40. Immortality footage
41. Night premiere
42. Conquer eternity
43. Afterword by the author

A movie star from the hell

Summer, 2013, Blue Lotus Cinema

The film is about to begin. Most likely, it will shock the audience, suppress their will, deeply shake, completely deprive them of consideration. It would be nice to cancel the premiere before the film starts, but the audience has already gathered. The whole elite is here. All around there are stars, the press, even politicians. What he conceived is impracticable.

Mikhail looked around. Not only guards can interfere with him. The most dangerous thing here is people who are not armed to the teeth. His attention was drawn to marble statues in distant boxes. They glowed pale in the semi-darkness. The outline of the wings was somewhat reminiscent of movie posters. One statue is located near the screen. Its marble fingers were pressed to its lips in a sign of silence. The statue’s smile seemed sinister. Is it just a play of light and shadow? And what are the only statues doing in the cinema? As if no one noticed them.

But the appearance of a young star attracted everyone. Atenais came, accompanied by grim-looking bodyguards. Her curly golden head stood out sharply from the crowd. She is the same as in the film, he noted with horror. As if she had just stepped off the screen, crossing the line of worlds: real and surreal.

Mikhail’s attention was drawn to the living lotus in her hair. And where did she get it? In the local climate, lotuses do not grow. Where did he hear that the lotus is a sacred plant? And for whom is it sacred? For those strange creatures in the shadows above the screen?

“Do not do this!”

Who suddenly whispered in his ear? Mikhail turned around, expecting to see the stranger in the red hood, but he did not sit in the back rows as usual. There were only smartly dressed people around. While they are careless, but soon they will all become ill.

Athenais walked forward, oblivious to the admiring glances. So fragile, so tender. Who would have thought bad of her? Who saw the darkness in her eyes?

Mikhail looked at her almost with a shudder. I really don’t want to hurt her. She is an ordinary girl with an angelic face and the grace of a model. Is this Atenais who, instead of ink, signs autographs with the blood of those who adore her? Or is it all the illusion of cinema?

He doubted, and yet he kept his hand on the gun in his pocket. He managed to carry the pistol past the security systems. He knew how to turn and not that. Nobody suspected him of anything. Besides the statues! They seemed to be watching him from afar with their marble eyes. Wiggle marble wings. They smile ominously.

There were exactly seven of them. Statues! Why does he think about them instead of the main goal? All attention should be focused on Athenais. She has already taken her place in the front row, straightened her silk dress and is waiting for the start of the session. Before the premiere it shouldn’t be.

But the screen lit up. The credits have already gone. Probably, it only seemed to him that one of the marble statues suddenly moved. Athenais turned her head to find him unmistakably among the row of filled rows. The look in her eyes, as always, startled him. He kept expecting her to repeat what she had said before, nodding lightly at the angelic statues:

“Save me from them!”

But she said something else, clearly and clearly, so that everyone could hear:

“Save them all from me…”

Who did she mean? All the people in the cinema? All people around the world? It didn’t matter anymore. He had the determination to finally pull the weapon out of his pocket. He was ready to carry out his plans. It’s a shame the movie has already started. When the show starts, everything in this place gets out of hand. People change, thoughts change… And nothing can be reversed.

A celebrity in the slums

Our days

“Look, this is he! Has he been to the devil’s theater before? How can you come to us and know nothing about the local attraction?”

The teenagers who had just taken his autograph were giggling behind their backs. It was so unusual that Daniel shuddered. The feeling that he signed their notebooks with his own blood only intensified. Daniel’s head rang with their laughter. What strange children are here! And what an unusual town itself! He would like to run away from here, as soon as he arrived here.

Only he will not be allowed to leave this town until the end of filming. The signed contract can no longer be terminated, but you can get out of the situation differently. When the situation has reached an impasse, there is only one way out. Daniel’s path lay in unsociable places, where almost every passer-by he met on the street pointed to him. Since there is so much talk about an abandoned cinema, it means that we must go there. It is there that you can implement your plan.

He had a razor blade in his pocket. This is quite enough to commit suicide. Daniel brushed strands of dyed blonde hair from his face. The cold wind ruffled them with incredible force. His face still looked as pretty as it did in the artfully retouched magazine covers. A rare case when the appearance of an actor is almost indistinguishable from his images replicated to the public. It is a pity that beauty has ceased to give him an advantage. Recently, the career has been going downhill.

Coming to a quiet town to shoot a horror movie was an act of desperation. Naturally, no one, except those close to him, knew about this yet. Articles in the press continued to carry a laudatory tone — all this is advertising paid for by the studio. In fact, he was pursued by an evil fate. Several recent films with him have flopped at the box office. The new film is his last chance.

And this chance is too flimsy. The location for the shooting was too unfortunate, the script leaves much to be desired, the director thinks more about how to make a star out of his own daughter than about how to make a good film. No one offered Daniel another job. From depression left to wash down even before filming began. But talking about a building that’s cursed distracted him from both the bottle and the preparation for filming.

Going for a walk before filming started was the only sober thought. Alone, no bodyguards. Why bodyguards for a star that no longer gives profit. If they kill him, then no one will give a damn. And once it was different.

Someone wisely said that all stars experience a moment of glory and a moment of fall. Daniel didn’t think he would ever fall under these statistics. When you are young, successful and even rich, then dark thoughts do not enter your head. They start to come later when you lose everything. Anyone who is on the verge of complete collapse thinks only of such a quiet place as an abandoned cinema in order to commit suicide there.

In such a place, no one will find him, no one will save him, no stranger will call an ambulance. Until his corpse is found, not a single day will pass. If they find it at all. In the district, the cinema is so notorious that even police patrols allegedly try to bypass it. More like a fiction! It’s good if such a cinema exists at all, and is not a fiction of local residents.

Daniel has heard similar stories from people who want to attract as many tourists as possible to certain areas. There were fairy tales about haunted houses, about damned ruins, and about cemeteries where evil spirits live. But he hadn’t heard about the damn cinema yet. This is really a really unconventional and purely modern invention. It does not breathe ashes of the Middle Ages and village fables about witchcraft.

“The cinema is a bad place. There, cinema technology was used as a means of causing harm to the audience,” the guide hired by the producers gave scant explanations. “There are a lot of things left in the building, including equipment that could be… hmm, a danger. In addition, the structure itself is dilapidated and, most likely, is about to collapse. It would have been demolished long ago if the government had no plans to open something like a museum there. But in any case, I do not advise you to go there. The risk of getting hurt is too high. Once upon a time such experiments were carried out there, which caused not only accidents, but also mass deaths. The place is creepy, old…”

In general, the guide dissuaded from going there as if he was an accomplice of a whole nest of criminals who are hiding there. He did not diversify his story with any ghost stories just because it is such a topic that attracts visitors. Although no one believes in ghosts, everyone becomes curious to look at the place in which they supposedly live.

But the local workers only talked about the curse of the old cinema. Apparently it was not that old. Yes, it was built a long time ago, but a few years ago it functioned. Daniel read about it in the local chronicle. The recordings were accompanied by beautiful photographs of the building more like an oriental palace than a cinema house. Now the road to it is overgrown with bushes.

Should you go there, sacrificing trendy jeans and a leather jacket? The branches have already scratched his temple. He hardly felt pain. Well, isn’t it funny? He came to the shooting. He’s a star, but the profits from past films have barely justified the cost of advertising. If there is no profit again, then you can put an end to his career. How to be here?

“Or maybe you’ll sell your soul to the devil, if you want success so much that you don’t regret anything for him?”

Who said that? A whispering voice came from the juniper bushes. He skinned his hands about them, pulling back the branches. There is no one behind them. The red flap and the flickering of a bright cape are just a play of sunset rays.

The Blue Lotus Cinema is almost lost in the thicket. Two sphinxes dozed at the entrance. And inside there are seven statues. No, he only imagined. The statues were far away. At home. Gone away in the days of the revolution. The great-grandfather’s story about them was just the delirium of a dying man. He saw only an illusion, then and now.

And yet the feeling that the angelic statues were standing here and waiting specifically for him was very intrusive.

The doors to the cinema were not boarded up. He entered easily. Inside it was gloomy, dark and empty. What did he expect? That the sophisticated audience gathered here for the premiere?

Desolation should reign here. And also, according to the guide, it is dangerous here. The entire structure can collapse at any moment. He didn’t care. Let it collapse, burying it under the rubble. At least he will die like the biblical Samson. He knew about this only because he once starred in his role. All of Daniel’s literacy proceeded, alas, only from scripts, which had to be read as needed and which did not always correspond to the book information. So in an interview, he went wrong a couple of times, not taking into account the fact that in the Bible and in novels everything happened somewhat differently than the scriptwriters described. The awkward situation was then hushed up. And now all life was going downhill. This cannot be fixed with a set of cunning phrases that create a stellar image.

Is there a bar in the cinema? Daniel wanted to drink again. Of course, it is foolish to hope that a bottle is lying somewhere in an abandoned building. But what if?

— 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?|

“What seance? After all, the cinema has not functioned for a long time. Am I mistaken that the last time films were shown here years ago?” the guy looked surprised from one doll’s face to another, but neither Cordelia nor Nefert was in no hurry to answer. And the game with the golden whirlwind and tops on the board continued to play by itself.

“They still show one film here, which the public finds interesting. This film is called by many a masterpiece of world cinema, but it is not intended to be shown to viewers with a low cultural level. Only a select few are invited to the sessions, who are able to understand the plot and appreciate the special effects.

“That is, local cinemas are officially closed, but in secret they belong to the local VIP zone. Is that what you want to tell me?”

Cordelia nodded slyly. She has eyelashes and facial features like a large china doll, he remarked to himself. Probably the makeup on the skin was applied very skillfully. The girl looks like a beating porcelain creature.

Get a better look at Nefert’s makeup. He, too, must be something remarkable. But the second girl stubbornly kept in the shadows, standing behind Cordelia, who was sitting on the curbstone. The only thing that caught the eye were the glowing gold eyebrows and eyelashes, as well as the fancy shining details of the Egyptian costume. Nefert resembled the ghost of a queen, or at least a princess. Probably, she got such a role. Daniel would not be surprised if he also saw a sarcophagus here.

Although what kind of absurdity comes into his head? In cinemas, films are usually shown, not filmed. Well, except on rare occasions when the scripts involve scenes that take place in the cinema. At least that was the case in his practice. But it cannot be ruled out that someone is acting differently. Different countries or studios may have different filming techniques.

“So will you attend the session? Cordelia’s singing voice pulled him out of his thoughts.”

“Right now?”

“No, tomorrow night. For you, it will start only tomorrow.”

“But it seems that it is already beginning,” Daniel noticed how the doors of the cinema hall opened a little in the distance. A beam of light hit the red carpet in the hallway. It seems that the audience was gathering in the hall. He heard the hubbub of voices, but what they were talking about, he could not understand. Some weird shadows fell on the carpet. Guests either have very fancy tall hairstyles or hooves and horns! Unless it’s all actors who have pulled away from filming for a test run. Although from afar it all sounds more like a sabbath than a peaceful viewing of a film.

“In the evening! Well! I will try to be free by this time. But what time is it?” — and what does he think about when making promises, because on the set he himself can be detained until late? What if someone who was not invited follows him? Do they even give tickets or invitations? He didn’t notice the ticket booths in front of the entrance.

“Come closer to twelve,” Cordelia shrugged her bare shoulders, and again it seemed to him that their matte skin cracked like broken china.

“That is, the exact start time is not yet known?” It was somewhat amazing. Usually all theaters and cinemas have a tight schedule. But everything is unusual here.

“We’re starting late,” Cordelia said again. Nefert preferred to be silent. “The later you come, the better. Moreover, not all high-ranking guests have the opportunity to visit us during the day.”

“I noticed that the clock at the entrance stopped.”

“Time limits us so much,” Cordelia sigh expressed such disdain and weariness. “But don’t worry. The clock will be repaired by tomorrow night. And they will go again. We just need to hurry up the watchmaker.”

Could it be the hunched creature that just slipped down the hallway. Daniel shivered. Cold washed over him.

“By the way, in this costume you look like a very attractive ancient vampire,” blushing slightly, he tried to compliment her. The ability to compliment was never his strong point, but the girl smiled indulgently.

“Not a vampire, but a very skilled seamstress,” she corrected in a whisper. Why whisper? Is it necessary to hide something from someone here?

“So you want to say that you are not playing a vampire, but a seamstress… in a lady’s dress?”

“I have a difficult role,” she replied bluntly. Daniel suddenly began to think that the whirlwinds of sparkles above the playing board were beginning to form into the outlines of screaming faces, making the game resemble a miniature hell of golden sand.

Some suspicious sounds were indeed heard from the already closed auditorium. It looks like sobbing and screaming. They were probably coming from the screen, he consoled himself. Cordelia was wary.

“It’s time for you to go. You cannot stay overnight in this place. It is forbidden.”

“Will they let me in here tomorrow without a ticket?”

“Ticket,” Cordelia frowned. “Maybe you also need a royal crown, plus you need it. Or a loop around the neck is better?”

Nefert made her hold her snide tongue, lightly scratching her shoulder with her claws. Cordelia didn’t bleed, but it squeaked, as if scratching a hard surface, not skin.

“This is for you!” Nefert placed an invitation on the table, edged with gold lettering. The letters on it were half black, half scarlet, but that line was erased as soon as the blood from Daniel’s cheek suddenly dripped onto the cardboard. Everything turned scarlet.

“I messed it up.”

“It’s just a formality,” Cordelia explained.

“That is, at the control it will be easily scanned.”

In response, there was only a playful laugh from both girls.

“Well then…” the young man hesitated, not wanting to leave.

“You have to go!”

He had to leave. The gloomy building suddenly became so pleasant, as if a living fabulous creature that swallowed it in its mouth and protected it from the cruelly world around, where struggle and competition are in progress. And here there is only peace and the feeling that the walls live and whisper something to him ingratiatingly.

“You are back, son of the Rosier family! You have returned to us!”

Who here could know the old name of his family? Having moved to Russia, his family changed their last name to the Rozanovs, and he, in turn, having found a way to foreign cinema, chose a sonorous pseudonym for himself. Nobody knew his old family name, but the cinema did. Or did he have delirium tremens after drinking?

In any case, he didn’t want to leave the cinema. After all, it is so dark, warm, cozy. A good place to fall asleep here forever, dreamless sleep and get rid of all earthly problems.

The impression of peace was interrupted by obsessed cries from the closed hall. He also heard bird cries, sounds of struggle and even gunshots. He turned around. The door swung open again for a moment, and monstrous shadows grappled behind it in battle. It must be reflections from the screen.

He walked away faster. Tomorrow he will watch the film himself. And for some reason they didn’t let him in today? These are probably the rules here. Or was there not enough room for a beginner?

The hall was calm and empty. The fountain suddenly started working. The clock above the entrance began to tick. Someone hunched over seems to be hovering between the ceiling and them. In the semi-darkness it was definitely not possible to see.

“The descendant of Rosier has indeed returned!”

Daniel looked around the hall, trying to find out who said this. But there were only statues around. He bumped into one of them and almost hurt his forehead, but someone supported him in time. The question is who? There was no one living nearby. Only seven marble and somehow ominous angels gathered around.

Before leaving, Daniel turned on them and was taken aback, one of the angels, the one who stood closest to the exit, moved his wing, brought a marble finger to the same marble lips and made a sign to the young man to remain silent.

A tree from ashes

So the children sang in a round dance. Probably, he only fancied in the light of the moon that they all had deathly pale faces, empty eyes and very sharp needle-like teeth under bloodless lips. And what kind of parents would let their children go out so late at night? Are they all from an orphanage, which eventually became impoverished? Will they start begging soon? But they only sang and looked like ghosts.

Daniel nevertheless ran his hand into the pocket of his jacket in search of the little things that were lying there, but he came across only a razor blade and injured his fingers. The pain burned. Despite the dulling sensations of the night’s cold, the pain itself was razor sharp. He recalled inappropriately that as a child, he had been injured on the beach on broken glass a long time ago. It lay at the bottom. In the water, the wound did not even ache, but it was worth getting out on the shore, and the torment became intolerable. Likewise, after leaving the cinema, suddenly the desire to shine and suicide returned.

Enough! Not everything in life is lost yet. He still has a chance to fix everything, even the last one, but it must be used.

“Someone before you thought so too, so they called her, him, them… How can you call it?”

Some kid teasing him hiding behind the roadside trees? Daniel decided to check it, but did not find anyone in the thickets. The only children he noticed continued to dance very far away from him. Moreover, they played right on the highway. At any moment, a car can pass and run over them all? It doesn’t matter that the highway running between the small towns is now deserted. What if a truck or a bus emerges from behind a bend? Even any cyclist or motorcyclist can cause irreparable damage to the guys if he runs into them at this late hour. He need to warn them, or better yet, drive them off the road. Daniel was about to shout at them, but the silhouettes of the children’s round dance became more and more ghostly. It seemed that now they will dissolve in the light of the moon.

Better not to go to them. Suddenly they are all young patients from some lost in the wilderness of a psychiatric asylum. Maybe they even escaped from there. How else to explain such strange behavior, in such a dangerous place, and even at such a late time. And there is, as luck would have it, not a single adult who can explain anything to him. There is not even anyone who could give directions. If the charging on the smartphone had not ended, he would have called a taxi long ago. And so he had to wander along unfamiliar roads, in search of a way to the parking lot where he left his car. Most likely, he went in the wrong direction, because the surrounding places became more and more muffled. No hope of bumping into the settlement ahead. Hence, we must go in the opposite direction.

And it occurred to him to go to an abandoned cinema for the night looking, without a guide who knew the area and, in the end, even without a navigator. He would have happily hiked back now, but the back road was deserted. And the children’s counting-book was still ringing in my ears. The chant sounded ominous.

It was already a woman’s voice, but it also somewhat resembled a child’s. Some amazing spontaneity. She spoke of blood as something completely natural. It? Who exactly? He did not see anyone, although he looked around. And the voice sounded in his head. Is he hallucinating? There was no need to go alone to such a questionable place. After all, Daniel had heard that people were going crazy after visiting that cinema, so now it was closed, but he still went in and saw the marble angel. The angel signaled him to be silent. Wasn’t it all a hallucination? The two girls were definitely alive, and the invitation to the session, received from them, was still in his pocket, proving that he had not dreamed of meeting them. Flirting with beauties is normal, even in a strange place, but the statue that comes to life is more reminiscent of a nightmare.

Daniel looked to see if any vehicle would pass along the highway. Someone has to let him down in exchange for an autograph or for a generous payment. Only nobody was in a hurry.

And the darkness around was deepening. Together with the discharged smartphone, the flashlight, the navigator, the compass, and even the cellular connection went off. It would not be bad to call someone now and ask for help. Although the situation is funny. He is a grown man and suddenly he cannot find his way. This had never happened to him before. And now it was like the devil was leading him astray. And these strange voices from the thickets… He definitely heard voices! Not one, but many.

“Blood for the roots!”

“Blood for her!”

“Blood for the captives!”

“Blood for those who are imprisoned in the bark!”

“Your blood!”

These someone smelled his blood like predators! Why then do they have human voices? But he did not see faces. And nowhere were there even wandering lights about which there are terrible beliefs in the villages, supposedly they lure travelers into swamps or to a cliff.

So who is talking to him? He hasn’t been drunk for a long time, so that he imagines it. The alcohol weathered away, but even in a drunken state, Daniel had no such illusions. In addition, unlike most movie stars, he never dabbled in drugs or suffered from severe mental disorders in his life. He even had a desire for suicide for quite objective reasons: career failure and debts! He still did not suffer from any painful visions.

The instinct of self-preservation prompted him to run away from here. But where? All around is an empty highway and dense thickets on its outskirts. By the way, a voice called from the thickets again. Surprised that this time he called by name. As if there was no acting nickname behind which the young man hid for many years, hiding the vicious secrets of his family. A voice clearly pronounced his real baptismal name.

“Daniel!”

The children’s round dance had long since disappeared from sight, but the moonlight drew some bizarre signs on the road. Somebody said.

“You need to cut your veins near a tree or kill someone so that the blood sprinkles the roots. Lightning will flash, gates will open somewhere more beautiful than which you have never seen, and she will come. You want to kneel in front of her too, right? How is everything before you? Remember that we will all come after her. Just let us in!”

Daniel turned around, jerking to grab the one behind. The feeling was that some teenager stood on tiptoe and could hardly reach his ear to give delusional instructions. Sounds like a cruel joke! But where is the joker himself? Behind Daniel, of course, it was empty. And there is nowhere to hide, except thickets.

The voices were still calling him. Now from somewhere in the depths of the thickets. It is dangerous to go there. But he turned like a fool. You need to behave like a daredevil at least once in your life. This is reckless, you can fall into a trap or a trap set for hares. Daniel did not think about it because he noticed faces in the dark. A whole host of faces who grimaced, laughed, shouted, writhed in agony or hysteria. And all these faces were carved into the trunk of a huge age-old tree. The ash-colored bark did not need the beams of a flashlight, because it somehow flickered. Daniel could see every detail. The inscriptions embossed on the bottom of the bark read: Memorial to the fall! Monument to the uprising! Monument to the fall! Tree of the fall! House of ashes! Ashes of Alais’s army!

What does all this mean? Each inscription was located at a short distance from the other, but for some reason the feeling was created that they all mean the same thing.

The entire trunk along the perimeter was excised by faces, figures, the outlines of wings, which seemed to be about to burst from the bark and flap. Even the large bitches and branches were trimmed in the shape of heads and horned faces. Not a tree, but a whole museum in the forest. Can there be a student of a sculptor or woodcarver who practices away from people on the first material that comes across? Get someone genius enough to make fantasy figures for movies! His woodwork was truly epic.

Just what kind of tree is this? Elm? Beech? Ash? Or just a group of accreted secular trees? More like the latter. The tree was about the size of a large house. How long does it take to get around it from all sides?

“Just don’t go around, otherwise you will join us ahead of time.”

“Better use the blade. You’ve already started cutting yourself!”

“Finish what you started!”

“And she will come!”

Did the faces speak? There is no one besides them! But they are silent! Their lips never seemed to move. Daniel touched one of the faces with his fingers and gasped in pain. The impression was as if a wooden mouth, open either in a scream or in a throat, bit him. There was a smear of ash on my finger. Where is the ash on the bark? Was there a fire here? But nothing nearby burned down. All the trees around are intact, and the smell of burning is not felt. And there is ash. And there is a lot of it. It is worth touching a tree with your hand, and all the skin is in ashes. And the bark under the palm vibrates, as if the figures inside it move and are torn to freedom. They are all winged, clawed, horned, in a word, monstrous — as soon as they break free, they will sweep away the whole world.

Better to get out of here. Blood from his finger dripped onto the roots, and they vibrated in a strange way. Daniel got entangled in them, but it felt like they were gripping his feet. As he had not noticed before that the tree has such powerful roots, which, moreover, protrude from the soil and curl up in balls like thick snakes.

One leg got stuck in the roots so hard that it was not possible to free it without losing the boot. Daniel backed away, and whispers and rustling emanated from the bark, dotted with many faces and figures. It looks like the rustling of hundreds of wings. But definitely not wooden, but alive! One face of the winged creature at the top of the trunk was unusually attractive, but it also seemed to him the most sinister. An instant and wooden eyes flew open. His bark lips twisted into a smile.

He had enough impressions for tonight, Daniel decided, deftly stepping over the stirring roots. Their movements were sluggish.

“He shed too little blood!”

The young man himself plugged his ears so as not to hear the tempting voice and ran away, leaving the lost boot in his roots.

The boots were expensive. Well, let! They are not the last in his life. But life itself can be lost if you continue to hang out in such dubious places.

Some well-wisher, capable of taking him to the city, showed up only closer to morning. He did not recognize the celebrity he met, but he willingly talked about the boredom of local life, but as soon as he asked him about the ghost trees and children’s mental hospitals nearby, the driver quickly tried to get Daniel out of his wretched SUV.

The guy got to the pavilion, where the shooting will begin today, half asleep and in only one surviving boot. His head was buzzing, he himself staggered slightly. Affected night wakefulness. They didn’t even have makeup done. Why waste efforts in vain on someone who will soon faint.

“Go sleep it off! In the meantime, we will shoot scenes with Jane,” the director advised him. “But tomorrow, be kind, get in shape. You don’t want someone to replace you, do you?”

“This someone will have to travel here for a long time, and there is a risk that he will get lost on the way,” retorted Daniel.

“Not everyone drinks as much as you!”

“True, many people prefer to indulge in much more harmful drugs than just alcohol.”

The director had nothing to answer to this, so he pretended not to notice Daniel’s usual impudence and generally did not have free time to continue the argument.

Daniel glanced at the unfamiliar, but very famous woman who will play with him in pairs. It’s good if this pair relationship is not forced to save after filming. Jane looked predatory. He didn’t like her at once. But he had to pretend that he, too, admired her. A young woman with connections like hers was simply doomed to become a star. And it doesn’t matter how much money her patrons spent on bribing the press and critics. Daniel had heard about her for a long time and naturally imagined her to be very capricious. For some reason she, finding herself in this wilderness, did not express her indignation in any way. But she clearly wanted to flirt with him. As soon as he arrived, she winked at him. Daniel ignored this. A lot of unfamiliar employees were turning around on the set. Someone he knew, most of the people he saw for the first time. A lot of local people were hired as extras, who had never stood in front of the camera before to save money. Amateurs are ready to film just for thanks. Yesterday we had a casting all day. Daniel looked around the unknown faces. Which one is definitely local? Who can you talk to about that eerie tree?

It seems the guard at the exit, Kai, is like a local citizen. Daniel sat down next to him during the break, drink coffee and chat a little. One autograph, handshake, and friendship struck.

“Before, I only starred in action films: both modern and historical. Well, sometimes in dramas. This is the first horror film in my practice. I worry. I have never been in my life even in a house where rumored to be ghosts.”

“There is no such house in the whole city,” Kai admitted.

“But there is a tree. I heard. The tree to which sacrifices are allegedly made,” in fact, he could not say for sure. The voices that sounded in the dark could hardly be mistaken for city gossip, but the guard tensed.

“There was a tree,” he recalled. “A teenage boy committed suicide under that tree.”

“How?”

“It is important?” the guard was surprised.

“How?” Daniel insisted.

“I opened his veins.”

Blood stains the tree… Daniel raised his fingers to his temples. The head was bursting.

“Come to us!” voices from the tree sounded very close. But there are no thickets near the pavilion. Here, flower beds with rare flowers are almost invisible.

“And under that tree they killed a famous actor, a well-known sex symbol,” said the manager, who obviously went out to smoke and found the two of them talking. The guard immediately hurried back to his post, and Daniel looked lazily at the elderly man. He that thus prophesies the fate of today’s unlucky sex symbol. Or is he just joking? But the manager continued without irony.

“His adorers then took scores with their lives at the place of his death.”

“That is, under the same tree.”

“Well yes.”

“Why didn’t I know about it before I came to such a gloomy city?”

“Because you are never interested in anything.”

“And what was the name of that celebrity who died here such an inglorious death before me?”

“Who cares? You barely remember even those you are filming with in pairs. But friendship with them is your chance to create additional advertising for yourself.”

He was clearly hinting at Jane.

“You’d better tell me more about that tree,” Daniel cleverly changed the subject.

The manager shrugged.

“Usually the trees on which someone hanged themselves are immediately cut down so that others do not have a desire to repeat it. An old belief! It is believed that such trees spread negative energy and inspire others with the same desire. But no one hung on that tree. People only cut the veins underneath. Blood flowed to the roots. The tree itself is stupid to blame for mass suicide. Simply, actresses and actors are often at odds with their own psyche. Yes, and their life is tense, today you are a star, and tomorrow your roles are given to others, how not to throw a tantrum and not attempt suicide. And there was only one fault on the tree: it was too close to the film studio and looked quite defiant, it looked very much like a set for a horror movie.

“Where is this tree?”

“Somewhere!” the manager suddenly laughed. “If it exists at all. In my opinion, these could be different trees, and everything else is a fiction of the local press. Losers will find a way to commit suicide. Try not to become one of them. And the tree — I personally think it’s a myth.

“Not a myth,” Daniel tensed. “I saw it.”

The recognition cost him a lot, but the interlocutor was not at all impressed.

“Do not think about the trees of Lucifer, it is better to study the scenario about a nobleman who has just returned to his estate from the war and about a devil that he accidentally released. Have you already got used to your role?”

Daniel glanced briefly at the sheets of text that were thrown into his lap.

“What’s wrong?”

He noticed a strange detail just now.

“According to the script, the hero’s name is Rozovsky,” Daniel read uncertainly. And from which he had not discovered it before. You need to carefully review everything in advance: both scripts and documents.

“So what? For a Russian, the surname is quite suitable.”

But it was precisely this surname that his real family bore. Does this mean that the whole story is taken from the annals of his ancestors?

“We will not change the name of the hero,” the director declared in an indisputable tone. “It is taken from a real nobleman who lived and died in those days.”

“Killed?” Daniel didn’t like it at once.

“But the story itself is fantastic.”

“And what does not suit you?”

“Yes, so…” it was not in his habits to be cowardly in front of omens. What you play will repeat in life. He didn’t really believe it. Nevertheless, I knew such actors who refuse some tragic roles, often to their detriment. But who told him that the ending of this scenario is tragic? By the way, he never finished reading the script.

Film about the golden creature

Daniel arrived much earlier than twelve. Although the invitation, as he recently considered, was designated precisely this time. His blood soaked into the cardboard, and the letters and numbers were visible again. The block letters had an unusual look with curls. What printer can this be printed on? Reminds of calligraphy of the last century. It’s strange why Cordelia didn’t say right away that the time of the session was still definite.

It was so dark at the entrance that Daniel had to turn on the flashlight in his smartphone to see the road. Some animals, remotely resembling bats and lizards, darted underfoot. The graceful figures of the sphinxes at the entrance gleamed gold even in the dark. How beautiful they are! Half lions, half women with crafty faces. Daniel wanted to touch them with his hand, but he noticed that a rat with a ripped throat was stuck between the pedestal and the claws of one of the sphinxes. The impression was as if the sphinx caught it and crushed it with his paw. The gilded claws were stained with blood.

It’s just a dead pest! But Daniel for some reason immediately felt creepy and unpleasant. There was a dim light inside the theater itself. The fountain in the lobby was working. Near the lotus in its center, lights were turned on, and the streams of water were painted alternately in all the colors of the rainbow.

The angel statues were rearranged so that only one of them stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the cinema halls. The other six figures were placed right on the steps, at a great distance from each other. Each sculpture is one step higher than the previous one. It seemed that they flew up there on their own and deliberately avoided each other. Unusual decor! And everything is so luxurious. Truly a VIP zone! But why doesn’t anyone at the entrance ask for an invitation? And why are there no other visitors here? Have they already entered the hall?

The absence of guards was also striking. Since the cinema is still functioning, it must be guarded so that, for example, a gang of hooligans does not break in here. Daniel even doubted that the invitation to the session was not a joke, because there were no attendants around at all. Only flocks of blue moths nested in the corners of the floor and ceiling. The rustle of their wings made his head ache. Apart from them, there is no one in the whole building.

Daniel stretched out his hand to the flock fluttering in the corner, and immediately felt painful bites to blood. Moths don’t bite! This is against the rules of nature. And their wings definitely cannot be blue.

Cordelia came out of the hallway leading to the cinemas suddenly. Behind her evening gown was a long train, all made of blue butterflies. Silk? Yes, they are alive. They flutter. How did she sew them. Alive? Or it seems to him. He didn’t drink today. I didn’t want to fall asleep during the session, moreover, in such a strange place, far from the city. Who knows, suddenly he will be cut alive here himself, if he doze off and become vulnerable.

“Everyone here is vulnerable.”

And again voices in his head. What’s with him? Now he is no longer standing by the creepy tree, but the feeling is as if his hands are still in the ashes from the bark.

:Come on! Coming soon!” the girl did not even greet him and did not even throw a cursory glance at the invitation, which he nervously crumpled in his hands.

“They don’t even guard the doors,” Daniel complained.

“So what,” she casually waved her hand, on which a scarab bracelet flashed. The adornment looked like a very ancient museum item.

“There is no fear of a terrorist attack, robbery, hooliganism?”

“There is nothing more to be afraid of!” Cordelia walked forward along the corridor without even turning around.

“I’m sorry what?”

“We have good security. Do not worry!”

“But I didn’t see anyone.”

“You have nothing. You came to watch a movie, not meet the guards.”

She was obviously teasing him, although how could she know that this morning he met the guard specifically in order to inquire about the local creepy sights.

“By the way, what’s the name of the film?”

“Didn’t you read the title on the invitation?”

The question shocked him. He was ashamed to admit that he did not understand the words that were printed there. From the sight of the letters either his head began to ache, or it seemed that these were not letters at all, but some obscure symbols and hieroglyphs. Indeed, he needs to drink less. His director is right.

Before entering the cinema, Daniel dropped his smartphone. How embarrassing! One movement, and the means of cellular communication with the world immediately shattered to smithereens. Now, even if they begin to kill him inside, he will not be able to call and warn anyone. Everything seems to be calculated in advance?! Daniel immediately dismissed the thought. No one is to blame that he did not get enough sleep that he had everything to fall out of hand. Some of his former agents liked to admonish him that the most important thing for a star is to get enough sleep in order to properly control his actions. Not having enough sleep, you look worse, and play badly, and you can blurt out something completely unnecessary to the public or journalists. And now, from fatigue, he controlled himself so badly that he could smash his head against the door lintel, and not just a smartphone.

“I’m not going further with you,” she said at the door. “There is no spare place left for me.”

“But there are plenty of places!” Daniel saw from the doorway that the whole hall was empty.

“There’s only one invitation for you,” Cordelia explained to the dull.

“And what does it change? The seats are all unoccupied, and there are five minutes left before the session, no more. Usually, in cinemas, no one is acting up, if a more convenient place is free, then the audience can easily change seats on it. Apart from special screenings, the auditorium is never completely occupied at movie shows. And here there are just no guards who will expose the free rider.” Why is Cordelia hugging so tight? Is she too proud to enter without a ticket?

“Anyone else coming?” Daniel asked after all. “Or I’m the only guest.”

“Take your seat and wait for the beginning,” she nodded dryly.

“Wher