The Mist and the Lightning. Part V. Ви Корс

there water?” – Arel rushes into the adjoining room, rattles the jugs. “Nik! Call a servant, let him bring warm water!”

      “Wash yourself cold, huh?”

      “Are you kidding me! It is cold as ice!”

      “Arel, go to hell!”

      “Why is it so cold! Why not melted the fireplace! Call the servant!”

      “What good, if there is no fuel.”

      “Fuel?”

      “Wood! Firewood! Coal, I don't know …”

      “Okay! I do it myself! I'll go down and do everything myself! Here you will be bent without me from cold and hunger, and no one will lift a finger to at least do something!”

      “I feel neither one nor the other, Arel …”

      “I know! That scares me! I want to feel! I want to feel hunger, cold, everything! All manifestations and emotions! As a person, not as an animal!”

      Nikto laughs.

      “What wrong with you?”

      “Nothing! Just stayed a bit out of my skin!”

      “And in whose? Animal’s?”

      “Not! Nik! I was you! And … And it is wrong if you live like this …”

      “Another glitch, Arel …”

      “I would be happy about that! Let it be just a bad coming, because if this is your life, then this is hell! Why didn't you say anything to them? Did not explain? Although yes, you didn’t really know the language, they would be even more scared, and your voice …”

      “What explained? To whom?”

      Arel rushes to him, snapping abruptly, squeezing his shaggy head in his hands, clinging to himself.

      “To these assholes! They humiliated you! Gods! How I love you! Why – don’t know! Why do I love you so much?” – he kisses Nikto on the injured forehead, on the scar. “Poor, poor my being! My poor monster!

      You are a monster, Nik, do you know about this? And I love you so much!”

      Nikto meekly allows him to squeeze himself, squeeze in clumsy embraces, touch the scars.

      Arel removes him from his face, gazing in the wavering light of candles, his gaze glides over the body, neck, chest, and arms, all painted black for good.

      “What a horror,” – he says quietly and squeezes Nikto again in his arms. “What a horror to be like you!”

      He suddenly abruptly pulls away, as another thought comes to his mind:

      “Would you like to be like me? Do not cripple? Would you like to be me?”

      “You are in my heart.”

      “Yes! For sure! I live in you! And you in me! That's why I catch such parishes! Did you do this?”

      “If there is something wrong about you, then I have nothing to do with it!”

      “I believe you now, strangely enough, why would you put such memories in my head! I probably really caught them myself, I was there, on this street in Lower City, at this well!”

      “Well?”

      “Yes! I have never been on a plain, but if I come there, I will find this place! I swear it exists!”

      “So, you were me?”

      “Yes!”

      “Well, you felt like a demon in human form, or obsessed?’ – in the voice Nobody reveals blatant sarcasm.

      “Not! Heck! Not! But … But there was a lot of emptiness … There was enough space … for … maybe Enrique and the others are not so …’

      Nikto covers his mouth with his hand.

      “Enough! I do not remember any place, no well and no people, and I do not like it!”

      Arel moves back even further.

      “Maybe because you were not there! I was not you; I was a piece of that little man! That's why it was so awful! Gods! Poor, poor man! Not you! You just squeezed it out of your own body!’

      ‘That's it, go to hell! I was afraid that this would end! You wanted to be engaged in an economy, so go to servants and be engaged! And leave me alone! Leave me alone, the demon who settled in someone else's house! You see how great I am! See how good I am!’

      “I see that is not very! The lodge did not suffer very little during the battle for it!”

      “So, I will find a new one! Everything! Did you want to hear it? Heard? Now get out! Go, eat, you really have to take care of your body, it is still useful. And not to spoil it, like the others, it still didn’t lead to anything good and didn’t help them!’

      Arel tries to laugh, turn the conversation into a joke. “Scare me on purpose? Yes? Nik? Sweet…”

      “Sweet?” – a nasty smile is playing on Nikto's half-dead lips.

      “Well, forgive me for those stupid words about a demon!” – Arel returns to the bed again, bows his head, trying to snuggle closer to Nikto.

      Nikto removes his hands.

      “You're … are you kidding me? Forgive me! Punish me! Fuck me! This is the only thing you need! Nothing else!”

      “You still want in my house?”

      “That’s all! Conversation is over!”

      “Nik …”

      “I remember you were very hungry?”

      “I do not want it anymore…”

      “Get out, Arel! Now go away!”

      “I do not want!”

      “I said go away!”

      Are you ordering me?”

      “Yes!”

      “Like … like your slave?”

      “Yes!”

      Arel pulls away desperately, hands down.

      “I … I am your slave, and where are the others, where is my Lis, Sguint- Eye?”

      “Here, at the same time and check the rest! You can go now! I repeat for a long time! Should I get up?”

      “No!”

      And Arel trudges to the door:

      “Do you love me?”

      “Arel!”

      “If it stays, I'll bring you some rotten carrots too …” and he, already laughing, jumps out, deftly dodging a bottle that has flown into him.

      Arel was obedient, especially since he was actually hungry. Going down to the servants, right into the kitchen, and sitting at a huge and empty cutting table, he ate everything that was brought to him. Then, taking

      two girls, he descended even lower into the cellars of the castle, to the hot springs, where there was warm water in the pool. Once so long ago that he himself did not remember this, she was fed directly into the rooms upstairs, once … He who had eaten himself almost fell asleep while the slaves washed, combed it and rubbed the