Devil’s Cinema. Crypt of the Seven Angels. Natalie Yacobson

money for watching films completely lost their reality. The cinema itself seemed somehow unreal. A pretentious building with sphinxes and a fountain immediately attracted the eye even in the impenetrable thickets. The hieroglyphs, drawn in bas-reliefs on the facade, sparkled even from afar. Completely European columns and pediments were combined with fabulous arabesques, as if taken from Arabian fairy tales. The building stood like a reminder of the witch’s gingerbread house, which Hans and Gretel fell into. Only here not only children were expected.

      Daniel heard on the radio that a group of teenagers disappeared again in the cinema area yesterday. The guys were noisily celebrating something in the beer town and arguing about where to have fun at night: at the nearest cemetery or at the devil’s cinema. It was better to choose a cemetery. From there they could return if drunk they had not killed each other. And from the cinema, judging by the news, no one returned.

      Are there people who have been there and survived? As he drove through the town, Daniel watched the groups of young people on the streets. They behaved strangely, like sectarians. Something about their manner was alarming. Many were dressed like Goths. Someone had a suspicious, manic look in their eyes. Halloween is still a long way off, but Daniel saw the teenagers draw with markers some symbols on the walls and asphalt, suspiciously similar to pentagrams. He nearly hit such a child who was drawing something like a hieroglyph with chalk on the road. It’s good that he managed to slow down in time. However, instead of being scared, the child suddenly raised his head and hissed at him.

      “Never mind! They are preparing to celebrate All Saints’ Eve, “said a policeman who was patrolling the streets all alone and for some reason trying to stay as far away from children as possible. He touched the visor of his cap and was like that, but the hieroglyph remained on the asphalt. Another teenager had already drawn the same hieroglyph with red paint on the wall, and no one was fined for it. Everyone is crazy here. Daniel more and more asserted in the conjecture that the town was located next to some kind of hospital, patients from which, for some reason, in groups choose to walk without the supervision of nurses or orderlies. Moreover, adults behaved normally, but children and adolescents were strange. Nothing, the hospital could well be a nursery.

      He drove along the narrow roads of the city and everywhere noticed the same situation. Young people huddled at the corners in small, silent companies. They didn’t talk, they didn’t make noise. They all looked gloomy. Most of the girls. Sometimes even the guys were letting their eyes black red in the manner of the Egyptians. Combined with European-looking faces, it looked a little scary. Although, who knows, suddenly a particularly fashionable eyeliner is being advertised here, which he has never heard of. Daniel himself was far from the world of fashion, although he was occasionally invited to various advertisements for men’s perfumes, sprays and shaving creams. But that was over a year ago, when he still hadn’t flopped with the latest films. Fashion houses have a strict rule: they invite either very famous actors or those who were supported by influential patrons to the actions. Recently, Daniel has been on his own, so he was stubbornly unlucky.

      He drew attention to several antique Goths crowd. Evgenia would have liked them. She loved everything related to the Victorian style and on the set she enthusiastically tried on black corsets and blouses with lace frills. From her, Daniel learned that besides the antique ones, that is, imitating the old Goths, there are more modern post-punk Goths dressing in the style of the eighties, as well as wamp-goths, steampunk-goths, cyber-goths and even jeepy-goths depicting gypsies. Only for business people, as the curious Evgenia explained, the style of corporate goths is more suitable in order to combine gloomy paraphernalia with a dress code. Daniel was confused in the names, went over in his mind everything that Eugenia had told, but he could not remember a single kind of Goths, which, while maintaining the image of punks, seem inseparably connected with the Ancient Egypt.

      A creature in a red robe walked among the teenagers and distributed something to them. It looks like invitation cards. In the movie theaters? At such a distance, Daniel could not see exactly, and you can’t drive closer. You can easily bump into a wall. All he saw was gnarled hands with rough black skin and black nails sticking out from under the luxurious red fabric. Under the hood was an animal muzzle that looked more like a bulldog, but this creature had a human body, tall and densely built. He could very well be a boxer who was mutilated by breaking his jaw, hence the resemblance to a bulldog. And the black color of the skin… Yes, there are not many blacks, mulattoes, Africans and African Americans who can be found today anywhere in the world. Now there is no slavery, and they are free to travel everywhere, but for some reason this creature seemed to him a slave. Although there was no collar and shackles, they were replaced by a luxurious robe, but it seemed that its wearer was both bound and fettered, and must serve someone for the rest of his days. Until the end of eternity itself.

      How much imagination can run at the sight of something too fanciful. Whoever handed out the tickets looked like an exotic bird in the crowd, a red cardinal or a red peacock. He looked important and mysterious. Daniel looked at him as much as he could until he had to turn around the bend.

      It was already deserted here. Where did a passer-by suddenly come from, who rushed right under the wheels? This is the same subject in red robes and a disfigured face. Daniel hit the brakes sharply, but it was too late. An ugly black face slammed into the car’s windshield. And nothing can be turned back. Glazed eyes gazed at the driver from the black muzzle. His bloody tongue stuck to the glass like a red snake. He twitched in convulsions, as if separate from the corpse of the creature. Daniel was sure he had knocked a passer-by to death. Now what? Will the police believe him that this person himself jumped out onto the carriageway right under the wheels? What will happen to the filming of the film when it is detained? The young man closed his eyes to mutter a short prayer. Not that he was a believer, just an out of the ordinary situation. Sticking in trouble, even all terry atheists suddenly begin to remember God. He also remembered. But as soon as he opened his eyes, the glass in front of him was not stained with blood. The corpse disappeared. Daniel even got out of the car to check if the crushed one was lying around in the puddles. There was no body. Only somewhere around the corner flashed the hem of a red robe.

      How can a downed passer-by suddenly jump up and run like a sports champion? Probably, he dozed off at the wheel and it just seemed to him? True, before he did not think anything and under no circumstances. The visions began with a visit to this city, or rather to a cinema outside the city limits.

      It was reckless to go there again. In addition, Daniel knew that soon he would have to leave the car and walk, because the roads leading to the cinema were overgrown so that you could not drive along them.

      And somewhere between the thickets there is that eerie tree, with the figures of angels and demons carved into it.

      “Memorial to the fall!”

      The phrase sounded clear in his head. What does it mean? He drove onto the main road outside the city, and barely having driven about fifteen minutes, he immediately ran into a wall of boxwood, honeysuckle and some shrub, whose name he did not even know.

      All! Then you have to go on foot. He almost left the keys in the ignition, and when leaving the car, he found that there were some scratches on the hood. It looks like a wild animal traced it with its claws.

      Only there were no animals around, not even squirrels in the trees. Probably no one lives here except ghosts. For some reason, Daniel again remembered the ash tree and the ghostly children who had taken a round dance on the highway. Sometimes it still seemed that their figures were flickering in the thickets, but they are not denser than the fog that is about to disperse.

      One quite tangible creature in front of the cinema nevertheless showed up – some beggar in dirty rags and clearly crippled. He walked with a limp on both legs. Beggars are much more common on the porch in front of churches than at the entrances to cinema, theaters or clubs. But here, apparently, everything is different. Daniel had some cash with him, he called out to the tramp, but he hurriedly trotted around the corner of the building and disappeared into the thickets.

      The cinema itself was still free