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

Someone distracted him from watching. Another spectator entered the hall? Or has he been here before? Someone moved smoothly between the chairs, and the hem of a long robe slid along the floor behind him. The quiet but monotonous steps began to annoy. Daniel looked around. The silhouette in a bright red cape contrasted sharply with the darkness, as if the cape were illuminated from within with electricity. This cape was sewn from blood and fire.

Daniel had already seen this scarlet hood and wide old-fashioned sleeves somewhere. Is this the very same person who handed out tickets to teenagers. What is he doing at the cinema? He probably works here and sometimes goes outside to give out invitations. Nice way to lure the audience into watching, but this is kind of the VIP zone. It is not customary to admit everyone here.

Someone in a scarlet robe sensed that Daniel was looking at him and raised his bulldog face. Daniel shuddered and hastily turned away. It’s good that they are separated by dozens of rows, otherwise one could be frightened.

Self-consolation turned out to be premature. A moment and someone in red was already nearby, just in the back row. How swift he could move if he wanted to. Is he? Or is it? Daniel noticed black hands touching the back of the chair next to him. They looked more like the paws of an outlandish beast.

The creature touched his shoulder with its talons, the edge of the red sleeve nearly burning. It seemed like a fabric like silk, but it turned out to be tougher than sandpaper.

“What do you feel?”

The question was eerily sudden. Although the creature had a soft, slightly hissing voice, the thought burned through the mind that it could speak at all.

“Let go!”

Daniel lunged, but his claws were harder than metal.

“What do you feel?” It repeated as a refrain. His breath burned his ear like fire. “You look at her and feel that she belongs only to you. To the only living spectator here. Because she’s already dead. The dead may have admirers, but they cannot have lovers who own them. For this reason, many distraught fans dream of killing living stars in order to take possession of them completely. The body dies, but the picture in the frames lives forever. You buy a ticket or a video disc, and you completely get rid of jealousy. After all, the video is all that remains of it. And she’s yours. Not real, so reproduced in electronics. And who needs a mortal body?

The voice of the creature stirred a painful memory: rain, limousine, premiere, shot, belated reaction of the bodyguards. Daniel nearly died that evening. Some nutcase who allegedly came up for an autograph shot him. And the guards couldn’t help. And the marble statues in front of the red carpet… It could only seem.

“To kill a star means to take possession of it forever. Lucky you. You are in love with an already dead woman. No one will embrace her before your eyes. No one will hurt you.”

“And the film that is on…” There on the screen in the final scene Taor tried to kiss her, but ran into an angelic inaccessibility.

“The one that starred in it no longer walks on earth among people, no longer lives, therefore, watching the film, you can assume that she belongs only to you. After all, it only exists on the screen. In front of you. You look at it and you know that it is as much your property as the rolling tape or disc you bought in the store. She will not make you jealous by coming to the next premiere. She remained only inside the film. There she can no longer harm herself or others.

“Did you kill her?”

In response, only a dull, mocking laugh. Hard, sharp claws gripped Daniel’s hair and pulled his head back. He nearly hit the back of his head against the back of the chair. He had to look into the eyes of the creature that was standing behind. The madman’s eyes were terrifying, bestial.

“Everyone’s safe since she only lived in the film. Or is it not? While the body of Atenais rots many meters underground, her cast in the frames lives by itself and harasses all of us. Look! You don’t get the feeling that she is much more alive on the screen than everyone who comes here.”

Yes! Oddly enough, he had such a feeling. Daniel caught himself thinking that in some ways the creature is still right. Ono speaks like a distraught fan, ready at any moment to get a knife and stab his diva. For him, worshiping her is the same as immediately building a kind of Taj Mahal for her. It pronounces modern words, but they breathe some kind of antiquity, like from Persia or India of pre-Christian times, and it seems that it came from there. His strong black claws clenched more and more on Daniel’s shoulder, gradually getting closer to his throat. Another moment, and they will begin to choke him.

“What you need?” the guy begged.

“What do you need?” the strangler responded with a dull echo, already clutching his throat. “Why did you come here?”

“The first time to commit suicide,” Daniel admitted honestly. Now his already past desire can fatally come true if nothing is done. It is a pity that the murderer attacked him belatedly, and not before he got sick of dying. “But the second time I came here to…”

“Find out how she died.”

“Sort of,” Daniel croaked. He was gasping for breath, dense claws began to choke him, while only lightly pressing on his throat, but the air was suddenly not enough.

At this point, the final murder scene was taking place in the film. But instead of a beautiful angel head rolling across the floor, this time he saw a dazzling golden monster. At first, he crawled only in the corner of the screen, then the image scale increased. Suddenly entering the frame, the creature suddenly expanded to fill the entire screen. Its claws scraped with a heartbreaking sound and it seemed that they were about to emerge from the film. Probably, Daniel only thought that their edges slipped over the edge of the screen.

It’s time to get out of here, flashed through his head. Someone in red behind him just loosened his grip. Probably, he, too, stared at the creature ready to crawl into the auditorium. The illusion that the movie was about to end and it would burst in here was so real that it became scary. But someone from behind was not afraid, he just seemed to be waiting for this creature. A chuckle was heard behind. It was as if fire breathed in the face from the screen. The creature’s eyes looked into the auditorium. They were bright emerald green against the golden bones of the face. Then they began to sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow, like a kaleidoscope. Looking at them is like getting hit hard on the head. The look seemed to shock. Daniel quickly wriggled out of the black claws and rushed to the exit from the auditorium. Something crawled behind him, and so on to the very doors, until he bumped into the marble back of an angel standing there. Amazingly, the angel really turned out to be marble. Not a mannequin, not a papier-mâché doll, but a heavy massive statue, like in a cemetery. It is strange how Daniel did not bump into it at the entrance, because it stood almost right next to the doors.

As soon as he left the threshold, it turned out that no one was chasing him. Maybe someone in a red robe was just a joker or an unemployed actor who wandered around the cinema, trying to show his talent at least here. The claws could be false. It is a pity that they left a rather deep mark on the neck.

Daniel looked for Alais, but she was nowhere to be seen. He came here partly because he really wanted to see her again.

Only Cordelia was here today. She laid out cool paraphernalia for the upcoming Halloween on a table in the vestibule: severed fingers and ears, and a set of bloodied needles of various sizes. It all looked pretty realistic. Daniel wonder if she’s going to sew such ridiculous decorations to her dress. Or will she trade them right here before the horror movie starts, when more of the audience comes? Is there ever a lot of people here? Every time he came, everything was empty.