The Mist and the Lightning. Part 11
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Karina was silent.
“Good. Then he was bullied in prison for a year, this, of course, is an unpleasant fact. But I also sat in the Reds' prison and they mocked me too, I was not raped, however, who needed me, I’m not so handsome. But they beat me, they kept me in a tight shackle as a very dangerous criminal, on bread and water. Then in a cramped cage. They cut off my finger! Does anyone ever remember this? Everyone remembers that, fuck it, they painted Arel’s face with gray paint and cut off his hair! Disgraced the noble gentleman! Fuck it!”
Lis extended his hand to Karina, which was missing a little finger:
“Do you see this?! Nobody ever remembers this! I couldn’t move in my shackles, immobilized in complete darkness, my vision didn’t fully recover after that, I began to see worse and can no longer shoot as aimed as before. Nobody gives a shit! Because Arel was raped, and he ate shit.”
“Lis, please don't…”
“Let's go further! What other humiliations I went through while I was wandering around restless, okay, let's skip it. I got to Arel, he reigned, and no one mocked him at that time. On the contrary, he mocked others as he wanted. He whipped them. Toby slit his mouth open. He also humiliated me, everyone knows that he put a strip of jester on me, although I was not guilty of anything, but Arel just wanted to. I still have a scar from it, all over my face! Nobody ever remembers this, although it is visible! What difference does it make? Make fun of the red-headed half-breed, throw a stone in the head! He humiliated me in the castle as he wanted, he was not touched. Now, very recent events: Arel again was raped in prison. He was beaten and fucked again. And… damn it, me too! They beat me every day, knocked out all of my teeth, broke all the ribs and all the fingers and toes. Before the court everything was corrected, and even then, that half of the face, which was turned into a mess, didn’t fully recover. And even at the trial it was clear that I was beaten. And they raped me. Not a king with lords as a prince. Just dirty criminals and soldiers. And they pissed on my head too. The only thing is that I didn't eat shit, and thanks for that! They were not so snazzy and, apparently, rarely shit. Therefore, the Gods had mercy. But Arel has been stuffed with shit a couple of times in his entire life, and shit has been pouring on me forever since birth! In front of me, no one bowed, didn’t breathe out: “Prince! Prince, how handsome he is! Descendant of the royal family!” It's not a pity to swallow a couple of pieces of shit for such words! And I was just fucked. Everyone humiliated me all my life! And Arel again humiliated me, painted me like a clown, I resigned myself, you saw that he, and then Nikto made a jester out of me. Arel now wears a nose ring, think about it! I wore bells, I wear the same shit! Nikto humiliates and torments me the same way. Is not it so? I suck and I get fucked whenever they want. How am I better than Arel? Why does it seem to everyone that Arel is being bullied, but not me? Wasn't I even more bullied? Isn't my life the same series of bullying? But you can't see it from me, right? I don’t look humiliated and pathetic, even when painted like a jester. Everyone feels sorry for Arel, but not for me. What difference does it make to me what else they make me wear, take in my mouth. Anything! You are welcome! The prince is a true descendant of the black ancestors – this is victory, success! Half-blood red is a shame, a failure.”
“Please, please stop! Arel for this title, by order of the king, was made sterile,” Karina tried to object somehow, so that it would not seem to Lis that all the bad things happened only to him. “He paid dearly for his nobility.”
“Well, yes,” Lis threw down a cigarette, out of habit, immediately lighting up the next one from her. “But I have a lot of children, according to Nikto, and all from whores and slaves!”
“But you yourself are to blame, you play very hard, you yourself understand it. You yell at Nikto, you call him names. You are very cocky. So you get it,” Karina decided not to develop the topic about his children.
“My wonderful good life made me so, and I will remain so!”
“Stop smoking.”
Karina hugged him, and he didn’t pull away.
“I love you for that! You will become king!”
“And Arel will become a Demon!”
“Well, Lis, well enough. Stop being jealous of him.”
Lis covered his face with his palms:
“That’s all. Sorry. I won't anymore.”
After a while, Nikto brought everyone back. They again stood in the center of the room in the old witch’s cave. And Nikto clumsily sank to the floor and groaned:
“Oh, damn…”
The difference between the way he was in his limit, and what he was again was too obvious. They got used to him fast, strong, without a scar, with a clean beautiful face. And now his face was disfigured again because of Karina's brother. Nikto covered it with his hands. He sat hunched over, not moving, as if coming to his senses, getting used to the limitations of a crippled human body.”
“I can’t, I don’t want…”
“Nik,” Lis asked cautiously, “are you now a human or a Demon?”
Nikto removed his hands from his face and looked at Lis:
“I'm now a Demon in a fucking human body and a human face with this fucking scar!”
He ran his fingers over his scarred cheek.
“How I got sick!”
“You just whine and talk like Karina’s brother usually talks.”
“He used to talks so even when he was a Demon,” Arel inserted carefully, the prince’s cheek was sealed in several layers with a black plaster, “he often said so.”
Nikto looked up:
“Don't look at me like that! Don’t!”
He stood up heavily, continuing to quietly pronounce curses in unclean language.
“But you yourself created humans so imperfect,” said Lis.
“I didn’t create people, they were created by the Supreme Demons and the God of the upper ones.”
“The one who was then crucified, as Lila says?”
“Of course not!”
“They crucified, it seems, the son of the god of the upper ones,” Arel said, “and Nikto is the son of the Devil.”
“And he was badly dented too,” said Lis. “Did this son of God also carry out missions among people in a human body?”
“You don’t understand anything in this, don’t meddle! You have your Black Gods, they are given to you, don’t meddle in the world of dark and light.”
“Well, yes, we are mice. We don’t understand the life of higher beings,” said Lis. “Did you create us just to fuck? Well, then you could have made more holes! Or is it just your personal orientation to fuck people, while others, over there, create artificial demons?”
“Yes,” Nikto snapped, “sing, mice, dance, amuse me! Do you see, Lis, that I have not done anything to you, as I promised, neither to you, nor to Karina, you will no longer be afraid to enter my limit?”
“Maybe you erased our memory,” objected Lis, “you always do that. We don’t know how much time has passed, and where we really were and what we were doing. We are not supposed to know this!”
“You are alive, well, say thank you for that too.”
“Thank you.”
“Let's go to the Estate. Only one day has passed here.”
Pulling his lame leg, Nikto walked slowly towards the exit, and his “mice” followed him…
Chapter two
After the Limit
Lis entered the room saturated with the acrid smell of all kinds of “restoratives” and saw Nikto sitting by the mirror. In the twilight and in some kind of stupor, he, looking at his reflection, was concentratingly pricking a strange sign on his forehead.
“What are you doing! What the fuck!” Lis literally threw Nikto away from the mirror, black paint flowed down the bridge of Nikto’s nose. On his forehead was a symbol that Lis couldn’t understand.
“This is the edge,” Lis groaned, “my strength is gone!” He looked at dumb Nikto, whose eyes were completely blank.