Chapter 7. Another Man
Another man came over and started talking.He was more serious than the first one.
Shorter.
Dressed like anyone else.
Nothing unusual. Nothing luxurious.
Just ordinary.
He talked, but he rarely smiled.
His eyes kept moving.
They did not settle on one person for long. Instead, was wandering around the room, as though he was observing everything at once.
There was something about him that felt artificial.
As if he were pretending to be someone else.
He seemed too serious for a birthday party.
His energy felt sharp. Focused. Controlled.
He nodded from time to time and listened to the conversations, yet it never felt as though he truly cared.
Then, suddenly, he turned toward the hallway.
He became completely still.
It looked as though he were listening to something beyond the room.
Listening to the air itself.
A moment later, without saying much, he quietly walked away.
The Third Man
The third man was older and heavier.
He was trying very hard to look younger.
Very hard.
But I could still see his age.
His pale skin, hs face, his hands.
With him, I began to talk.
Unlike the others, he seemed genuinely interested in conversation.
At first, he asked simple questions.
Then deeper ones.
The longer we talked, the more confident I became.
Before that, I had been shy.
With him, speaking became easy.
He switched from one language to another and spoke about books and world literature.
I answered every question.
The conversation flowed naturally.
Meanwhile, the women were watching.
They did not appear relaxed.
They were not pretending to enjoy the party. To me, they were always old women, grandmas.
They watched the men carefully.
As though something might happen at any moment.
As though they were ready. Their eyes were sharp. They were on their own territory and controlled everything.
Chapter 8. My Childhood Friend
One of the women at the party was my childhood friend.
Most afternoons after school, we played together outside.
We ran through abandoned houses, climbed unfinished construction sites, hid in quiet corners, or sat on the playground talking with our friends.
She was older than I was.
She always dressed like a tomboy.
After the party, we talked about what had happened. Quietly and mostly secretly.
At first, there seemed to be nothing unusual to say.
Everything had felt perfectly normal.
Only when I began asking questions, who those men were and what she thought of them, her answers surprise me.
She said they were not who they claimed to be.
Not really.
Her words stayed with me.
"I liked only one, the most friendly",- she whispered. I noticed his talks around everyone, people nodded listening to him. This man looked friendly, talking about life overall, news, history, books.
He wore a lilac jacket.
His nose reminded me of a bird's beak, and two thin lines framed his mouth.
Soon afterward, my friend left the city.
For several years, I did not see her.
When she returned, she was different.
Not a little different. Completely different.
She looked different, she spoke differently.
Her clothes, her hair. Even her face.
She reminded me of a princess from an old Persian fairy tale. Black silk. Jewelry. Grace.
Distance. She still had the same name.
But she no longer felt like the same person. And she left the city again.
Chapter 9.
"Rivers of Honey".
“Rivers of honey,” - a voice said dreamily.
“What?”- I asked, surprised that something was there, in this unknown portal where I was looking sometimes before playing the lottery at work.
“Rivers of honey,” - the voice repeated.
The voice felt happy.
Not just the sound. The feeling behind it. The spirit was happy, and that feeling reached me.
I wasn’t planning to talk.
Looking into portals was not new for me. I would look for a few minutes, just to see if something could be found, maybe numbers, something useful.
But this voice made me stop.
After a few minutes, I had to leave.
The next day, I came back.
Not for the lottery.
Only to see what the spirit wanted.
The happiness pulled me back.
The spirit didn’t ask again.
It showed me something small.
An oval shape, like a balloon, with a thin line coming from it.
Then I saw a woman.
She looked to be in her thirties. She was standing in a room with peeling walls. The wallpaper was falling off, showing smooth, light concrete.
Men in worn clothes were standing at the door, trying to close it.
In the middle of the room, there was a wooden table.
A child was sitting on it, a boy.
The woman was still smiling.
The room was broken, but it felt bright.
The child was smiling too.
Then I had to leave again.
The next day, I returned.
“I will help you,” - I said.
But I didn’t understand how.
And after that, I didn’t see the portal again.
Chapter 10. The Ring
The next day, toward evening, an idea came to me.
The small "Saturn" I had seen was not a planet.
It was a soul.
A dark sphere surrounded by something that looked like a shield.
Around it was a ring.
The ring was made of two souls holding each other, forming a perfect circle.
Bright. Shining.
They sent light into the space around them, like moving colors.
One of the souls wanted to leave.
I could feel it.
"Not like them," a voice seemed to whisper.
As soon as she had the chance, she let go.
Then her story began to unfold.
I saw a woman.
Beautiful and legant, rich.
She wore a fur poncho.
Her blond hair was carefully styled.
Her makeup was flawless.
Jewelry completed the picture.
Everything about her looked perfect.
She stood beside a man.
She looked at him with trust.
With admiration.
Together they walked downstairs.
The man hesitated.
He reached toward her shoulder.
But another hand stopped him.
They entered a room.
She slipped off her fur poncho.
Beneath it she wore a cream-colored blouse and a black skirt.
Then everything became unclear.
A figure appeared. Pale.
Wrapped, as though covered in strips of cloth.
It moved slowly.
The woman stood perfectly still.
The figure remained beside her.
Where one eye should have been, I saw a blue shape.
The woman's hands moved behind her back.
Something seemed to tie them.
Then the vision disappeared.
After that, I saw a man pouring alcohol into a glass. Again and again.
The second soul was also a woman.
She was younger, stronger. Different, curious, allive.
She stood smiling in front of a painting, pretending to be part of it.
Then she ran through a large house.
Moments later she stood quietly at a window.
A man was behind her.
Neither of them spoke.
Suddenly she began to cry, leaning toward him.
Gently, he pushed her away.
She stepped back.
White flowers rested in her hands.
He walked away.
She remained where she was.
Another man told her to go inside.
She nodded.
Her soul was part of the ring.
Whenever she tried to move closer to the dark sphere, something appeared.
Burned hands.
Reaching toward her. Voices.
Overlapping.
She became frightened.
She stepped back into the light.
The shield surrounding the dark sphere seemed to be something else entirely.
I saw an ancient king.
He appeared only for a moment before riding away.
A storm rose around him.
In the middle of winter.
He wore a crown.
Armor.
A sword hung in his hand.
Everything moved.
Everything became loud.
Everything felt powerful. And all disappeared under the thunderstorm.
