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THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 24
Twitching her fingers in alarm, she had a quick bite to eat, washed down breakfast with a few sips from a blue flask, cleaned herself up, and for the opening, prepared the Tea Shop for the arrival of Madame Claudia. Previously, the opening to run and look for a friend did not make any sense. If Andy replaced Charlie, then he sleeps in his bed, and the girl will not be able to find him. Only the plan “yesterday I forgot my thermos in the hall” could help to lure him out. Day of week Wednesday. There will be no customers all day, but Claudia will definitely come, and then it will be possible to run to the cinema and check if Andy is there.The Tea Witch was in no hurry to appear, which caused the Fox to nervously wander from corner to corner. When the tension threatened to reach a critical stage, the doorbell rang.— Good morning, my dear, today is a serious and very important assignment for you! Claudia appeared on the doorstep in an unusually good mood. In her hands, the woman carried
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 25
Tears welled up in the woman's eyes. She exhaled convulsively.- And later I found out that my girls are no longer alive. He didn't make them weird. Pretty young girls he needs for another. After all, he is a man with all ... obscene desires.The water was heated to the right temperature, Lis hastily put a teapot with tea leaves on the counter. Claudia calmed the trembling in her hands, and began the process of traditional brewing, worthy of a cultural show. But the hypnotic process and the movements honed by experience were not enough for the ritual of the correct traditional brewing of tea to distract her from her fiery speech.“He charmed them,” a bitter smile, when the tea was ready, “oh yes! He knows how to do it masterfully! Experience in love games he has for a dozen generations. He played with them like a cat with a mouse. Tempted. After his sweet speeches, I am sure, my bright birds found themselves on his dissolute bed very quickly, and, as they themselves were inspired, qui
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 26
Claudia's words rumbled in her ears like dire prophecies about her immediate future. She did not want to become a garden bed for the Black Hellebore.The gurgling sound got closer and closer as she cautiously stepped forward, until finally a suffocatingly sweet smell hit her nose, somehow subtly familiar. But she did not have time to think about where she could breathe this cloying sweetness. Two barite flashes flashed in front of her and ... she was on fire.Stone walls. My work hangs along the walls. High ceiling. Wooden floors. Desktop with many blanks and my tools. My house. And my house is on fire! My whole life's work is on fire! My masks, blanks, everything melts and turns into nothing right before our eyes, and the flame becomes more and more violent. I am trapped. Burning wooden beams will soon collapse on me, and I am locked up, all around is fire, the heat of which is already melting me. We need to run, but where? The flame is blinding, disorienting, and the rapidly burning
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 27
There was no chance that some familiar nightmare would visit me that night. Alas, the new horrors took a liking to me in the first place, pushing their "colleagues".Fire. The panic that has shackled me does not allow me to move, for the first time nothing tightens my wrists, but this will hardly help me get out of the second floor of my burning house. Everything I love is on fire here. Everything that I live by turns into nothing before my eyes, and the fire is already coming close to me."Get out, gotta get out!" - I think in panic, but where to go if the fire is everywhere?Window? Where is the stairs to the first floor? How to protect yourself from fire? How not to suffocate in the smoke?!The flames are only getting fiercer. And the smoke corrodes the eyes and breaks the lungs, making it difficult to carry out the plan for one's own salvation. Without looking at the road, I move somewhere, feeling the heat everywhere. The realization beats in my head that if the windows burst, th
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 28
A hot, like a hot coal, hand, with a lightning movement, put into her palm a flask-flask familiar with every irregularity, the loss of which she discovered the night before. Complete and already open. A flash of crazy hope drove them away, dissatisfied with such impudence , only for a moment, but this moment was enough to drink everything from the flask in one gulp, and, pressing it to his chest, finally fall to the floor of the Circus, rolling onto his back.- One! she croaked, feeling her body trembling in convulsions begin to freeze.- Two! The right arm began to feel numb.- Three! - Precious oxygen quickly flew into the lungs with a promise that the struggle is not over, but life goes on.However, such a promise on the thatched floor of the dark tent of the Devil's Circus sounded like a mockery. Nightmare memories that haunt her every night that she chose not to tell Claudia about. Nocturnal animals that even after ten months will not miss their chance to tear her body into pate.
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 29
"Devil!" Bad suspicions began to form as she shook her head.“It helped drive them away. I didn’t ask,” she murmured to the growing beating of her heart, her eyes wide with horror.“Idiot, what stopped me from asking?!”“Perhaps this tincture by itself can ward off… Them , but it has one extra ingredient added to it. Black Frostbite. Now, Alice, you better tell the truth! - the voice of the Man did not tolerate objections, but the girl was not going to rebel and nodded stifledly. At what point did you start having nightmares? Unusual nightmares.- I ... Where are you from ... - Fox squeaked, feeling herself losing ground under her feet.“If you pretend you don’t know what I’m asking about, I’ll make you look me in the eyes!” he threatened in a velvety voice, moving from the chair closer to her to the sofa. — What will you see?- Don't, I'll tell you! I see the flame ! Alice buried herself in her cloak almost to the very eyebrows, as if this could save her. “It all started on the secon
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 30
The city is no better. The fire seemed to have torn off their false guises from the townspeople. Once all the doors were open for me, I was greeted with smiles, thanked for the work, they promised patronage ... now the doors are closed. Nobody smiles. An ugly cripple without a craft. Nobody wants to deal with ugliness, another thing is a beautiful face, fame spanning several cities, wealth and honorable skill. The human soul shows itself to be a rotten, fetid substance. The world is ugly, people are even uglier.“Enough, please, stop! I can not take it anymore!" I can't stand it, trying to get out of this despair. All the pain, all the anger, all of his life goes through me, making me feel absolutely everything, like I'm a naked nerve. My fingers feel it again, but only for a moment, and then the torture session returns. Painfully. Too painful. I try to escape from these memories, but in vain."Please, I want back!"“You've gone too deep. You will have to see everything to return. Be
THE MYSTERY CITY CHAPTER 31
“This is like a dream,” a strange veil begins to tighten my head, but the pressure on my unfortunate scar drives it away.My workshop awaits me in my tent. All burnt tools. Everything that was previously devoured by fire is waiting for me. The cloyingly sweet smell of Black Hellebore wafts through the workshop. A small bouquet is on the table. It's time to create. Create masks. Special masks.I know what to do and I know how to do it. Rub the flower on the inside of the mask. Choose an image that suits the inner ugliness of a person. It is worth putting on a mask, and a person will forget himself. They will merge with the mask, and even the body will change shape. And when the last memories dissolve, there will be no turning back.— Alice?"I remember. I remember who I am! - starts buzzing in my head. My words are only partly true. I'm starting to forget.- Now…Annette's friend is transformed into a spider-like monster by the power of a curse, spreading fear and obsession among young