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A tree from ashes

 
“Stain a tree with blood,
Let her into this world!”
 

So the children sang in a round dance. Probably, he only fancied in the light of the moon that they all had deathly pale faces, empty eyes and very sharp needle-like teeth under bloodless lips. And what kind of parents would let their children go out so late at night? Are they all from an orphanage, which eventually became impoverished? Will they start begging soon? But they only sang and looked like ghosts.

Daniel nevertheless ran his hand into the pocket of his jacket in search of the little things that were lying there, but he came across only a razor blade and injured his fingers. The pain burned. Despite the dulling sensations of the night’s cold, the pain itself was razor sharp. He recalled inappropriately that as a child, he had been injured on the beach on broken glass a long time ago. It lay at the bottom. In the water, the wound did not even ache, but it was worth getting out on the shore, and the torment became intolerable. Likewise, after leaving the cinema, suddenly the desire to shine and suicide returned.

Enough! Not everything in life is lost yet. He still has a chance to fix everything, even the last one, but it must be used.

“Someone before you thought so too, so they called her, him, them… How can you call it?”

Some kid teasing him hiding behind the roadside trees? Daniel decided to check it, but did not find anyone in the thickets. The only children he noticed continued to dance very far away from him. Moreover, they played right on the highway. At any moment, a car can pass and run over them all? It doesn’t matter that the highway running between the small towns is now deserted. What if a truck or a bus emerges from behind a bend? Even any cyclist or motorcyclist can cause irreparable damage to the guys if he runs into them at this late hour. He need to warn them, or better yet, drive them off the road. Daniel was about to shout at them, but the silhouettes of the children’s round dance became more and more ghostly. It seemed that now they will dissolve in the light of the moon.

Better not to go to them. Suddenly they are all young patients from some lost in the wilderness of a psychiatric asylum. Maybe they even escaped from there. How else to explain such strange behavior, in such a dangerous place, and even at such a late time. And there is, as luck would have it, not a single adult who can explain anything to him. There is not even anyone who could give directions. If the charging on the smartphone had not ended, he would have called a taxi long ago. And so he had to wander along unfamiliar roads, in search of a way to the parking lot where he left his car. Most likely, he went in the wrong direction, because the surrounding places became more and more muffled. No hope of bumping into the settlement ahead. Hence, we must go in the opposite direction.

And it occurred to him to go to an abandoned cinema for the night looking, without a guide who knew the area and, in the end, even without a navigator. He would have happily hiked back now, but the back road was deserted. And the children’s counting-book was still ringing in my ears. The chant sounded ominous.

 
“Stain a tree with blood,
Let me into this world!”
 

It was already a woman’s voice, but it also somewhat resembled a child’s. Some amazing spontaneity. She spoke of blood as something completely natural. It? Who exactly? He did not see anyone, although he looked around. And the voice sounded in his head. Is he hallucinating? There was no need to go alone to such a questionable place. After all, Daniel had heard that people were going crazy after visiting that cinema, so now it was closed, but he still went in and saw the marble angel. The angel signaled him to be silent. Wasn’t it all a hallucination? The two girls were definitely alive, and the invitation to the session, received from them, was still in his pocket, proving that he had not dreamed of meeting them. Flirting with beauties is normal, even in a strange place, but the statue that comes to life is more reminiscent of a nightmare.

Daniel looked to see if any vehicle would pass along the highway. Someone has to let him down in exchange for an autograph or for a generous payment. Only nobody was in a hurry.

And the darkness around was deepening. Together with the discharged smartphone, the flashlight, the navigator, the compass, and even the cellular connection went off. It would not be bad to call someone now and ask for help. Although the situation is funny. He is a grown man and suddenly he cannot find his way. This had never happened to him before. And now it was like the devil was leading him astray. And these strange voices from the thickets… He definitely heard voices! Not one, but many.

“Blood for the roots!”

“Blood for her!”

“Blood for the captives!”

“Blood for those who are imprisoned in the bark!”

“Your blood!”

These someone smelled his blood like predators! Why then do they have human voices? But he did not see faces. And nowhere were there even wandering lights about which there are terrible beliefs in the villages, supposedly they lure travelers into swamps or to a cliff.

So who is talking to him? He hasn’t been drunk for a long time, so that he imagines it. The alcohol weathered away, but even in a drunken state, Daniel had no such illusions. In addition, unlike most movie stars, he never dabbled in drugs or suffered from severe mental disorders in his life. He even had a desire for suicide for quite objective reasons: career failure and debts! He still did not suffer from any painful visions.

The instinct of self-preservation prompted him to run away from here. But where? All around is an empty highway and dense thickets on its outskirts. By the way, a voice called from the thickets again. Surprised that this time he called by name. As if there was no acting nickname behind which the young man hid for many years, hiding the vicious secrets of his family. A voice clearly pronounced his real baptismal name.

“Daniel!”

The children’s round dance had long since disappeared from sight, but the moonlight drew some bizarre signs on the road. Somebody said.

“You need to cut your veins near a tree or kill someone so that the blood sprinkles the roots. Lightning will flash, gates will open somewhere more beautiful than which you have never seen, and she will come. You want to kneel in front of her too, right? How is everything before you? Remember that we will all come after her. Just let us in!”

Daniel turned around, jerking to grab the one behind. The feeling was that some teenager stood on tiptoe and could hardly reach his ear to give delusional instructions. Sounds like a cruel joke! But where is the joker himself? Behind Daniel, of course, it was empty. And there is nowhere to hide, except thickets.

The voices were still calling him. Now from somewhere in the depths of the thickets. It is dangerous to go there. But he turned like a fool. You need to behave like a daredevil at least once in your life. This is reckless, you can fall into a trap or a trap set for hares. Daniel did not think about it because he noticed faces in the dark. A whole host of faces who grimaced, laughed, shouted, writhed in agony or hysteria. And all these faces were carved into the trunk of a huge age-old tree. The ash-colored bark did not need the beams of a flashlight, because it somehow flickered. Daniel could see every detail. The inscriptions embossed on the bottom of the bark read: Memorial to the fall! Monument to the uprising! Monument to the fall! Tree of the fall! House of ashes! Ashes of Alais’s army!

What does all this mean? Each inscription was located at a short distance from the other, but for some reason the feeling was created that they all mean the same thing.

The entire trunk along the perimeter was excised by faces, figures, the outlines of wings, which seemed to be about to burst from the bark and flap. Even the large bitches and branches were trimmed in the shape of heads and horned faces. Not a tree, but a whole museum in the forest. Can there be a student of a sculptor or woodcarver who practices away from people on the first material that comes across? Get someone genius enough to make fantasy figures for movies! His woodwork was truly epic.

Just what kind of tree is this? Elm? Beech? Ash? Or just a group of accreted secular trees? More like the latter. The tree was about the size of a large house. How long does it take to get around it from all sides?

“Just don’t go around, otherwise you will join us ahead of time.”

“Better use the blade. You’ve already started cutting yourself!”

“Finish what you started!”

“And she will come!”

Did the faces speak? There is no one besides them! But they are silent! Their lips never seemed to move. Daniel touched one of the faces with his fingers and gasped in pain. The impression was as if a wooden mouth, open either in a scream or in a throat, bit him. There was a smear of ash on my finger. Where is the ash on the bark? Was there a fire here? But nothing nearby burned down. All the trees around are intact, and the smell of burning is not felt. And there is ash. And there is a lot of it. It is worth touching a tree with your hand, and all the skin is in ashes. And the bark under the palm vibrates, as if the figures inside it move and are torn to freedom. They are all winged, clawed, horned, in a word, monstrous – as soon as they break free, they will sweep away the whole world.

Better to get out of here. Blood from his finger dripped onto the roots, and they vibrated in a strange way. Daniel got entangled in them, but it felt like they were gripping his feet. As he had not noticed before that the tree has such powerful roots, which, moreover, protrude from the soil and curl up in balls like thick snakes.

One leg got stuck in the roots so hard that it was not possible to free it without losing the boot. Daniel backed away, and whispers and rustling emanated from the bark, dotted with many faces and figures. It looks like the rustling of hundreds of wings. But definitely not wooden, but alive! One face of the winged creature at the top of the trunk was unusually attractive, but it also seemed to him the most sinister. An instant and wooden eyes flew open. His bark lips twisted into a smile.

He had enough impressions for tonight, Daniel decided, deftly stepping over the stirring roots. Their movements were sluggish.

“He shed too little blood!”

The young man himself plugged his ears so as not to hear the tempting voice and ran away, leaving the lost boot in his roots.

The boots were expensive. Well, let! They are not the last in his life. But life itself can be lost if you continue to hang out in such dubious places.

Some well-wisher, capable of taking him to the city, showed up only closer to morning. He did not recognize the celebrity he met, but he willingly talked about the boredom of local life, but as soon as he asked him about the ghost trees and children’s mental hospitals nearby, the driver quickly tried to get Daniel out of his wretched SUV.

The guy got to the pavilion, where the shooting will begin today, half asleep and in only one surviving boot. His head was buzzing, he himself staggered slightly. Affected night wakefulness. They didn’t even have makeup done. Why waste efforts in vain on someone who will soon faint.

“Go sleep it off! In the meantime, we will shoot scenes with Jane,” the director advised him. “But tomorrow, be kind, get in shape. You don’t want someone to replace you, do you?”

“This someone will have to travel here for a long time, and there is a risk that he will get lost on the way,” retorted Daniel.

“Not everyone drinks as much as you!”

“True, many people prefer to indulge in much more harmful drugs than just alcohol.”

The director had nothing to answer to this, so he pretended not to notice Daniel’s usual impudence and generally did not have free time to continue the argument.

Daniel glanced at the unfamiliar, but very famous woman who will play with him in pairs. It’s good if this pair relationship is not forced to save after filming. Jane looked predatory. He didn’t like her at once. But he had to pretend that he, too, admired her. A young woman with connections like hers was simply doomed to become a star. And it doesn’t matter how much money her patrons spent on bribing the press and critics. Daniel had heard about her for a long time and naturally imagined her to be very capricious. For some reason she, finding herself in this wilderness, did not express her indignation in any way. But she clearly wanted to flirt with him. As soon as he arrived, she winked at him. Daniel ignored this. A lot of unfamiliar employees were turning around on the set. Someone he knew, most of the people he saw for the first time. A lot of local people were hired as extras, who had never stood in front of the camera before to save money. Amateurs are ready to film just for thanks. Yesterday we had a casting all day. Daniel looked around the unknown faces. Which one is definitely local? Who can you talk to about that eerie tree?

It seems the guard at the exit, Kai, is like a local citizen. Daniel sat down next to him during the break, drink coffee and chat a little. One autograph, handshake, and friendship struck.

“Before, I only starred in action films: both modern and historical. Well, sometimes in dramas. This is the first horror film in my practice. I worry. I have never been in my life even in a house where rumored to be ghosts.”

“There is no such house in the whole city,” Kai admitted.

“But there is a tree. I heard. The tree to which sacrifices are allegedly made,” in fact, he could not say for sure. The voices that sounded in the dark could hardly be mistaken for city gossip, but the guard tensed.

“There was a tree,” he recalled. “A teenage boy committed suicide under that tree.”

“How?”

“It is important?” the guard was surprised.

“How?” Daniel insisted.

“I opened his veins.”

Blood stains the tree… Daniel raised his fingers to his temples. The head was bursting.

“Come to us!” voices from the tree sounded very close. But there are no thickets near the pavilion. Here, flower beds with rare flowers are almost invisible.

“And under that tree they killed a famous actor, a well-known sex symbol,” said the manager, who obviously went out to smoke and found the two of them talking. The guard immediately hurried back to his post, and Daniel looked lazily at the elderly man. He that thus prophesies the fate of today’s unlucky sex symbol. Or is he just joking? But the manager continued without irony.

“His adorers then took scores with their lives at the place of his death.”

“That is, under the same tree.”

“Well yes.”

“Why didn’t I know about it before I came to such a gloomy city?”

“Because you are never interested in anything.”

“And what was the name of that celebrity who died here such an inglorious death before me?”

“Who cares? You barely remember even those you are filming with in pairs. But friendship with them is your chance to create additional advertising for yourself.”

He was clearly hinting at Jane.

“You’d better tell me more about that tree,” Daniel cleverly changed the subject.

The manager shrugged.

“Usually the trees on which someone hanged themselves are immediately cut down so that others do not have a desire to repeat it. An old belief! It is believed that such trees spread negative energy and inspire others with the same desire. But no one hung on that tree. People only cut the veins underneath. Blood flowed to the roots. The tree itself is stupid to blame for mass suicide. Simply, actresses and actors are often at odds with their own psyche. Yes, and their life is tense, today you are a star, and tomorrow your roles are given to others, how not to throw a tantrum and not attempt suicide. And there was only one fault on the tree: it was too close to the film studio and looked quite defiant, it looked very much like a set for a horror movie.

“Where is this tree?”

“Somewhere!” the manager suddenly laughed. “If it exists at all. In my opinion, these could be different trees, and everything else is a fiction of the local press. Losers will find a way to commit suicide. Try not to become one of them. And the tree – I personally think it’s a myth.

“Not a myth,” Daniel tensed. “I saw it.”

The recognition cost him a lot, but the interlocutor was not at all impressed.

“Do not think about the trees of Lucifer, it is better to study the scenario about a nobleman who has just returned to his estate from the war and about a devil that he accidentally released. Have you already got used to your role?”

Daniel glanced briefly at the sheets of text that were thrown into his lap.

“What’s wrong?”

He noticed a strange detail just now.

“According to the script, the hero’s name is Rozovsky,” Daniel read uncertainly. And from which he had not discovered it before. You need to carefully review everything in advance: both scripts and documents.

“So what? For a Russian, the surname is quite suitable.”

But it was precisely this surname that his real family bore. Does this mean that the whole story is taken from the annals of his ancestors?

“We will not change the name of the hero,” the director declared in an indisputable tone. “It is taken from a real nobleman who lived and died in those days.”

“Killed?” Daniel didn’t like it at once.

“But the story itself is fantastic.”

“And what does not suit you?”

“Yes, so…” it was not in his habits to be cowardly in front of omens. What you play will repeat in life. He didn’t really believe it. Nevertheless, I knew such actors who refuse some tragic roles, often to their detriment. But who told him that the ending of this scenario is tragic? By the way, he never finished reading the script.

Film about the golden creature

Daniel arrived much earlier than twelve. Although the invitation, as he recently considered, was designated precisely this time. His blood soaked into the cardboard, and the letters and numbers were visible again. The block letters had an unusual look with curls. What printer can this be printed on? Reminds of calligraphy of the last century. It’s strange why Cordelia didn’t say right away that the time of the session was still definite.

It was so dark at the entrance that Daniel had to turn on the flashlight in his smartphone to see the road. Some animals, remotely resembling bats and lizards, darted underfoot. The graceful figures of the sphinxes at the entrance gleamed gold even in the dark. How beautiful they are! Half lions, half women with crafty faces. Daniel wanted to touch them with his hand, but he noticed that a rat with a ripped throat was stuck between the pedestal and the claws of one of the sphinxes. The impression was as if the sphinx caught it and crushed it with his paw. The gilded claws were stained with blood.

It’s just a dead pest! But Daniel for some reason immediately felt creepy and unpleasant. There was a dim light inside the theater itself. The fountain in the lobby was working. Near the lotus in its center, lights were turned on, and the streams of water were painted alternately in all the colors of the rainbow.

The angel statues were rearranged so that only one of them stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the cinema halls. The other six figures were placed right on the steps, at a great distance from each other. Each sculpture is one step higher than the previous one. It seemed that they flew up there on their own and deliberately avoided each other. Unusual decor! And everything is so luxurious. Truly a VIP zone! But why doesn’t anyone at the entrance ask for an invitation? And why are there no other visitors here? Have they already entered the hall?

The absence of guards was also striking. Since the cinema is still functioning, it must be guarded so that, for example, a gang of hooligans does not break in here. Daniel even doubted that the invitation to the session was not a joke, because there were no attendants around at all. Only flocks of blue moths nested in the corners of the floor and ceiling. The rustle of their wings made his head ache. Apart from them, there is no one in the whole building.

Daniel stretched out his hand to the flock fluttering in the corner, and immediately felt painful bites to blood. Moths don’t bite! This is against the rules of nature. And their wings definitely cannot be blue.

Cordelia came out of the hallway leading to the cinemas suddenly. Behind her evening gown was a long train, all made of blue butterflies. Silk? Yes, they are alive. They flutter. How did she sew them. Alive? Or it seems to him. He didn’t drink today. I didn’t want to fall asleep during the session, moreover, in such a strange place, far from the city. Who knows, suddenly he will be cut alive here himself, if he doze off and become vulnerable.

“Everyone here is vulnerable.”

And again voices in his head. What’s with him? Now he is no longer standing by the creepy tree, but the feeling is as if his hands are still in the ashes from the bark.

:Come on! Coming soon!” the girl did not even greet him and did not even throw a cursory glance at the invitation, which he nervously crumpled in his hands.

“They don’t even guard the doors,” Daniel complained.

“So what,” she casually waved her hand, on which a scarab bracelet flashed. The adornment looked like a very ancient museum item.

“There is no fear of a terrorist attack, robbery, hooliganism?”

“There is nothing more to be afraid of!” Cordelia walked forward along the corridor without even turning around.

“I’m sorry what?”

“We have good security. Do not worry!”

“But I didn’t see anyone.”

“You have nothing. You came to watch a movie, not meet the guards.”

She was obviously teasing him, although how could she know that this morning he met the guard specifically in order to inquire about the local creepy sights.

“By the way, what’s the name of the film?”

“Didn’t you read the title on the invitation?”

The question shocked him. He was ashamed to admit that he did not understand the words that were printed there. From the sight of the letters either his head began to ache, or it seemed that these were not letters at all, but some obscure symbols and hieroglyphs. Indeed, he needs to drink less. His director is right.

Before entering the cinema, Daniel dropped his smartphone. How embarrassing! One movement, and the means of cellular communication with the world immediately shattered to smithereens. Now, even if they begin to kill him inside, he will not be able to call and warn anyone. Everything seems to be calculated in advance?! Daniel immediately dismissed the thought. No one is to blame that he did not get enough sleep that he had everything to fall out of hand. Some of his former agents liked to admonish him that the most important thing for a star is to get enough sleep in order to properly control his actions. Not having enough sleep, you look worse, and play badly, and you can blurt out something completely unnecessary to the public or journalists. And now, from fatigue, he controlled himself so badly that he could smash his head against the door lintel, and not just a smartphone.

“I’m not going further with you,” she said at the door. “There is no spare place left for me.”

“But there are plenty of places!” Daniel saw from the doorway that the whole hall was empty.

“There’s only one invitation for you,” Cordelia explained to the dull.

“And what does it change? The seats are all unoccupied, and there are five minutes left before the session, no more. Usually, in cinemas, no one is acting up, if a more convenient place is free, then the audience can easily change seats on it. Apart from special screenings, the auditorium is never completely occupied at movie shows. And here there are just no guards who will expose the free rider.” Why is Cordelia hugging so tight? Is she too proud to enter without a ticket?

“Anyone else coming?” Daniel asked after all. “Or I’m the only guest.”

“Take your seat and wait for the beginning,” she nodded dryly.

“Where is my place?” he didn’t even look at the invitation. Since Cordelia is here in charge of the controller, then let him conduct it herself. But she did not step into the hall. She just explained:

“In the very center!”

And that’s it! Her chic train of butterflies rustled behind the slammed doors. Daniel felt trapped as they closed. It looks like there will be no more spectators. The whole room is empty. The screen is blank. No one is around. Only the luxurious rows of chairs upholstered in purple velvet. The hall itself is good! It’s beautiful here, like at the royal court. The velvet is clearly real! The walls are gilded. The curtains at the entrance are also velvet. More like a sophisticated theater than a movie. But the blank screen in the center spoils the impression.

An animal slipped between the rows. He nearly fell as it ran over his leg.

He did not immediately notice the seven marble winged figures, which were scattered on the sides of the auditorium and one even at the stage. Did they come here themselves? Or are they just duplicates of the statues he saw at the entrance? It seems that there is nothing surprising in the fact that such eerie decorations are present here as well. It was more fitting for them to stand in a crypt or in a cemetery. Monuments on graves are most often decorated with such sculptures. Although here they may turn out to be just papier-mâché mannequins, light decor details. The appearance of marble is probably only an illusion. He wanted to get up and touch them to check it, but for some reason he did not dare. The beautiful white faces of the angels looked so sinister, especially when combined with pointed ears and long claws on white fingers. And their smiles are too predatory. It seems that they see everything with their empty white eyes without pupils.

Daniel turned away from the figures. For some reason he immediately got sick of watching the film in their presence. This will not be a session, but hell. It feels like seven white pieces are watching him closely. And why are there exactly seven of them, as well as in front of the entrance? Does this number mean something?

He did glance at them again. The light had already started to go out. The figures at the end of the rows were indistinguishable, but the same mystical decorations suddenly appeared in the seats of the auditorium – winged statues sitting right in the chairs and made so skillfully that their hands lay flat on the armrests, and their wings surrounded the back of the chair. There were also exactly seven seated figures, and they were scattered throughout the hall at a decent distance from each other. Well, the decoration came out of them cool and mysterious, but why didn’t he notice them when he entered? All the chairs a minute ago were empty. Or did the figures become visible only in the darkness? Did some kind of lighting turn on inside them? They are slightly phosphorescent. And if they had just been dragged into place, then why did he not hear any noise. He never went deep into his thoughts so that he did not notice anything around him. And now, Daniel noted that the light went out too suddenly. Usually in the cinema it is extinguished in stages, allowing the audience to get used to the semi-darkness, and then suddenly full darkness came at once. Only the figures in the chairs shone. Their presence was very uncomfortable. They are not alive, but the feeling was that they themselves flew here.

The instinct of self-preservation actively warned that they would now attack him. Someone walked through the rows. Daniel clearly heard footsteps and the grinding of metal on the floor, but turning around, he could not make out in the darkness even just a vague silhouette of the controller. But one of the angelic figures suddenly turned its head right at him. More precisely, he did not see how it turned its head, but before all the angels looked at the screen, and not in the direction of the chairs. And now, suddenly, one of the marble faces stared straight at him. The angel was sitting right in his row, only a dozen chairs away. Has he really sat here before? When Daniel took his place, the whole row was definitely empty. The feeling was that the next moment the marble fingers would touch the arm of his chair and squeeze his hand until he fainted.

Everything could be attributed to the 3D effect, but the film has not even started yet, and Daniel himself has no glasses. Or are there special ways to impress the viewer in this privileged area?

From somewhere behind there was the mechanical rustle of a spinning reel. A golden scarab was crawling across the screen. How did he get there? No, it’s not real. Daniel looked more closely. In fact, the show has already begun. The screen lit up, as if some gates had opened from within. No commercials before the movie starts. Amazing! The credits went straight away. He had never seen a gold title before. And the letters are strange. He couldn’t read them. Or double in his eyes? The scarab crawled between credits in every frame.

Someone touched Daniel on the shoulder. He did not turn, fearing to see that one of the statues was already standing right behind him. Better not to spoil your nerves once again. All the same, the doors of the hall are now closed, there is nowhere to run. Until the session is over, it is worth enjoying the film. However, instead of enjoyment, many questions arose. At the beginning something like “Lady of the Pharaohs” flashed in the credits. Strange, but still understandable. Probably, it was about some kind of goddess. But the next line, highlighted in especially large print “And his name is Dennitsa” evoked frightening associations. Dennitsa is one of the names of the devil, it seems, the one under which he gained fame in paradise. The name of the most beautiful angel! Bible! Daniel remembered some of it. But how are the biblical devil and Ancient Egypt connected? In those days, no one had ever heard of the Bible. Therefore, no one knew about the devil either.