Читать книгу: «At the demon’s ball. Gothic»

Natalie Yacobson

Шрифт:

Translator Наталья Николаевна Лилиенталь

ISBN 978-5-0051-3438-7

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

SHADOWS BALL

Devilish dreams

In them you are everywhere

Sunny rose

In this eerie darkness.

Eternal spell

Here above the edge of darkness

You are my curse,

Angel of beauty.

Everything around is here forever

Darkness and this blood

You alone are mortal

but only you are my love.

The bright light of lightning for a moment illuminated the castle on the hill. The building was beautiful, majestic, full of dark magic and secrets. How much terrible was in it, how many nightmares that settled there, turned its fabulous beauty into the embodiment of evil.

Running down a narrow stone staircase, Emily once again found herself in a huge hall, plunged into deep darkness. Only the light of lightning and the flickering of the candle threw reflections of a mysterious light on her beautiful face. It seemed that the very night, patronizing this world of nightmares, was laughing at her violent fear and eerie fright. She quickly looked around. There was only anxiety in her heart. The look, darting from side to side in a fit of fear, did not notice anything. But the danger was somewhere nearby. Every rustle made her flinch, like a doe, feeling the pursuit of those who hunt for her life. A sound sounded behind her, and she turned around, alarmed, but behind there was nothing but one ominous darkness and a frantic tremor of her own heart, transmitted to her, making the fluffy skirts of her white ball gown and long curly strands of her blonde hair that stood out from her delicate hairstyle.

She was afraid that they would return again, appear right out of this void, like ghosts, to destroy her once and for all. She thought she deserved their revenge. After all, he gave her this black gift, and she put him to death for the second time. Like instant flashes of lightning, pictures from the recent past flashed in her memory. Now they seemed to her just a dream. However, they were reality itself, as were the glare of flashing lightning. They disappeared like lightning, leaving nothing behind but an oppressive silence, preparing a new burst of dark light. The picture of how she enters the hall, sparkling with her beauty in the bright light of candles and the celebration of the ball, will never disappear from her memory. The crowd parted before her, he came up to her, and she danced with him. She is frightened by his fiery eyes, and then she desperately tries to escape from the circle of the dead or the fiends of hell themselves. It seems impossible for her to escape her own death. Until now, there was a roll of horror itself in her ears, her insane cry of pain and fear. She broke free of their crowd and ran away, but horror flashed in her blue eyes as he blocked her exit from the hall. Then, in a fit of fear, she grabbed that sparkling dagger and plunged it into his heart. Until now, his scarlet blood glowed with pain in her eyes.

Suddenly, in the wild whisper of a thunderstorm in the very silence sounded:

– Emily, Emily, Emily!

Emily looked around anxiously, tears now glistening in her frightened eyes, but why, could she admit it to herself.

Suddenly a dark figure appeared behind her, and clawed paws touched her bare shoulders. She turned around, no one again. Maybe the danger was left behind, or maybe it was already sneaking up on her.

Suddenly, all the candles around them burst into bright fire, filling the huge hall with warm light.

“Emily,” came from behind her, and she turned around. Her fear instantly passed when she saw such a familiar and beautiful face of a young man standing in front of her.

“I can’t bear it any longer,” she said, and her frightened voice echoed with a sonorous echo in the silence of the huge hall, “I don’t want to live in this gloomy fairy tale anymore.

“You don’t want to see the truth, Emily,” he tried to argue.

– No, not me, you don’t see it, – burst out from the beauty, – yes, you saved my life, but you took me to hell on earth. You snatched me out of the hands of my dreams, like a monster from a fairy tale, you threw me into a world of secrets, and now you doubt whether you acted wisely or just in you, at last, pity woke up. But creatures like you are incapable of experiencing either love or pity.

– You’re wrong, Emily, – he objected, – I tried to overcome the darkness, I wanted to give you the happiness that this world denied you.

“No, I will no longer stay here in this blue hell,” she said more than emphatically this time. – I want to save my life, my soul. Today I am leaving with or without you.

Her accusing voice rang out loudly in the dead silence. He, unwillingly, turned away from her. His eyes, filled with blood and fire, became insidious and sinister, a noble and beautiful face was distorted by a grimace. Pain pierced his body, and the all-conquering thirst for blood took possession of him, but the pain of his heart, where the love for the bright angel lived, was even stronger.

– What’s the matter? – burst out from Emily.

Even her voice, so beautiful and so beloved by him, could not stop his torment, but he could defeat the power of darkness that possessed his mind.

She looked at him, but what was happening to him. His long brown hair fell in a silky veil over his shoulders, he was as pale as death itself, and even his beauty could not hide the anguish that distorted his face. He cried out, clutching his hand.

“I’m sorry, Emily,” he whispered. – I am no longer eternal.

He raised his dagger and thrust it into himself. His body fell to the marble floor, but she involuntarily ran up to him, what was in her soul turned out to be stronger than fear, love remained invincible, and she bowed before him, he was still alive.

“I’m sorry, Emily,” he repeated.

“No,” she dropped to her knees next to him, and her blue eyes were full of tears.

“Don’t die,” she whispered, running her hand through his silk-soft hair and looking with a painful gaze at his young and handsome face, which already had the imprint of death.

He was dying, but his trembling hand passed over her beautiful face.

“Don’t cry, Emily,” he whispered, “my death is not worth your tears, take this and run. Rather, run away from here, you can leave, just don’t look them in the eyes, the power of death is hidden in them.

He put a golden cross in her trembling hand, the gold shone in the light of the witch’s night.

“I release you from our curse, my love, Emily,” he said, and her name echoed with some magic sound in the magical silence at the moment of his death. She involuntarily cried, but it was already useless, it was pointless to hug the cold corpse to her, and that beautiful face that she once loved so much, she had to save her life, although his death itself called her with him.

She ran out of the bright room, where once the joy of the ball shone, but now only peace and silence reigned. In the darkness of eternal darkness and evil, her bright beauty shone, the beauty of a beautiful angel. Suddenly she froze in place. In the gap of the stone stairs, he stood, the one who had already been dead twice and had risen in his devilish beauty. She looked into his fiery eyes. The chain of gold cross slipped out of her hand and hit the stone floor, and she, unwillingly, approached him, but his cold gaze did not express anything except the pain hidden in him.

“Forgive me, my fair angel,” he whispered, and the sharp teeth of the vampire dug into the neck of the fair-haired beauty. So they fell on the cold steps of the stone staircase, beauty and vampire, and the night itself took them into its arms, embraced by the gloomy, but incomprehensible and magical witchcraft that eternally reigned here.

THERE WHERE LOVE DIED

The bitter dream

Runs away with life

The heart drowns

In a whirlwind of witchcraft

Death of sad love

Where darkness is light

Fills with mystery

Everything where there is no life.

All where life has crashed

There is only fate again

Surrendered to darkness

But not you, love.

Happiness escapes

Into the quivering darkness

But it saves

A free dream.

That dream forever

In the heart of beauty

It contains all the darkness of the river

Love will not be killed.

Below, the sea was quietly rustling. High on the coastal rocks stood a dark and gloomy ominous castle in the gloomy beauty of its grandeur. A bright lightning, which for a moment cut in half the black sky above the castle, illuminated all its beauty, it was an invincible fortress on an impregnable rock, and only lightning dared to look at its mighty walls. All mortals were afraid even to go into the shadow cast by a high rock, because they knew that devilish evil dwelt in this bloody hell, and there is nothing worse in the world than to face it, as happened with the beautiful Maerlin. People were afraid to approach the rock and the castle where bloody death lurked, and darkness prevailed over the light, where bloodthirsty vampires lurked in the darkness of the night, and he reigned, their terrible master. On this night, as always, eternal darkness reigned, and in it were visible the sharp white fangs of the nightmarish monster, covered with hot human blood.

The black bat, screaming, flew away from the castle. An inhuman scream escaped from the beast’s mouth, but even more terrible was the cry of its dying victim.

In the high tower of the castle, as if preparing to throw herself down, at the very edge of it stood a beautiful girl with pearly blond hair. Her face seemed like the face of a marble statue: cold, insensitive, lifeless, but still retaining the pain of a dead heart. The clawed paw of the monster lay on the shoulder of the beauty, and for a moment her face, clouded with thought, lit up with even greater sadness and pain.

– Why did you do this? – She whispered as if every sound caused her unbearable pain. – Why did you ruin my life?

The wind whipped furiously into her face, showering with drops of rain, threatening at any moment to throw the beauty from the tower of the castle into the raging sea. She did not notice this, for her everything had lost its meaning, and her heart did not care whether to live or die. The monster’s clawed paw, moving on her shoulder, gave her back the pain of life.

“You have forgotten what forces live in your soul,” said a deaf and lifeless voice behind her.

“I know that,” she whispered, “but I don’t want to be what I have become and what you have become. You brought all the horror of the depths of hell to the surface of the earth in your guise, you are a monster, you are evil, you are a vampire, like many of your own creatures”.

The girl involuntarily shuddered when the monster ran its long claws over her beautiful face and gently stroked her golden hair in the light of the thunderstorm.

“But you are always beautiful, immortal beauty,” it whispered, “sad, lonely, beautiful, who has lost her love. Your beauty lives in the hearts of people, my princess, but your heart is even more black and cruel than mine, and darkness lives in it longer than in me.

“You grow stronger every day, every minute, bloody demon, king of vampires, and you crave even more.”

“It’s fate itself.”

“Yes, this is your destiny,” came her voice, and a sharp dagger flashed in her hand with a flash of lightning.

“Die forever,” the girl whispered and plunged the dagger right into the heart of the monster. A wild scream escaped him, and blood gushed from a huge wound, but he was immortal. Slowly he pulled the dagger from the bleeding wound and flung it aside. The demon’s eyes glittered with fire, and his mad laughter echoed across the gloomy sky.

“You cannot kill me, Emily,” he hissed maliciously to the beauty retreating in fear, “no one can kill me. Today, on this sacred night, you gave me new strength, and the blood from your heart will make me invincible. Remember, no matter what happens, I am forever the lord of vampires, the lord of death, the bloody demon, and you will regret that you disowned me.

“Never,” she shouted, “never”.

She pushed him away from her and dashed out of the castle, down the stone stairs. Every step she took was accompanied by the frantic laughter of a bloody demon. But now the last step of the staircase was already behind, and she ran out of the castle into the stormy night. Sharp thorns dug into her flesh, and blood gushed from her scratched palms. A cry of pain and despair escaped her. As soon as Emily ran out of the castle, a terrible black bird flew into the sky, it was even darker than the night itself. Emily looked around with a wary gaze. The monster’s laughter and threat were still ringing in her ears:

– You see, you cannot get away from me and from your own heart, you are my destiny”.

The beauty’s eyes widened in horror. In front of her, by a stone staircase, lay the bloody body of a young girl, a recent victim of a violent vampire.

In the dark dungeon of the castle, where the gloomy halls turned into gloomy caves, another, even more ominous darkness reigned. The light from the distant fire barely scattered her. A beautiful girl was standing by the fire in the back of the cave. Her hair, pale red like fire itself, seemed black in the darkness of the night, light clothes were waved in its violent gusts by the wind of darkness and fire, her slender body trembled every moment, as if in dying convulsions. She looked like a corpse, but she herself was death, resurrected by evil from the darkness of the grave. The fire witch, the victim of the vampire king, the forest sorceress, who sees in the flame of fire all the secrets of death and life, but on that night she herself was a lifeless death. Her unseeing eyes looked at the flames, and it was reflected in them in a fierce green fire. Her hand clenched in a mute witching gesture, and slurred words escaped from her lifeless lips. The flame flared up with renewed vigor, and a gloomy man slowly emerged from the darkness of the distant caves. His footsteps echoed through the caves, over the stone floors, over the cold walls, over every stone, and over the entire huge cave where the girl was, in an eerie threatening sound. It was as if she did not hear the steps and did not know about the presence of a strange person, on whose cold and white face some kind of cruel and evil expression was frozen. He looked like a statue, with a white mask of anger instead of a face and fiery eyes full of inhuman cruelty. He himself looked like an eerie statue made of stone, insensitive, cold and evil, deprived of the last drop of the joy of life and living only by the evil of his stone heart. His pale lips twisted in a devilish grin whispered:

“Rise from death!”

His ominous voice echoed like a fatal and terrible echo through the witch’s darkness:

“Let the darkness leave you, you no longer belong to the kingdom of darkness, come here, resurrect your heart, your soul in this fire, let it reveal everything to you. Rise from death.”

She shuddered all over at the bewitching command of his words. Now she no longer seemed dead, a drop of life settled in a dying corpse, but she was given to her by the forces of darkness. Now the flames of fire had for a moment infused the spark of their life into her. The beauty’s weak lips parted as if preparing to utter the fateful words. Until now, lifeless, thin hands clenched into fists on a high stone by the fire, and silent eyes stared at the flame with a cold and incinerating gaze.

Together with her, the entire gloomy cave suddenly came to life. The light of the fire spread over the darkness and illuminated the bizarre stones of the walls, endowing everything around with a magical, ominous beauty, and the terrible figure of a girl in the middle of the cave by the fire shone with an otherworldly light.

Her light clothes fluttered in a fiery whirlwind, her hair in the darkness looked like tongues of flame, and her hands, white as snow, extended towards the fire in a silent, witchcraft gesture.

He slowly walked closer to the girl and stood right behind her. His lifeless gaze now shone with something malevolent.

“Show me everything, Madeleine,” he whispered to the beauty, “tell me what fate has in store for me.”

His words sounded like an incantation in the silence, and, obeying his command, she straightened up to her full height. A bright fire was reflected in her huge eyes, there was no real life in them. They sparkled with deathly emptiness, and she herself lived the magical life of the vampire. She was killed by a vampire, she lived and at the same time was dead, she was a living dead, a ghost of flesh, a ghost of a fire witch. At any moment she was once again serving the demon and the secrets of witchcraft.

She crossed her arms over her chest and quickly began to whisper indistinct words that echoed in a whirlwind of madness over the fire. Madness was reflected in her eyes, which at that moment became the eyes of a wild forest beast, a beast of fire. The depths of the flame and the depths of the blood of centuries parted before her gaze.

“From century to century,” she whispered, “you are the bloody legend of centuries, you are the king of devils, the lord of nightmares, the lord of eternity, you are the bloody curse of the earth, death from hell, but the power of blood is not eternal. Death will pay with death, love will kill you.

“Speak,” he whispered, and the uncontrollable fierce anger that sounded in his voice echoed in a threatening echo throughout the cave, “make the fire tell you all who she is, in whom the power of life is stronger than the blood of centuries.

“There has never been and never will be like her on earth,” Madeleine whispered as if in deep oblivion.

“She will combine beauty, daring and noble, and the heart of a hero. She will be half human, half dream. Even a magical dream is unable to reflect the purity of beauty that will be embodied in it. She is the one that is more beautiful than anyone in the world, she is eternal love herself, and her name will say everything for herself. Dreams and dreams will merge in it, and the only sincere love in this world of darkness.”

Words with sharp pain burst from her chest, as if someone else spoke for her, causing her unbearable pain, her body shook in silent sobs. The desire to know everything instilled even greater madness in his cruel heart.

– Who? he said. – Tell me who is she?”

“A dream,” the girl whispered, and the fire in her eyes flashed with renewed vigor, “the daughter of the most beautiful queen in the world, the beauty of her heart will become your death.”

She slowly, with difficulty, turned to face him. Her weak body was trembling violently, life was leaving the dying soul, but the power of the fire gave determination to her heart. She held out her hand to the man in black, and the fire illuminated the girl’s beautiful face. Slowly, drawing out the words, as if in some kind of dream, she. With difficulty moving her dead lips, she whispered barely audibly:

“Maerlin, beware of her,” these words, the last words of life before death came, echoed madly and menacingly through the caves.

Her prophecy confirmed what the bloody demon had known for centuries.

No matter what evil has settled in this sinful world, no matter what pain the darkness and hatred of misfortune may harbor, but, like eternal love, a true dream is immortal, and it is able to avenge itself with an even greater evil of its beauty. Having uttered the last words that took the last drop of life from the dying body, the beauty shuddered. The last cry of pain and inhuman fear froze on her lips, and her eyes stared into the void with their unseeing gaze. The imprint of death again lay on the beautiful face, the last spark of life extinguished, giving way to cold and terrible death.

The death of a young beauty could not strike pity in the demon’s cruel heart. He silently looked at her bloody corpse with his icy gaze, in which there was a glimpse of gloating.

“You are dead, fire witch,” he whispered with a cold grin, “but your flame in its last hour could not tell the truth. The joys of life will not destroy me. I am eternal with my bloody curse. As long as it lives, so do I. You are my death, but of the two of us, it is not I who will die, but you, Maerlin, the eternal dream.

He clenched his hand into a fist, and the witch’s body jerked in the last moment of life and froze, bleeding. At that very moment, at the other end of the cave, the blonde beauty cried out in horror, and the gaze of the black devil immediately turned to her. She was here again, against all odds, like an angel of light and revenge for her lost love. Her lush hair was disheveled, and an expression of horror and pain was frozen on her face and in her blue eyes in the light of the darkness. They stood opposite each other: an angel of light and an angel of darkness, black and light beauty, an idol of revenge and an idol of darkness, but something brought them closer together in the moment of witchcraft death.

“Why did you do this,” she whispered as if in disbelief. – Why did you kill her?

Her questioning gaze could not find an answer on the impassive face of the bloody demon.

“You killed my love, and you killed my life,” the fear on her beautiful face suddenly gave way to wild rage, “I hate you, I hate you,” she shouted, “let the fire witch’s prediction turn out to be true. You cannot defeat the dream itself.

She darted from her place with her last cry of rage and rushed out of the castle, and the bloody demon grimly looked after her, bursting into evil and cruel laughter.

He turned and looked at the fire that flashed with the anger in his eyes.

“Forces of darkness, forces of blood, forces of hell,” he whispered, and his wild whisper merged with the hiss of fire, “catch up with her, hold her back, instill fear in her soul, defeat the dream of her beauty.

She did not hear his words, she quickly ran out of the castle into the cold of the dark night. She felt evil around her, wanted to run away from him, but she did not know from which side it could attack her. She looked around. The summer night was quiet. The full moon shone in the gloomy skies above the gloomy castle and its rock, illuminating everything with its golden light.

The beauty rushed away along the narrow path, but immediately a thorn scratched her. Thickets of thorny branches grew in her path, where before there was no shadow of them. Her hands were scratched, and blood oozed from them to the hem of her tattered dress, but she ran forward through the thickets of thorns, farther and farther from the blue hell that had taken her love and life, and now threatened her with death. The thorns grew thicker and thicker, a whole forest of it grew around a small path. It clung to her hair, tore at her dress and scratched her face. On her way, bloody ghosts stood up, crying, threatening, beckoning, demanding that she returns.

“Turn around,” shouted the fiery ghost of a bloody Madeleine, “look what your dreams have done to me, my sister.

She ran on, oblivious to the screams of the ghosts or the numerous scratches from the thorns.

“Help me, Emily,” Madeleine shouted to her.

She turned around. The bloody ghost stretched out his hands to her, and she almost went to him, but then the moon returned to her for a moment the ghost of the one she loved and whose life was forever destroyed by her pure love.

“Run,” he whispered to her. Pleading was reflected on his handsome face, he loved her even after his death. He did not leave her in a moment of danger – run, my love, run away from the cliff, and the power of darkness will no longer be able to catch up with you, I beg you to save yourself and her, our child. Run, don’t turn around, Emily, run away from the power of the blood over your soul.

His call struck her heart like lightning. She had to run away, she had to save her last hope. She quickly ran away, deflecting the thorns with her hands.

“Come back to me, Emily,” sounded behind, but did not turn around. Only by going down from the cliff, she could again find freedom from the forces of evil. Her love sustained her, and hope remained in her heart. She knew that her dreams are stronger than the forces of darkness. Screams, screams, noise – everything merged into one in her frightened mind, but she did not stop. The faster she moved away from the cursed castle, the weaker the power of darkness over her soul became. The screams behind her, the bloody hands, the devil’s thorns – it all had to end at the foot of the cliff. Finally she ran to it. Here the mountain path ended, and with it the power of darkness ended. She, breathing heavily, pressed against the ledge of the rock. Her whole body groaned with unbearable pain, but she was alive, which means that hope itself remained.

“Come back to me, Emily,” was still heard from the cliff, where the deathly pale Madeleine stood in a fiery dress, but she could no longer see her. Fatigue fell on her. Her heavy breathing echoed over the shore near the cliff and mixed with the sound of the sea, which illuminated the beauty’s tired face with its blue. She moved away from the cliff and tried to walk a few steps in the darkness of the night, but only the old sea cemetery greeted her with its gloomy, gothic beauty. Stone crosses, gloomy graves, among them, in the eternal peace of death, lay her love. Her beloved was dead, sudden death was sent to him by the forces of darkness.

Slowly, convulsively holding her side, she reached the middle of the cemetery. Tears of grief and despair gushed from her beautiful eyes, and the beauty involuntarily fell to her knees before the lonely grave.

– Forgive me, my love,” she whispered, “forgive me, if it were not for me, you would be alive, but I am glad alone, you died before the forces of evil touched your soul, and now they do not have power over you.”

“You’re sure of that,” the same cruel, mocking voice rang out over her.

She shuddered all over at the sound of a voice so well known to her, and her wary gaze quickly ran all around. Suddenly cold hands with long sharp claws grabbed her, squeezing her shoulders with their icy weight and strength.

She almost screamed at the sudden wave of sudden fright that came to her heart.

Jumping to her feet, she realized that again, barely getting out of there, she entered the realm of evil, and this time nothing would have been able to rescue her from here. She ruined her love, and now the hour of reckoning has come. She also ruined her own life.

She tried to look her enemy in the face, but a clawed hand held her shoulders with its inhuman strength.

“You are still as beautiful as you were many, many years ago. Time spares you and your face. After all, it still has so much nobility, so much purity and innocent beauty. Your heart is not subject to time, time is not powerful over you because your heart is not the heart of a person, it is the heart of the dream itself.

“It’s you again,” she burst out. For the first time in many years, the memory of the past returned to her again.

“Yes, from the depths of time,” he responded, “fate itself helped me to find you.”

She shuddered, and a clawed paw ran over her beautiful face. There was no longer any sea or rocks around, only darkness enveloped the gloomy crosses and Emily’s blond hair shining in the darkness with golden fire. She cautiously scanned everything around, but the clawed hand, as before, tightly squeezed her shoulder, preventing her from turning around.

“You betrayed me, Emily,” he whispered, “and you were one of us, but your heart was split in half, it became half the heart of a man.

“I don’t want to be the evil creature of the night anymore,” courage returned to her and filled her beautiful blue eyes with rage, forcing her to half-turn, “I don’t want to be what you have become, I don’t want to be death, I don’t want to be evil.”

“Yes, your beauty, it does not allow you to like that, but you betrayed me, Emily, you fell in love with a man, but love cannot save your soul from the power of darkness, even if you have the beauty of a dream and a human heart, but you were born at night, and you also my child, a child of blood.”

They stood, black darkness and radiant light, evil and good, monster and beauty, a beautiful blonde girl against the background of a terrible black figure. The forces of darkness pursued the beautiful princess. The bloody flames of hell from the unfathomable darkness of the ages haunted her all her life with the cold wind of a cruel legend.

A feeling of pain, emptiness and unbearable sadness filled Emily’s heart, bursting in the throes of terrible losses, suffering, but still managing to retain a drop of kindness.

Bitter tears poured from the eyes of the beauty, full of grief and confusion, and yet they managed to make her face even more wonderful, crying about the misfortunes of her love, a beautiful angel.

“I have nothing more to grieve for, demon,” she whispered through her tears, “you stole my dreams.”

“Dreams of youth, my princess, this is just the remorse of nature, cruel, evil, depriving, like life. You did know their charms on yourself, but you are a dream, Emily, you have embodied all the beauty of a ruthless world, for which people in vain plead with a merciless fate. You are a beauty, and even at the expense of the suffering of others. Do you hate yourself for that?”

“Not for that,” she whispered, “for the fact that, by the will of fate, I became a nightmare creature of the night, like you, a dark creature of evil with a soul full of darkness and secrets, eternally thirsting for torment and blood. I hate myself and you for this, but at the last moment of repentance of my soul, I pray to the God forgotten by me to bring to life the witchcraft prophecy. May your death finally find you. May, when I die, she will kill you, a dream. Maerlin, remember she is your death and your curse, which, in spite of everything. will come true.

His evil eyes lit up with fierce fire, and long claws sank deep into the beauty’s shoulder.