Kill me with your love. Part I. Iggy Joutsen

of minutes, took something out and threw it to me. “Here you go”.

      There were a white shirt, dark blue jeans and a gray windbreaker.

      “At least you look now like a human being.” Ema concluded with satisfaction when I appeared in front of her in a new guise, “unbutton the top of your shirt”.

      “Yes, Ma’am!”

      If a woman commands you, either she is your boss, wife, lover, or just the one you love unconditionally.

      We hit the road. Having heard about the Council, I expected to find myself in the place of something similar to the vampire saga: a medieval castle with a thousand-year history, underground passages in the form of intricate tunnels and mazes, through which Council members and those who work for it move on their business like ghosts. In sum, the picture drawn by my imagination turned out to be not pleasant. But, it was much more real than that I could have imagined. The Council building was located in an ordinary house on the outskirts of the town. A large stone fence surrounded the building, and its area occupied a big area. The two-story brick building did not catch the eye with its luxury and did not attract the attention of neighbors. The legal address of some firm was registered there. The Council gathered several times a year to carry out activities of a certain nature and to solve current problems. There was no one who issued decrees and orders, but only the Council that monitored the implementation of rules that had already existed for many millennia and judged their violators. Once inside, we found ourselves in a spacious hall, built in the ancient Roman style. Sunlight seemed to penetrate from everywhere, giving comfort and openness to the vast space. Here Ema and I parted for a while. I was led alone into an ordinary basement room, dusty and dark, and the door was closed behind me. I stood there for a few minutes, not knowing what to do first, until I heard a quiet rattling. At first I chalked it up to my rich imagination, but the tapping repeated louder. Thanks to my newly acquired keen eyesight and perfect hearing, I easily found the source of the sound. It was coming directly from the wall opposite, as if someone was hesitantly trying to get out, but they did not have enough strength for that. A few bricks were staggering in the wall from the force pushing them from inside. I was overcome by feelings of curiosity and fear at the same time. What could it be? I touched the bricks and the sound stopped immediately. No sooner had I pulled one of them out than something jumped out of the wall and circled around the room like a bird. Having flown in plenty, it hung above the level of my face at arm’s length and opened. The flying object turned out to be a book.