The Mist and the Lightning. Part VIII. Ви Корс

unattended. Kors seemed to see himself in his youth and… still Nikto was not more a human. Only the outer shell, the shell, which was used, but not spared. Not at all. And this killed Kors most of all, the way the demon was ungrateful and careless, but rather even intentionally sadistically used the human physical shell, mutilating and distorting it. And by the will of fate this man, this carrier of sharing essence, turned out to be his second child. Because, having killed Iness, they sold the baby to the witch, and she performed this terrible ritual.

      And now Kors was sure that from the very beginning Nikto-demon knew who was in front of him. He knew that Kors was the father of the shell, and cynically used it, pretending to be a lamb, pushing on paternal feelings of Kors, and inside mocking how Kors behaved. How he felt, seeing his boy, his eyes down, a little naive, but sincerely trying to answer the questions. And he was already sitting on a chair at the table, already smoking a cigarette. What next? If Kors really believed him and admitted his son, he would open, hug him with tears. What would happen then? He didn’t know, and this question tormented him. Where did he make a mistake? Then, when he entered into open confrontation? Not succumbed, and moreover, answered with a blow? What would happen to Karina now if he tried to find some compromise, tried to negotiate with the demon, maybe make a deal, in exchange for the safety of his girl? He was too confident in his strength, and Nikto looked so weak, humble and submissive. And Niko deceived him and struck with a death blow. With this blow he killed both Karina and Kors himself. And Kors didn’t know what to do.

      In front of him was the mask of Nikto and the ring of the Kors family.

      Chapter four

      Forest

      Karina opened her eyes because the wind blew around her face. Recovering, she jumped up, looking around in surprise, and not believing her eyes. They were in the forest. Karina stood on the ground with young green grass, and the setting sun beautifully illuminated a small, cozy forest lake.

      “Portal… Nik! Was it a Portal? Gods! How did you manage to find it? Feel? Open finally! Or does it open there itself periodically? You didn’t seem to do anything… Although, if to believe this story with Rosa, you have already dealt with Portals…”

      Nikto was sitting nearby on the grass, as if stunned, the last rays of the setting sun hit him directly in the eye, but he didn’t squint or turn away, didn’t try to move aside. From this Karina made a disappointing conclusion that he was still blind.

      “Gods! Well, when will you normalize? When will you recover?!”

      He shook his head in the negative and lay down on the grass.

      This gesture scared her:

      “Will you stay that way?! Don’t scare me like that, brother! Arel will kill me if I don’t return you safe and sound! We need to understand where to move now…”

      Seeing a small hill nearby, Karina decided to climb it and look around if possible. It was not clear where they this portal threw them. Was it generally not harmful to the body? She heard somewhere that people were going crazy using portals, dying of a broken heart. What if they’re generally somewhere in the western limit, where there are a lot of “unclean” colonies, or forests for many kilometers around! And Nikto gotnumb not in time!

      “I'll go, look around a bit,” she announced to him her actions. He didn’t even move, continuing to lie on the ground on his side, his eyelids with traces of a black paint half-covered. Oh, how out of place and unsuccessfully all this happened to him! Karina didn’t even want to think about the fact that he might not recover and will remain so.

      She climbed a pine-covered hill and was relieved to see the pointed spires of the town in the distance. Well, they were at a safe distance, but not as far as she was afraid. Apparently, the stimulant introduced by her continued its action, because Karina was overcome by a thirst for further activity.

      Going down the hill, she began to collect dry branches along the way, intending to light a fire.

      “I want to make a fire,” she said to Nikto, still not getting any reaction in return. He wasn’t sleeping, she saw his eyelids tremble when he blinked, and the expression on his face… he had such a sad, sad face, lips, his mouth so beautiful, had the corners down, he was so sad. She went to him, sat down next to him:

      “My dear,” she touched his hair, straightened the lock that fell on his face, “well, don’t be sad! We got out!”

      He was sweet and miserable, lying quietly looking with his blind eyes into nowhere, and a lump came to Karina’s throat, she forgot all her recent fears and thoughts about him. “He is a child, a miserabletormented child.”

      “You know… if I didn’t know that today… well, or it was yesterday, I’ve completely lost time, you turned 25 years old… as my father says, I would never have believed! You are like a little one, and your facial expression is like that of an offended child. Well, or a teenager, well, not of an adult man! And you know… I don’t regret that I did so. That I helped you. Well… here, write me something? I can’t talk alone all the time.”

      He obediently got up and picked up the already familiar notebook, which lately only served as a bridge of understanding between them. He handed her what was written:

      “I need you.”

      “My dear!” Karina laughed. “I’m not going anywhere and will be with you, you know, you are very, very pretty, you look like our mother, you generally look like a girl,” she laughed. “A guy cannot be so cute, it’snot surprising that both Lis and Arel molested you, they are off their minds, I would have molested you myself …if you had not been my brother.”

      And he smiled at her, practically laughed. She managed to stir him up, cheer him up! She managed to pull him out, she saved him! She encouraged him now, and therefore, she will be able to restore him. Everything will be fine!

      Karina lit a small fire.

      “I need to collect more firewood before dark, and wash my clothes in this lake, and wash myself, my hair stinks of shit, I apologize for such details. It’s good that I have a bar of soap with me in my bag, I need to wash myself,” she looked at Nikto, “and wash you too.”

      From the improvised means, Karina twisted something like a washcloth, without taking off her leather pants and jacket, (it was more convenient) she wiped all the dirt from her clothes. Then she forced Nikto to rise and go to the water’s edge, too, wiped him off, forced himto go into the water to wash his boots. He meeklyfollowed her instructions.