Denis could not take his eyes off her. Athenais is like an unearthly creature that gradually enslaves you, without making any effort at all. She has something of a queen and an angel at the same time.
“Write about me!” She suddenly demanded.
“That’s what I came for.”
The movie star shook her golden-haired head.
“Write the truth about me,” she clarified, “the truth that no one dares to tell, but everyone sees.”
“And what?”
“That I am a demon!”
To say that the answer dumbfounded him is to say nothing. She really wants him not to go to the press conference at all, but to write only one insane denunciation. But Athenais had already passed him and seemed to dissolve in the rain. Her slender figure in silvery streams of moisture began to seem ghostly.
Although the umbrella was new and durable, it suddenly broke. Denis felt copious drops with solid hail on the back of his head and shoulders. And Athenais suddenly turned around and exhaled a whole stream of fiery smoke that did not go out even in the rain.
You could convince yourself as much as you wanted that this was a clever trick, but the heat from her breath reached Denis’s cheek, leaving a painful burn. As if the beauty branded him.
Many burned hands were stretched out from under the umbrella. They grabbed its lapels, ripped off its cufflinks, left traces of ash on a brand new shirt. Denis was trying to throw away the umbrella.
Something is wrong here. The world was changing, becoming like a horror movie.
“Let us in!” whispered rustling voices. “Let us recover from the greatest fire in the entire universe.”
The feeling was that he was on the other side of the screen and was participating in a horror movie himself. He threw the umbrella onto the high benches in front of the TASS building. Let yourself lie in the rain.
Nothing unusual was happening in the building itself. The journalists were carefully searched after they were passed through a metal detector. Ordinary situation. All measures are being taken to prevent the entry of terrorists. But the impression was that the terrorist had already entered. And his name is Lucifer – the same terrorist who staged the first act of rebellion in the entire universe.
Denis shook his head. He’s just seen enough creepy movies. The girls at the reception and the guards looked at him suspiciously. It was necessary to drag the umbrella with you and throw it on the table in front of the guard. What would they do if they saw the crippled hands inside? Or would they not see anything at all? What if its hands seemed to him?
As in a dream, Denis went to the second floor to the press conference hall. He usually never used the elevator. Why wait for an elevator when you only need to climb a couple of flights of stairs. But Athenais will definitely use the elevator. What if she’s already in the conference room?
A gloomy narrow corridor led forward. The walls were decorated with simple framed gray photographs. And this is the place that many celebrities and politicians have seen! For some reason, the feeling was that the true star came here only today. And from her presence here the whole building will burn.
What did he actually know about her? Denis remembered. She played Lucifer in such a way that it shocked the whole world. At the same time, she made the head of the fallen angels not a villain, but a victim. The heroic image of the devil, presented by her on the screens, deserved a prize for uniqueness. If the audience hadn’t started dying. How many young men and adolescents have already committed suicide at the exit from the cinemas. Nevertheless, Athenais continued to spin like a star. As if she needed this promotion! Someone, but she does not occupy popularity! She is the number one diva in the whole world.
Denis took his place at the edge of the side exit, as if he feared that she would see him. There were ash traces on the gray carpet by the chairs. It feels like something burned down here. Athenais’s voice, pouring into the microphone, was like a siren singing. Denis could not understand the words, because the dazzling visions hit his brain.
They were brighter than the stills from the movies. Archangel Michael brings a fiery sword to her neck and realizes that he cannot kill her. Lucifer in maiden form is too beautiful to be destroyed. These frames were not in the film. So why are they spinning in his head, as if some devil’s reel is spinning, inserted right into the brain.
He is a rational, sober person, and now his brain is inflamed from some kind of nonsense of filmmakers. Denis made urgent notes in a notebook. No, he won’t call it nonsense in the article. Otherwise, the crowd of angry fans will tear him apart! He will make an objective assessment. These are all horror films with a biblical bias. Only the Bible is upside down in them. Lucifer is deified, the brightest of whose names is Alais – the ruler of demons and pharaohs.
These horror films turned out to be sensational, because they portray Lucifer not as evil, but as a leader who was the first in the whole world to fight for his independence from the highest tyranny. This is a hero like Spartacus… Or rather a heroine, because the role is female.
Athenais! Just a name. No surname, no hint of one. It’s like the name is taken from the Bible, but it’s not there. Although who knows what they could have done in the modern edition. Something is always crossed out, something is added.
Fact – each of her films is the glorification of Lucifer. The names change, the essence remains.
The press conference was not over yet, but Denis hurried out with the knowledge that he would write and publish everything about her that she herself wanted.
Demon at a press conference
A severed head with blond curls and a delicate girlish face lay on the table between microphones and plastic cups of coffee. This head had ears, pointed in the shape of wings and such azure eyes, when looking into which thoughts of the sky began to frighten. After all, the sky was associated with their azure and with the fall. Looking into the eyes of this head, Constantine seemed to wake up from a dream. Boredom and laziness instantly disappeared. He felt the sensation was near.
Athenais brought the severed head with her and tossed it casually on the conference room table. Just a dummy? A trick to impress the TASS guests, which the press was usually called. Konstantin almost lost his plastic pass, without which it would be impossible to leave the building. There are capricious turnstiles and meticulous guards who search the things of each invitee with a flashlight. You never know: what if the journalist turns out to be a terrorist! Athenais’ safety was the most worried about. At the entrance, the operators sent from TV channels were searched several times and forced to open the bags with portable cameras. He himself was carefully checked, and he was sure of one thing: people need protection from the star, and not vice versa.
Athenais not only tempts. It suppresses by its mere presence. The head she brought as a toy suspiciously resembles the face from the icons. This is how Constantine always imagined the Archangel Michael. Do others see this head? He looked back at the hall. Nobody seems to panic. Only a correspondent named Denis unexpectedly ran out of the hall in the middle of the press conference. Probably rushing to another event. Many colleagues try to get to several places at once. What can you do? This is the job of a journalist. There are so many events happening in the world that there is not enough time and space for everything in the newspaper. But Athenais for some reason everyone paid special attention. It suddenly turned out to be more important than floods, fires and terrorist attacks. Nobody except Denis thought to leave.
Was the head on the table really alive or was it imagining it?
Athenais took her place in the center. The feeling that she left the screen was a little shocking. Trailer footage spun in his head. It is good that he did not watch films with her, otherwise he would have fallen into a stupor now, like other media representatives. All the seats in front of him were occupied. There is rarely such a rush here. Usually full of free places. Even those journalists who have been accredited in advance do not always come. Too many interesting things are happening. There is always room to rush instead of meeting pop stars, but for some reason everyone considered meeting with Athenais as an event of paramount importance.
Whom did she play there so stylishly that she suddenly became the idol of everyone? The head of the rebel angels. Simply put, Satan. Looking at her now, one could admit that she justifies her title of the most beautiful angel by more than one hundred percent.
The beauty of Athenais burns and freezes and makes you shiver. The ancient inhabitants of the planet felt something similar in relation to their gods. The roots of antiquity and there were stories about it.
By the way, who is the director of her films? In the credits it was not specified, otherwise he would have known. With Athenais came a producer, PR-agent and two strange gloomy subjects, apparently former bodyguards.
Their capes reminded him of ragged wings. All these are methods of promotion. From thoughts did not go the scene of how Athenais in the film cuts off the head of the Archangel Michael with a sword. Does it seem to him that some thing on the table in front of her is a severed blond head? A moment, and the head opened its eyes, preparing to breathe fire into the conference room.
He turned away. It just seems to him as if he was sitting on some pills. You need to focus on what the star is saying. And she said something about her films that no one expected from her, but everyone listened with bated breath.
Konstantin felt dizzy. The words reached him like a tape being played somewhere far beyond the world.
“The art of cinema is a kind of magic. It is capable of letting some forces into the world. It seems to viewers that the plot of the film was born out of nothing. But he comes from the side where eternity began. Cinema is a way of influencing minds. A drug, for the distribution of which, you cannot be attracted. But they can poison everyone.”
Is she really saying that or is he ringing in his ears? Someone annoying, sat down behind, and squeaked something in the back of the head. Constantine turned around. An empty chair in the back. Probably, the annoyance left or moved to the front rows. All journalists today were in a hurry to move to the first row, which, as a rule, was intended for photographers.
Вы ознакомились с фрагментом книги.
Для бесплатного чтения открыта только часть текста.
Приобретайте полный текст книги у нашего партнера:
