‘It’s just my home…’

Kharon finally started feeling the girl. Being in his territory her own strengths were leaving her. Again, he perfectly heard her thought as he used to, all her panic and anxiety screaming in her head, demanding for returning to the earth. He felt her genuine feelings. He knew that the girl was totally confused. She knew nothing, understood nothing, everything was wild and terrible for her. She had neither strength nor desire to deal with that impossible excessive emotions.

Kharon understood that the girl was sceptical of the place where the demon had lived not the first thousand years.

‘Are we in hell?’ Victoria asked again having turned to the man.

‘If you’re easier then yes, we are.’

‘Why?’ there were tears again. ‘Why are we here?’

‘Why are you crying?’

‘Because I wanna go home! To the earth!’ the girl cried. ‘Are we able to come back home, Kharon? Tell that we can, please! I don’t wanna stay here! I’m scared and I don’t understand why I’m here!’

Kharon had to embrace Victoria as she cried more and more, and she was getting more scared.

‘We’re here for no reason. I just wanted to show my home…’ Kharon felt dejectedly.

‘So, you’re not gonna burn me on a frying-pan?’

‘What?’ no limits were for the demon’s surprised. ‘Burn on a frying-pan?’

‘Stick pitchfork into me and torture my body eternally…?’ Vic added, shacking with only one thought of her being in hell.

‘Come,’ Kharon took her hand and went his home.

He missed so much his home ground, the smell he could never feel on the earth. The thing like home existed not only on the earth. Everyone had habit and love for surroundings.

He ran his hand over the marble walls. The black colour of the stone was as nasty as you could ever imagine, and it delighted the demon eyes.

Coolness and inanimate reflected from the black marble walls, nice essences for Kharon and scared Victoria.

In the hall of the incubus’s house Vic felt like in a tomb. She was scared a bit but the smell she felt was so pleasant and sweet that it and the house couldn’t be identified.

The hall was long. The wall outside of log, inside of stone, seemed to be in size of infinity. There was nothing else in the desolate place. There were no pictures and photos. There were just bare walls. Empty. There was nothing but black, repulsive colour. That design wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Kharon let the girl go first. Fearing everything in the world, Victoria took a step forward. Her hand instinctively touched the cold stone wall. Vic immediately withdrew her hand: she had never felt such scorching cold in her life. It was like the fingertips immersed in liquid nitrogen for unhappy millisecond and that was enough.

‘Cold…’ Vic said turning to the demon.

‘For a human – yes, they are.’

‘How do you feel these walls?’ she asked.

‘Like a warmth of my home.’

‘Warmth of your home?’ the girl shifted the gaze at the walls, but she didn’t want to touch them again. She slowly went ahead suddenly understanding that the entrance door was closing by its own, hiding the particles of artificial light behind.

‘Hey!’ she exclaimed stood in the full darkness. ‘Kharon!’ her voice shook, the heart fluttered. The darkness in that oppressive house seemed to be more unbearable and blacker. ‘Give me your hand… I’m begging you, my love,’ Victoria whispered stretching out her hand into the black vacuum.

There were seconds of terrible and paralyzed silence and then the strong hand, full of habitual warmth squeezed her fingers shacking with fear.

‘How much you’re frightened, child,’ the voice sounded in her ear.

Vic gave a shrug, screwing up her eyes to try to see Kharon.

A small luminary appeared somewhere above them in shape of usual galaxy. That was as unusual light unfamiliar for people. It was alive, moveable like if somewhere tongues of fire were connected, carefully burning something dry away. But the light was dim and there was no its source seen. It seemed that a clot of charged energy, that produced the light, appeared under the ceiling. Victoria had no doubts the luminary was alive absolutely. They were walking through the hall and the light was slowly following them under their heads.

Slight and sudden move of Kharon stopped the girl in the middle of the infinite hall. Then the black marble wall began to move apart.

A huge living room with high ceiling was showed. There was the most complex architecture under its vaults outside of human control. The room was in the form of strict square. It was furnished flawless and in good taste. There were tables with carvings on its legs and chairs and its legs took root in the floor and almost on the floor already swollen buds were about to bloom.

Windows that finally appeared showed a picturesque view of the nearby forest. It was thick and dark with unknown species of trees, the leaves of which were so different in shapes but had nothing in common with the trees on the earth where Vic used to live.

There was a huge mirror on one of the walls, the size of almost a half of the room. It reflected everything expect Victoria. It just ignored her presence there.

There were no modern gadgets in the living room. No books, no glass figures on dusty shelves. There was nothing that could be familiar to human eyes. The table was there indeed. It was huge, massive and empty. No tablecloths, no napkins, no saltcellar, no flowers. There was nothing.

The décor was very poor by human standards. The intricate carvings were wherever possible to be. It was beautiful and diverse and seemingly appropriate.

‘The living room…as you call it.’ Kharon told, having taken her by the hand.

He tried to understand what Victoria felt, if she liked it or not. Most of all he didn’t understand why he was so important to know her opinion. As Victoria still couldn’t identify her own feeling and emotions, she couldn’t say anything clever to Kharon. The girl silently looked at the man.

‘Your audacious invitation…that’s why we’re here. I feel you still not understanding your presence in my home.’

‘Invitation?’

‘Yes. That you said so bravely to the demon of lust. Let’s go.’

Victoria followed Kharon with no certain understanding what he was speaking about. She still was afraid for her life, but her blind, feeble and stupid trust was with her. The trust the demon. Victoria trusted Kharon so deep and strong that she had not a single thought asking herself if I was so stupid to trust the demon.

They went up the spiral staircase. The coldness of the marble stairs annealed her bare feet. She literally flew up the stairs holding the man’s hand. He walked first trying not to rush. His movements were slowly and detached like if he was on his way on the scaffold.

Under the ceiling the clot of illuminative energy was blithely floating. Victoria almost got used to that phenomenon. At least from all that was happening the strange glow confused her the least.

Another wall opened before them and Vic turned to be in a bedroom.

‘This is the place I wanted to show you… not frying-pans…’ Kharon whispered behind her.

His hands clasped her paralyzed body. She was studying the huge bed that was in size of a half of the room, covered with the same black colour. Victoria almost accepted the gloomy colour deprived of life. Actually, she had reasons for the black colour in the demon’s house. Her confusion was understandable also: Victoria had never seen so much black at once.

‘Take a step forward, love,’ Kharon picked her up and slowly moved ahead. ‘Don’t be afraid, nothing threatens you here… Nothing.’

His lips went down on her shoulder barely touched her skin. Vic said nothing. Probably it was the first time when she couldn’t be relaxed in the demon-seducer’s hands.

‘You’re so defenceless here,’ Kharon smiled, baring his teeth, took her up in his arms.