“You don’t mind me being here” – Nikto interrupted. During their conversation he lifted his head from Orel’s lap and now was sitting next to him, his face twisted. “Hope I’m not bothering you”.

“Not at all” – Lis replied.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings” – Enriki explained. “It’s just my personal opinion, I was just expressing it. Would you prefer me to do it behind your back?”

“He would prefer you not to express it at all” – Lis grinned.

“Whatever happened to you – it was not your will, nor your fault. It just happened.

“Bad luck” – Squint-Eye said.

“Oh, go to hell! One of you thinks I’m just your reflection, another one – that I’m a rabbit with cymbals! I’m so tired of this shit pouring on me every day! You guys just haven’t heard enough fairytales when you were kids, so you keep telling them now!”

“How terribly you build your sentences!” – Enriki shook his head.

“I’m not like you, and that’s the whole problem, just because I have bright eyes and hair!”

“And every inch of your skin is packed with blasphemous, devilish images!”

Nikto moaned.

“In this world, there are at least couple hundreds half-bloods with bright hair and eyes” – Lis started, “But nobody is dissing them, why is that? Nobody’s dissing Mina, or Morgan Talas, for that matter. He’s not considered to be devil’s spawn, even though he’s a real piece of shit. And he’s definitely a half-blood”.

Nikto was silent.

“And what does it mean, you are just our reflection?”

“Ask him,” – Nikto nodded towards Orel, “If Enriki can still see a human in me, however damaged, Arel thinks I’m only capable of reflecting whatever is being put in me”.

“How is that?” – Lis lit a cigarette, and irritably tossed the box to Squint-Eye, who saw him lighting one and stretched towards him right away.

“Arel wants love, he puts love into me, and I love in response. You want to be first again, and involuntarily put your ambitions in me and think I’m the one craving power. And I, probably thanks to you, become just like that, and we are eternal rivals. “

“Arel came up with it?!”

“Yes.”

Lis stared at Orel, somewhat shocked: “I’m the one craving power? I put it in Nikto?! You should go easy on drugs, honey! They affect you too much. Probably because you were nuts even before!”

“It came up with it as a result of your own words!” – Orel snarled, displeased.

“But I never said anything of a sort!”

“Yes, you did! More than once! You said, ‘If you hurt Nikto, he’ll pay you back with the same coin. That’s why the “impure” do not touch him, do not fight with him anymore’. And I said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t worry about me then, I could never hurt him even if I wanted to, because I love him’. So you calmed down and said that in that case, I was protected. All in all, if you don’t count the small stuff, that was true”.

“Well, that’s not exactly what I meant!”

“And I actually like it” – Enriki noted, – “There is something about it, some sort of logic”.

“So what does he reflect from you?”

“Well, we are not that close with him…”

“Yeah, because I am that close with him!” – Lis noted sarcastically. “Honestly, I could still agree, that Arel is the only one with the input. Something he so pretentiously calls “love”. But in that case, Nikto should be insane, just like Arel, and shameless, and without any restraints.”

“And he’s just like that”, – Squint-Eye snorted.

“He is reflecting everything you say” – Orel turned towards Enriki, “How come you can’t see that?! A weak man imprisoned by a demon, who controls his entire life”.

Enriki went pale: “You think that’s me? I’m possessed by a demon!”

“And probably more than one. Ask Carina, she’ll tell you everything about your demons. It’s just that you don’t want to see them, and me and the others never gave a damn, she was the only one touched by them. Probably because she’s a normal person. I agree, you don’t show them off, unlike me, or Squint-Eye, for example. You push them deeper inside, hide them behind your beloved proprieties, but the demon bursts out anyway, so ugly an inappropriate, right, Rik? And he ruins everything you worked so hard building around you. Career, personal life, your relationships with people. And eventually, you end up here, with us, in trash.

“You really shouldn’t get high!”

“You’re angry because it’s true. That’s why Nik made you so crazy at the beginning! You couldn’t accept him, just as you can’t accept yourself, your inner ugliness. You were looking at his face and seeing your own insides. You are only handsome from the outside, a perfect front. But you are ugly inside. Now, it seems, you have almost put up with it. Accept yourself as you are, with all your vices” – Orel squeezed Nikto’s face in his palms – look at this! It’s impossible to correct anything, but he is still beautiful!”

Enriki looked down.

“Enough bitching about Nikto!” – Tol began indignantly. “Just going on and on, ugly-beautiful, inside-outside. Nikto is our guy! Ours! And by the way, he loves us all, despite the fact that all of you keep insulting and humiliating him all the time, and generally, are completely unfair towards him! But he doesn’t get angry! I’m sure, he would sacrifice his life for any of you!”

Orel laughed: “Oh, thank you, Tol. I had no idea you loved everybody so much!”

“What does it have to do with me?! I was talking about Nikto just now. Me, personally, I wouldn’t even give a red penny for Lis, for example, not to talk about risking my life! As if! Nikto is the only one not holding grudges, doesn’t matter how much Lis is shitting on him, he still loves him…”

“Oh, here’s another one!” – Orel said, turning towards Vil, who has just entered. Vil froze tensely, as usual.

“Vil, what’s Nik like, in your opinion? Quick, don’t think about it!”

Vil’s eyes went completely round with terror. “Kind…” – he whispered, hardly managing to speak, but not daring to disobey Orel and withhold the answer.

Friends exchanged glimpses, and Nikto laughed.

“And also”, – he said, – “You were saying that I don’t have a single drop of pride or dignity in me. And that I put out my ass for Orel obediently, and resemble a whore more than a warrior. You even put some eyeliner on me. I’m Arel’s slut!”

And Orel, seeing how the faces of his friends twisted in discontent, started laughing, too: “Serves you right! When you’re shitting on him, you’re actually shitting on yourselves! How about that, huh?! Didn’t expect that, now, did you? It’s a good idea I had, right?!”