The Mist and the Lightning. Part 19

Time stopped. Obeying the orders, Kors got on all fours, lay down, climbed onto the bed when he was pulled by the chain. He sucked, swallowed, licked and did whatever was asked of him. He didn’t ask for anything himself, but if Nik gave him a drink of the unclean ones or some bread and said “drink” or “eat”, Kors obediently drank and ate everything. If Nik tugged at his chain, Kors crawled on all fours to the bathroom and tried to fulfill all natural needs as carefully as possible. Nik continued to tattoo him. He hammered paint over the patterns he had previously painted with dye on his ankles, wrists, and chest. He didn’t deafen Kors, but Nik and Arel barely spoke, or spoke in their minds, blocking their internal conversations from Kors. “Nik, leave the cigarette” or “Arel, bring some wine” didn’t count.

“Someone is coming to see you now,” Nik said, and Kors froze on his couch. He was afraid that Nik would give him to others. In tension, he began to listen to the footsteps in the corridor. There was a knock on the door and Nik said:

“Come in.”

He didn’t name the guest, but Kors intuitively, with some animal instinct, guessed who it might be, and he was not mistaken.

“Hi!”

“Hi, Zaf,” Nik answered as if nothing had happened.

And Kors involuntarily imagined this sight: a mess reigned in the room, because all these days he had not heard either Verniy or Valentine. Nik didn’t let them in, which meant that rubbish was not removed either. The bed was spread out and crumpled, naked Arel was lying on it, Kors knew about this, and knew that they were without clothes. And Kors, tied to a post, stood on his knees with iron “spoons” before his eyes, with a painted, partially tattooed body, bruised from Arel’s blows, with scratches from Nik’s claws and traces of their bites. Disheveled because Nik didn’t comb his hair, dirty, smelling of sweat, cum and shit, and lost all his aristocratic gloss.

“Will you drink?” Hospitably offered Nik to Zaf.

The belt buckle rattled, Nik began to put on his pants. Kors sat with his head bowed and not moving. Nik ordered him to be quiet, and he would not say a word. He heard them drinking and Nik asked Zaf how he was doing. What was the point of keeping up a conversation about business if they could communicate mentally in whole information blocks, and Nik already knew and saw everything? But they seemed to really be people, exchanged a few phrases.

They are forced to live according to the laws of this world, should they interact like people? But now it doesn’t seem to bother them. They even had fun. It seemed to Kors that they liked to be human and diligently speak in simple phrases. It seemed to amuse them, just as an adult sometimes takes part in children’s amusements, for example, sits on a horse on a carousel, and he has fun. So Zaf and Nik seemed to be having fun, talking and doing it as if for real, diligently, according to the rules:

“Zaf, what’s new in the camp?”

“Eh, nothing special, everyone is having fun and drinking, and Marbuel got into a fight with his brother.”

“Aha-ha! Because of what?”

“It seems they argued who would eat the heart and stomach of a pigeon.”

“A pigeon?!”

“Yes, because of such nonsense, they are not inferior to each other even in small things.”

“Do you lack pigeons?”

“We have a lot of pigeons!”

“What prevented them from taking another one?”

“Well, you see, my Lord, that they both needed this pigeon.”

“Aha-ha!”

Kors listened how they played “people”, a little clumsily, but according to the rules, and it began to seem funny to him. Now, when all his senses were sharpened, he noticed that all this was not real, but quite realistic. He completely forgot that Nik said:“Someone is coming to YOU now,” and suddenly he heard Zaf ask:

“Can I take Vitor to my place for a couple of hours?”

And to Kors’ dismay, Nik replied:

“Yes.”

“Where is your jealousy, Nik? Or are you punishing me like this for teasing you about my friendship with Zaf? Yes, Nik, you know how to reflect!” And it hurt a lot. Kors wanted to howl from being powerless, and at the same time he didn’t want to show his suffering. Let them do what they want. It wad possible that they agreed on everything in advance and were again playing a performance in front of him. Allegedly, Nik was jealous of Kors, but in fact … they just laughed at him for the umpteenth time, it would be very much like they enjoy. Of course, it didn’t look at all like they had agreed and were playing with Kors, fooling him, and why did they need it? But then what was happening? How could Nik give him to Zaf now? What a betrayal! He said that he would train him, made him an obedient slave, and now what? Nik wants to punish him for that terrible evening when Kors, in his thoughtless bravado, really wanted to suck Zaf to spite Nick. “Well, now get what you wanted, catch a return,” Kors thought bitterly, scolding himself. In order not to show Nik his pain, he habitually began to read the quatrain in his mind again and again.

Nik unhooked him from the post: