AURORA (Original Novel)

Chapter 19. Don't follow witches.

Nightmare, horror and fear, this is how Camilla's condition can be characterized. She did not leave her room, almost never leaving her bed. To get to the toilet or sink, she called her mother, and she accompanied her by the hand as if she were two years old. Ege imagined dead people and Yon's face everywhere. At night, the girl heard shuffling steps in the corridor, as if they did not belong to her mother or father. Always, terrible sounds stopped at the door of Camilla's room and then something scratched at her, getting on her nerves. Ege slept only in daylight; at night there was no time for rest; clutching the crucifix with Christ, she hid under the bed, having first turned on the light in the bedroom. The parents hired a psychologist from Trondheim, a gray-haired woman with a short tuft of hair on her head, smiling sweetly, came to see the young patient three times a week, talking with her, but this did not last long. As soon as Ulle disappeared, his father was beside himself with rage; the holidays were completely ruined for him.

Olaf, accustomed to controlling everything and solving any problem by simply giving the necessary order, felt helpless, as if someone had cursed his family, the beginning his daughter had gone crazy, now the careless offspring had disappeared, his friends claimed that they had seen a certain car falling off a cliff into a quarry. The chief of police did not want to believe that his son was buried at the bottom of Livemore, he drove rescuers, divers and two large cranes to the lake, in the end the same car that Olaf gave to Ulle for his birthday was lifted, there was no doubt left. When everyone in the Ege family realized that the guy was dead, very dark days began for Camilla, the psychologist stopped coming, the mother went on a depressive binge and no one took her to the toilet by the hand, the father, smashing his late son's room to pieces, breaking all the furniture with tears left the house before our eyes, and the girl hasn't seen him since. As her mother said, he now sat at work all the time, bullying his subordinates and taking out his anger on those who could not answer him. The girl's fears did not go away, on the contrary, they became even more numerous. Ege didn't care that her brother died, she never loved him, but now she imagined that there was someone in the next room where Ulle lived.

Rushing sounds, footsteps, and sometimes someone moving furniture were periodically heard from the room. Camilla refused to go to the funeral with horror, remembering the cemetery, but she was also afraid to stay at home alone and asked to go to church during the funeral service. Helga liked her daughter's initiative, and she agreed, asking pastor Barness to look after the child. In God's house, Ege felt calmer; Svein gave her a children's gospel and allowed her to wander around the temple, looking at the frescoes and stained glass on the high lancet windows. A prayer speech over Ulle's grave was read by Barness's colleague from Brekstad. Camilla, rubbing the aching scar on her arm, looked with curiosity at the colorful image on the entire wall above the pulpit, the church was quiet, there was no one that day except the priest, who was doing something in his closet. The girl liked the picture primarily because of its plot; it depicted a pensive man with a beard in dusty clothes sitting on a stone and looking down from the mountain, next to him stood another man in black robes, the most important thing that made Ege even hold his breath, These are the amber eyes of this character, they look at the thoughtful man, the man in black extended his hand, pointing to his interlocutor at something below. Camilla had not paid attention to the frescoes before and only now discovered their beauty and secrets.

"Like?" - Asked the pastor who looked out of his office; today he had dark, opaque glasses on his face, which was slightly unusual.

"Yes, who is it?" Pointed to the figure in the dark, Ege. Svein approached her, straightening his Roman collar with his fingers, and answered.

"This is my child, Satan, and next to him is our savior Jesus on the mountain of temptation, here is a fragment from his forty-day fast in the desert, where the prince of evil tempted our Lord with all sorts of temptations." Barness spoke in a sacred tone, perhaps out of habit of his work, perhaps he really believed in these events. The priest's words interested Camilla; she remembered the raven and the cat at the bus stop. "Perhaps all this is the work of the devil?" - She thought.