About a certain return

Part 6

– What, angrily said the old woman? This creature is here against his will?

And she turned towards Gina. Oh! I saw the beauty flying. A bat of fire she was and in her place remained a skeleton.

– He agreed to it, said the skeleton, I didn't force him...

– You agreed? said the old lady with a devilish look and with one eye protruding out of the socket, did you agree to it or not?

I already saw myself a skeleton, or even worse, an ark... The witch's power had frozen me. I was even afraid to approve.

– Let's suppose so...What do you all want from me?

I had been polite, the beauties didn't matter anymore.

– It was your choice, mortal. You want to know the astral light.

– The astral light? The Sun Light? But ...it is deadly...

– No whatsoever they saw it and survived, said the old witch, referring to men. But to succeed you need to be accepted in their brotherhood and to embrace the cult. You will feel the true beauty, you mortal, you will know pleasure as never known before...

She had a serious voice, a bit shaky, melodramatic even. I was afraid she will think I dislike her... Gina's skeleton collapsed in the water and then went under the water. It vanished. Unhappy beauties, unless they were hallucinations... The women didn't get out of the water and didn't go to swim either, they didn't even move in the water... Maybe they were horrified by Gina's punishment. I didn't understand at all what had she been punished for... What did she do wrong?

– May I leave now?

– The choice is yours, mortal.

– May I ask you something?

– You already did. Only they can provide an answer to your questions.

I wanted to ask if I could give up. Look into what madness I enrolled myself unwillingly.

The "boys" were having lunch. They were strongly biting form some chunks of raw meat..."I don't want something like this."

– Have you been with women, asked the boss chief?

I concluded he was the boss as he had a metal ring around his head.

– Have you been with women, repeated the man, in a stifled and broken voice, without moving his mouth?

– I don't understand what you are talking about.

– Do you want to find out the truth?

I hesitated to answer.

– I would like to be taken back...I cannot get used to...I'm not interested in the truth you want to show me...

– I asked you two questions... and you couldn't provide an answer, croaked the man, showing a delusive indifference and suddenly threw an object at me...two...actually more, the metal tips of a whip. I drew back and kept the distance. But the ugly one jumped at me and hit me even harder. I felt and saw the blood running down my face. I looked him in the eye. "Ha-ha", he grinned, "ha-ha-ha"! A real horn was protruding out of his forehead, above the metallic ring which was squeezing hid head. Not to big but obvious. No, they were two such protuberances..."He's a Demon?!"

– Bring him here! Attach him to the post!

Why would I bother to resist? They were so strong, the terrible ones! They grabbed me by the hair, and threw me onto some rugged stones on the way, after which they lifted me up, stretched my hands on a wooden log the height of a tall man so I was standing on the tip of my toes, and thrust two knives through my palms. Oh, holy Pain! There are two ways of reacting in such a situation, I don't know more! To beg for mercy or to show disdain with dignity. It's believed that the man who cannot stand the pain, whatever its nature, is not a true man. Let's be sober! Pain and sufferance have no connection with gender. Maybe with the matter, with the energy...I waited for the Fiend. I waited..." Look how he's advancing, the devil!" I focused on the place where the eyebrows were joining. As much as I could offer, the spit stacked to his eye and run down the scar on his face..."A-hah-hah-hah-hah! A-a-hah-hah-hah!" They all started to laugh, the animals-that moment I couldn't see any spark of humanity in their sight.

He got out of his mantel a long and slightly curved sward. He slowly lifted its tip and brought it down. A jump, a spinning movement, and the upright strike, matchless, with lightning speed...

This is the move! Life is worthless while the science of the move means everything. It is art, intelligence, self-control, speed, magic and death. It's perfection. And it offers you an honorable entry in the Beyond World.

"Beyond, where?"