Бесплатный фрагмент - Wake up, Caesar

Welcome to my dark side

It’s gonna be a long night

Bishop Briggs — Dark Side

— 1 —

At seven o’clock on a cold autumn evening, the door to the women’s dorm room of King’s College opened with a desperate howl of Silvan, disappointed in his abilities for the Latin language.

“I don’t get it! A thousand, no, a thousand and three times I flipped through this fucking textbook, but I didn’t find erant. It just doesn’t exist! As well as my belief that I’ll pass Latin in winter.”

Overshadowed by this terrible failure, Silvan fell into a soft chair and dropped his freckled face into his hands like a theatre actor. But the performance ended when an open bottle of red wine and The Gallic Wars by Gaius Julius Caesar caught his attention. The most typical decor in the most popular room on the floor.

“Hey! You’re sitting right on my blazer, you idiot,” Diana got up from the chair where she had been posing for about an hour like an antique statue, while Mars was painting her portrait with bright paints. He peeked out from behind the easel with a frown, which put the dark-haired model into doubts about her absolute beauty.

Silvan didn’t need any problems, so he pulled out a black blazer from under his ass and wiped his nonexistent tears with it. When he looked at Diana with a barely noticeable smile, he realized that she was wearing only dark brown trousers and a black lace bra that emphasized her attractive breasts in a very effective way.

The girl snatched the blazer from the drama king’s hands to prevent him from blowing his nose into it and threw it on Mars’ kneels.

“Let it stay with you, dulcis,” on the last word she smoothed Mars’ black curls, and her burning eyes screamed how much she wanted to kiss her boyfriend. But Silvan, who burst into the dark room with its velvet curtains and several candles, ruined all the romance of the evening. It is always easier to destroy than to create.

“If you’re still interested…” silent Mars suddenly spoke up. His attention was absorbed by the portrait he gave every feeling to. Mars’ plans included giving himself to his beloved as soon as possible because Diana was driving him crazy and it was getting harder to hold on. Brown hair down to the middle of her back, so straight, styled and sparkling, as if she had sold her soul to the Devil for it, eye shadow as golden as the midday sun on her eyelids, slightly parted and always ready to touch lips, and long sharp nails, so good at scratching his strong back during their private shows. A work of ancient art, she couldn’t be called anything else. She was on a par with The Iliad, or perhaps a bit ahead of Homer’s poem, and even Julius Caesar’s speeches couldn’t compare with the excitement which the charming fairy plunged Mars into.

“What am I interested in?” Silvan shook his head so that the red strands wouldn’t interfere with his gaze at Mars, cold, reasonable, strong and the most intelligent man he had ever met.

“Erant is the third person, plural, imperfect, active, indicative,” the best one in their special tiny group of classics students reported with a serious look on his face. Only six lovers of antiquity studied in third year, and together with the professors they formed a truly close-knit family.

Silvan immediately perked up. He knew that Mars would never leave in trouble and would always help out, especially when it came to studying. They could ask him any questions because that damn fanatic idolized Ancient Rome from the beginning of its history to the very last speck of dust.

“Live forever, my friend!” Silvan made a clumsy low bow and glanced at the bottle on the floor. “Anything stronger?”

Diana got back to posing and answered without moving.

“What about cherry liqueur?”

“Tu rides?”

“I saw brandy on the shelf behind the books,” Mars was putting the finishing touches. He was going to hide Diana’s marvelous portrait from prying eyes on his own shelf full of classical works in Latin and dictionaries.

“How do you know what is hidden among my books?” Diana narrowed her eyes to show that she wouldn’t tolerate any lies. She decided to take the blazer to the laundry after Silvan’s hands and pulled out a black shirt from the closet instead.

“I hid that brandy some days ago. For the future, you know,” Mars put the art supplies aside. The weekend was coming, and they needed to get rid of all the gained stress after a cruel week.

“I guess someone named my favorite drink,” the door swung open again because no one considered it their duty to knock politely and enter cautiously. It was common among them to disturb each other’s peace.

In a small but cozy room, where charming music from an old vinyl record player was bewitching on the background, the space shrunk when loud blue-haired Nox came in.

“Since when did you stop worshipping beer?” Silvan snorted and turned away. He didn’t want to see his ex-boyfriend’s middle finger. Nox annoyed him more than anyone else in the world, especially because he quickly moved away from their stormy romance and seemed to remember nothing about it. The playboy was a professional at going on countless dates with (aka sleeping with) college students, and he never kept in secret his admiration for the Roman emperor Nero who ascended the throne at the age of sixteen and became infamous for being a mentally ill sadist and arsonist, which seemed inspiring to Nox.

“Did you come to complain about Latin endings, too?” Diana took a sip of wine from the bottle and started dancing with her eyes closed, too lazy to button up her shirt. Or maybe she just wanted everyone to see her body.

“Deus, I’m not as dumb as some here. I just wanted to share my favorite lines from Plato’s Symposium. Listen!” Nox opened the book where he had left the red rose as a bookmark and cleared his throat. “‘People who are split from a male are male-oriented. While they are boys, because they are chips off the male block, they love men and enjoy lying with men and being embraced by men; those are the best of boys and lads, because they are the most manly in their nature.’ Brilliant, isn’t it?”

A moment of silence.

Then Mars spoke out, “Do you know that you’ve read this quote to us ten times already?”

“Eleven, to be exact,” Silvan corrected. “You know, I memorize numbers perfectly, so I give one hundred percent guarantee that…”

“Shut up!” Nox snapped and threw his book on the table littered with Diana’s thick textbooks, scribbled notebooks, unfinished essays and empty bottles. Then he sat down right on the maroon carpet and hugged his sharp knees.

“One day you’ll stop talking about male sex, but I’m afraid we won’t live to see it,” Diana handed Nox a full glass. “Sorry, there is no snack.”

Everyone laughed. They never needed a snack.

“Have you finished your project on those ceramic fragments? Bates won’t be happy with another excuse,” Nox turned his eyes to the couple whose love wasn’t allowed to reveal itself because of the growing audience.

“Yesterday. And I’m glad it’s over. Dishes aren’t as interesting as bones.”

“I agree,” Mars held out his hand to Diana, inviting her to dance. He looked like a real gentleman in his gray tweed suit, and no one could resist his charm. Fortis et liber, that’s what Diana called him to herself. Strong and free.

The lovers spun around the room, and Silvan decided to turn up the volume on the record player to create the illusion of real dancing. Diana and Mars nodded their thanks to him and, with the bottles and each other, flew off into the world of an alcohol-toned waltz. Nox moved to the vacant chair, and Silvan swam to the dresser to look for some weed among the underwear. It’s Friday after all. On Friday, everything is allowed.

“Do you know if Vesper translated the Greek text?” The blue-haired guy asked the redhead. Their hair alone let them stand out from the crowd of boring college students.

Silvan slowly rolled a cute joint and only after that answered in a lazy voice, “Aurora translated. She came back from class and dove into it immediately. I will always be amazed by her efficiency.”

Nox just waved it off and said, “I’m interested in Vesper.”

“If you want to copy, it’s better to ask Aurora. She doesn’t make any mistakes. It’s like she was born with Greek on her lips.”

“You don’t seem to understand. I’m interested in Vesper.”

Silvan sat frozen in the chair with a joint at his mouth.

“You know he likes Diana, right?” He whispered because the dancing couple shouldn’t have heard it. “And even if he didn’t like her, he prefers women anyway.”

Nox finished his brandy and exhaled with pleasure. A sly smile appeared on his pale face.

He moved the chair closer to his friend and whispered, too, “Of the fifteen Roman emperors, only Claudius preferred women, which means I’ll definitely convince Vesper. Just once. It’s not a secret he sleeps less now, and bags under his eyes are so big that you can put your endless problems with Latin endings in them. Did you notice he stopped combing? Damn, his gorgeous hair is so fucking messed up, I actually want to cry and wank when I see it.”

Silvan swallowed. He didn’t like the way Nox talked to him about guys. No deep feelings, but anyway, listening to the ex talking about sex with your mutual friend brought very little pleasure. Thanks to all the Roman gods and Diana, Silvan had weed to cope with frustrating conversations.

Suddenly the music stopped.

Diana and Mars returned from the palace of their thoughts.

“Guys, we’ve come up with something,” crazy sparks flashed in the girl’s eyes.

Actually, madness was typical of both Diana and Mars, which completed the list of reasons why they had been dating for two years. Impeccable style, brilliance, interest in archaeology, and weird ideas that everyone in their almost friendly group absolutely adored. Even their performance with the painting. No one could imagine they would bring an easel and a canvas with paints from nowhere and start creating art for no motives. Apparently, they both had a chance to end up in an asylum in the future, but so far the group had been managing to control the impulses of their freaky couple.

Nox and Silvan nodded. They wanted to know the details.

“Call Aurora and Vesper, we are going to summon spirits.”

That was exactly the kind of Friday night everyone needed.

— 2 —

No one should have felt left out, so the six of them settled down on the crumbs-strewn parquet floor and put a marble bust of Cleopatra next to the circle. Diana would allow to steal, burn and drown all her sacred notes with rules, facts and theories highlighted with different markers, but she would never say goodbye to her treasure found in the attic of the dormitory. The queen ruled Egypt during the period of the Roman Empire, was beautiful, ruthless and strong, which seemed to Diana ideal qualities for a woman. Beyond that, Cleopatra’s world-famous affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony added spice to her image and made the queen truly iconic.

“Fine, the majority voted for Caesar. But do you really want this, or are you just scared to offend Mars? He’s ready to do anything to get in touch with the soul of his idol,” Vesper was never afraid to speak out, keeping silent only about his feelings for Diana. His sincerity, or nerdiness, could sometimes be admired, but only sometimes.

Impregnable Mars succumbed to the provocation and said, “Caesar is the best option because he does know about Roman burials in Britain. He organized two invasions, remember?”

“Like many others, and yet you cling to this dictator,” said Nox. He was against summoning Caesar’s spirit for two decent reasons. Firstly, Caesar was never merciful, and if they managed to pull off this trick, the Roman emperor wouldn’t be happy to find out that a bunch of drunk and stoned Cambridge students wanted to ask him a couple of suspicious questions. And secondly, Nox began to implement his plan to capture Vesper, and sharing the same point of view on some things was on the list.

“They’re just kindred spirits, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Aurora shrugged and then yawned. All evening she sat with her dictionaries to identify the semantic field of success in Latin and English. Vesper had already done his part of the work and gently but regularly reminded Aurora about the task of Professor Tolman. The girl loved linguistics but sometimes regretted that she chose it as her specialization, because tasks for her and Vesper were usually pointless, and Professor Tolman knew it himself. Every evening she had to delay her bedtime in favor of working with dictionaries, and bags under her eyes were not the only problem. Aurora felt her blonde curls fading and thinning due to the unbearable workload, and no vitamins, which she had been swallowing for the second month, helped stop the catastrophe.

“Okay, if I drink another glass of this cheapish wine, it will probably make it easier for me to accept what’s going on,” Vesper gave up. He had his reasons, too. He didn’t want Diana to think he was afraid of the Ouija board or, even worse, wasn’t crazy about Caesar. The tyrant seemed their full-fledged classmate because they devoted a nasty number of conversations to him.

“Are you sure we can do it?” asked Silvan with a hint of doubt and lay down on his back. He didn’t think straight after everything he had managed to pour into himself, but the instinct for self-preservation still lived inside.

“Audentes fortuna iuvat,” Mars shared his philosophy and got up from the floor to take matches and a few more sage candles from the closet.

He and Diana lied. The idea to arrange a seance to find out about the graves of ancient Romans near Cambridge didn’t come to their dark heads during the dance. No, they had been cherishing this idea since the beginning of September after another class of translating texts from Latin into English and reading the results out loud. They did it every time and got really bored with the college’s approach to learning the language. Everyone knows Latin is dead and taught only to understand medicine and the basis of European culture. No conversations, no exchange of thoughts, no loud and confident speech. And it seemed unfair to Diana and Mars. They wanted to communicate in Latin, maybe not as fluently as in their native language but at least as in French they learned at school. Adding little Latin phrases to their silly conversations reminded Mars of kindergarten behavior, and he always felt ashamed of it. They needed real practice. A person who doesn’t understand another language and leaves no choice. Then they would have to cross the border and speak Latin. Then getting a higher education would make at least some sense. And drunk friends couldn’t deny it.

Fortunately, Mars and Diana were well versed in the earth, its values, and especially in how to get people out of it. That’s the beauty of archaeologists’ work. They are magicians with the legal right to show the dead, buried under meters of soil, the blue sky and bright stars. However, the students wanted to go beyond the limits, they needed not to look but to hear. Nobody yet knew how to make bones talk, but there was something harder than weed hidden in the top drawer of the dresser.

“Are we doing it right here? On the floor? Naked?” Nox sat down next to Vesper but opposite Silvan, and it spoiled the situation.

“Corruptus in extremis,” Vesper rolled his eyes.

“A capite ad calcem,” Diana agreed.

They looked at each other and laughed.

After a second, Diana forgot about it. Vesper remembered it forever.

“Did you say something about dirty feet?” Silvan was still lying on the floor, passing his hands over it and collecting dust like a vacuum cleaner. His mustard-colored jumper belonged to the laundry after such an adventure, but he couldn’t care less about the condition of his clothes. Nox’s sudden confession didn’t want to leave his mind, and the more Silvan thought about it, the more he realized how offended he felt. At some point, he came up with a great idea to switch his attention to another person to dull the revived pain. His gaze stopped at Aurora’s black tights. Silvan took that as a sign.

“That’s the main reason for the upcoming event,” Diana smiled and ran her finger through the candle flame. With her other hand, she patted Cleopatra’s stone hair. “To give you, Silvan, the opportunity to improve your oral speech.”

“Where did you get the board?” asked Aurora. Diana always managed to surprise them with unexpected finds. She definitely hadn’t had a Ouija board before.

“The main thing is that we have it. I found the rules on the Internet, and I think we need to read them,” Diana’s eyes skimmed through the text.

Suddenly the phone fell out of her hands, and she burst out laughing.

“What’s there?” Nox picked up the phone. He didn’t like when something funny passed by him. “I hope I was right and we’ll have to undress.”

But a minute later he was laughing with Diana.

The rest of the students became curious and started asking each other what was so remarkable about the rules. It turned out that before and during the seance you mustn’t take alcoholic beverages, drugs or nicotine, because it is life-threatening, and everything can end in obsession or even schizophrenia.

Each of them got into the risk zone. Before the whole company sat in a circle on the floor, everyone had taken part in destroying Diana’s alcohol reserves, but even then they weren’t completely satisfied and brought more bottles to continue the feast.

“Can we call it off?” suggested Aurora, although she knew the answer.

“No way,” Mars snapped after two sips. “Our hearts are already set on it.”

“Well, maybe yours is set, but mine is quite open to another kind of experience…” Nox turned to Vesper, who paid no attention to it, and wanted to add something, but Mars didn’t let him.

“Hit on boys later, we have plans for today, asshole,” Mars was losing his temper. He wasn’t as drunk as his friends, so he couldn’t just lie on the floor, talk nonsense and laugh at the top of his voice. A little fun is fine, but that’s enough. The Internet likes to scare, so the last thing you need to worry about is some stupid online warnings.

Diana put her hand on Mars’ thigh to distract him and give the others some time to pull themselves together or at least to pretend.

At the next stage of preparation, it was necessary to take off all jewelry, let hair down, relax belts and ties. Diana had to cover Nox’s mouth so that he wouldn’t start sharing his filthy hopes again.

“Oh, this one is interesting,” it was Aurora’s turn to wade through the blurring letters. “If there is someone in the company who constantly jokes, laughs and asks stupid questions, they need to be kicked out of the room.”

“Well, let’s go,” Silvan took a sitting position. “Mr. Raven is the only one who can stay here.”

Mars rolled his eyes and smoothed his black hair. He didn’t notice how Vesper looked at him, but the envy in the glance was obvious. Vesper believed that Diana wouldn’t break up with her handsome boyfriend as long as he had black curls. Diana adored black, no one even knew the reasons for her love, but they suspected that she worshiped Satan in solitude and always chose black to show respect to the Dark Lord. Vesper once thought of dyeing his brown hair, but then he realized this kind of makeover would rather amuse Diana than make her fall in love. You need to change yourself, but poor Vesper didn’t even know what he was like in order to figure out how to change himself.

Diana took out from a pencil-case a piece of chalk stolen from the ancient Greek’s classroom and drew a circle around her friends on the floor.

“Listen, what if the spirit settles here?” Aurora was actually worried about the future of the place. Besides, if the spirit started messing up, not only Diana would suffer, it would definitely affect them all.

Silvan chuckled, “Then Mars will settle here, too. Oh, wait! He doesn’t come out of the room anyway.”

“Family life,” Aurora sighed and threw a glance at the red-haired guy because she felt his sudden attention. Maybe alcohol clouded her mind, but there was something new, curious and even unacceptable in the gaze of her friend. She fixed the collar of her snow-white blouse and turned away with great emphasis.

“Keep your envy under control, losers,” said Mars. The others were hardly aware of loyalty, long-term relationships and real passion, so they constantly tried to solve their validation issues with the help of jokes. Mars usually didn’t pay attention to pranks, but this time he got really mad. The upcoming seance could change the future, and he didn’t understand why his friends preferred to discuss personal lives.

“Enough, let’s get started,” Diana had been waiting for it for a long time, she had great expectations and wanted to fulfill her plans as soon as possible. The girl asked everyone to hold hands and say together, “May there be no evil forces or demons.”

Then a frightening silence fell in the room.

The fingertips touched the tablet.

Six voices said in unison, “The spirit of Gaius Julius Caesar, come.”

And at that moment one of the candles went out.

— 3—

Even in the almost complete darkness, everyone saw each other’s huge and round eyes. They did their best not to cry out because scream could frighten, offend or anger a potential spirit. Apart from the sudden and unreasonable candle fading, nothing else happened, yet no one knew for certain what had to happen. The fingers were still pressing on the triangle in the center of the board, and all the participants had the feeling that a little more — and they would move the slider because of unbearable tension.

Aurora couldn’t keep her emotions and squeaked, “Is Caesar here? Does anyone know what’s going on?”

There was no reply, but Silvan gripped her free hand tightly. Aurora didn’t comment on this intimacy because she knew that Silvan was just wasted as usual and all his weird moves were nothing but the consequence of several drinks.

“Spiritus, hic es?” asked Mars. He sounded so calm and confident that even if someone suspected how absurd the situation was, they changed their mind. Mars believed they would succeed, and others had to believe it too.

However, the silence lasted too long and turned into confusion.

“Try English then. It’s the main world language after all. He will definitely understand you”, suggested Silvan and felt their leader’s rising anger.

“We are to practise Latin”.

“We are not if the spirit doesn’t respond to you. Greet him in English. Just try,” said Nox, and to his surprise, Mars obeyed.

“Are you here?” he repeated in a louder voice and got in the mood to resent, but suddenly the second candle went out, and an unknown force carried six fingers to the field with the word yes. The students looked at the board with genuine horror. No one asked whose joke it was. They wanted to believe in the power of Ouija.

“We greet you, spirit, and thank you for coming,” Mars continued with the same absolutely stolid face. “What’s your name?” It was necessary to make sure their party was visited by the one they were waiting for.

“It will be funny if…” Nox wanted to make a joke, but Mars looked at him with such a murderous sideways glance that Nox fell silent and stared at the board to avoid those sick eyes.

The slider didn’t move. Either the spirit forgot his name, or decided to remain anonymous, in any case, there was no choice, because Mars wouldn’t allow the séance to end, even though they would have to talk to a stranger.

“We would like to know about the graves of ancient Romans, your brothers, near Cambridge. We are very interested in antiquity, we admire the greatness of Rome and dream of seeing just one grave with our own eyes. We are ready to decorate it and honor the memory of the warrior who died here. If you agree to tell us, it will really make us happy,” Mars mixed truth and lies, and everybody could only hope that the spirit didn’t see their true thoughts.

“Wow, your monologue bothers even me. But what will the spirit think?” said Nox. He knew that he was breaking the rules, that only the so-called host could speak during the séance, but as a child he wasn’t taught to keep his mouth shut, and now it was too late to reform.

“Tace atque abi,” Diana whispered with her lips, doubting that the most restless person heard her dissatisfaction.

The slider moved.

It crawled slowly to the first letter.

K.

“I bet it will turn into ‘Kill yourselves,’” Nox couldn’t control himself, probably due to the fact that he managed to drink six glasses, but no one was interested in his reasons. Vesper silently pushed the guy away, and Nox fell out of the chalk circle.

“Yes, go away” Diana nodded.

“Well, I’m happy to!”

Nox got up, looked around as if he wanted to see the spirit. He didn’t really see anything, but he gave the middle finger to all four corners of the room, he thought a corner was a great place for “Caesar” to observe the living. There was a Plato on the table, the book he carried with him all the time instead of responsibly reading other philosophers, which Professor Ratliff always asked him to do. Nox took the book, turned the key in the lock and, slightly wobbling, went out into the hall, so light and empty, completely unlike his friend’s room.

They take everything to heart too much, they are so worried about the attention of their false Caesar that there are no decent words to describe it, Nox thought. He walked into another room where a cute guy from the mathematics department lived. Of course, he didn’t read Cicero, but he wore nice glasses with thin metal frames, besides, he was kind, and Nox knew that this guy wouldn’t kick him out.

And in the dark room, meanwhile, a word formed on the board.

Kelshall.

A small village, forty-minute drive from Cambridge.

None of the students had ever heard of it before.

Except Mars.

He remembered one article that he accidentally saw on the web a few years ago, when he was still in high school and dreamed of getting into King’s College, founded by Henry VI in the middle of the fifteenth century. The best example of late English Gothic architecture had always attracted Mars, and after finding out about the splendor of classical education offered to Cambridge students, he realized that he finally had a real goal. And as for that article, it was about the successful excavations in a Kelshall field, where a simple Englishman came across a Roman coin of the second century with the image of the Emperor Trajan. The efforts were not in vain. He dug up a Roman’s grave filled with various artifacts, which attracted the attention of many scientists.

The situation their company got into looked pretty curious, but Mars wasn’t satisfied. That Roman from the article was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn along with some coins which probably served as payment for a mythical creature that accompanied Romans to the afterlife. Roughly speaking, there was only dust left in the grave. And there is no point in talking to dust.

“A grave has already been found there,” Mars told the spirit. “Do you mean there is another one?”

The slider stopped at the “yes”.

The students exchanged glances.

“Okay, but where exactly should we look? Near the first grave?”

The spirit was silent. It seemed that he, like Mars, had read that article once and decided to share just some facts, hoping that no one would reveal his shameful ignorance.

But then the fingers moved again, in a very slow uncertain way, which made the friends doubt the spirit was going to tell the truth. However, they were ready to accept any information. They needed it too much.

A minute later, they had another word.

Stump.

“It seems we have a big village and a small landmark,” said Silvan and thought they would kick him out as well, but everyone turned out to be too enthusiastic about the séance and ignored his remark.

Mars had only one thing to make sure of.

“This Roman… Did you bury his ashes?”

The spirit pointed to certain letters, and Mars read with relief, “A corpse.”

Diana whispered in Mars’ ear, “That’s enough.”

He nodded.

Not much, but it should be enough for them.

“Thank you very much for coming and talking to us. Goodbye!”

They waited until the slider moved to the “goodbye” and only then turned the triangle over. The séance was finished. And it definitely became easier to breathe.

Diana felt alive first. She praised Mars for leading them through a slippery mystical path and hugged him with her whole love. She whispered something in his ear, and Mars immediately cheered up and looked at his friends with a clear look.

“Everything worked out! And we weren’t even cursed for being drunk and talking too much.”

“Well, we’ll find out it tomorrow when we wake up blind or dumb, or mentally ill, who gets what,” Silvan went to the table. “I’ll take your notes until morning, thank you.”

Diana lit two extinguished candles, she didn’t want to turn on the light, and said, “Take it in the morning.”

“Why?”

“We’re going to Kelshall now.”

“What?” Vesper jumped up and immediately hit his shoulder against an impressive dresser. “You want to go to some village tonight, at night, when we can barely stand on our feet, and pull out a corpse there?”

“A skeleton,” Mars said. He didn’t seem surprised, and the others suddenly realized that everything had been planned that way. They find out where to go, and they go there. Simple. No postponements, delays, excuses.

Aurora straightened her black skirt, in which she looked more like a harmless schoolgirl, and asked an interesting question, licking drops of spilled whiskey from her hand, “Let’s say we go. But how exactly will we do it?”

“Coniunctis viribus,” Mars shrugged his shoulders.

“A vague answer,” Vesper snorted and thought that Mars’ self-confidence had already crossed all acceptable boundaries.

“Well, if you have a good plan, props, the ability to drive a car and to look for tree stumps…” Silvan sat down on the table, right on the desired notes, and began to count his fingers.

“Are you going or not?” Mars cut off his speech and looked at everyone except Diana with his stern gaze, confident that this would make them succumb to his influence. He knew his trump cards and often allowed himself to use them.

Aurora nodded first. It seemed to her that a trip to nature would help relieve tension and give her a little strength to continue studying. She needed to reburn now more than ever before.

Then Silvan raised his hand. He knew it’s not typical of Mars to throw words to the wind, and if he decided to organize a conversation with a Roman with the help of a miracle, then it’s a crime to refuse the offer. They needed to come into literal contact with antiquity.

Vesper was the last to agree. The idea still seemed unrealizable to him, but Diana would go anyway, so it was better to go with her and take advantage of the opportunity to dig the ground under the moon and accidentally touch each other. He needed to be around her as much as possible.

“That’s nice,” Mars smiled. “Go to the car while I’ll get my things.”

“And Nox?” said Aurora. “Errare humanun est, don’t forget it, please.”

“If he’s standing outside now, ready to apologize for his unreasonable behavior, then let him join,” Mars went to the dresser to take the most important ingredient. The rest of the things he and Diana packed a long time ago and put them under the bed.

Aurora, with all her drunken naivety, went to the door and opened it.

Nox wasn’t there.

“I’ll go get him.”

“As you wish. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes.”

Without any more questions, as if everything started to look normal, Silvan and Vesper left the room after Aurora.

“Only fifteen minutes?” Diana was dancing again and slowly sneaking up on Mars. He was scattering her underwear in all possible directions and startled when Diana stood on tiptoe to kiss his hot neck.

“I would like to have eternity, but you know that otherwise they will just fall asleep in their cold beds. We need to leave as soon as possible.”

“I hate a cold bed, it makes me feel lonely.”

Mars finally took out six small plastic packages and put them in the prepared bag. Then he turned to Diana and saw her bra again, black as the soul itself.

“I’ll take care of you,” he took off his jacket and threw it on the floor.

Fifteen minutes, and then they will go to Ancient Rome.

— 4 —

No one thought about the necessary comfort for the difficult work with a shovel. Everyone went on a trip in their favorite long black coats and leather shoes. Only Aurora was wearing a beige coat, and she didn’t miss the opportunity to sigh with disappointment when friends gathered in the parking lot.

“And that’s how we lose individuality.”

“I would like to find it at first,” replied Vesper and got in at the back to Silvan who kept the most important bag with two bottles of red wine and some white pills.

Since the car belonged to Mars and he turned out to be the most sober and ambitious, which reduced the risk of accidentally driving into a swamp or crashing into another car, he settled into the driver’s seat. They decided that Nox would sit next to him, and one of the girls would comfort herself in someone’s arms.

“You could lie in the trunk, but okay,” Mars didn’t even look at his friend because he didn’t want to forgive him too quickly for stupid antics. Let him suffer.

The question was if Nox needed his forgiveness at all. The guy leaned his forehead against the glass and closed his eyes. He hoped the head would stop spinning.

“Who will be lucky enough to sit on uncomfortable knees and pray not to get out of the car with bruises?” Diana grinned and blew warm breath on her hands.

Late in the evening, the temperature dropped a lot, and she didn’t think of taking gloves, but at least she didn’t forget to put on a medallion in the shape of the moon, so symbolic for a full moon that night.

Naturally, Vesper wanted Diana to sit on him, but he was afraid to admit it. He knew that Mars wouldn’t be jealous because Mars had enough confidence that no one would be able to take his girlfriend away from him. But Vesper wasn’t ready to make such serious allegations.

Aurora looked into the car and immediately faced a wide and slightly frightening smile from Silvan. Everything on that freckled face betrayed his nefarious plan to feel Aurora up on the way to Kelshall. Perhaps Nox and Silvan should have stayed together, so none of them would bother the rest with their unwelcome attention.

“I’ll sit between the boys,” Aurora made a decision.

“Why you?”

“Because I said it first.”

Diana pursed her lips but then resigned to the situation.

“Well, Silvan has our bag, Vesper has an existential crisis, it seems the choice is obvious.”

Vesper’s wish was fulfilled by a wave of a magic wand, and he didn’t even have time to believe in the miracle that had happened. The girl of his dreams fell on his knees so easily and simply, as if she did it every day.

“Have you figured it out?” Mars looked in the car mirror.

“Eamus!” Diana replied.

Friday night’s adventure moved on to the next infernal circle.

Kelshall was located between Cambridge and London, and the car drove fast and straight and almost always smoothly. At first, Mars turned on the radio to make their journey not to seem long and boring, but the music disappeared amid conversations and laughter, so he turned it off soon and tried to concentrate on the plan.

He found some photos of the grave and was going to see it first. From that old grave they would disperse to the sides in search of a new one which he hoped they wouldn’t have to spend the whole night on.

“Shouldn’t we go straight to the forest?” Nox asked after he found out the details. He had to speak loudly because there was a “Guess the Song” in the back seats. At least it’s not “Truth or Dare”.

“That’s right,” the driver agreed after a minute and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “People cut down trees in the forest,” Mars said it with such an instructive intonation, as if he was the first to learn the truth and decided to share his knowledge with others.

“Or garden plots when the apple tree, for example, no longer bears fruit,” Aurora noticed this. She had been pushing Silvan’s hand off her knee all the way and couldn’t wait for them to finally arrive and get out of the car.

Vesper, on the contrary, was afraid to touch Diana, he felt that if he hugged the girl for her own safety, then he would never let her go, and then Mars would have a real reason to cut off his hands.

“We’ll come and sort it out on the spot, there’s no point in guessing now,” Diana seemed confident that the necessary stump would come out on them by itself. She didn’t even admit the possibility that the mission might fail.

However, when the students arrived and barely managed to step on the road, they heard a clap of thunder, although nothing had foretold bad weather before. Everyone suddenly realized that it was time to stop hoping for luck. Perhaps they would be deeply disappointed. Perhaps they would wander through the forest in the rain in search of someone whose existence hadn’t even been proven.

Aurora pulled a snow-white scarf higher on her face and started to regret that she was so eager to get out into the fresh air. No one had warned that this air would be as cold as a dead body.

“Why are you standing? Take shovels, bags, a good spirit and go to the forest,” Mars opened the trunk and gave everyone a personal archaeological set.

He pretended that he didn’t feel the cold, trying to show an example of fearlessness in the face of bad weather, but he lifted the collar of his coat to make the wind touch him a little less.

Silvan looked at the dark trees ahead with some distrust.

“Can we walk through the streets first? Maybe a fir tree grew near someone’s fence and was shamelessly cut down.”

Mars slammed the trunk shut.

“And when we don’t find anything, it will get even darker, and then no one will want to wander through the forest. That’s why we’ll start with the most unpleasant option.”

“Why unpleasant?” Diana was surprised with genuine sincerity. “The smell of fir trees alone is worth something! And we can also find mushrooms, if they, of course, grow in late autumn.”

“But wolves grow all year round,” Silvan persisted.

In the car, alcohol had worn off a little, and now Silvan looked at things more sensibly and especially at the possibility of dying in a terrible ravine. And all for the sake of a vague dream to communicate in Latin with a native speaker. How can we assume after this that it’s easy to be a philologist?

“We’ll get around this forest in an hour and a half, it’s tiny, there aren’t even squirrels here” no one had a chance to convince Mars, it wasn’t worth trying.

However, no one moved.

“Satis! Just do it,” Nox took on the role of a trailblazer with courage.

He stepped into the woods, onto a narrow, trampled path, and didn’t even turn around to check if his friends had followed him.

And they followed, because deep down everyone wanted to feel fear. It is fear that guides people’s impulses, motivates them to hide or run, and thanks to it you can clearly understand that you are still alive. You’re afraid, so you exist.

“Let’s use some logic,” Mars pretended to be the smartest again, while he was walking behind his friends to control them. “The one who wanted to cut down and carry away a tree, hardly went too deep, after all, he still has to drag the weight back, but at the same time he hardly decided to swing the saw at the very edge of the forest. I also doubt that he was very far from the path. In general, he kept to the golden mean.”

“It doesn’t help at all,” Vesper chuckled and stepped over a large branch. Their whole journey resembled a real obstacle course. “There are still a million options where to go. If we don’t split, at least in half, so that one group goes to the right and the other group goes to the left, then we’ll spend here not the promised hour and a half, but a month and a half. And what, by the way, will happen if there are several stumps? In theory, everyone should go their separate ways.”

“No!” Sylvan cried out. “I’m not going to split up.”

“Then you will be split up. You’ll get butchered like an unfortunate goat,” it seemed funny to Nox that Silvan believed in the philosophy of horror films, while one could believe, for example, in the philosophy of porn films.

“Okay,” Mars stopped.

Others also stopped.

The crunch of fallen leaves, similar to the breaking of bones, died down, too.

“I hope your phones are charged. When you find it, mark the location and send it to the others.”

Everyone obediently agreed to the plan. They hoped that the connection wouldn’t be lost in the forest.

“I’m taking Vesper and Aurora to my team!” it was important to Nox to “book” the most successful options. He needed Vesper for an obvious reason, Diana and Mars were not to be separated, and it was better to keep his annoying ex far away. Aurora, the most harmless but boring girl in the world, was left and Nox chose her.

But it wasn’t that simple. Everyone had their own thoughts about who it was best to wander in the dark among the trees with. A commotion began, and everyone tried to defend their vision of the situation but keep in secret their real motives.

“I have an idea!” Diana exclaimed, and no one was surprised at it.

Diana didn’t care who to go with, but the chance to kiss her boyfriend, pressed against a tree, appealed to her a lot. However, she knew they shouldn’t linger because of silly disputes. Besides, thunder was still making them shudder in surprise, and the icy wind was tangling their hair with greater force.

“Speak out, then,” Mars frowned. He was dreadfully annoyed by his friends’ pathetic attempts to hide their true desires.

He wanted to go and do the work for which he had been living lately, and let others do whatever they want, just at least not forget to watch their feet. It would be a shame if they missed the grave because someone decided to cuddle in the dark.

Diana offered the fairest option. She broke six sticks, three short and three long, which could easily decide for them who would go with whom to the depths of the sinister forest.

“Pull.”

And with frank excitement, everyone experienced luck, if it was still allowed to believe in its existence.

— 5 —

After some more thunderclaps, it became known that Nox, Aurora and Mars would go to the right, while Vesper, Silvan and Diana would go to the left. Without any objections, the students finally separated, but before that they looked at each other so intently, as if they felt that they might not meet again. Did it seem like a tragedy to them? At least, it definitely did not reach the antique level of tension.

“Maybe we’ll see you again. Maybe not. Who cares!” Silvan waved to his friends who were already moving away. Then he turned to his own group and, rubbing his hands either due to the cold or anticipation, said,

“We must win.”

Vesper raised his eyebrows, “What?”

“This grave-searching game.”

A note of anguish sounded in Vesper’s heavy sigh. The one whose dreams seemed to come true one after another looked at the black sky barely visible from behind the branches. He put his hands in the coat pockets, and his shovel, for which Mars had apparently robbed a household shop, was lying on the dirty ground.

Diana looked at both guys with undisguised disappointment, then turned around and, waving her gorgeous hair and letting the pleasant scent of mysterious herbs scatter in all directions, stepped off the trampled ground into the thick grass.

“If we stand still like this, then I doubt we’ll win,” she began to push the spruce branches apart with both her hands and a shovel. Her movements, as usual, looked perfectly practiced, clear and decisive. Vesper was bending over to make his way through obstacles without the help of numb hands and wondering if she had participated in similar adventures before.

Listening to the wind, Diana was walking in silence, she wasn’t looking back, because she felt that the responsibility for the task lay entirely on her. Silvan would rather jump between the trees and scary shadows, and Vesper, as always, would wander in his incomprehensible thoughts and mumble something under his breath. They couldn’t be relied on.

After a couple of minutes, Diana went far ahead. The guys didn’t even notice her disappearance, because at the most convenient time and in the most favorable place they started a very frank conversation.

It took Silvan a moment to assess the situation and realize that since he was unlikely to be lucky that night, he could at least help arrange another alliance. He needed to distract himself from thoughts about wolves and at the same time have fun. He asked his friend in a barely audible voice:

“Do you want to chat with her?”

Vesper twitched as if from a lash, but then put on his favorite mask and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well, she’s alone now, no one is watching, you can find out from each other how you are doing in a calm and confidential atmosphere,” Silvan didn’t even smile. He didn’t need Vesper to think that he was joking. It’s important to show some support, but in no case to give out even a couple of laughs.

“We’re doing fine, I don’t see why you’re bothering,” with such wonderful abilities for acting, Vesper could play in the Roman comedies of Plautus.

Silvan crossed his arms over his chest, tucking the shovel under his arm, which turned out to be completely unsafe. A thorny branch immediately passed over his face, and then he stumbled over a moss-covered stone and almost fell into the mud, but Vesper managed to pick him up and return to a stable position. Silvan expressed gratitude for the help, and then continued his simple manipulations.

“Let’s be honest. You don’t know how to lie. All your supposedly secret thoughts are written right here,” Silvan pointed a finger at his friend’s forehead. “And I don’t understand what you are afraid and ashamed of. Esto quod es. We also admire the moral principles of Ancient Rome, remember? Of course, you don’t have to insert it right now, but you can begin with the talking part.”

Vesper couldn’t speak for a moment after such a delightful monologue. He definitely wasn’t going to insert anything while Diana was dating Mars, and his friend’s reasoning seemed extremely disgusting. Silvan used to be known for great decency, but Nox’s bad influence on him was reflected as noticeably as possible.

“I’m not even going to comment on it,” said Vesper after a while. He didn’t want to stay near Silvan, so he quickened the pace, hoping to take a break from unsolicited advice.

Soon he caught up with Diana, who sat down in the grass, not sparing the edges of her expensive and clean coat. She was picking some berries and, when she noticed how puzzled Vesper was, asked.

“Raven eye or blueberry?”

There was no response.

“I’ve always wanted to be good at plants, but it seems my destiny is only dead languages,” it sounded like asking for a compliment.

Everyone believed that Diana had a sea of talents, if not an entire ocean. And even now she probably knew what kind of berry was in front of her, she just wanted to lie. She adored enjoying her virtues and drawing the attention of others to them.

But the guy in love decided to take the bait anyway.

“It’s not true, you can do so many things that sometimes I doubt if you are a human being.”

Diana immediately straightened up and showed Vesper a handful of berries. They looked confusing.

“Let’s find out. I’ll eat a few and we’ll see what happens. If I am a human being and the berries are poisonous, I may have a cardiac arrest,” without waiting for an answer to such a tempting offer, she slowly carried the first berry to her mouth.

Not immediately, but Vesper realized how things could turn out, and grabbed Diana’s thin hand so that she wouldn’t have a chance to bring the matter to a potentially unfortunate end. He continued to squeeze her wrist even when the dark berries fell to the ground and disappeared into the foliage.

A psychopath, Vesper thought with horror. However, there was no such psychopath in the whole wide world anymore. And he was so mediocre, as if he had been molded on the conveyor belt of a bankrupt factory.

He released Diana.

She smiled.