Ring of Madness

by Royden Labrosse

  Book 1 - No evil without a vampire.

  Chapter 1

  It all started on one unremarkable day. However, on such days, usually there are fateful events. I lived then like all girls my age. A normal biofaculty student, nineteen years old. I thought a lot about guys, less about studying. Students are students on the moon, too. Drinking, partying, disco and dancing. Plus lectures, tests and exams. But who'd think of little things like that before a session? And there were more than three months left before it, so you could relax.

  That day, I just got back from the market. My mother and grandfather rested in Cyprus, and I remained almost my own mistress. My grandfather left me the money, but I had to do everything around the house myself. Buying, cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning. It's all terribly boring. And I don't like to be the hostess much. On the other hand, you can throw a couple of parties for your buddies. And no one will get on my nerves. But the food had to be bought in advance. That's what I did, and now I feel like a champion among heavy trucks. You start to understand pack donkeys very well after a visit to the wholesale market.

  The phone was nasty, and I used to have my nose wrinkled. I hate phones! All my friends use them to talk, and I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! Personally, I think we should talk face-to-face. And I don't think you should. My theory is that anyone, even the most empty one, should be able to talk face to face. Otherwise, you can say something to the person you're talking to that you can't relax for a year. Besides, video phones in our city have not appeared yet and will appear only in the next century. So it's gonna take a hell of a lot of time to figure out who's sitting next to your conversation partner on the other side of the wire. He could be sitting on the other side. It can! I myself once sat there listening to one of my best friends poured a little garbage on my head. And I was like that, and sitting down and kissing Andriushka Tomilin in the toilet... And it wasn't true! We didn't kiss him at all! We just drank vodka, and he quickly blocked me from the deputy director of educational work. We were still in trouble, but still less than for alcohol. Imagine what it was like to stand in a hug and hold a bottle and a plastic cup between your bodies! Thank you for at least the headmaster told me to wash up first, and then leave the men's room. And she washed my neck in the hallway. Well, I wasn't complaining about her! We hid the bottle! And we even had time to chew garlic so that this darkness wouldn't smell. Sorry, I think I'm off course. Well, I don't like phones, and if I have to answer the phone, I speak very briefly and try to make an appointment or make a quick conversation.

  - Yeah?

  - Hello! Papeka, you?!

  I raised my eyebrows. What's wrong?! The sky fell to the ground and I didn't even notice? It takes at least a tank hit to bring my friend to that state. It won't even make Katka sneeze. What you want is the cost of Nordic and ugly education. For some people, her calmness is good manners, and for me - a specific slowdown in phase. We constantly argue and quarrel about it, I call Katka a hot Estonian girl, and she calls me a cold Russian hysterical. We argue a lot. But anyway, usually Katka is calmer than an elephant, and now her voice is obviously hysterical. The apocalypse is coming, right.

  - – Я. Hi, Katya. What's wrong?

  - Can you come to your dacha in an hour?!

  Yes, I can, I can. Nobody's holding me at home and nothing. Even for the party, I haven't called anyone yet. What if I change my mind? So I can go for a ride before the party. Really, what will I do there - in the middle of February? Shall I plant potatoes? It's not funny! Come on, then! I'll check the house. The lock on that door isn't from honest people. It opens mostly with a crowbar and a famous mother. But thieves can have both. On the other hand, on the ice and in my favorite heels?! And in general, on February ice, on potholes and bumps? Do I need it? I'm not a thief, I don't get paid for it! Let's try to turn our backs!

  - Katya, do you have to go to the cottage? My apartment won't suit you? Anyway, the ancestors in the Canaries are resting! Come here, will you chat at my house?

  - Jane, please! Please, kitten-a-a-a-a-a!

  - Katya, who bit you and what place?! - I took an aggressive interest. I really wanted to say nasty things to a friend. And bigger, bigger! Now we're going to scandal - and there's no need to go anywhere! Yeah, in your dreams! I didn't even have time to think of one, not even to say it!

  - Jane-a-a-a-a-a-a...

  Words went into concrete sobs, and then into quiet crying. I felt like it was crap! And I barked so that the pipe vibrated.

  - Katya! Shut up!

  Katya on the other end of the wire fell into the tube. But even though she's not howling - and this grand Merci. Try to conduct a constructive dialogue yourself, when your opponent, instead of listening to you and answering you (in detail, calmly and logically), is capable of only three sounds of "O-o-o", "A-a-a-a-a" and "Y-you-you-you". I can't. Absolutely not.

  - Katya! Listen to me carefully! Get dressed and scratch the dacha. I'll be there soon! If I'm late, wait a bit. I'll see you later!

  And she rolled the pipe against the lever. Feeling my heart - now I have to listen to the soul - and the heartbreaking story of one love. Or not love? Okay, I'll have to listen to it. Am I a friend at last, or am I a dog's tail?

  Right now, the thing I wanted to do most was to be a tail. But then I wouldn't forgive myself. I had to dress like a fire. But I don't need much time. My favorite black clamshell jeans, blue sweater, high heels boots - with my 6'3" it's more than relevant. I'm already looking at the whole group from the bottom up, I've already got muscle sprains around my neck. On top of that is a short sheepskin coat, a warm scarf and a hat. The last bag to fit into the ensemble - and I flew away, almost blending myself - with my forehead in the door jamb. But there's nothing you can do about it. My clumsiness isn't even a reason to joke. It's a reason to be afraid for your life. Whether I'm doing dancing, karate, or gymnastics, the teachers have given me cow grace and elephant elegance everywhere. Wherever to dance, I can't even walk around the room four times without tripping. And all the children in the group looked at me with mockery. Obviously, it didn't add to my love of sports. Alas! If I rode on skis - I either broke them, or drove into a snowdrift or raided a tree. If I skated, at first the whole skating rink moaned with laughter, and then began to rub bruises and expressively look in my direction, trying to pull off a couple of stackettes and use them as clubs. I don't knock anyone down on purpose, but when I get comfortable and relax in my chair, three out of four people will either trip or walk on my feet. It's been tested for a decade at school. A PE teacher in class would usually put me on a bench and tearfully ask me not to interfere in anything. His health is more precious. And freedom, too, he's in charge of the students. I didn't protest much. I sat quietly in the corner and taught a subject. My brain worked much better than my arms and legs. It was one consolation, after all. I wasn't getting fat. Of course, not a skeleton from Buchenwald, like all photomodels, but size forty-six sits on me like an infusion. It's perfect for my height! And I'm very happy with it. In my last breath, I flew into the trolleybus, stuck a supervisor under the nose of the pass and screwed a corkscrew into the far corner, and there plunged into the seat and stuck plugs in my ears. So the headphones are MP3s. If I drive through half the city, I can listen to the audiobook. I used to read in transport, but now I move with the times and read to me. The only thing left is to think of a way not to fall asleep to the monotonous voice. Or they could rob me on the way.

  We had a dacha at the Russian Forest cooperative. I think the name is stupid, especially if there are only plantings left of the whole forest. Bunch of them, wasted and chopped up. But who likes what? And then, our dacha has its advantages. It's located half an hour's walk from the city. It's my walk. Well, I walk really fast. Almost running.
Everyone obsesses me and asks me to walk slower, but I like it better. First of all, fast walking is very good for your health. Secondly, it really saves my precious time. It's only twenty-four hours a day, and it's everywhere. If I walked like my family does, I'd be half an hour late for a meeting. And that's how I got there on time. Big deal, red and panting! I'm not going to a beauty pageant, I'm going to my summer house! And who doesn't like it, they weren't invited.

  Katka was already there. And she was trampling the path along the cottages. Judging by its depth and length, either the girlfriend wipes her boots here long ago, or gets hysterical. Why would that happen to her?! I think her arms and legs are in place, her head's in place! Then what? Oh, okay, what's to guess? I'm about to find out. Even the things I don't want to know. I waved at her from afar, pulling the keys out of her bag.

  - Great, Katya!

  - Hello, Jane," she answered, trampling on the spot like a stale horse. Is it frosty? Or are you nervous?

  I put the key in the lock, had a little fight with it, and we went inside. Behind the fence, everything was fine. The benches were cleaned, the cellars were closed, the trees were wrapped up for the winter. Kneeling snowdrifts, by the way! I tried to put my feet more gently, but Katka rushed to the house like a moose through any snow. Her ghost of a cold clearly didn't embarrass her. Well, the owner is the baron. Her legs are her pneumonia. It's not my place to treat her anyway! Unlocking the house was easier. The castle was wrapped with rags and cellophane so that it wouldn't freeze and snow, so there wasn't much trouble. The skating rink flew into the house first, and I stomped on the porch, shaking the snow off my shoes, and inside I could clean it completely. We just need to slow down a friend who was going to rush into the house right in boots and a jacket.

  There you go. There's nothing to drag dirt into the house!

  And a broom of hers, a broom of hers... of clothes and feet. At the same time, I'll take her soul!

  Our country house is a separate story. It was built by my grandfather. Thirty years ago, he was given a plot of land at the cooperative - and he took up the hammer and nails with determination. Because he was going to build the house for centuries. How he did it - a separate story full of arguments, quarrels and family scandals. But in the end, he won - and on the plot rose the house, most reminiscent of horror films. Tall, made of white bricks, bought cheaply directly from a brick factory (I suspected it was thanks to a grandfather friend who was just working as a warehouse in that factory), two and a half floors plus a basement and attic, with an iron roof and two pipes. Yes, exactly two. One from the stove, the other from the fireplace. Grandfather was sure that with our power outages we would die of hunger and cold. And the stove doesn't need electricity. Only the firewood we were stockpiling in industrial quantities. And what a delicious porridge from the stove! Those who cook on a gas stove don't even know what they're missing. Yes, it's a lot of trouble, but it tastes... You lick your fingers and swallow the cast iron! And how nice it is to sleep on it on a student spring night! Wrapped up in a ball, covered with an old grandmother's coat and pulled up Zuku's toy rabbit...

  I was distracted by Katka's lyrical thoughts.

  - I need to have a serious talk with you.

  I threw my bag on the couch and looked carefully at my friend. She took off her clothes and now she was shaking her whole body.

  - Is it cold? Wait a minute, I'll flood the fireplace!

  - Jane!

  I ignored the hysteria that was beginning.

  - Katya, think about where to start, breathe, calm down... By the way, put on a coat for now, or the house needs time to warm up. I'll flood in a moment and talk to you. I'll get some firewood, and you get me everything for kindling. It's from that locker next to the fireplace. Well, the one with the wolf's head-shaped pen.

  So I went to the barn to get some firewood. It smelled in my heart that we were here for a long time. As long as it wasn't for the night. If Katya's hysterical, you can say goodbye to thinking about home tonight. I wonder what could have brought her to this point? In my memory, she cried only once - this is when our historian in the fifth grade slipped her undeserved three in a quarter. We went to the principal's office at the time, I acted as a cheerleader, and Katya answered to the argument the whole third grade program. But now what happened, that it was necessary to drag me here?! Katya now grew up and became even more restrained. If I hadn't seen her now with my own eyes, I would say that it's impossible to bring her to such a state. Nothing at all. Not even a nuclear explosion. But here it is, a harsh reality. Standing there, all upset, lips shaking, fingers shaking, tears in her eyes, nose squelching. It's a hell of a thing! With these thoughts, I raked up more wood from the basement and went back to my friend.

  Katya pulled a newspaper, matches and a bottle of gasoline out of the drawer. I used to lay down the firewood in the house, slipped some wooden trifles underneath and started a fire. The skating rink at that time was hammered into Dad's chair and shaken like a leaf of aspen. It was dusk outside the window. I thought I took a couple of candles out of the closet and lit them. For the intimacy of the atmosphere. And then, the flame of the candles is very soothing. I took a good look at my friend. Well, what can I say? It was sad to look at her. Usually, Katya is the living embodiment of Hitler's dream. It's a thesis about the superiority of the Aryan race. Tall, head taller than me, blonde with bright blue eyes and perfectly right features. Add a skinny figure to that, and you get a top model. But this is not enough! To everything else, God, if there is any, decided not to stingy on her birthday and gave her friend a great voice, hearing, grace and a great mind. Katya, still in seventh grade, snapped differential equations like seeds. And her photo was hanging on the board of honor among the best students of the school. An excellent student! Pride of the class, hope of the family, worthy continuer of the family! I guess I was the only one in the whole class who could be friends with her. Why is that? Because she has no sense of envy. I didn't get it. So did beauty, intelligence, grace and grace. But I'm not discouraged. Although in life I am the opposite of Katya. I'll try to describe myself impartially.

  It's a difficult task, but I can handle it. I'm short, with hair of an indefinitely dark hue, my forehead is too tall, my cheekbones are too protruding, the square chin speaks of latent obstinacy, and the long nose speaks of curiosity. And it's justified. I don't know how I haven't had it ripped off so far. I guess it's a miracle. The only beautiful place in my face is my eyes. Big and bright, with thick long lashes. My mother says I have copper-colored eyelashes. I agree - it's nice to hear compliments. I'm really lucky to have a figure. Even though Katka says I could be thinner, I'm not going on a diet for her Hitlerjugend standards! What's missing! I'm not gonna go on a diet! Tell me more - get on the scales every day and calculate calories! That's crazy! No, to lose weight, there are two perfect means. Move more and eat less. And if you don't lose weight as a result, it means that nature has programmed you for this optimal weight and there's no reason to mock yourself. The pounds you lose will come back with an increase. I've seen more than that in my classmates and classmates! It's about appearances. Then come my mental abilities. Katya was doing math - and ended up in gymnastics. I was interested in the humanities and eventually went to biophac. It was the best of all options. My grandfather could have bought me a place in economics or a foreign language faculty, but then I got ambitious. I want to study where I want to go! And I only got into biology. It's not very prestigious. I know. But I wasn't jealous of Katka. Even if she had a medal and a red diploma! But I have peace of mind and a lot of free time.

  But now Katka wouldn't have been jealous of anyone who'd seen her before. Her hair was shredded, her eyes cried, her nose swollen with the same tears, and her clothes spoke for themselves. A red T-shirt was visible from underneath a long, blue, large knitted sweater. There were some ridiculous rosette earrings in the ears. I didn't think Katie had one of those. She'd have skewered and strained something like, "What a vulgarity! ». Now all
of a sudden she's wearing them? It's the end of the world, no other way! Katya was always watching her clothes, what's that?! I didn't notice the boots, but the pants were in the mud almost on my knee.

  - Katya, what's wrong? Have you calmed down? Can you speak clearly?

  A friend raised her tragic eyes on me.

  - Jane, I'm afraid you won't believe me! But I'm telling the truth! I'm telling you the truth!

  - While you're not telling me anything yet," I noticed.

  Katya shuddered and somehow slouched. She was silent for several minutes. I didn't hurry her. She'll figure it out herself and tell you everything. You shouldn't disturb her. And my girlfriend told me that my ears were wrapped in a tube!

  - Jane, what do you know about vampires?

  Well, what could I say? The main thing in conversations with a sick animal or a person - the difference, believe me, is not much - is to speak calmly and seriously. I shrugged my shoulders.

  - It's not enough. We haven't been through them yet.

  - And you pass vampires? - Katya raised her head, there was a shining mistrust in her eyes.

  - What's so amazing is that I shrugged my shoulders. - The bats are also covered in biology...

  - What mice!!! - suddenly barked Katka, banging her fist on the table. The vase rings a bell. The candlestick shuddered, staggered and would have fallen if I hadn't intercepted it. But one candle did fall out and immediately went out. Lucky you. I looked at my friend.

  - Katya, slow down! I would like to hear what your problems are - and to hear about them, sitting in a relatively large house.

  Girlfriend didn't even have the tact to be embarrassed. What is wrong with her?! She wouldn't even raise her voice before. She never shouted in front of me! Honestly, I thought she didn't know how to yell. Of the two of us, I was always in the fight, and Katya dragged me away from another victim. Although it didn't always work out. But what if it was the other way around? The world has gone mad! What a shame!