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On the threshold of my cell stood a young man in a gray loose robe. His blue eyes shone brightly in the rays of the moon, wrapped in clouds above the horizon.
"Well, hello, boss," he repeated and entered.
There were two stone beds in the cell, and he sat down opposite me, carefully examining my wary face.
“Do we know each other?”
“Of course.”
“Alas, I must admit, I have no idea who you are.”
"Fascinating," the guest whispered thoughtfully, stood up and began to look at me from different sides.
“Is something wrong?”
“Yes... that is… you, boss, seem to be peeling off your imprint.”
I looked at him in fright and began to feel my body mechanically, as if I could grab the imprint and hold it.
“What do you remember about how you got here?” my interlocutor asked with a frown.
“I was taken for resisting justice...”
“No, more globally. How did you get into this world? Do you remember how you appeared here?”
I blinked and turned my inner gaze into memories. But, to my surprise, I found there only vague images relating to my life on Number 4, and then ... emptiness. My guest noticed my confused look and sympathetically shook his head.
“You forget. And soon you will forget everything.”
I crawled back to the wall in fright and grabbed my legs. Memories flickered in my head, but whether from fear, or for some other reason, I could not collect anything intelligible, consistent from them.
“How long do you think you've been in this city?”
“A month?” I asked anxiously.
“Fifteen years.” the interlocutor snapped.
I stared at the floor in silence, feeling like a helpless puppy. Tears began to come to my eyes. I tried to restrain them, but in vain, one treacherously slipped out and rolled down my cheek.
“Fifteen years...” I repeated, "and... how long have I been here? Who am I?”
Tears poured down in a hail. The young man moved to my bed and put his arm around my shoulders.
“It's okay, calm down. You are my former boss from the launcher Baby. My name is Rob. We got here together.”
The puppy inside me reached out to my guest, but how could I trust him? Who could I trust at all?
“My memory was shortened too. I remember how we worked on the launcher, but what happened before that…It looks like a property of the transition or specifically of this world. Everyone I met here remembers one human life ago at best. You, boss, have lived more than five thousand years. No wonder you can't remember yourself. And due to the detachment of the imprint, you also have a complete loss of the sense of time.”
“What... what does in mean – detachment?”
“Well…I see something. There is something wrong with it…”
“How do you see it?”
“Actually,” he moved back to the opposite bed, looked out the window at the moon's face caressing the city buildings and continued, — “that's what I came to talk to you about. I met one... creature here. Or... I don't even know how to describe it better. It is not an Angel and does not actually live in the upper dimensions. Do you remember about Angels?”
Something vague was spinning in my head. I remembered the man in gray clothes, the space station and the coffin.
“I see that you don't remember. How then…Ok, let's keep it simple. You can give this creature... to feast on your imprint, and it will return your memory, albeit partially, but a lot will fall into place. You will remember who you are. It will also allow you to do things that an imprint, even one as unusual as yours, does not allow you to do. For example, I have updated my three-dimensional body.”
He ran his hands along his torso and smiled.
“I was an old man. Don't you remember? Okay, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that I can operate with matter and consciousness the way you could with your unusual imprint. How do I know that? The creature tells me. I can see if a person's consciousness has been worked on. I found you by the trail of your attempts to manipulate people. It took me about a hundred and fifty years.”
I digested his words for a long time, fidgeting on the stone bed.
“What does it mean to feast?”
My body froze, and there was silence in the cell.
“Let me show you something,” my interlocutor offered and closed his blue eyes.
It seemed to darken around and a... creature appeared behind the young man's back. A huge worm. On top of it was the head and body of my guest, but from the belly began a dense, covered with thick rings, the body of a worm. And closer to the tail, small ridiculous legs were visible, which the creature clearly crushed under itself, trying to hide.
“The creature will absorb the imprint,” said the worm-man, “you will become one. It will live in a super-dimension, and your three-dimensional body, or even bodies, if you want it, will continue to exist here.”
I swallowed and pulled away, not even noticing how completely I rested against the wall of the cell.
“I understand that this may look scary. Even repulsive. But imagine," the guest bent his giant body towards me, covering himself on the bed, "you will be able to be god again in this new world, you will be able to remember your task here. We will rule here together. The immortals. Just imagine…”
I was shaking from all the fear, misunderstanding, and holes in my memory. Hell, who would put up with this giant worm.
“Please understand, this is only a symbiosis. You will not depend on it, and it will not depend on you. Think of it as a partnership, a mutually beneficial partnership.
I covered my face with my hands and screamed with all my might. The guard had burst into the room saluted and immidiatly walked away, closing the door behind him.
“Look at how easily I ordered him. The creature grants you the same power. It…”
But I didn't listen, I just shouted, not realizing what was happening. Deep inside, I was ashamed of myself, but my head did not obey at all, pushing this rational part deep behind a dense wall of horror.
“Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Get out of here!” I yelled.
The worm's vision disappeared. The ordinary body of the guest opened its eyes again and looked at me with sadness.
“Well... then, I'll see you tomorrow, at the execution.”
“Get out!” I wheezed with a torn throat, holding out my hands.
The young man stood up, bowed and left the cell. The door itself, smoothly and silently opened in front of him, and then also closed without making a single sound.
It took me a long time to recover, but over time my jaw and hands stopped shaking, the headache receded. And the thought even arose inside me that I shouldn't have done it like that. After all, now they'll just kill me. The imprint is peeling off. I still remembered that it was there, I knew that it was bestowed upon me, but more…I couldn't remember anything else about the imprint, and the uninvited guest's offer seemed more attractive to me every minute.
By morning I started knocking on the door, calling the guards to bring my visitor back, but no one answered me. I ran through dozens of phrases in my head on how I would address them when they’ll finally come for me. But when the suns began to rise above the horizon, I sat quietly, with a bitter sense of the inevitability of my own fate.
They came for me with the third cocks. They put on shackles and took me in an old cart to the square. The people sluggishly threw rotten vegetables at me and shouted something nasty, like: “only for home viewing,” which was a household swear word in the local dialect.
There were four mares in the square, prepared for me and the neighbor who was already chained to the pillory. While I was being led to them, I ran my eyes around the stands erected around the perimeter, where I tried to find my yesterday's guest. But the stands were empty, only a few local nobles came to watch the execution at such an early hour.
They laid me on a table and began to tie my limbs to the snorting horses. Thousands of thoughts raced through my head. My heart was pounding. I greedily tried to catch the air with my lips, which became terribly lacking.
“Is this really it?” I whispered hearing a drum roll.
Someone shouted, and I heard the whistling and cracking of whips. Terrible pain, followed by darkness.
"Well, hello, Boss," it said in now familiar voice.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
