Page 71 of The Darkness is Calling

“It’s because of her.”

“Helen?”

“What Helen are you talking about? Her name is Ekaterina, you idiot.”

“Ekaterina is Helen,” Sasha tells him, poking his temple with one finger. “Helen of Troy, but ours.”

“You’re so stupid.”

“No stupider than you, since you don’t know who Helen is.”

“That’s it. I give up on both of you,” the older one says, irritated. “Fine, fuck it, at least I’m the rational one and won’t lose my mind like this because of a woman. You’re both a lost cause.”

“WAR!” Sasha exclaims again, in his usual style, theatrical above all. “For women and chocolate!”

“Fuck both of you,” Yaroslav mutters dryly. “I’m going to bed.”

“I’m coming too,” the youngest jumps after him. “Will you tuck me in?”

They walk out, but I can still hear their conversation.

“He shouldn’t have given you that fucking chocolate this late.”

“But tell me. Will you tuck me in? You haven’t done it in ages.”

“No. You’re twenty-five. Stop it.”

“At least read me a story?”

“Sasha. I’ll beat the shit out of you.”

“That works too.”

I take my phone from the desk and check the time. It is late, but exhaustion pushes me toward actions lacking any detailed analysis of the situation, and I become impulsive again.

That is why, after climbing the stairs in a hurry, I don’t stop at my door, but at the one across from it.

I stay for a second with my hand on the doorknob, thinking carefully about whether I should do this.

Clearly, the answer is that I should get the fuck back to my room, but I can’t.

I can’t...

And it’s not some voice asking me to be here, but my entire being, controlled by that toxic feeling I fear I can no longer escape.

The one that comes from the heart.

She is probably asleep, but all I want is to see her for a few minutes, the way I do every night. No one knows, but I cannot fall asleep unless I watch her sleep for a few moments, lying in her bed in those strange positions. I always wait until I am sure she is no longer awake, and I have always been lucky that she didn’t see me.

But when I open the door and step slowly into the room, she immediately sits up and looks at me with eyes full of something intense.

Visceral.

Something that turns my heart into fire, meant to burn and destroy, only for her.

When I die, I will want to remember this living spark in her eyes, filled with a feeling I don’t know how to interpret as anything but love, even though I’m sure that’s not the case.

“Artem...”