Museum

She counted all the students again, but something didn't add up...

"13, 14... come on, children, line up in pairs, because I can't count you..." 15, 16

"Miss, Krzyś is gone," said a little girl standing at the very back, her head bowed and strangely tilted.

The teacher approached her and looked at her seriously

. "Look at me." The little girl slowly raised her head and looked at her with tearful eyes. "What happened? Why are you crying? Where is Krzyś?

" "I couldn't do anything, I was scared, and he asked me not to call anyone for help, he was so brave," she sobbed and burst into tears

. "Please calm down and tell me exactly what happened," the teacher urged. Finally, frustrated, she grabbed the little girl by the shoulders and began shaking her vigorously. She stopped crying and looked at her with hatred in her eyes, raising her hand, which she had been holding behind her back. She lifted it as high as she could, revealing a bloody stump with tattered pieces of skin and white bone still hanging from it. The teacher paled, and the children reacted differently; some began to cry, others screamed, and still others gazed with fascination at the bloody remains of the hand. One of these children was little Grześ, who, as always, stood on the sidelines, observing the whole situation with detachment. He smiled and looked at Julia, who returned the gaze. When their eyes met, the little girl quickly looked away, frightened.

***

They were the last to go, holding hands, though the embarrassment was immense, but the teacher ordered... Julia was curiously examining the museum exhibits when she felt a tug. It was Krzyś who pulled her into a strange corridor.

"What are you doing? The teacher didn't let us go here. What if we get lost?" she asked, terrified

. "Calm down, I just want to see one place and we'll return to the group. Besides, believe me, you'll like it." They were so absorbed in themselves and everything around them that they didn't even notice someone else break away from the group and follow them, a small boy with hatred in his eyes, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

***

He lay against the wall, pale as she herself. A deep gash ran across his face, running from his right eye to his ear. His earlobe was held to his head only by a thin strip of skin. His body was convulsing, and he couldn't keep his head straight. When the terrified teacher ran to him and applied a cloth to his face, blood gushed from the wound, splashing everywhere. She pressed harder and saw the yellowish fatty tissue of his cheek. She turned her head away in disgust.

***

They couldn't save him, he bled to death... he was too weak to fight, too scared, or maybe it had to be that way? Maybe the wound wasn't fatal at all, maybe there was another reason for Krzysiek's death...

***

"What happened here, God, tell me immediately," the woman screamed, saliva spurting from her mouth, but she didn't care that she looked downright comical. Those beautiful red lips and face, so white as if her owner had been dead for at least several hours.

"You won't say anything?????? So how are we supposed to find out what happened to him???"

The specter of death lurked in her eyes, she pressed the stump closer to her, pursed her lips, and began her story....

...As soon as we separated from the group, I knew something bad was about to happen, that it wasn't a good idea. I tried to argue, but Krzysiek was so desperate that after a moment, I was afraid to say anything.

He just grabbed me tighter by the arm and pushed me into some strange room; it smelled musty and old. I felt nauseous, I wanted to vomit, so he told me to sit on the floor and not do anything until he told me to. So I sat quietly, leaning against the wall, while he searched furiously for something. He turned over piles of junk and objects, and with each passing moment, his face grew paler and paler...

***

He crept up behind me and watched with interest the two kids, who seemed to be looking for trouble by separating from the group and sneaking in here. But how could they have known I'd be here? This must not be one of the best days of their lives, if not one of the last.

"Krzysiek, please, I want to go back to the group now. I feel sick. Besides, the teacher might notice we're gone and we'll be in serious trouble.

" "Can't you see I'm doing something," he shouted, making Julia jump. "Do you always have to be such a pain in the ass? Sometimes I'm really fed up with you."

"What are you looking for here? You can probably tell me, or is it some big secret?" the girl pressed.

"Be quiet," he panted through clenched teeth, turning red, a color Julia had never seen before...

***

"Okay, kids... What's going on here?" Suddenly, a man emerged from behind several boxes. He didn't look his best. He was at least as pale as Julia, with dark circles under his eyes and terribly dry lips. His short, jet-black hair was so greasy it looked like grease was about to drip from them. His cold, deep-set eyes betrayed no emotion, as if the man simply didn't possess any. "Do you know who I am? If not today, you'll have the chance to find out."

He laughed loudly as he said this...

"What game do you feel like playing today? I hope it's not hide-and-seek."

He walked over to a large wooden wardrobe. As he opened it, it creaked so loudly that everyone shivered. He didn't turn around for a long time, then finally cleared his throat, scratched his head, and with a look of triumph on his face, showed the old bayonet to the fainting Julia.

***

"Please kill me, I don't want to suffer anymore, kill me," Krzyś begged, but the strange man was adamant. "Do you think you're someone? That if you kill us, anything will change in your miserable and insignificant life? You were nobody, you are nobody, and who do you think you'll be in the future?" The little man decided to change tactics. This time, despite the burning pain in his face, he laughed ironically...

"Okay, since you're so loud, maybe we should take care of your friend... she clearly wants to have fun."

Julia started screaming, but no one heard her...

Do you know why I'm here?" the strange man asked, stroking Julia's cheek.

At the same time, Grześ entered the storeroom and smiled at the sight of his friend's torn face.

"Oh, you're here already? Okay, so maybe I'll start differently... do you know why you're here?

" "How are we supposed to know?" Krzyś groaned indistinctly, finding it incredibly difficult and painful to speak. With each word, the wound grew larger and larger, and there was more and more blood. "I know why I'm here. Julia came with me, she wasn't supposed to be here..."

Grześ sat down calmly on the floor and began to look around with that icy gaze of his, when his gaze landed on the bayonet the man was holding. "Sir..." he said uncertainly and fell silent for a moment.

"Can... can, can I do that?" "You know perfectly well, my child, that you're too young, you won't be able to do it. You have no idea what power is like, you'll succumb to it, and then we'll all lose. That's not what we want."

"Yes, sir, but can I..." he didn't finish because he looked pointedly at Julia, who had turned pale and blood was dripping from her nose, staining her new blouse. She quickly wiped her nose and stared in horror at Krzysiu, who was slowly starting to fade away...

***

"Do it, do it now," the man shouted, and Grześ, whose eyes suddenly shone with a strange light, heaved the bayonet upward and quickly brought it down. He met resistance in the form of Julia's hand, who, with a grimace of pain on her face, was babbling to herself. There was almost no blood; the cut was quick and precise. And yet something had begun to happen, something very wrong with everyone in the room.

"Jesus, what have you done to me, you monster?" Julia screamed as her body began to react to the pain and she took a closer look at her hand, or at the remains of it. "Why did you do it, why... I didn't do anything to you, and neither did he," she sobbed and nodded at Krzyś, who was lying against the wall and trying to say something.

But no one was listening to Julia anymore; she could only sit helplessly and watch the bloody massacre that the strange man had begun to unleash. She wanted to close her eyes, but something wouldn't let her. She knew she'd have to tell someone what had happened here... but only if she survived....

***

He walked around for a moment longer, looking around, until he found what he was looking for, a large cardboard box, piled high with other boxes, very similar, yet somehow different from this one. He felt it was there, what he'd been searching for for so long and with such dedication... When he opened it, he felt faint, dizzy... the world seemed more beautiful.

"I have it, after all these years I finally have you..." he said to himself and took a small knife from the box. He examined it carefully, every inch of it... "Yes, it must be you." Suddenly, a violent sob escaped his throat, the children jumped, even Grześ, who was now leaning over Krzyś, examining the wound with fascination.

***

And he began to recite, and with each word it grew colder...

I can be Water,

I can be Wind,

I can be Storm that kills and hurts...

I am your air

, you breathe me in every day and you don't even know it...

I'm killing you from the inside,

you rot with me, you miserable worm.

[...]

"Stop what you're doing to me, you lunatic," Krzysiek screamed like a possessed man. He jumped to his feet and began vigorously tearing the skin from his face. After a moment, it was impossible to distinguish the bloody pulp that was now his face from the once quite pleasant little boy's face.

"Stop, you're killing me..." The thing that was now the little boy's face spoke. Where was the mouth? It was that piece of living flesh that was moving energetically.

"God," Julia moaned and closed her eyes, "God, why are you doing this to us...

[...]

In the dark night I come and touch your soul.

I strip you of your dignity

. You are nothing then, nothing human....

Then you almost resemble me,

Only...

You are not me and never will be.

[...]

Show me yourself, show me

all of yourself...

I will give you this power,

this might that makes me who I am

. Give me yourself...

As many as children...

In this place it will rest,

As many bodies,

as many wounds You will inflict on everyone immediately...

You will rule for so many years...

But first give yourself to me,

Give all of yourself

and live for me today eternally.

I leave this object.

You know what to do with it.

I can be silent again forever...

He finished reciting and looked at everyone, or maybe he didn't look... he seemed to see nothing anymore, nothing but the goal he had long ago set for himself. He raised his penknife and stabbed himself in the left eye, with a quick movement, driving it as deep as he could... Something gushed out, but what? Were they tears... They trickled down his cheek. He pulled it out along with the eye, tossed it aside like a discarded object, and now moved to his stomach... he removed his shirt. Julia's eyes revealed the very pale and frail chest of a man perpetually hungry and therefore malnourished. With the movement of an experienced surgeon, he cut his skin from his neck to his lower abdomen. A soft splat... and everything slowly began to flow out onto the floor. He was beginning to lose strength, but desperate, he continued to cut himself. When he almost had no strength left to lift his hand, he lay down comfortably on the floor and called Grześ.

"Remember what I've always told you, ever since you understood what I was talking about?" Now you have to do what you were born to do," he rasped, handing the knife back to the boy. He closed his eyes and lay calmly on the ground. Meanwhile, Grześ expertly sliced ​​open the man's skull and began to work on his brain. When the pink mass finally came to light, and Grześ calmly said, "Now, sir," he stood up and stood under the lamp, beginning to babble again. Julia understood every second or third word... "I will give back... the bloody... instrument... all the victims... death... resurrection... power."

When she closed her eyes and opened them again, the man was long dead... only his legs were visible, splayed out in the corner of the warehouse. Opposite her, Grześ sat cross-legged, gazing at her passionately.

"Please, don't kill me," Julia began, but didn't finish.

"Calm down, I won't do anything to you... you're the last one... the one who will survive and tell everyone that the Lord has returned."

"You're joking... no one will believe me if I tell them this anyway, they'll think I'm crazy." "I know, it'll happen exactly as you say... When you turn 16, they'll let you out of the facility, and then I'll find you... and you'll end up like you were supposed to end up today.

" "Who are you?" "The one you don't want me to be, the one you're afraid of... you don't really want me to answer that question, do you?"

"Leave me alone...

" "I'll leave now and join the tour. You'll come later? Do you understand?" he said, smiling. "See you in about a dozen years..."

"Go to hell," she hissed.

"I don't have to..."