horror effect

Renee sat in the dark, listening to her own breathing harshly in the silence.

Her fingers touched the ground, which still seemed to be wood, as if she was still in the infirmary, but what about everything around her?

She sat there and didn't know how long she was going to sit like this, because nothing had happened since she fell into the darkness, she had tried to crawl around, but she hadn't touched anything, and the darkness showed no sign of peeling off.

Is that what death is all about?Are you falling into the boundless, never-ending darkness?

She thought of Anton.

Had he been sitting in this darkness for ten years?

Is he still thinking about himself?

If I die like this, Renee shudders, will we meet in the dark?

If that's the case, even if they can't see each other, they can still touch, then death is not such a bad thing.

She didn't know how long she sat there, minutes, or hours?

In the dark, people's concept of time will be disturbed.She became very tired and wanted to lie down and sleep.

This is probably also the effect of darkness.But she doesn't feel cold.

Renee still remembers that the floor of the clinic is always cold as soon as you enter the door, and many patients have complained.But now the place where she is sitting is very warm, but this kind of warmth is not the feeling of sunshine, but as if the whole world is at the same temperature.

Her legs started to ache and her arms started to go numb.

She took off her uncomfortable boots, rolled up her coat, and lay down on it.She closed her eyes, and it was useless to open them in the dark, and she had been staring too hard before, and her eyes hurt a little.It didn't seem so bad, she thought, if only that.

The sound almost made her jump, it was coming from in front of her, what seemed like a few steps away, but she still couldn't see anything.

"Would you like to go to Anton's side?" said the voice.

It was the voice of a young man, baritone, slightly husky, and reminded Renee of a Hungarian folk singer.The sound is hollow, like you're hitting hollow wood.

The way it speaks is calm, but the endings of certain words suggest the speaker's superiority.

"Who are you?" Renee asked.She sat up and faced the direction of the voice.

"Uh..." It made an exclamation of hesitation, but it seemed to Renee that it was amused by the question. "If you don't mind, you can call me 'Master', 'Master of the Village' or 'Master of this shitty village'."

She wondered whether to smile back at its sense of humor.It couldn't see her smile anyway. "It doesn't sound like much," she said.

"I'm sorry you don't like it." It didn't say anything more, and Renee felt that it seemed to be waiting for her to speak, but she was not sure, and after waiting for a while, Renee asked tentatively. "Are you a man?"

"That's right. But if you like a woman's voice, I can change it." When the sentence reached the second half, the voice had become a female voice, a little shrill, like a little girl acting like a spoiled child.

Renee was very surprised. "Are you a ventriloquist? Great. I still like the old voice though."

"And this?" It was a bass, rough but warm, like sun-baked gravel.

This sound has been so deeply imprinted in Renee's mind that even after hearing it ten years later, she still presses her chest tightly to stop the whimpering from there.

"Anton..."

"Not good." It said in the previous baritone voice, "This voice affects you too much, we should ban it..."

Renee woke up suddenly, took a few steps back, and said, "You are definitely not an ordinary person. Who the hell are you? How can you imitate Anton's voice? Have you met him? What is your purpose?"

"Oh, please wait, please wait." If it had a face, it would surely be able to see it frowning.

"It's not wise to ask too many questions at once. I can tell you that I haven't met Anton in the ordinary sense, but I know him, and I know his voice and everything he's been through. "

"who are you?"

"The ruler of this dilapidated village." There was a smile in its voice.

Renee figured she'd better skip the question, it didn't seem to want to answer.And who it is is not the most important question, the most important is - "What do you want to do?"

"Determine your life or death." It was still smiling, but this sentence sounded cold and weird.

"Are you God?" Renee asked sarcastically.

"Thank you for flattering me so much, but I'm not, and I haven't seen 'he' or 'she'. So don't expect me to be as merciful as it is written in the scriptures. Of course, I won't be particularly tyrannical."

"I see." Renee nodded in the dark. "You want to kill me."

"In the end it will be you who will kill you."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't think I don't know." Its voice rose.

"Renee Hostatova, you had a medical malpractice..."

She stood up and shouted, "It's not my fault!"

She stared at a direction in the darkness, her hands clenched into fists, trembling all over.Then, suddenly, she collapsed and covered her face with her hands.

"...it was my fault...the anesthesia went wrong...the patient died. But I didn't do that on purpose...I...are you going to put me through punishment? Do you want to torture me?" She suddenly raised her voice, "You Tormenting me!"

"You are not innocent, Dr. Hostatova." The voice was cold.

"I know...no one is innocent."

She shook her hair that was sticky with cold sweat.

"Do you want me to atone with my own life? I made mistakes and killed people. If you must kill me, if my death can really atone for sin, then yes-I agree. Anyway, I There is nothing in this world to miss.”

"Not at all?"

She frowned.

"Maybe a little bit, but since I chose to atone, I should forget about those things. Besides, I hope to die a little easier."

"Martyrs."

"No!" she retorted loudly.

"I am neither innocent nor pure. Only the truly pure are martyrs when they die, because they do not deserve to die. My life is in your hands, you can take it, I have given it to You got it. Did you expect me to cry and beg you to let me go?"

"Very strong, Dr. Renee Hostatova."

She was a little surprised.Many people say she is strong. 'That's a cruel woman,' or 'That's a thorny woman'.That's what she is, she hates weakness, she hates clumsiness, and she can never forgive hypocrisy.If a person is not worthy of her respect, that person becomes worthless in her eyes.

"Hate weakness," said the voice, which seemed to read her heart. "Most people can't be strong."

Renee shrugged.

"Because they take themselves too seriously, use lies to make themselves feel different and special, think that they are the center of the world, that a certain god will come suddenly for them, and that the dogma they come up with is the ultimate the rules, and then cry hysterically when these ridiculous vanities are broken."

She paused.

"But I've seen too many of these vanities shattered in cold blood, so I don't believe in them. I'd rather believe in nothing. Those glamorous assumptions are just illusions to me."

"People like you—I admit, I can't help it."

Renee suspected that she had heard wrong. "You can't help it? Aren't you the 'ruler of this dilapidated village'?"

"What if I say I don't want to kill you?"

"Oh." She swallowed hard. "That's not bad, either."

There was a glimmer of light in the darkness in front of her. At first, it was just a hazy spot of light, which gradually grew larger, and then the darkness was torn apart by a zigzagging light like a cracked cup, and the light band floated in the air, like twisting Mist on the water surface microwave.The light beats regularly, getting brighter every time, like the heartbeat and the earth starting to breathe again, one time, two times.The light expanded, and she saw a figure behind the illuminated darkness, as white as the light itself. At that moment, the Holy Spirit of the entire civilized world seemed to descend quietly without the help of the moon and lights.

Old age, youth, reappear from charcoal and ashes, from dust and coal.

Anton Hostatov stood before her, the wrinkles around his lips disappeared, his skin became tender, his square face rounded out—he became a teenager, a child, an infant, everything Return to embryonic state, avoid death, and start over.

Renee walked towards Anton, who had disappeared in the light, his molecules, atoms, floating around her, and she felt contentedly that her own molecules, atoms, merged with them.

But she heard a voice and became painfully aware of that other reality.

Her brain, which had already lost the concept of time, stretched from the time when ladies still wore whalebone petticoats to the present day.The light suddenly became stronger, like a huge hammer hitting her chest.The world turned black again.

She saw a vague figure in front of her eyes.

She closed her eyes again.Please don't leave me, she thought, please don't leave me again, don't leave me with only one name like Anton.

Please give me your hand, let me touch the flexible joints, smooth nails and rough calluses.

Don't let me lie here all alone with the bare darkness and wooden floors.

"Renee!" she heard a man call, feeling a sudden coldness on her cheek and a warm hand over hers, which was cold and wet.

All other emotions were excluded by the sudden burst of emotion that erupted from her heart.She felt the machinery of her body humming again.

"Anton..." She murmured the name and opened her eyes longingly.

Nicholas Theoros's eyes blinked under black-rimmed glasses, and his skin was pale, making the freckles on his cheeks more obvious.

His fingers, which were splashing water on Renee's face, stopped suddenly, and a few drops of water fell from his frozen fingertips to the floor.

The alcohol-like aroma of dreams is drifting away.

Renee immediately retracted her gaze, which was covered with a layer of gray color.

She sat up slowly, looked around, and found that she was still in the medical center.

"What happened to me?" she asked Nicholas.

"You passed out. As soon as I came in, I saw you lying here, motionless, looking terribly. I noticed that you were breathing, but with a rapid pulse." Nicholas continued, blushing a little, "I tried to Splashing water, fortunately you woke up. Do you feel uncomfortable somewhere?"

Renee shook her head.

"It's okay, I'm fine. I've just been so tired lately."

"But you just said..." Nicholas lowered his voice.

She looked up abruptly at him.She heard something in his voice just now, and she didn't even know if it was a sound or a feeling.He is jealous, like a fish swimming in a calm river.

What did she just say?

Anton?

He's jealous of Anton?

Renee's eyes widened in surprise.

Why should he be jealous of Anton?

One—the dead.

She stared into Nicholas' eyes, and for the first time saw that there was melancholy, despair, and supplication in those dark eyes.

Nicholas held Renee's hand hesitantly, feeling the somewhat resisting fingers settle down in his palm.

He smiled at her, thinking that his smile must be very ugly and dull.Words like graceful and unrestrained have never been related to him, but at least he still has a sincere heart.

He reached out his other trembling hand, placed it lightly on Renee's shoulder, and pulled her toward him.After a moment of awkward stalemate, Renee's shoulders leaned against his chest, she did not relax, the weight of her whole body was still supported on her arms, as if she was always ready to leave his embrace.

And Nicholas didn't tighten the arms around Renee's body, but just touched them loosely.They've come to an agreement at some level, knowing that if they move forward just a little bit, it's going to upset this delicate balance, that it's going to leak out what they're trying to keep inside, and so they're sitting there in such extreme discomfort. On the floor, they sat for a long time without saying a word or looking at each other, like two stone statues that were accidentally put together.