Demon of Coincidence

The spring morning, still breathing the echoes of winter freshness, began unfriendly and overcast. The mood was down in the dumps — Monday didn’t promise anything good, as it usually goes.

A few minutes for breakfast, a few more for casually glancing through the news feed. There, complete strangers to me were telling undoubtedly unimportant stories, showing completely uninteresting photos, and sharing music that I had no desire to hear.

Seemingly, not much time had passed, but it was already a quarter to seven on the clock.

Time to go.

Reluctantly, but knowing that I was just a little away from being late for work, I quickly put on my shoes, threw on a gray coat, wrapped myself in a scarf, and left the apartment.

What a dreary day today. The wind carries tiny, sharp, and terribly cold droplets of drizzle from last night’s rain. The distance isn’t far to walk, but even these few hundred meters don’t come easy. How I wish I could be back in the still-warm bed — to snuggle under the soft blanket, sink into the pillow with oblivion, and sweetly surrender to sleep.

At the bus stop, the wind was even stronger. I tucked my neck into the collar of my coat. It immediately reminded me of some TV show or series about the life of animals. In one of the episodes, they talked about turtles that couldn’t hide in their shells due to some anatomical feature. Well, at least I could. The main thing was not to pass on my “turtleness” to the bus so that it could reach its destination faster.

Hm. Did I just imagine it? A familiar face among others, like me, hiding their faces and seeking warmth within the layers of clothing.

No. It seems like I remember her. I met her about two months ago. It was a big corporate party with many unfamiliar faces from our company’s branches. I think she was from some other region, but I can’t recall the city.

Her eyes were sad, just like back then.

That’s what I remembered about her.

Don’t stare like that. I look up. There are gray clouds up there, thick and shaggy, eager to clash their swirling claws into each other and pour even more rain.

She drops a glove. Well, there you go. Just thought about the coincidence, and it happened. Well, should I pick it up for her? No, she didn’t notice she lost it.

I approach. I pick it up. I hand it to her. Trying to smile warmly, though it’s not easy, my lips are frozen and uncooperative.

“Oh, thank you! I didn’t even notice. I would’ve left without it.”

She’s friendly. Shyly smiling, she looks at me and hesitates for a moment.

“Do you recognize me?”

“It seems so. Mm-hmm. You’re from the central department, right? From the party, yes?”

“Yes, exactly there. Iris, if I’m not mistaken?”

“Well, you remembered! Very nice. And you… Alex?”

“Close enough. You were close, actually.”

“Excuse me.”

“Oh no, not at all! It’s a joke! You remembered too, see.”

We both laughed.

The bus approached the stop. Well, of course, it had to be it. She quickly handed me a business card that appeared from somewhere and rushed into the bus. Before getting in, she turned around and waved her hand. The sadness in her eyes was as if it had never been there.

The day went by surprisingly quickly. I hadn’t even finished writing the report when it was already dark outside the office window, and my colleagues were gradually starting to leave for home. Saving the document, I hurriedly got dressed and went outside.

I didn’t really feel like waiting at the bus stop again, and luckily, there were a few taxis parked right in front of the office. I got into the nearest one.

The taxi driver turned out to be a talkative and pleasant man in his fifties. Although I usually prefer silent rides, this time I was even interested in chatting. It turned out that his daughter works in our company, but in a different part of the city. How many coincidences and chances today.

A couple of turns, a few kilometers on a one-way street, and the taxi driver unexpectedly interrupted our discussion about the weather, cursing what was happening ahead. And there it was — a multi-kilometer traffic jam, which could take several hours to get through.

“Well, what do we do now? Some idiot crashed into another idiot again? Sigh. Okay. We’ll figure something out. Just if the dispatcher calls, tell them that you asked me to take a different route, not following the navigator, otherwise they might give me a hard time for that.”

I didn’t mind, nodded at him through the rearview mirror, and leaned back.

Drifting off, I lost track of time, and the taxi driver’s voice pulled me out of my scattered nap.

“We’re almost there.”

I looked around. We were approaching the bus stop where I had met Iris in the morning.

“Stop there, it’s better,” I pointed to the turn ahead, which would lead directly to my apartment complex. The taxi driver nodded, pressed on the gas, but the engine roared strangely, then sputtered, and a second later, it died completely.

“Oh, damn it! What kind of tricks are these?” The driver tried several times to start the car, but to no avail. It wouldn’t start.

“I’ll just walk from here. You better call for assistance, or you’ll be stuck here all night,” I said, handing him a few bills, telling him to keep the change, and got out of the car. I managed to take a couple of steps when I heard something clinking on the asphalt. What a scatterbrain I am! My apartment keys and the gate remote were lying at my feet. As I bent down to pick up my scattered belongings, I regretted once again that I had put off going to the gym. Well, not even the gym, but at least some jogging in the nearby park. My knees were cracking, creaking, and refusing to bend after a whole day of sitting at the computer.

My thoughts on my physical condition were interrupted by screeching brakes. The only thing I managed to think was, “Well, up until this moment, my knees were fine; now I just need to survive.”

My eyes were blinded by the bright headlights.

CRASH!

Strange sensation.

It’s as if there was no weight in me. As if they left only the tiniest grain of sand, easily picked up even by the gentlest breeze. Deprived me of the ability to feel my body.

My head.

My head!?

Do I have it or not? How can I check when I don’t know if I have hands to touch it or eyes to look at myself in the mirror?

Seems like I do have a head after all — inside, everything hurts, squirms, and tries to break free, poking against the walls of my skull.

Darkness? Where am I? In any case, this place is filled with a horrible noise, the source of which is not visible. I try to look down, to see my legs, but there’s nothing below. Nothing at all. I mentally laugh, remembering old games where the absence of legs and torso was normal. Is this some kind of dream?

Damn it!

A bright ray of light blinds me, appearing in the surrounding pitch darkness. It amplifies the wriggling and painful pokes against the walls of my skull. It makes me scream at the top of my lungs, the limits of which I cannot even comprehend because I don’t understand who or what I am.

I can’t turn away. There’s no such concept. Only forward. Forward!

CRASH!

The night city from a bird’s-eye view. Wait, what!? How!? Where am I!?

I looked around. I looked at my hands — they were covered in blood, at my legs — crushed into an incomprehensible mass of muscles, bones, and scraps of skin. Panic wanted to take over, but it couldn’t. I wanted to scream from the pain, as what I saw should have hurt, but I couldn’t feel anything.

I was literally hovering in the sky, knowing that I was getting wet from the rain, although I didn’t feel it, making the drops cascading down me turn crimson and fall below — on buildings, on people, on the myriad of cars stuck in rush hour traffic.

CRASH!

Veil over my eyes. I try to get rid of it, waving my hands in front of me. Oh, miracle! My hands obey me! They knock off the glasses from my eyes, which I’ve never worn.

Now I can see everything: I’m at a table. The waiter is looking at me from the side, holding a smartphone to take the order, and right in front of me, smiling and sipping wine from a glass, is Iris! She wears an evening red dress with a deep neckline adorned with a pendant. I felt embarrassed staring so blatantly at the girl’s chest, but… the pendant. What’s on it?

“Are you going to order something, or should I come back later?” The waiter snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Yes, later. Thank you.”

Order something? Just a minute ago, I felt like I was soaring above the city, and before that, I was hit by a car. Although, after all that, a drink might be good.

“You still won’t understand what’s written there. It’s not a human language. But I’m flattered by the attention to my figure.”

She smiled even more, revealing two rows of bright, pearly-white teeth.

“What’s happening!?”

I looked at my hands, my body, and my legs — everything was intact.

“What are you talking about, Alex?”

“Well, listen. Just a minute ago, I felt like I was soaring above the city. Before that, I was hit by a car, and now I’m sitting here… Um, where are we anyway?”

“Harmony Kitchen restaurant.”

A calm and steady voice. The same smile.

“Is this some kind of joke? Did someone spike my drink? Did I imagine all this?”

“Don’t get upset. I didn’t hit you; it was some clumsy mom rushing to the hospital with her sick child. I just used what was at hand. Do you care whose car bumper broke your bones?”

She snapped her fingers, and the waiter reappeared out of thin air. She placed an order:

“I’ll have another glass, please, and my friend wants a whisky.”

“With ice?”

“No, thank you.”

She snapped her fingers again, and in my hand appeared a glass of whisky.

“Go on, drink it; you’ll feel better.”

She took a sip from her glass and gestured for a toast.

“No, thanks — I downed it, slammed the glass on the table, and closed my eyes from the all-consuming burning and unpleasant aftertaste. I couldn’t stand it. I felt like vomiting, the contents of my stomach rolling up to my throat, and I couldn’t hold it back. Okay, here it goes.

What’s pouring out of me?

Blood!

I’m pouring out blood!

I tried to scream, but all my words were lost in the salty stream and stomach spasms. Watching me, Iris laughed. With each breath, her laughter grew louder, brighter, more disgusting. Gradually, her voice shifted from feminine to hoarse male, and then it changed entirely into something resembling a roar. I stopped vomiting and stared in astonishment at the same girl who laughed inhumanly, wiping tears, smearing the mascara around her eyes.

“Well… Hahaha. You’re such a fool. Hahahaha! We did it. We sealed the deal in blood; your soul is mine now. How funny, Alex. Don’t you remember? Today at the office, you signed a document on behalf of the company. Did you read its contents?”

“Eh…”

“That’s what I thought. If you had bothered to read it, you’d know that you signed a contract with the Demon of Coincidence. That’s me — pleased to serve. Well, what’s your response? As required: pleased to meet you, Demon of Coincidence, I’m Alex, ready to give my soul to enter the world of eternal suffering and become a soulless, grey, devoid of feelings, thoughts, consciousness worm. Well? No? Alright, it’s just a formality — the signature is the main thing.”

Iris, or rather the entity that had taken her form, snapped her fingers again, and a covered dish appeared in front of me.

The creature in front of me lifted the lid — there lay a heart.

“Do you recognize it? Your heart, uh-huh. And in it, your silly little soul. And now it’s mine!”

The skin on Iris began to spread, tear, rip, and her body transformed gradually into a monstrous entity, which grabbed the heart in its claws and then threw it into its massive, fang-filled mouth.

CRASH!

I stand on top of a mountain. A spiral road winds down from it. Everything is scorching, everything stinks. There are many fires burning at the foot of the mountain. Thousands of screams fill the air. I lift a rock; I try to hit myself, but the wounds immediately heal on my body.

I shout — there’s no sound.

I feel — there’s no sensation.

I exist.

I serve.