Prologue

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***

New York. One of the many private exhibition centres.

The exhibition was extremely interesting. I must say that I have always been a somewhat enthusiastic person. I have been interested in everything and about everything since I was a child. At school I was never interested in any one subject.

However, at one point I realised that by spreading myself over so many Peters at a time, I risked one day not being able to pull it all together. So, after thinking about it, I concentrated on the subjects I was most interested in. Like physics, well, and biology, and chemistry, and engineering... and... a lot in general, m-da.

So here it is. The exhibit they took our class to was interesting. But I just physically did not have enough time to examine everything in detail, to question the already quite nervous guide, to read all the signs, and so on. As it happens, apart from everything else, one day I realised that I love photography. It all started with the harmless idea of ten-year-old me taking apart Uncle Ben's old camera. My act of vandalism did not go unpunished. My uncle never hit me, but he didn't need to. He knew how to turn a situation so that I unknowingly began to feel my guilt, and I tried not to commit any more such offences. In the case of the camera, I had to put it back together first. It was interesting, but for some reason it was too damn hard, I constantly wanted to go away from the instructions and put something else back together. That's how the first failure of Uncle Ben's tactics happened.

The second one happened right after that. By deciding to teach me how to take pictures properly, he awakened in me a passionate fan of this business!

I ended up becoming the school photographer. It's a hell of a job, but it doesn't pay much. Something that appeared in me not so long ago sarcastically remarked that it was good that they paid me and not the other way round. So I had to take pictures of the class against the background of exhibits, singles against the background of exhibits, small companies against the background of... well, you know what I mean. Somehow time flew by imperceptibly, and the excursion began to come to the finish line. We were just entering another hall when the same type inside me reacted strangely. He simultaneously became agitated and got into a hound's stance, and thick saliva dripped from his mouth. Genetically modified spiders were on display in this room. The girls in the class, there was a distinct laughter in his voice, and they began to squeak and squeeze against the guys. Since no one wanted to squeeze me, and especially not to be photographed in such frank poses, I took a little soul on the spiders. But I didn't understand why it was necessary to torture the animal so much.

Apparently, the experiment was simply considered unsuccessful, and its results were determined for the amusement of the public.

And so, when our school adventure was coming to an end, and the crowd of tired but satisfied teenagers had already left the hall, and I myself was also very close to such an achievement, THIS happened. My neck was pierced from behind by a flash of mind-blowing pain! I swayed, and by some miracle I didn't kiss the polished concrete floor. Grasping the doorjamb, I used my other hand to feel my neck. There was something there, I grabbed it on automatic and brought it up to my eyes. Strangely coloured, the spider stared at me angrily with its scary eyes. The one inside was tap-dancing for some reason, hmmm... usually he was much more prudent. This out-of-character behaviour was a little disconcerting to me. As a result, I missed the moment when the spider bit my thumb as well. The pain was brutal, but I must have adapted to it, because my neck was still hurting. The spider, taking advantage of the moment, jumped away somewhere in unknown distances.

Then I remember everything as if in a fog. How I jumped out of the building, how I wandered halfway across the city to my house, how I slipped past my aunt and uncle to my room....