Darkness and Light.

Amelia opened her eyes and saw nothing but impenetrable darkness. The girl took a step forward and cried out in surprise when the hard surface under her feet disappeared and she began to fall into a black void.

The heart was beating chaotically in the chest, the mind did not understand what was happening. The girl was waving her arms and legs, trying to cling to something, but how to find this something if there is nothing around? She screamed, but the sound of a voice was only in her head, the darkness and silence were pressing from all sides. Amelia was getting ready to say goodbye to her life, this space silently convinced her that it wouldn't spare any life.

Merging with someone else's soul was like immersing in someone else's mind when the emotions, feelings, sensations of another person became your own. The feeling of reality was lost, it was impossible to distinguish between her own reality and someone else's. The fee for such a step was high - a person could forever be lost in the mind of another person, leaving in reality a blank shell, turning into a soulless goof.

Amelia abruptly stopped falling and felt her body sink to the bottom. She was drowning in an invisible liquid, it was dense, like a swamp, and it seemed not to have any taste or smell. The girl moved all her limbs, trying to swim out, but in the dark, it was not clear where to swim, where was the top and where was the bottom. The more she moved, the denser the fluid around her became, rolling on the girl's skin, like balls of mercury, penetrating her mouth, nose, and ears.

When Amelia decided that it was her end for sure, the girl was thrown onto a hard surface, as a big wave had thrown her on a cliff shore, it hurt in her chest from the strong blow, she rolled onto her back and began to breathe eagerly. The surface under the arms and back from a smooth one turned into glass fragments. The girl screamed as one of them dug into her palm.

Amelia rolled over and tried to get on all fours to get up, but the broken glass was pressing on her back, arms and legs, as if the girl were walled up in a box, the walls of which pierced her skin like needles.

"What's happening?" Tears were flowing down her cheeks, but she did not see them. She couldn't see her body, and she didn't hear her own voice. She was blind and deaf in the silent darkness and felt like an alien element of this dead space, which itself set the goal to get rid of an unwanted guest.

Amelia knew that she would have to let Marcus's feelings through her, but that was not at all what the girl imagined.

In the distance, a dim little light flickered, Amelia rose to her feet and went in its direction, with each step her legs stepped on hot coals, then on sharp nails, then on cold ice. The light grew larger, and it seemed to the girl that the darkness surrounding her gradually receded.

This shimmering piece of light was her salvation, her whole being was drawn there, and she did not pay attention to how her skin was covered with burns and abrasions, as something invisible left bites and claw marks on her body.

She did not see anything, only felt it. All attention was focused on a bright object, which could only be reached by hand.

Warm. It was so warm and tiny that it would fit in the palm of the girl. Amelia covered the light lump with her second hand and pressed it to her chest. Her body was filled with calm and happiness, even the air around seemed to be cleaner, and she was able to breathe it for the first time in a long time, it seemed to her that tens of years had passed since she got here. She? And who is she?

A ball of light flashed in her palms as if it wanted to break out. The girl pressed it even harder. She wanted to protect it, to hide from this darkness so that nothing could touch this light, harm it. She already saw how the dark tentacles crawled to her feet, hissed silently and how invisible animals grimaced, hatefully looking at the object in her palms.

They wanted to destroy this light, which took their only toy in this timeless and lifeless space.

"Get off me! You won't have it! She is mine!" Amelia screamed in a strange voice, fighting off the darkness.

A ball of light flashed in her palms, scattering hundreds of pictures. She saw images of some girl. Somewhere she was quite a baby, on others she was already an adult. Heat spread over her body; Amelia could not help smiling. Her hands reached for one of the pictures.

"It's your fault! I don't want to see you!" the girl from the picture pushed Amelia away, the pictures merged together, and the light ball flew off to the side.

"No! Wait! Do not leave!" Amelia rushed after it, but her legs were drowning in invisible quicksand. Something slippery and nasty grabbed her ankle, twisted it and pulled in the opposite direction, into the darkness.

The girl fought back with her second foot, but the darkness thickened and began pressing her with a dense mass. Its lashes encircled Amelia's body like a spider braided a fluttering butterfly in a cocoon, whose fate had already been decided.

The saving light went farther and farther until it turned into a tiny little dot.

"Help! Someone!" the girl wheezed, trying to pull the stranglehold from her neck, which was pulling her throat. Fear, pain, hopelessness. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Please... anyone... help..."

Her hands weakened and fell along her body, the remnants of consciousness melted, as if they were devoured by a shapeless monster, which was this darkness. A twinkle of light flashed helplessly somewhere in the distance and went out. The monster opened its mouth and swallowed the last grains of life, which were not supposed to be here.

.

Amelia screamed and sat down, clasped her hands in her trembling body, looked around. The darkness receded and turned into dusk.

"Where I am?" her voice was hoarse as if she had been screaming for a long time.

"In my room," the man answered, without looking back. He was sitting in an armchair and looking out the window which was wide open. The dim light of the moon penetrated inward, becoming brighter, then weaker, to the rhythm of the clouds floating in the night sky.

On the low table next to the armchair there was an ashtray littered with cigarette butts, on one of which a smoldering ember still glowed.

"I don't know what you thought, but it was a very stupid decision on your part, girl," the man brought a glass of whiskey to his lips and took a sip. The bottle on the table was almost empty.

"What was it?" Amelia cringed, bending her knees to her chest. It seemed to her that at any moment that terrible darkness could return and devour her again. "Is that a curse? How often do you feel like that?"

"From the first day I woke up."

Marcus put the empty glass on the table, picked up the bottle and fiddled with it a little. Moonlight gleamed with silver sparkles on the dark glass. The man gulped the whiskey right from the bottle.

"Don't look at me like that, Amelia," Marcus said dryly when he saw that tears appeared in the girl's eyes, "I can bear with anything from you, but not the pity. Don't dare to feel sorry for me."

Amelia waved her head, she did not need to hear as well as he did not need to speak. Their feelings and emotions were now united, she could feel the same as he.

Marcus put the empty whiskey bottle on the table and nervously ran his hand through his hair, exhaled. This stupid girl, what has she done?

"Cancel your spell, or whatever you did there."

"Impossible. Only if one of us dies," the girl whispered and flinched, a glass bottle hit the wall and shattered into pieces.

"Dies?! One of us?! I'm a goddamn immortal, Amelia!" Marcus jumped from his chair, the table turned over from a sudden movement, the ashtray fell to the floor with a lound sound, "What the hell were you thinking when you decided to unite our souls?! Do you have any idea how this could be dangerous for you?!"

"I would not do this if you were not going to erase my memory!"

"Fool! If you weren't so stubborn, I wouldn't have to forcibly get the right information out of your head!" Marcus barked back.

Amelia jumped out of bed, grabbed a pillow and threw it at the man, "Idiot! I wanted to protect you!"

Marcus caught the soft shell with a deft movement and threw the pillow back into the girl's face, "A MAN SHOULD PROTECT HIS WOMAN, NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND! YOUR SILLY LITTLE BRAIN HAS NOT GROWN UP TO SUCH THE TRUTH?!"

"WHAT?!" Amelia made a new swing, the pillow cloth cracked, but the girl did not even notice it. She was seized with rage and the desire to thoroughly hit one arrogant man. It was just her emotions or him, in relation to her, she was not going to understand.

"NOT GROWN UP?! YES, THIS IS YOUR BRAIN HAS OVERGROWN FOR SO MANY YEARS! I JUST WANTED TO PROTECT THE MAN I LOVE WHO, INSPITE OF BEING IMMORTAL, TURNED OUT TO BE A COMPLETE IDIOT!"

White feathers snow fell on the heads of two grown-up people, covering the floor and furniture around.

Marcus looked at the disheveled Amelia, who cast angry glances at him like a wild fury. Feathers were in hair, her fists were clenched, lips were closed in a thin line. The man at that moment clearly felt her indignation and anger.

A slight smile pulled the corners of his lips. Who would have thought that his girl might look so attractive and sexy when being angry?

Amelia changed her face, her irritation washed away at the same second, a blush appeared on her cheeks. What was this pervert thinking that his emotions made her body feel so strange?

The response wave of sensations was transmitted to the man, and Marcus turned away to the side, breaking eye contact. He did not know how Amelia managed to unite their souls, but he felt the consequences of this fully. 'Damn, I'm going to have to repeat the number Pi in my head,' he thought.

The stupid girl didn't understand what she had done! No matter how noble her or his impulses were, Marcus was primarily a man, and she was a woman. And their feelings and emotions were clearly visible to each other.

"Sit on the bed," he commanded in a firm voice, and Amelia dutifully sank down onto the soft bedspread.

"What are you up to?" she closed her legs tightly, trying not to think about the spreading warmth in the lower abdomen. Marcus went around the bed, opened the closet and began to look for something. Amelia was sitting with her back to him and was afraid to turn around.

The man returned and sat on the floor opposite the girl. The top buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Blond hair under the rays of moonlight looked silver.

Marcus raised his eyes and looked intently at Amelia, "I think we need to talk. Wearing a mask no longer makes sense. But what to do then," the man stroked the girl from head to toe with his look, and returned to her face, "I will decide this myself."