First thing

On the last day before his death, Dave decided to take a walk around the city. He wandered along the main street, which was lined with tall buildings: hotels, restaurants, banks. It was early autumn, and the leaves on the trees planted along the sides of the road were beginning to turn yellow. He walked, dressed in dark trousers, and a white checkered shirt peeked out from under a brown leather jacket, he differed from ordinary people not only in white hair, but also in red eyes, from prolonged insomnia. Lucia walked beside her, still in the same familiar clothes, and ate ice cream, which, like everything she had, was ghostly and appeared out of nowhere. They walked calmly, cars passed by, ordinary passers-by passed along the sidewalk towards them. However, among them there were also those whom no one paid attention to, and only Dave could see them. These were the ghosts of those who died prematurely, without the participation of the reaper,

- Well, how are you? Lucia turned to her husband, finishing her cone. “Now you see them. How can I not envy you!

“Don’t worry, after your visions, I got used to such demonism. - He spoke to Lucia, but the people around did not see her, so everyone looked at Dave like he was crazy. “However, I could see the dead before, but I thought it was from the trauma that I received after your death.

“Partly it is.” Lucia had already finished her twelfth ice cream and a new one appeared in her hand. “You received this gift when my blood got into your eyes.

I don't think it's a gift for me. But thanks to the drugs they gave me in the mental hospital…

“Eeeh,” the ghost demon yawned. What a long title. Why can't you say "psychiatric hospital" like all normal people?

“… I finally stopped seeing them… and here it is again. Apparently, this is because I have the last day left to live, so I can look beyond the edge with one eye.

Passing by a building with mirrors on the walls, the writer saw that there were several more reflections in the mirror than there were people on the street. Moreover, even Lucia was not reflected in the mirror. And one of the extra reflections from that side approached Dave, but the mirror wouldn't let him in. He was a long, thin brunette, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt. It seemed that he was locked on the other side of the mirror and, realizing that he could not get out, the guy, slowly sliding down the glass, moaned “help me” and gradually began to decompose and turn into a rotten corpse.

- What the hell is this?!

- Well, he's done well - he found out that you see him, took it and turned. Just don't think about accelerating and breaking this mirror with your forehead. He's not in the Looking Glass, he just found a way to contact you.

So he's around here somewhere. I'll probably go and look for him. Maybe with my powers I can help him.

“Of course I would not recommend it. But, if this is your dying wish... Just keep in mind - your light goes out, and soon I will kill you.

Dave nodded and walked further down the street, hoping to find the ghost of this man. And along the way he suddenly heard the horn of a car, and reflexively looked around. A bus rushed along the highway at breakneck speed, and Lucia was driving and shouting “out of the way, disabled people!”.

- How do you do this? You're a ghost, - Dave muttered softly, looking after her.

- And what am I doing? Lucia was behind him, finishing her sixteenth cone as if nothing had happened. “You should have drunk less, white man!”

Dave shrugged and moved on. At the next intersection, part of the road was covered with yellow and black tape. There were two police cars on the highway, opera, journalists and a bunch of ordinary onlookers crowded around. Apparently there was an accident, and everyone around is swarming around, trying to identify the victim and find the culprit. Dave came closer for the sake of interest, and saw the guy who asked for help. He was lying dead on the pavement, covered in blood and torn clothes, there were many cuts on his body and traces of car tires.

“Oh, what a pity,” Lucia sighed, sitting down on the ghostly chair that appeared. He was hit by a car, we can't help him. And why? There, a whole army of assistants has gathered.

But Dave remembered the detective stories he had read and tried to do the same: look around, look for clues, any little things that would help. But, suddenly I saw something cooler: the ghost of that long brunette calmly passed along the pedestrian crossing, and a car swept along the highway at breakneck speed and knocked him down. The writer realized that it was just another vision, because these objects were moving, paying no attention to anyone and penetrating through everything in their path. Thinking that these visions, like the others, were shown to him by Lucia, he looked at her inquiringly.

- What? Do not look at me so! She crossed her legs, and a martini glass appeared in her hand. “And anyway, you yourself said that before you die, you can look on the other side.

Saying this, the ghost demon drank her drink, threw the glass behind her back, and it vanished into thin air. And her husband tried hard to repeat the vision, and he succeeded - for a moment he saw and remembered the numbers of the gray Honda and the face of its driver. Dave tried to get through the crowd and tell the police about what he saw:

- Sorry, but I have information. I memorized the number of the car that hit him.

— How is that? shouted someone from the crowd. “You just arrived.

Then the law enforcement officers doubted the veracity of his words. In the meantime, Dave was arguing that he was here at that moment, then went away on business and returned to help the investigation, at that time Lucia examined the body of the victim with particular sophistication:

“Well, let’s see ... legs buckled, arms twisted, neck twisted,” then she tore off her head, “poor Yorick, what have you come to ...” she opened the skull like a jar, stuck a finger in the brain, then licked it. Mmm, those brains are delicious! Even if they are smashed to bits. - Then she scooped up a handful of brains and swallowed, then threw her head into the basket, ripped open the body, and set to the rest, starting with the heart: - Oh, my Valentine! It looks like someone broke his heart, ha-ha-ha ... Then we have lungs ... not at all heavy. Oh, how much blood wasted in vain ... so, kidneys, liver ... mmm, yummy! So, the stomach... let's see what he ate... oh, how many things: a ball, a rabbit's foot, eyes, brains... oh, it's his brain... oh, Yorick again!... a lot of garbage, bottles, chicken feet... or goose, no important. Then she began to pull out the intestines and wind them around her hand, counting their length.

Dave looked at this picture with disgust, and still tried to insist on his own, so that they would believe him and find the killer. But with the words “we will figure it out ourselves,” he was driven away. Meanwhile, Lucia finished a hundred meters of intestines, and the orderlies took the body into an ambulance.

Hey, that's not fair! she protested. “You can’t pick up a patient in the middle of an examination!” - then she turned to her husband: - Well, what are you going to do now?

The victim was taken away, the forensics collected all possible evidence, and the whole crowd dispersed somewhere. And Dave, having decided that no one would believe him anyway, went off to where the killer was going in his vision. While following the vision machine, he often saw ghosts passing by, people who are not reflected in the mirror, or vice versa - reflections without originals.

“Suppose you find him,” the dead wife spoke to him. - What's next? How are you going to help this guy?

“I know several ways to send a ghost to the Realm of the Dead: Christian burial, exorcism, cremation, destruction of the possessed object, and in this case, the restoration of justice. The easiest way is to make the killer pay to calm the spirit of the victim.

So they continued walking until they found a familiar car near a small church. The hood of the car was slightly dented, there were traces of blood on the numbers and tires. Dave entered the church, hoping that the driver was there, confessing. Lucia was afraid that if she was still a demon, she would not be able to enter, but nothing prevented her from going after her husband. Inside they met the driver that Dave saw, he intensely and loudly apologized to all the icons and images. And while the writer approached him, the church began to change: the ceiling became lower, the walls cracked and resin began to flow out of the cracks, the chandelier caught fire like a torch, on the icons, instead of saints, images of demons appeared that looked at Dave and repeated, laughing, “ soon… soon you will be ours.” Jenex immediately realized whose hands it was, and glared menacingly at his companion.

- What? Lucia understood that look. “Is it already impossible to joke about your fantasy?”

Then she sighed and the church became the same again. Having calmed down, Dave continued his work, he approached the killer and spoke to him:

- Hello, I'm sorry, I don't know who you are... but I know what you did... and you will have to answer for this.

— What? And I... I didn't do anything... at all... I don't know what you're talking about. - He was feverish from strong guilt, and it is clear that he is drunk as a brat.

The culprit quickly ran out into the street, and the writer ran after him. As he tried to unlock the car, he dropped the keys in fear, and Genex caught his arm. And during the touch, in just two seconds, Dave saw several hours of his past.

In a small house, this killer driver lived with his wife and her brother. That day he drank heavily and continued to flood. His wife tried to reason with him, but he was delirious and did not hear her at all. Then she took a bottle of alcohol and smashed it against the wall. Because of this, the man became very angry, and although he could not stand firmly on his feet, he was able to muster more strength in his fist and hit his wife. From such a blow, a fragile woman fell face down directly on the fragments. Death came instantly when a large fragment stuck into the eye. Her brother ran to the sounds of the struggle, and was shocked by the horror he saw. And at that moment, a crazy drunk broke a glass and stuck a sharp fragment in the guy's throat. After a couple of hours, the killer finally woke up, realized what he had done, got into the car and drove off wherever his eyes looked, away from this horror.

From what he saw, Dave let go of his hand in shock, saying:

“So you killed three people!” You will burn in Hell forever for this!

Horrified that he was unmasked, the drunkard forgot about the car and tried to run away like that. But, when he ran out onto the track, suddenly a bus appeared around the corner and knocked him to death. Blood splattered on the windshield, bones and clothes got stuck between the wheel bearings, causing the bus to stop. Dave recognized this bus - he saw it in his vision, and Lucia was driving. The driver in a panic began to call the police to the scene of the accident, and the writer decided to escape. The job is done, though not as well as we would like.

When Dave and Lucia returned to the room, everything turned into Hell. It was dark, and only red flashes of eyes and cracks in the walls illuminated the room a little, terrible screams and groans came from everywhere, demons crawled along the walls and ceiling, skeletons and zombies crawled across the floor. Dave fell into a stupor from horror, and all these creatures surrounded and grabbed him. The writer was being torn apart as Lucia watched and laughed. Then she turned from a seductive girl into a terrible monster: instead of a head, a horned skull with fire in the eye sockets and a snake in its toothy mouth, an emaciated scaly body, torn red wings sticking out behind her, the heels on her legs turned into hooves, and the manicure on her hands turned into long sharp talons. In her right hand, a crystal ball appeared, in which a small flame burned out. And when it finally went out

“Your light went out, dear,” Lucia said in an animal voice. - It's time to pay the bills.

The demons put the writer on his knees and held him so that he would not break free. The ghost demon slowly approached her ex-husband, stuck her hand into his heart and began to take his soul. But at the last moment there was a crackle of burning firewood, and it seems that Lucia felt something. She removed her hand from Dave, and a bright light appeared in her hand, from which black smoke stood out, and the demoness began to speak to him:

— Hello? Yes, I have already started ... How to stop? I'm... His soul is the only thing I need. And he deserves it... Then why?... Ah... yeah, that's it. And then what to do with him?.. One day, then?.. Well, yes, it’s really profitable… Well, but if he doesn’t cope or all the orders are completed, nothing will stop me from taking him to me! - With these words, Lucia extinguished the fire in her hand, turned into a man, and turned to her husband: - Do you want to live? Do you see these guys? These are all my prey, so to speak, they are my slaves. If you don't want to join them, you'd better listen to me carefully." At that moment, all the monsters and ghosts disappeared, and the room became normal again. “The authorities just contacted me, those two souls, thanks to you, safely got into Hell and are being torn to pieces there with might and main. By the way, that boy turned out to be far from being a saint, although what dark deeds he did, I don’t care. So they think you can be pretty helpful. Naturally, I doubt, but I am ready to postpone your one-way trip if you will catch lost souls. You send a spirit to Hell, or you bring home an escaped demon, and I give you life. One day for one soul, how do you like it, my love?

— So I have two days to catch the next soul, — Dave answered calming down and weighing all the pros and cons. "I agree, but on one condition - I'll get a good night's sleep tonight!"