На русском: http://proza.ru/2008/12/19/76
I can save you...
It was something distant, either in my head or nearby. No, there's no one here, just rats. I moved my foot to get one of them away from me. They're just waiting for me to fall asleep so they can start gnawing on me. Let them, let them gnaw, it won't hurt me any more. The rat bounced off and started gnawing on the hem of my skirt. I pooped and peed, and only then did these monsters stop tearing me on this terrible table, dragged me here and threw me down. I'm in pain, why? People, why? What did they demand of me? Yes, an admission that I'm a witch and worship Satan, but that's not true, is it? It's not?! I love God, and why me?
Why did they grab me and put me on the scale? I'm small and thin and it's not my fault I'm lighter than 80 pounds. I can't wait for it to be over, tomorrow, yeah, they said it's a holiday tomorrow and they're gonna burn me. I can't wait, just no more torture. God, how my all bones ache, they've been stretching me, my whole body is blackened and especially my joints. And how thirsty!!! They demanded a confession and I confessed what they demanded of me. I saw Helga burned a few weeks ago on St. Mary's Day and just for being light on the scale? I saw all that and it didn't occur to me that the next holiday would be me? She's chewing on my shit. It sneaks up on my heel, if it comes at me, I don't even have the strength to push it away, it hurts. It hurts, God, it hurts, it hurts, I can't even sleep, I can't even sleep to forget it for a little bit...
I can save you.
I looked in front of me and..., saw a man tall, handsome, about forty years old, in a black cloak - cape. No, the locks didn't make a noise, and he didn't seem to me to be a man. What if I fell asleep and didn't hear? I wish he wouldn't touch me, I'm in pain, it hurts to move. Let him talk, but don't let him touch me.
- Why save me?
- Do you know who betrayed you, gave you up to them?
- No. I suppose one of the neighbors wanted my room and told the magistrate I was a witch?
- Alex ratted you out. Tanya, you were ratted out by your lover!
I saved him from the plague by hiding him in a burrow in the forest, warming him with my body, covering the entrance with branches during the day, and at night chasing away wolves with a stick. I brewed potions for him on the fire, gave him herbs to drink, gathered berries and mushrooms, and brought him food from the city. In those days they went to the houses and looked for the sick, they piled them on a sledge on top of each other and took them somewhere out of town, people say they burned them in a pit. Why would Alex want me dead? Why? He told me he loved me!
- He never loved you. He just used you a little.
- But, no, he couldn't do that, no.
- He could, he could, mother, he could, and he could do it.
- But why? He's so handsome, so tall, I found him in the woods, helpless... He's not like that. Are you slandering him? Oh, I don't feel any pain in my body, what is it? And the thirst is gone?!
- I'm the one who took away your pain.
- How?
- With a thought.
- Who are you?
- Satan, you admitted to communicating with me, didn't you?
- I was in unbearable pain, I was screaming and it came out "yes"!
I could save you.
- Why, I'll be caught anyway and the torture will be worse, tomorrow it will be over, will I be able to walk with my legs like this? If I am thrown out into the street, I won't even be able to crawl, I can't lean on my arms, I can only sit for now, but that won't last long, my vertebrae are shattered. I've been stretched out on a table, stretched out.
- I know, I know everything.
- Are you the executioner?
- No, I am the king of this Earth.
- So why do you allow this to happen?
- These are God's servants, I can't go beyond the threshold of this temple, I keep my distance, but I can do it from the back door.
Don't save me, it's useless, they need a spectacle.... And I don't believe you, Alex couldn't give me up, he can't, he's not like that, he's good!
- The good one ran away from Erfurt, for luck, and then the plague caught up with him, the plague came from Spain. He met a rich woman, and now he's got his own plans, but I'll ruin them.
- No, don't. I love him. I love him. Let him be happy! What's the name of this person?
- Her name is Ilsa, but she's clever enough to give him a test that he can't take and he'll be thrown out on the street.
- What's that?
- She'll arrange for her friend, a very rich woman, to make eyes at him so he'll go for more.
- Can you warn him about that?
- What? Come on, he ratted you out!
- Why?
- So that his girlfriend will never know he slept with a commoner and lived with her.
- But I won't tell anyone, will I?
You can't tell me now, I want to save you.
- It's not possible, it's not possible, and why, why should I go on living when my beloved has betrayed me?!
- I didn't give you life, it's not for me to take it away, but I can change your souls at the last moment of execution, when the firewood is burning! Fool God!
- But then I wouldn't really get to Him, would I?
- They got you to confess that you're my, I hate the word "slave", shall we call you friend?
- It's torture, I couldn't bear the terrible pain.
- Tomorrow, in the square where you'll be taken to be burned, I'll be among the people, dressed as a commoner, standing against you. And a little farther away, on the balcony will be standing with Ilsa, only in your dreams, "your" Alex.
You just say the word "yes" and I'll switch your souls. You'll be in Alex's body, he'll be in yours... Don't worry, Adam also gave Eve up to God, saying that SHE seduced him - made him eat the fruit of knowledge. Unfortunately, there are enough Adam's on this Earth....
- No, let him live!
- You'll burn alive, but you'll stop feeling pain only when you're fried to your heart's content.
- I'll suffocate from the smoke.
- Who told you that, the one who came down from the fire alive? Then tell me her name?
- All right, I'll burn to my heart's content, but let him live? There's a lot of them, aren't there, Adam?
- Tanya, are you sure I'm the first one to talk to you about this? Do you know how many Adams have been burned at the stake in this square?
- So Helga's alive?!
- Her husband, who was looking for a younger widow, burned to death on St. Mary's Day.
- I beg you, let Alex live! I can't go on living knowing he's not on this earth!!!
- What's the point of having such freaks on this Earth, should they lie in the ground? Well, yes or no?
- No, don't change our souls, don't..., I don't want that, I don't agree.....
The lock rattled behind the door, a priest in a cassock appeared on the steps, the interlocutor disappeared as if he never existed. I dreamed it all, maybe I dreamed it all, maybe I dreamed it all.
The priest came over, and all my joints ached again, and the pain was unbearable. I started moaning.
He read aloud quietly something in Latin, brought the cross to my lips and I wanted to kiss him, but he pulled his hand away with the words:
- "Satan's spawn, don't desecrate the holy! - and walked out.
I was being taken in a cage to the square, and people were rushing in, cursing and spitting. I heard only two words: "A witch is being taken away. The children threw stones at me, and the guards drove them away. The square was full of people, it's the biggest square in Hamburg. They untied me from the walls of the cage, which prevented me from falling, and I immediately lay in the hands of a guard. He tried to lead me, but my legs could not stand from the pain. I was tied to a post, a priest read some Latin paper on a dais, and they began to put brushwood around me. The brushwood reached my knees, which meant that I would not suffocate, but would burn from my feet to my heart, people.... And suddenly, the one we talked to at night stood against me, he was dressed in shabby clothes of a craftsman, and nodded to me: "yes?"
I shook my head, "no!" So this isn't a dream and there must be a balcony somewhere! I'll see it!!! I saw him...
Alex was standing in very beautiful clothes, and next to him was a gorgeous lady in a white dress, with a fan in her hands. Our eyes met, he smiled his charming smile, and then grinned. I heard a loud voice from the crowd, "Yes?"
I shook my head - "No!"
The crowd quieted down, the executioner approached the fire with a torch, from the crowd again that man shouted loudly: - "Yes?"
The executioner set firewood on fire, but before I could shout "no" again, I found myself on the balcony in Alex's body. And on the fire burned wriggling my body and screaming in a soul tearing voice "Nooooo!!!!!"
Afterward, when the crowd began to disperse, I ran down the stairs, the tall man in the tinker's clothes and hat was not hard to find, he was taller than everyone else.
- Why, why did you do this?! I didn't consent, did I?!
He stopped, looked me in the eye and calmly said:
- Young man, I am the KING here, and your yes-no's are of little interest to me. I wish you don't become Adam, so that you don't fall under my hot hand of reprisal.
2008