Page 539

[Alexandr Korol]

This is all happening to me, and it’s happening in a way that I try to control myself but can’t. And in certain moments, it’s like flashes – I calm myself down, but then for half an hour, I realize that some higher forces are doing something to me, some kind of witchcraft. And you know how it’s shown in fairy tales? Like in “Percy Jackson”, in one of the parts where they end up in Vegas or some hotel where they were all drugged? Or in so many stories where old witches give people poisoned food, and it seems like everything is beautiful, but in reality, they’re sitting at a table full of worms, rats, and all that. It’s in a lot of movies – people get intoxicated by some kind of spell. Like in “The Visitors” with Jean Reno, where the witch slipped him a potion, and he saw a bear chasing his woman, but in reality, it was her father. And to him, it was clearly a bear, so he shot it in the head – only to come to his senses later and realize the witch had tricked him. And I understand that I’m being tricked in the same way. So on the 30th, I was in shock, not understanding why, since I hadn’t done anything wrong – some kind of dark force at play. Why would an unpleasant person message me and somehow find my contact? Then, on the 31st, first there’s a situation with those guys, then with the hotel. And I seriously fall for all of it so much – it’s insane. Just absolutely insane. It’s as if I’m some kind of super spoiled child. Now that I’ve snapped out of this haze, I can say, “Come on, if someone had asked me to pay a bit more, it’s nothing. Would I really be stingy? I would have paid.” Seriously, I know myself – especially in a poor country, it’s only right to help people. Same with the hotel – if they had just told me everything was booked, I would’ve been glad. It would’ve been a great excuse to stay in my room, which I actually would’ve preferred anyway. And here, circumstances would’ve aligned perfectly for me to stay in my room. Great. The system supposedly wants me to be in society, and I was forcing myself to go to a restaurant, to sit among people, but now I wouldn’t even have to – there’s a solid reason not to. I would’ve been happy about that. But instead, I started making a big deal out of it, acting like I was someone important. But okay, okay. You’re probably not quite getting how it all actually played out. I can already sense it – you’re picturing it wrong. Of course, it wasn’t like those stories of rowdy Russian tourists on airplanes. No, of course not. I wasn’t behaving like that – I was more diplomatic. But still, people were scared just because I was sitting there, staring at a fixed point, surrounded by a bunch of people, and I said to them, “That’s it. Shiva is coming for you now. He’s going to tear everything apart.”