Cказки Призраков. Tales of Ghosts. Премия им. Эдгара По / Edgar Poe Award (Билингва: Rus/Eng)

What if the neighbors got frightened, imagining that someone had entered inside through the window, and would call the police…

«I’m so sleepy!» I said, yawning sweetly at the thought that it was the first time Nikolas let me stay with him until the morning, instead of sending me home at midnight, and we would finally wake up in the same bed as husband and wife.

«Let’s at least have some tea, honey! I’ve bought your favorite cakes not for nothing! There’s no electric kettle, though, so we’ll have to wait a while…»

I nodded wearily, closing my eyes.

«Shit, it’s gas here, and I forgot where the matches are…»

«I have an electric stove at home, too,» I mumbled, falling asleep on the go.

«Where are the matches, where are the matches…» Nikolas wondered, humming softly.

«To hell with tea! Let’s go to bed,» I whispered and hugged him, hanging on his neck helplessly.

…I woke up, looked at the clock on the bedside table, and got horrified! No way I could have slept that long! I quickly moved to the kitchen and found Nikolas standing at the window.

«Look, I’m sorry!» I exclaimed. «Why didn’t you wake me up? You said you had an early morning pick-up at…»

«How did you sleep?» Nikolas suddenly interrupted me halfway through.

«At a new place, you mean?» I wondered, remembering the stupid saying about dreaming grooms in places where girls fall asleep for the first time.

«Yeah,» he looked away, sighing. «Did you dream about anything?»

«Something heavy… I was suffocating, flying in the void through a black tunnel… Why?»

«And there was a roar and rattle in your ears,» Nikolas added sadly.

«Yes, it seems so. How do you know? Did I scream in my sleep?»

«What do you feel now?» he asked, still standing by the window.

«I’m okay! No, not even that! I’m the happiest woman in the world! To hell with Paris!» I smiled, came up to Nikolas and pressed my cheek to his cheek.

«Forgive me, Pauline,» he whispered in my ear.

«What for?!» I was surprised.

«I’ve never said I love you. I love you.»

«Something must have really happened if he said that to me!» it flashed through my head.

«No one will believe it but you,» Nikolas sighed somehow doomed, «although it doesn’t matter much now…»

«What’s happened?»

«I was always afraid of your dramatically leaving the Earth beforehand.