Last Watch

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VALERIA LOOKED AT VICTOR AND SMILED. INSIDE EVERY MAN, NO MATTER how grown up, there was still a little boy. Victor was twenty years old and, of course, he was grown up. Lera was prepared to insist on that with all the conviction of a nineteen-year-old woman in love.

“Dungeons,” she whispered into Victor’s ear. “Dungeons and dragons. Oo-oo-oo!”

Victor snorted. They were sitting in a room that would have seemed dirty if it wasn’t so dark. Jostling all around them were excited children and adults with embarrassed smiles. On a stage decorated with mystical symbols a young man wearing white makeup and a long, flowing cloak was making frightening faces. He was lit from below by a few crimson footlights.

“Now you are going to learn what real horror is like!” the young man drawled menacingly at the spectators. “Aagh! A-a-a-agh! Even I feel afraid at the thought of what you are going to see!”

He spoke with the precise articulation that only college drama students have. Even Lera, who didn’t know much English, could understand every word.

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