part 14
Heavenly fire
The chandelier over her heads groaned ominously, falling a few feet short. The crowd below instantly forgot about the disfigured man on the stage - all eyes rushed upwards; there was a friendly choking sigh. Brill regained consciousness and, with her teeth, closed her mouth. Quickly looking back, she lifted up a large black bag from the floor.
The pulsating pressure in her head disappeared like a morning haze in the sun, causing the half-remembered scraps of her dreams to appear. Now she could clearly see them with her mental eye as if she were looking at clear pictures. Brill saw a swinging chandelier, a crackling ceiling, pieces of plaster falling into the rain on the crowd below. She saw the chandelier come off the brackets and fall into the hall. She saw the black bodies wriggling in torment, wrapped in flames, and heard people scream until her breath burnt out of their lungs.
Brill saw it all as if it had already happened. But it hadn't happened yet. They still had time.
- Run! Run, the chandelier is falling! - She shouted in her voice, pushing the gentleman into the aisle on her left.
The man shuddered from her touch, coming out of the panic stupor and beginning to move. As she continued to push forward, Brill quickly looked over her shoulder, only to find Conner right behind him. At the sight of him, relief broke through the growing panic, but the meditation was still gloomy. "She is about to fall. There is no time left!
As if reading her thoughts, Conner swung over a row in front of them and began to drive the audience from their seats to the aisle. Within seconds, he cleared half the aisle. A high figure and a keen expressive voice helped him to attract attention and command.
Just above his head a huge chandelier once again tilted down - a waterfall of snow-white plaster fell down - broke away from the ceiling under its own weight and flew to the thrilled audience. Chains of skillful crystals rang together during the fall, and this strangely innocent sound served as a background for a thrilling scene.
The crowd was no longer standing there, but in the face of horror, the chandelier's rapid fall forced them to flee in a panic. The next second, the well-educated audience seemed to have been replaced: an animal's fear, penetrating the air, broke free. Flawlessly dressed gentlemen without apologies climbed the young ladies to get to the exit, the young ladies ripped each other's dresses and pushed the neighbors on the run. At that moment, all ties of affection were forgotten in a furious attempt to save their lives.
Brill, who was still trying to get people off the road, was rudely pushed one way, then the other: she was no longer in control of her own actions. A wave of people rushing to the exits simply dared her to do so. She wasn't tall from birth, barely five feet tall, so the onslaught of the crowd almost blinded her, she couldn't see anything over her shoulders, squeezing her from all sides. In the sea of shoulders and torsos, Brill could not understand how much time was left before the chandelier broke.
- Conner! Where are you?! - She shouted, breathlessly shouting at the sound of panic screaming.
Brill shoved the elbow of a hysterical gentleman next to her, trying to push her off the road. She vaguely heard someone shouting her name, but in the confusion around her, she couldn't identify the source of her voice.
When the bodies of the rest of them encountered her own, Brill's natural aversion to the large crowds made her heartbeat somewhere in her throat, blocking her breath. She was desperately pushing the people around her, but the crowd seemed to be squeezing around more. For a moment there was nothing left in her head but the need to get out. To breathe. Brill fought fiercely with those who tried to climb it and barely managed to stay on her feet.
The fall of the chandelier was marked by a deafening explosion: it landed on the first three rows of the ground floor. Brill, like the others, knelt down with the force of the blow. For a moment it stretched out on the floor, stunned and choking. She felt the weight of the knee that had crushed her - people were climbing her legs; they heard the sound of many footsteps - people rose to their feet and ran. Brill took a cautious sitting posture and looked back; after the blast wave, her ears rang painfully.
The hall was swaying in front of his eyes. Brill was freezing, looking at the chaos around him. From the orchestra pit, giant clubs poured thick black smoke, enveloping the scene and quickly filling the huge space above his head, Brill. From below, a terrible misleading glow of dancing flames burst out. Strange screams and moans were heard from the very center of this hell - the instruments thrown by the musicians were dying in the fire: the strings jumped out of the grooves, and the hot metal was unnaturally twisted in the middle of the fire.
Reaching up, Brill grabbed the armrest for the support and, having pulled up, first sat squatting and then, when dizziness and disorientation passed, got up.
to be continued...