We were stuffed with toasted bread, grilled sausage from the promotion, drenched in ketchup from a brand I'd never heard of.
The dormitory balcony was large, with three deckchairs, a grill and a small tourist fridge.
A solitary can floated miserably among the remnants of melted ice.
I belched loudly.
Loud enough to wake up Rocky who was sleeping on the lounger next to me.
- What is? what is? he began to mumble incoherently. He'd had a couple of beers down his throat in the last two hours.
- You passed the sessions! Malshall boomed in his ear as he finished rolling another joint.
- Yes, yes, I did. Rocky smiled broadly and reached for the last beer.
- Is there anything else? I looked at the grill. Empty. Only burnt fat sizzled on the grate.
Our barbecue drink was slowly dying. We used to enter this state when you are overeaten and drunk and start to wonder whether to continue sleeping on the deckchair or go back to the room. In addition, the sun was slowly disappearing below the horizon, and we were only an hour away from the appearance of mosquitoes.
- I will be gathering. I grunted after a few minutes.
I wanted to sleep.
- You say vodka?... Rocky cackled...you convinced me!
- Jesus…
Malshall turned his cap backwards. He generally only took it off for class or when he went to bed. At fat parties, he simply twisted the visor so as not to bend it when he fell unconscious. It was a kind of sign that the binge probably won't end yet, on the contrary. I sighed.
- Far from the store! I tried to argue, but he told me to be quiet.
- I saw a bottle on the shelf at Malshall's.
Malshall thought for a moment, as if he didn't know what our friend was talking about.
- Vodka? Ah yes! suddenly dawned on him.
Rocky nodded eagerly. Malshall shook his head.
- No, no, we won't drink that... he said firmly... for nothing.
Rocky looked at him surprised. He looked comical with his small eyes, bald head and big ears. Kind of like a video game character.
- We will buy you back. Rocky said
Malshall shook his head.
- No , no. That's not the point. There's just something wrong with this vodka.
Now both Rocky and I must have looked like idiots.
- It works with a delay! Rocky chuckled
- No, no. I just don't want to drink it, and throwing it away is a bit stupid... Malshall started fussing... you know, 20 bucks for such a bottle, and from a wedding.
- Okay, will you finally tell me what you're talking about? Rocky was slowly losing his patience.
- Yeah, but don't laugh, okay? This vodka is haunted... he said finally... or cursed.
We roared with laughter so much that Rocky spilled his beer
- Shit, sorry... he wiped his chin with a paper towel... fuck... he started choking again with suppressed laughter... Malshall, don't smoke so much or your brains will bleed out of your ears.
- Or the dick will fall off. I added holding my stomach.
You should have seen Malshall's disgusted face.
- I'm serious.
- That hasn't happened yet... I shook my head...haunted vodka? Haunted dolls, I've heard that, there was even a movie like that, haunted TV too, something, I think, even shoes, a violin. But with all due respect to you Malshall, the vodka haunt?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rocky clench his teeth on his lip and start crying with laughter. I was afraid that the chair would break under his huge body.
- Keep laughing you idiots, keep laughing. I got it at the wedding, I was with this one girl in the first year, I won some competition, you know, who will bark loudly or something.
Rocky folded in half. I felt the cackle in my stomach making sausage, bread and beer start to dance.
- And when this contest was going on, the bride slipped and sprained her leg. With that vodka in hand. It fell off but I caught it. Then her father-in-law drove her to the hospital, but they had an accident, she and her father-in-law went to hell.
We got a little serious. Rocky just chuckled softly under his breath.
- It's not fucking funny. I didn't really care there, but the bride is some friend of the chick I was with. The wedding turned into mourning. With that vodka
- By vodka? Rocky's voice was still trembling, he was close to another burst of laughter.
- The vodka, I'm telling you, she slipped when she was carrying that bottle to me... Malshall winced... we came back from that wedding quickly, because you know it, bad omen.
- Why did you take the bottle?
- Because I didn't know yet. But wait. I was returning to the apartment and I was attacked under the cage.
- Through the bottle? I asked with all seriousness. Rocky began to choke again with suppressed laughter.
- From drunks. Three of them were standing, I was still half conscious because I had smoked a joint on the way back. And they saw me coming, a bottle in my hand, they wanted to take it.
I remember something. In fact, a few months ago, Malshall walked around in the dorm with a beautifully bruised snout.
- They hit me a couple of times, but the door will open on the cage, if I yanked harder, I ran away. They didn't want to follow me.
I pictured Malshall after a joint, running from drunks across the block. With a bottle in hand.
- I went back to the apartment, my father was still asleep. Quietly, I took off my shoes, I think I will sleep for a while, because I was supposed to go to the dormitory in the evening. So I put the bottle in the hall, next to my shoes, and went to sleep.
- And what? The door started slamming on its own, the window opened? Rocky was clearly getting bored with this story.
- No, my father got up in the morning to go to work, he bent down to get it, and his back start hurt. He shouted so much that we all got up. Ambulance, doctor. His disk fell out. And he was working at a construction site, so they fired him.
- By vodka?
- Well, why? ... Malshall was so serious that I felt like laughing again ... then I was returning by train, I took the vodka in my bag. You know what those shelves upstairs are like. When I took off the bag, it turned out that the zipper was not fastened and the bottle fell out.
- Didn't she break? Rocky was surprised.
- No, it hit Grandpa's head across from him and rolled between the seats. Grandpa in the scream, he thought war or something. So I took the bottle, apologized and got out. That was my station. I put it on a shelf in the dormitory, and it is standing there. Then I read in the newspaper that they found an old man on the train that he had had a stroke. I don't know what train, I don't want to know. But that was the same day. Probably a coincidence, but you know. I didn't touch the bottle. Maybe I'll give it to my roommate, he's studying chemistry, maybe he'll need it for a reagent or something. He's got plenty of it in his cupboards.
We sat in silence for a moment.
- No, Malshall, we must drink. Exorcism to do... Rocky crossed himself and folded his hands as if in prayer... I'll bring it. Malshall tried to protest, but Rocky was adamant.
- Something will happen to him. you will see. He'll fall down the stairs, he'll have a heart attack. You will see. Malshall lit a joint and took a deep drag. Oh yes. The party was just getting started.
Rocky, however, came back safe and sound, carrying the bottle in his hands. She was ordinary. Simple bottle, plastic cap, navy blue inscription. It didn't glow in the dark, no human eye floated inside. Without further ado, Rocky unscrewed the bottle and poured it into the glasses he had brought.
- This is for Paranormal Activity, gentlemen. we drank the first toast. Even Malshall, if only for a moment, lingered.
We poured on the second round, and the third.
After five, we stopped mocking our friend and the stories about the bad luck booze.
It was getting colder, but the alcohol was warming from the inside out. Rocky spilled another turn.
- But I'll tell you, Malshall, you seem to have a drinking problem.
He looked at Rocky with understanding.
- How about four bottles? This one here, two bitters, and anything else?
Malshall belched loudly and shook his head.
- No no, it's my roommate's locker. This chemist. This is how he stores his reagents. Mine is over there by the window wall... he stopped.
He looked at us with wide-eyed fear. For a moment I didn't understand what he meant.
Then I got cold.
Rocky looked at us not really understanding.
- What…
- Which shelf did you take the bottle from? we asked simultaneously.
Three polytechnic students died after drinking a methanol solution while celebrating the end of the summer session. They were third-year students of the Faculty of Architecture and no one expected that an innocent event could have such a tragic end.
