***

People. They're everywhere. Standing there with their mouths open, staring at us. That day.

– I'm sorry, Mrs. Mroczek. I'm terribly late.

I turn my head to the right.

He's looking at me.

Brandon Grayson.

"I hate you so much!" – flashes through my head.

He smiles charmingly, and then his attention is completely consumed by the wedding process.

And I stand there, barely concealing a small shiver of disgust and hatred. Feeling like I've been dunked in a tub of shit and forced to be here, in this damn church, to be a scoffer. I see nothing, hear nothing and feel nothing. I just want to get the hell out of here. To run out of the church screaming in disgust. Screaming how much I hate that son of a bitch. Scream loud enough to drown out the murmurings of the world. But I humbly remain in my seat until the end of the wedding ceremony. I am weak. No, I'm just not there anymore. I'm gone.

***

– I really like this shot, but that tourist ruined everything that could be ruined. – I sighed irritably, showing my model the ruined shot.

A bloody stranger in a bright yellow jacket had unexpectedly and unexpectedly appeared in the frame at the very moment I pressed the button. And now, behind the beautiful Aisa, his bloody jacket was a distinct ugly yellow stain. But, noticing that his presence was clearly spoiling our photo shoot, the hapless tourist hurried away.

– I'm sorry, but you'll have to take another pose in the same spot. – I looked at the girl. – I'm sorry, I know you're cold, but this is very important.

Aisa. Nineteen-year-old Icelandic girl. Beautiful and tall. Exactly the kind of nurse I'd dreamed of shooting since I first saw her in the café of her small hometown. I immediately met her, took her details and, with her permission, took a couple of shots of her beautiful white face. Her white hair, eyebrows and eyelashes are completely white as snow. But white in a different way than albinos. Her beauty is the very embodiment of the North, its beauty and power. This is exactly how I think the inimitable Scandinavian goddess of beauty Freya, who was reborn in the guise of the magical young Aisa, should look like. Today I shot her against the backdrop of a sullen ocean shore full of large sharp stones. Dark blue, almost black waves crashed into those rocks and crashed in an icy rain behind my modern-day Freya. Twilight. The girl is wearing a translucent black dress that almost blends in with the surrounding gloomy dark beauty of this place. Her snow-white skin barely pokes through from beneath the fabric of the dress, and her hair seems to be frozen in mid-air, obeying the wind. Aisa embodies a lonely ghost, an ancient spirit, a Freyja who has descended to earth in search of peace.

It's six degrees centigrade. I feel sorry for Isa.

But this girl exceeded my expectations and stood firm against all my demands, the cold and the icy spray of the ocean. She was so obedient and meek that I gave myself my word not to kill her. Aisa is too beautiful, too sublime. Even for me. Especially for me.

After the shoot, I hurriedly wrapped this heavenly creature in a warm blanket, put her in the car and we drove to her house where I handed Aisa over to her anxious parents. I was invited to dinner, but I declined, citing my already purchased tickets to London, where I was scheduled for my next shoot and interview with Colour world, one of the most famous English reportage photography magazines. I bought the tickets three days before the meeting with the editor-in-chief so that I could print my best photos. After all, even though I was shooting models, in my spare time I was shooting the world. Ordinary mortals. Airports. On the platform. In subways. On the street and in cafes. Children and old people. The beautiful and the not so beautiful. The ugly. Cripples. Life itself in all its contradictory diversity. But also Death. Three years ago, I managed to capture it. In Toronto. A guy jumped in front of an incoming train. And I did it: the suicidal man was left hanging in the air, right in the centre of the train's huge iron nose. Unaware of what was happening, the driver, frowning his bushy eyebrows, stared silently ahead. A second before the train crushes, blows to pieces the body of the suicider. The mouth of the girl opens in horror, reaching out her hands to the one who has decided to end his Life. Probably his girlfriend. Now an unofficial widow. Best shot I've taken in all the years I've been into photography.