Finally you’re out and food is everywhere, like a sea that doesn’t kill but nourishes you. You experience a new level of happiness, the satisfaction of devouring. After a while you devour according to a plan, digging a tunnel in the food, always straight ahead. You sense that yet another world awaits you. You sense others like yourself all around you, doing the same as you.

You reach a new layer. It’s not food, but another shell. Again, you have to eat through it.

Finally you succeed. The shell cracks and you squeeze your body through the opening. It is a new world indeed, nothing like the previous one, empty, without food, cold, but somehow still appealing.

You are a spider. A little boy tied to a metal bar screams and watches in horror as spiders eat their way out of his flesh. He might have hours left before his vital organs are eaten up.

You return to eat some more before exploring further.

The complex ended here. Gábor’s face was soaked in sweat. Daniella rose from her chair, took two steps running, then threw up. She lay down next to the pool of vomit, shivering. Mihály watched the girl, his face pale white. He didn’t say a word. Mr. Kővári wanted to start analyzing the complex but his tongue refused to obey him. Boss covered his face with his palms, breathing heavily.

‘I’m giving up. I’m giving up again,’ Boss howled.

‘Daniella?’ Zanó asked the woman on the ground. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

‘I want some more of this,’ she answered.

‘All right, my dear, I’ll bring some more. Is everyone else ready for the next one?’

Gábor had second thoughts. The world was spinning, his own body felt alien to him. On the other hand, when this was all over, he would have to wake up every single day knowing that the miracle was right there in front of him and he had missed it again.

‘I will have some,’ he said as slowly and articulately as he could.

Zanó smiled. He looked at Mr. Kővári, who was focusing on not falling off his chair.

‘And you?’

Mr. Kővári fixed his bloodshot eyes on Zanó, then nodded sluggishly. Zanó brought another bottle of Indigo for Daniella, who at first eyed the bottle with disgust, then started to drink anyway.

‘The sixth in line is the Emerald complex. It’s a heavy item, let it flow through you. Don’t resist it. I’m really sorry, Mr. Kővári, that your wife couldn’t join us, as I selected this one for her.’

He poured the Emerald complex and Gábor, before he could change his mind, took a sip. The drink, however, didn’t allow only a single sip. As the first aromatic component spread, it required constant gulping until the glass was emptied.

The complex didn’t unfold as a process, in phases. It was like a maze. It was simultaneously sensual and abstract, a maddening mirror game, a labyrinth in which you could easily get lost.