Russian Horror Book

“She was walking here, too, as you same, knocking to every door,” the old woman nodded her head. “She went knocking persistently. She knocked at the doors, I snuck to see who was there. And there’s a young girl with a file… It’s dangerous to walk alone like that!”

“Did someone open doors for her?”

“Nope. Other aparts are in rent, youth live there… Maybe they were afraid of something – no one opened.”

“Did she knock on your door too?”

“No, she didn’t. I opened it before. I tell her, ‘Whatcha want, luv, whatcha walk alone?’; she began to tell me, too, something about my pension, as I say… I say – let me sign what you give me. And she says – you don’t have to, and you already have your pension. So she left. I don’t know who else opened for her. The district is quiet like a swamp, strangers are not welcomed. But still walking alone is dangerous…”

“She’s missing, Grandma. Several months she’s been looking for,” the officer said. We tried to drink tea, but no chance, it was too hot. Hot, boiling water.

“Oh, poor thing…” the old woman sighed and shook her head. “It’s dangerous to walk alone…”

After another five minutes we left, never having drunk a cup of tea, but for some reason very tired and exhausted.

“No sense to talk to that old woman… neither to the neighbors,” said my companion, heading to the car.

“I understand. But this house was the last in the bypass schedule of both Marina, and Max.”

“Was it the last time anyone saw them? That’s the last house in their schedule, so what? They could finish the job, leave papers in the office and go to a club, or somewhere else… some pub. And from that place they yet could get anywhere.”

“That’s what you think,” I shrugged. “My friends were interrogated, so I was. The police shook down everything, but no things were found neither in the office nor in their apartments. And if Marina had gone to a pub, she would have called her mother. She always called back, no matter what party she went to.”

The officer shrugged too, as saying that was “inconclusive.”

“Look, our guys aren’t stupid.”

“I know.”

“Our hunch is not enough. One cannot simply search every apartment, don’t you understand that?”

I nodded.

“Yes I know.”

“All right then, let’s go home.”

At that moment, his cell phone rang. He took, listened and said, “I’ll be right there.”

“Again!” he grumbled, getting into the car. “Do this, fix that!.. I’m filling in here for everyone! That’s killing me, I say you!”

***

I got home late.

My mother was awake – watching TV in her room. I knocked.

“Hey. Why aren’t sleeping?”

“Just watching the new series, quite interesting,” she rubbed her sleepy eyes. She was waiting when I get back, although I said her I would back later.

“Want some tea?” she offered.

“Yes, please. I’ll pour the water on, you can keep watching.”

We could talk about anything, but sometimes I reminded myself that she was not just a friend to me, she was my mother, to whom her old age was already so close. And it was a real beastliness to make her nervous about anything. But I could not simply be silent, my heart was restless. So to her question ‘Where have you been?’ I honestly answered: ‘Prokhorov’.

She frowned.

“That house among the shacks? What did you need there?”

I told her.

Of course she knew two of my friends were missing; because I had been summoned to the police station as a friend, to gather information. Then I was also talking about my suspicions (and my hunch), about how I went to ‘Prokhorov’ with my friend – the district police officer.

Mother poured the tea. Finally, I had some normal tea.

“Do you think if the police had found a hook, wouldn’t they have done anything?”

A hook! My Mom used words from her favorite detective series.

I raised my hands as if saying, “I surrender!”.

“Okay, you may laugh. It seemed to me that this way it was possible to find something. That district is creepy. And the old woman is strange…”

Mother raised her eyebrow.

“The old woman?”

I told her. And the more I was telling, the more worried my mother’s face seemed.

“Don’t ever go there again.”

“Why, Mom?”

She interrupted me.

“Did you take anything from her? Don’t take anything from such people. Did you eat anything? Tell me honestly!”

“We didn’t even have tea, honestly! Mom, what’s up? What are you talking about?”

“Okay. You may laugh if you want to,” Mother waved her hand.

It turned out that the old woman was considered to be someone like the city freak, a local witch; and some people told different curious things about her.

“She’s a witch, everyone knows!” my mother said, and I smiled and shook my head.

“Yeah, everyone knows, except me.”