Russian Horror Book. Victor Bacau
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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 soul 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 their friend, to gather information. Then I was talking also 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, they wouldn’t 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 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.”
“Young people never pay attention to substantial things!”
Again – ‘young people’ and ‘not young people’.
Mother kept telling.
“Twenty years ago there was a story with that lady. In general, everyone knew she’s a witch, and there were people who went to see her, you understand why.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“Well, her work. I don’t know what exactly she used to practice. Taints, putting spells… She didn’t hide the fact of being involved with black magic. She hated hearing about God whatsoever, and didn’t name it anything but lies. Said, nobody’s ‘over there’…”
Mother was silent a bit, thinking deeply.
“A strange sort of people. They never believe in God, but do believe in magic. What nonsense.”
“Yeah, that’s stupidity,” I agreed. “So what happened to her? With the old lady.”
“Well, she was said to be rather rich. Perhaps she could earn a lot due to her magical practice. That wasn’t evident, but rumors were about that she had some cash. One day fellows visited her…”
“What fellows?”
“Tall fellows. Mighty, and drunk,” Mother threw up her hands. “Just guys who needed to make money easy way.”
“Ah, they were looking for money?”
“Yes, they did. And even they found some, I say. Neighbors told later they heard the noise in the witch’s apartment, then the guys ran out and everything came still. The old woman was dead.”
I couldn’t understand a thing anymore.
“How’s dead if she’s alive?”
“They saw an ambulance driving up to her house, and then the police and the ritual service. They carried out her body, blood all over; her head was bashed. That day she was about seventy, nobody believed she would survive with those injuries. Someone heard that the ambulance confirmed her death, so she was taken to the morgue. And imagine that, there she regained consciousness!”
I chuckled, though I didn’t like to hear it all.
“Toughest lady, uh?”
“Indeed she is. She didn’t write the application, refused any treatment, cursed the police and went home dressed in a nightgown only, the same she wore when taken to the morgue. She was pale blue, like she was a real cadaver, and blood all over her clothes, can you imagine? Looking like that she walked along the streets… Those guys, by the way, went missing, four persons. From that day, word got around she turned into a vampire. Vuver Kuva.”
“Kinda Baba Yaga?”
“Well, something like that. Vuver Kuva. The locals call it this way.”
“And it’s been… twenty years ago?”
“Something about.”
“So she’s ninety now, isn’t she?”
“It appears she is.”
“And is she … well, is she still doing magic?”
“I don’t know what she’s doing,” Mother shook her head, “but you just promise me you won’t go back to that house either. Nothing to do with that nonsense. The police knows their business.”
“Okay, okay, got it,” I said. “But you know that everything you told me about that hag – that’s a story. It’s not a bit true!”
“People