A 70-year-old elder let a stranger stay overnight — at night, the village woke up to her screams.

 When they found out what happened, they shuddered.

Natalya, a woman of respectable age, as always, opened her eyes long before dawn — when the sun had not yet even thought of appearing on the horizon. For many decades, she was used to greeting the morning first: in the village, one cannot afford to relax. Laziness here does not go unnoticed — whether it’s milking the cow, weeding the beds before the heat, or finishing household chores. Everything is planned out the evening before.

But today, her alarm clock was not the usual care for the household. The house had long been running on its own: two young daughters-in-law skillfully managed all the chores, and her sons were not the type to be idle. Natalya could have allowed herself a bit more rest, but the old habit of rising at the crack of dawn stayed with her. She simply liked this quiet, pre-dawn time when the whole world is still asleep, and you are alone with yourself. You can calmly knead dough, bake bread or buns, set the table for breakfast — as if life itself is worth living just for these moments.

But that morning, her thoughts were occupied by something else. The day before, her neighbor Klavdiya had boasted about a rich mushroom harvest — a basket full of birch boletes, milk mushrooms, chanterelles, and russulas. This caught Natalya’s attention. She decided — I’ll go to the forest too, maybe luck will smile.

Quickly setting the table, putting on simple clothes, and taking an empty basket, Natalya headed for the door. Everything around was wrapped in silence — no creaks, no conversations, only roosters crowing, testing their voices. The woman walked along a familiar path, past the last houses hiding at the very edge of the forest.

“Natalya, where are you going so early?” a voice suddenly sounded nearby.

Natalya flinched and sharply turned around:

“You scared me half to death, Ivanych!” she exhaled, recognizing the neighbor — a solitary middle-aged man, with a somewhat peculiar character, but kind in his own way.

“Well, I was waiting for you,” he smirked, adjusting his mustache. “Decided to find out where my favorite neighbor goes every day for her exercise. Your Danila has been gone for a long time, but you’re still the same... lively one.”

“Misha, you’ve gone completely crazy,” Natalya snorted, but a sly look flashed in her eyes. “We are almost the same age! And we probably won’t have a date. I’m just going for mushrooms. Before others come running.”

“Ah, I see,” he nodded. “So, Klavdiya’s basket inspired you? I’ve been itching to go for a long time too. Only no one to share with. At least you live with family, and I’m alone as a finger.”

“Your own fault,” Natalya sighed, her gaze softening a bit. “After Marusya, you didn’t think about getting anyone else. And before, so many girls followed you!”

For a moment, pain flickered in Mikhail’s eyes. He looked away.

“Well, alright, Nikitichna,” he said, “go before everything’s taken. Soon, people from other villages will come.”

“You’re like water on fire — just say a word, and you flare up immediately,” Natalya grumbled. “I just reminded you. Alright, goodbye.”

She picked up the basket from the ground and walked on without looking back. Mikhail watched her go, shaking his head:

“Curious magpie… wants to know everything…”

He remained standing by the fence, looking long in the direction where the neighbor disappeared, and sighed heavily. How could he talk about what had been hurting inside him all these years?

Mikhail loved Marusya with all his soul. They were happy together. But they had no children. Before, this was considered something insurmountable. Marusya believed a miracle would happen. And it almost did.

For nine months, they prepared for the birth of a child. Mikhail literally carried his wife in his arms. But it all ended tragically — premature birth, surgery… Neither she nor the baby survived.

Since then, he withdrew into himself. Grief became his second “self.” He moved to the village where Marusya grew up and shut himself within four walls. People saw him as a strange, silent man. Only Natalya didn’t let him disappear completely — she often dropped by, teased him, spun various stories as if she knew everything about his past.

And once, a stranger appeared at his door. Asked to stay overnight. Mikhail agreed. Half an hour later, terrible screams came from the house. What happened there — no one knows. In the morning, the man left, and Mikhail remained as if nothing had happened. Just as silent, just as lonely.

Sometimes other people came to him. Unknown, quiet. And again, screams were heard. Horrible, heart-wrenching. But no one dared to ask directly. Everyone just tried to keep their distance as if Mikhail carried something terrible and inexplicable inside.

Natalya still thought about Mikhail as she briskly walked toward the forest. It seemed to her that someone was watching her from behind — a gaze so cold and persistent that goosebumps ran down her skin. She was almost certain: it was Ivanych watching her from afar. But as soon as familiar birch bolete caps flickered in the thicket, the anxiety vanished without a trace. Mushrooms! That’s what it was worth waking up earlier than everyone else for.

With each found mushroom, the hunter’s instinct inside her awoke. Natalya loved the “quiet hunt” — she could wander the forest for hours, as if in a trance, losing track of time and space.

She got so engrossed that she didn’t notice how she wandered too deep — into places where local mushroom pickers tried not to go. Only when her foot unexpectedly sank into soft, viscous swamp did she come to her senses.

“Lord have mercy!” the woman exclaimed, hastily stepping back. “This is Wolf’s Swamp… How did I get here? Well, Natalya, you really wandered off, as they say…”

She barely turned around when an icy chill ran down her spine — as if an invisible hand touched her back. Her heart started pounding. From the depths came a strange, drawn-out moan. The woman flinched, frightened, stepped back — and at that moment heard someone’s agonizing scream of pain.

“Is anyone here?!” she called out, tensing every muscle.

From the bushes came a faint voice: 

Continued in the comments