Mom smiled back and at that moment the image disappeared.
The village that didn’t exist
By nightfall, the temperature dropped, and Natasha shivered from the cold:
– We’re lost!
– Nothing like that, – her companion, a broad-shouldered and tall guy, shook his head negatively.
– Of course, you will never admit that I am right! She was a little offended.
Although if she is offended, it is at herself, because no one drove her on a trip with Pavel through abandoned villages, especially in autumn, when it gets dark early and the evenings are cold.
– Don’t get excited, we just probably missed the turn. It’s getting late, let’s turn into the village,» her companion suggested.
«What other village?» – Natasha was surprised, – are you kidding?
– No, – and Pavel pointed to the pointer.
A wooden arrow nailed to a tree pointed somewhere to the side. In the light of the flashlight, the girl read
– «Vihreevo», I don’t remember any Vihreevo on the map.
– Well, probably an abandoned village, so they removed it from the map. Let’s go, it’s twenty kilometers to the village, and here for sure, we’ll spend the night in some house, and in the morning we’ll go.
Natasha followed Pavel. They were walking along an overgrown path, it looks like no one has been walking here for a long time. After about half a kilometer, silhouettes of buildings appeared. Coming closer, they examined the village street in the light of lanterns.
The village was probably really abandoned, it was dark in the windows of the houses, you could not hear the barking of dogs, the voices of people.
It was very quiet, and it made them uneasy, although they had already seen more than one abandoned village.
The girl really wanted to turn around and rush to run from here to the nearest village without looking back, she was so scared, but she understood that she was hardly able to overcome such a distance today.
Pavel dragged her by the hand to a small house at the end of the street.
The flimsy wooden door was unlocked, and they entered the dark hall. Inside there were two rooms, one of them, with a stove, apparently served the owners once as a kitchen, the second bedroom and living room.
The furniture was old, worn, but, oddly enough, there was no dust on it, and the house was cleaned. It feels like the owners have gone somewhere for a while.
For some reason it was very cold in the house, even the jacket did not save. It’s good that there was firewood near the stove, and Pavel flooded the stove.
– What if someone lives here, comes, and we are here? Natasha was worried. – He’ll report it to the police!
– Don’t be afraid, – Pavel put his backpack on the floor and searched for something in it, – No one will come. And what can we steal here? Some old things. Better click for the collection.
Natasha took a digital camera out of her bag and photographed the interior of the house.
They had dinner with canned food, which they took on the road, and went to bed. And if Pavel fell asleep quickly, then Natasha tossed and turned for a long time before falling asleep, but she didn’t have to sleep for a long time.
The girl was awakened by a sound. At first Natasha did not understand what it was, she listened – someone was walking outside the window.
Maybe she imagined it? But no, the sound of footsteps was distinct. It was a full moon, and in the moonlight Natasha saw a shadow flicker outside the window, then there was some kind of grinding, as if someone was driving something iron on the outer wall of the house.
– Pavel, wake up! She jumped up and shook her companion by the shoulder.
– Why are you yelling? «What is it?» he asked sleepily.
– Someone is walking on the street!
– Do not invent, who can walk here? Maybe some animal ran in from the forest. Paul always considered mysticism to be nothing more than an invention.
– But I definitely heard someone walking.
She spent the rest of the night without sleep, dozing off only in the morning. In the morning they hitched a ride at the intersection where they turned into the village. The driver turned out to be talkative.
– Where does the young people lead the way from? – He asked, turning on the radio in the car.
«We were in a whirlwind, – Natasha replied.
It was warm in the car, music was playing, and the night incident seemed like a dream.
– From where? – the driver looked at the girl in surprise, as if she had said something out of the ordinary.
– From Vikhreev, there is a village nearby, – Pavel intervened.
– Don’t you confuse anything, guys? – the driver was surprised. – Here to the nearest village about twenty kilometers, and there is nothing closer.
Then he paused, and said:
– Vihreevo, something familiar.
Then he slapped the steering wheel.
– I remember! Before the war, there was a village called Vikhreevo here. Here, during the war, the Germans killed almost the entire village, after the war they did not restore it, those who survived moved to other places. So you messed up, there’s nowhere to spend the night. Last year I was fishing there nearby, so I only saw piles of boards and bricks on the site of houses.
The driver dropped them off at the square in the nearest village.
– Maybe the uncle played a trick on us? Natasha suggested.
«We can go back and check his words,» Pavel said.
– No way, – said Natasha, – I’m not going there.
At home, the girl uploaded the photos to the computer and began to look at them.
In the photos taken in that village, there really were no houses. And instead of them there were bricks and planks.
A terrible curse. One urban legend
