The story was told by my friend’s neighbor, in his words:

Do you know why they put me in jail? Actually, for nothing. It was about 7 years ago, maybe. I was then a student of 19 years old; I even had a girlfriend then, Julia. I myself did not look good, to put it mildly, liked to wear my pants into holes on forums, to drink on Fridays, a typical law student, in short.

Julia, basically, a girl, was from the department of journalism, she was constantly looking for something, and she tried to take everything to a new level.

We lived in a bad dorm on May 1^st street, then we even moved in together (serious relationship).

As I said, I loved to drink, and once I got tired of walking in a tattered barracks, I grabbed Julia and went to a concert. By the way, then some little-known group came (besides the metropolitan people, no one came to our club, but oh well). So, a group. I really do not remember who and what was there…

On more thing, I forgot to say. We did not know such a club, once we just rode the train from Julia’s old folks, and saw a party. And we decided to go there.

They sang something like Dark Embient, or something else newfangled. I’m actually not a fan, but, okay, I can put up with. The concert started at 9 pm, and then we planned to leave by taxi.

Here we are standing at the stage, listening, and people are somehow flooding in, there are more and more of them, they all appeared somehow imperceptibly. Okay, the further the better. Suddenly the bass played so calm, flirting melody. We move closer, closer to the stage, the melody gets steeper, this skinny one sings, and the girl is nearby. I stand, as if spellbound, I look, I listen. Julia comes closer, well, I think, now she will crawl onto the stage, to the skinny one.

I woke up from an even, even Julia’s cry. I looked around — the roof of the high-rise building next to our dorm. I looked down — she was already lying, all 5 liters on the pavement … Then I don’t remember anything either. I woke up again in the emergency room, at gunpoint of a nurse with ammonia.

They couldn’t save Julia. No such group came, and all the better, we never even had such a club in our city.

What it was then — the devil knows. The official conclusion of the police was that, they say, I brought her to the roof, and threw her off the roof. My Julia, off the roof…

It was a year ago. From the stop to my house, you have to go through the park. There are no lanterns there, and drunken companies often wander around. And if you go around the park, you have to go past the garages — also a deserted dark place, and you have to walk 10 minutes longer. So, I am hurrying home and, just in front of the park, I catch up with my acquaintance — Tatyana. My son and her daughter are in the same class. We talked with her on topics of an educational nature, and I did not notice how the guys in tracksuits caught up with us from behind. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t understand how many there were. They hit my nape with something heavy and approached Tatyana with words like: «Give us the money, phone». I tried to stand up, and got kicked in the stomach for that. Noise in the ears, everything is swimming before my eyes. I can’t vouch that what I heard is not the consequences of a blow to the head, but still…

I hear a voice, I kind of understand what Tatyana is saying, but the voice sounds … well, like a jackal from a cartoon about Mowgli — some kind of rattling.

Verbatim: «What will we do to them?»

Then another — a low, buzzing voice — answers: «We pull out the eyes.»

Rattling: «Like last time! Like last time!”

To be honest, these voices made me break out in a cold sweat, despite the situation.

Then I don’t remember anything. I began to think straight only near the entrance of my house — Tatyana somehow brought me there. She called my wife and the ambulance. For a long time she refused to call the police. Probably, for a reason. The police diligently persuaded me not to lodge a statement, saying, “You didn’t see the attackers and they didn’t steal anything from anyone, etc., etc.” I got off with a concussion.

I still can’t understand whether I heard these voices because of the blow or not?

After all, a couple of times Tatyana was on the lookout for my wife and kept trying to ask what I was talking about that attack. And about 2 weeks after the incident, the son said that Tanya had transferred her daughter to another school due to relocation.

I still don’t understand what it was. I would like to ask Tatyana herself, but what if she answers me with one of these voices…?

Night, it is past three a.m. I lie in my bed in that state of drowsiness, when the alcohol in the blood does not allow the body to completely turn off. The curtains are drawn, the room is gray.

The door opens and my grandmother comes in. She walks by, ignoring me, and opens the window wide open. I still do not have time to figure out what is happening and why open the window like that when it is winter and frost outside. My thoughts do not have time to form into some kind of indignation, as the grandmother, muttering something under her breath, throws a tuft of long black hair out the window. With a strange foreboding, I half rise in bed to get a better look. And my grandmother, still not paying any attention to me, throws our cat out the window. As if in slow motion, he makes a terrible arc in the air and disappears from view. In my head, in a split second, thoughts flash that we are on the fifth floor, that it is dark and cold outside the window. What is happening does not fit in my head and I finally find my voice:

— What are you doing? I scream at her, but fear has chained me to the bed.

Grandma turns to me, and I am horrified by her face. It is distorted by some grimace of malice. She notices my reaction and tries to somehow smile, which does not make her look less like a demon. Yes, she looks like anyone, a witch, an evil gypsy, the devil himself, but not my grandmother. And she spoke:

— Do you know that your mother has been to the doctor for the sixth time this month? She has a tumor. She is dying.

I’m trying to comprehend what was said, and her last word is stuck in my head.

— Why? What? What were you doing now? – I ridiculously try to find words, but it comes out hard.

— Don’t worry, — Grandma says in a soothing tone, “it’s necessary.

She takes a pillow and slowly places it on my face. I understand that I do not have the strength to resist. Or to fight back I just slowly die and become teeny-tiny and powerless. And the next moment I realize that now it’s my turn. Window. She throws me out the window. Like a cat.

Seconds stretch into eternity, I fall down. My last thought is should I relax, or should I group up? And does it matter if you fall from the fifth floor? And I decided to relax and let myself go. The flight ended with the sound of a pillow falling. Puff!

Instead of hitting the ground, I opened my eyes. I’m in my room, in my bed, behind a closed door. But something is not right, not like last time. There is no grandmother, and behind the door, there is some noise and muffled light.

I quietly leave my room. Something strange has happened in the kitchen, the furniture has been moved, and there is a table in the middle of the kitchen. Mom is sitting at the table, staggering back and forth like crazy. Either laughing or crying, I don’t see her face. However, that wasn’t what horrified me. In front of my mom, above the table, about twenty centimeters above it, a saucepan hovers in the air. It quickly spins around its axis, the lid jumps, as if something is boiling inside. Mom does not look at me, does not notice.

I have no voice again. I froze in the midst of this madness. After a second, just an inhuman drawn-out bawl comes out of me. It’s not a shriek, it’s not a scream, it’s almost a growl. Mixed up with tears. I scream until my lungs run out of air.

My scream broke the silence. And several things happened at once. The saucepan, which was hanging in the air, fell with a crash, my mother looked up at me and began to laugh hysterically.

Voice in my head: «This story can happen to anyone.»

I opened my eyes. I don’t know why I finally woke up for real. I’m lying in my bed again. The clock shows 6:47 am. Some noise in the kitchen…