Skinny

 One day during the summer holidays, when I was sitting at home for days and bored, my friend Masha called me and invited me to stay at her grandmother's house. Masha was a silly girl — sometimes when we were together in a big company, I literally covered my face with my hands. But spending time with her was fun and carefree. Her grandmother's house stood in a remote forest — dilapidated, old, but cozy. I've already been to this house a couple of times at Masha's invitation.

The road was long — we drove for almost five hours. The place where Masha's grandmother lived could not be called a village or a cottage — just a couple of houses a few dozen meters from each other.

I was placed on the second floor in a separate room, although I would prefer to share a room with a friend. The room was a little dark and not very cozy. When I was sorting things out, my friend stood next to me and grumbled:

— No, well, what kind of business is this? Am I going to watch horror stories all night by myself?

—Come on, it's okay,— I replied. "When Grandma falls asleep, I'll come running to you." Agreed?

—Okay,— Masha said with relief.

At half past ten, I went to my friend's room, although I would have preferred to sleep — I was too tired on the road. She quietly opened the door and went out into the hallway. The stairs were very steep and creaked loudly, but Masha's grandmother was already asleep and would hardly have woken up before morning.

When I entered my friend's room, I was horrified: she was lying on the floor, her eyes were open and completely black. It seemed that there was no fat left in her body: Masha was plump, but now she looked as if she had died of anorexia. She was white, thin, and had swollen veins... The window in the room was broken and everything was stained with some kind of yellow liquid. I stood motionless for about ten seconds, not even able to scream, and then I noticed some kind of black muzzle flashed behind the broken window. I screamed so hard that I almost tore all my vocal cords.

Literally immediately, I was almost blinded by the bright light. It turned out that Masha had entered the room and turned on the light.

"What are you yelling about?" "What is it?" she asked, startled. "I've been looking for you everywhere."..

"How so?" — I was shocked. "But you are."..

I pointed to the place where she had been lying, but there was only an empty carpet.

"Why did you break the window?"  Masha continued to wonder.

Then her grandmother came into the room, awakened by my scream. We went downstairs to the kitchen together, and I told them everything I'd seen. They were both scared. Then my grandmother told me that this was the fifth time a window had been broken in this room for no reason.

We sat in the kitchen until morning. Masha moved into my room this morning. We spent a couple of weeks at her grandmother's house, but neither I nor anyone else had such terrible visions.

A month later, Masha was admitted to the hospital with severe abdominal pain and liver problems. She was discharged only six months later, pale and very thin, just skin and bones. Thank God she survived.