The old man

 There was an apartment next to us — my grandfather lived in that apartment, who was ill for a long time and then died. My grandfather had no arms or legs.

The room where my sister and I slept was next to his apartment. After my grandfather's death, it remained empty for some time. The balcony of the empty apartment was located next to ours, at a window distance.

I woke up in the middle of the night and heard some strange noises. I looked at my sister's bed, and she was sleeping quietly. Then I realized that these sounds were coming from behind the wall, from my dead grandfather's apartment. I lay there in silence for a while, but the sounds didn't stop, repeating themselves periodically over and over again. They were very indistinct, but they made me listen anxiously. Then I got out of bed and put my ear to the wall to listen to what was going on there.

Some kind of blows, they were repeated periodically. Then there was some rustling. But suddenly the nature of the sounds changed. The noise was as if someone was jerking a full bag. Moreover, he dragged it towards the balcony. Suddenly, the noise stopped. In the silence of the night, I heard something click behind the wall.

"It's the latch on the balcony," I suddenly realized. And he froze, waiting for what would happen next. But then nothing happened.

The noise was repeated the next night. I told my sister everything this morning.

"Do you know what that is?"  My sister asked after thinking about it.

- no.

— It's a dead grandfather crawling on the floor, then he opens the balcony door and goes outside.

"And how does he open the door?" He doesn't have arms and legs!

"He's dead!" — The nurse replied meaningfully.

The next night, she didn't sleep with me. The noise was repeated. First a rustle, then the sound of a balcony latch coming off, and then silence. The two of us listened to the sounds of a dead disabled person moving. He seemed to us to be some kind of monstrous maggot- maggot — which, writhing, moved across the floor.

The next morning, my sister said:

— So this grandfather goes out on the balcony.

"What if it's not Grandpa?"

— Who else could be in the dead grandfather's empty apartment? Grandfather himself! — the sister answered confidently.

—Well, that's okay," she continued, "the important thing is that he goes out on the balcony. Meanwhile, we can also go out on our own and see what it is!

It was decided that the two of us would go out on our balcony tonight and see who was going out on the next one.

During the day, we reached over the railing and tried to look into the empty windows of the next room. There was nothing to be seen but a yellowed sheet of newspaper pinned to the window.

And then the night came. The scuffle behind the wall began. We waited for the latch to click and went to the balcony door. We were walking together, but it so happened that I was the first. I wish I hadn't done that.

"No one,— I said quietly to my sister.

Yes, the door to the next balcony was open, but it was empty. It wasn't that scary.

And suddenly...

A rounded object appeared at the level of the railing of the neighboring balcony. For a moment, I thought he had fallen from above, because I heard something soft fall on the metal surface of the railing.

And then the sister rushed back to the apartment.

I suddenly realized what kind of object it was. On the next balcony, the corpse of a legless and armless old man hung with his teeth on the railing. His glassy eyes turned and fixed on me.

I rushed inside the apartment. I rushed to the light switch, groped along the wall and couldn't find it, forgetting in horror where everything was located.

—The door! Close the door to the balcony!  My sister screamed and, not waiting for my reaction, rushed to lock it herself.

I rushed to help, and in the dark we almost collided and fell. Finally, the door was closed and the light was on.

We stood in silence — there was silence outside the windows. And with the electric lighting, it already seemed like everything that had happened was a terrible dream.

I turned to my sister, who was staring intently into the blackness of the window.

"That's nonsense.

—Didn't you get it?" — she looked at me, - Do you still have any idea how he opened his door latch? With my teeth. He jumped up and opened it. So he can jump on our balcony!

I felt cold.

— Let's wake up the parents?

"What are we going to tell them?"

My sister was interrupted by a noise on our balcony. We froze. You can't see much in the dark through lighted windows. But nevertheless, I figured out something. On the other side, a dead mask pressed against the window, which was the face of an old man with a disability. Glazed eyes stared at us.

Yelling, we rushed into the bedroom to our parents, who were fast asleep after their shift at the factory.

My parents came with us to our room.

We didn't tell them the details, just explained that something had fallen on our balcony. My father went outside, looked, and found nothing. His sister was looking out with him—the door to the next balcony was closed.