Fortune-telling on Christmas night

 We have a strange ceremony for unmarried girls in our village on Christmas Night. The girlfriends come out, twist the girl and she throws a boot in some direction. Whichever way the boot falls, the groom will come to the girl from that side. And in order to find out for sure about your beloved, you need to go in that direction and ask the first man you meet his name.

Maybe once the girls took it seriously, but the girls and I were just fooling around. Already walking towards the center of our town, we giggled and had fun, anticipating the entertainment. I took an old boot from my grandmother, and it was in these boots that she married my grandfather. We drove the guys away to caroling sweets to us, and we gathered in a circle. We promoted my first girlfriend, she threw a boot, almost hitting the girls. Laughter rang out throughout the village.

I was next in line. They blindfolded me and handed me a boot. When I was being twisted, I remembered my grandmother's proverb: "I'm spinning in place, I want to find out my fate, where the boot will fall – my darling will come from there." I honestly can't understand why these words came to mind, because I hadn't even thought about them before. I dropped the boot, and my friends laughed. As it turned out, I threw it far away. My friends sent me in that direction, while they giggled and discussed further actions.

I stomped down the path, looking for my boots in a snowdrift. A little ahead, I saw the silhouette of a man – he called me. I wasn't scared at all, I knew everyone in the village, and I had nothing to be afraid of. To my surprise, the man was a stranger to me, but he was holding my boot in his hand and smiling. I went up to him and said, "Hello, what's your name?" He smiled and said, "My name is Andrey, and yes, that's what your husband's name will be, but I'm here to warn you not to contact Vladimir in any way." He handed me a boot and told me that my friends were waiting for me. I turned for a second to look at the girls–they were walking right towards me. When I turned around to thank the stranger, there was no one there.

To my surprise, my girlfriends didn't see anyone. It was very strange, and we decided to stop this entertainment. During the fun in the company, everything was quickly forgotten. Two whole years have passed and suddenly I have two boyfriends: Vladimir and Andrey. Vova conquered me with his love of freedom, he rode me on a motorcycle, and Andrei was domestic, but very kind. In the end, I chose Andrey. I married him, and after a while I found out that Vova died riding a motorcycle.

Demonic lust

 It happened on the night of January 12, 2005, when I was sleeping with my husband in our bedroom. So, I was sleeping, and then, as if in a dream, someone started kissing and hugging me. It was so pleasant to me – just an unearthly pleasure; I was shaking all over, I wanted a man so much, and I woke up from this unbearable desire. I clearly saw my sleeping husband and thought in perplexity: "Then who is doing this to me?" But immediately pushed this thought away, as the desire drove me crazy and I began to feel the mysterious stranger. There was something shapeless under my hands, and besides, it was completely covered with long quills, like a porcupine's. The most amazing thing was that this creature was also asexual!

I was still feverish with desire, but then I had an epiphany: I sat up in bed, clearly realizing that this was not a dream, and saw a creature crawling into my bed. I don't know where the strength came from, but I grabbed It, threw it on the floor and began to baptize him. After each sign of the cross, It decreased right in front of my eyes and then disappeared completely. I didn't know what kind of creature it was, but I sensed it in my gut–a devil's spawn. So, I think, a 46-year-old woman almost gave herself to a porcupine.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wake my husband up until morning, and in the morning I told him everything. Of course, he waved his hand, saying, well, you always have something. It's easy to dismiss, but you can't get rid of the trouble.

The next day, I had a high fever, became seriously ill, and was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of pneumonia. However, later they told me that it wasn't pneumonia at all, and they treated me for everything.… I was sick for almost a year, then nothing happened. But while she was in the hospital, her husband got drunk, and he was kicked out of work. And so it went, and so it went – and to this day misfortune does not leave my house because of this devilish brat that got under my blanket at night.…

The face outside the window

This is the case my wife told me, which happened to her in Tula. My wife works as a lawyer in one of the state institutions. She is often sent on a business trip to another city for advanced training. This time, it was winter, she was sent to the city of Tula.

When she arrived there, she checked into a hotel. The next day, after attending her lecture at work, she walked around the city and returned to the hotel. After undressing and washing, she went to the kitchen to have dinner. When she turned on the TV, she felt that someone was watching her. She turned around, but saw no one. Then she went to the window and pulled back the curtain and immediately jumped back. A girl's face was looking at her from the outside of the window.

Her face was as white as snow. It was only by her blue eyes that my wife identified her as a girl. The wife thought that this simply could not be, her room was on the fourth floor, and looked at the window again. There was still that face in the window. My wife came closer and leaned her hand against the window in front of her face.

The girl smiled maliciously and somehow made the glass shatter into small pieces and immediately disappeared. My wife called the hotel administrator and told him everything. The administrator, of course, did not believe the story, but only said that my wife would pay for the damage. The wife paid and soon flew back. He's going to quit now. She said she couldn't take it anymore.

Baby

 The story, told by one woman from the words of her colleague, seemed to me quite interesting...

It happened just over 30 years ago. As a young graduate of the pedagogical institute, I was assigned to a rural school. I will not hide that this fact did not cause much joy, but, alas, I did not have a thief at the institute, nor did I have a city groom, so I had to go, whether you want to or not.

When I arrived at my destination, it turned out that there was some kind of mess with my check-in, and there were simply no empty places in the hostel. Of course, they apologized to me for a long time, promised to fix the situation, but in the meantime they decided to place me with someone from the locals. The room was found pretty quickly. The hostess of the house, Elvira Vasilyevna, a woman of 45-50 years old, was, in my opinion, a classic example of an "old maid". Quiet, neat, often dissatisfied with this and that, and fond of speculating on the topic "oh, and the youth has gone now." However, she was a careful hostess, she didn't interfere with my life, and, in general, she was quite satisfied with me.

The room I lived in was located opposite the kitchen. Sometimes, waking up in the middle of the night, I was surprised to find that Elvira Vasilyevna was awake, rattling dishes and even saying something. One day, driven by curiosity, I quietly crept up to the closed door to my room and put my ear to it. "Eat up, baby, eat up," my hostess muttered from the kitchen, "I'm probably hungry." Of the pets, Elvira Vasilyevna kept only chickens, so it was unclear who she was regaling in the middle of the night. Cats are probably feeding strays, the "old maids" love it.

And about a week later, disaster struck - my Elvira was taken to the district hospital with a suspected heart attack. I was left alone in the house. As usual, I drank tea at night and fell asleep. After a while, I woke up, I don't know why. There were noises coming from behind the door, as if someone was running briskly through the hallway or kitchen. Judging by the nature of the footsteps, they could hardly have been human, most likely, some kind of animal ran into the house. It looks like one of those cats that my hostess carefully feeds at night.

At first, I wanted to ignore it, turn over and start snoring again. But then I thought that a pet walking around the kitchen wasn't so harmless: after all, a cat could shit or ruin something in the house. I decided to scare away the uninvited guest.

When I entered the kitchen, I immediately noticed that something was moving in the corner, which looked like either a cat or a small dog. Well, well, baby, here you are! Without hesitation, I pressed the switch button. My eyes adjusted to the light for a few seconds, but then I could make out the kitchen and what was on its floor.

The "something" that I initially mistook for a dog or a cat didn't look like any of these animals. His body, as it seemed to me at that moment, resembled the body of a baby. And here's the face... It looked as if it had just been skinned. It's a terrible, disgusting sight! I couldn't see the eyes, and only the large, protruding teeth stood out against the disgusting red mess.

The creature seemed as afraid of me as I was of it. In less than half a minute, I think, it flew out of the kitchen like a bullet and disappeared into the darkness of the house...

I spent the rest of the night in the courtyard on a bench. It wasn't as creepy here as in that house, where the monster might still be. I wanted to run away to the neighbors, but I was too shy: I didn't know the locals very well yet and was afraid that they wouldn't believe me and would take me for a madwoman. But the next day, I still managed to persuade a friend, the school janitor, to take me in. It's unusual, they say, and scary to be alone in a huge house. Well, then a miracle happened! A couple of days before Elvira Vasilyevna's discharge from the hospital, my housing issue was resolved and I was finally assigned to a dorm.

I lived in that village for another year and a half. She didn't visit Elvira anymore, only greeted her on the street on rare occasions. By the way, an interesting detail: there was a creepy legend about this woman among the locals. It's like when she was a young girl, she got pregnant by some guy, and that scoundrel flatly refused to get married. Elya was left alone with a huge belly. She lived by herself, patiently endured the taunts of her neighbors, and one day appeared in front of her fellow villagers without a belly and... without a child. Everything seems to be understandable: she gave birth and refused. But the woman in labor did not contact the local paramedic, the ambulance was also not seen in the village, where and how she could have given birth is a mystery.

Since then, a terrible rumor has been spreading about Elya: they say she gave birth to a baby and buried it in her garden. Allegedly, one of the neighbors saw her and her mother digging in the garden at night and even heard crying. Whether it's gossip or not, I'm not going to judge. And, of course, I don't know if this village story has anything to do with what I saw...

Anyway, after more than a year of teaching, I met my future husband. He lived in the city and came to our village with classmates, "for potatoes." After a while, we got married, and my husband moved me to his place. I've never been to those parts again, which, in fact, I don't regret at all: I wouldn't like to see the Baby again.

Unplanned stop

 I tell it from my father's words, he likes to tell this story a dozen times to everyone who is happy to listen. He was teaching physics at the time and rode the subway every day. It was a long time ago, when our metro was still called Leningrad.

He was driving after work one day, and then the train stopped in the tunnel. Passengers are not panicking, everyone is doing their own thing. Only a sound began to be heard, as if water was gurgling somewhere, or a tunnel draft. They said over the speakerphone that the train would resume movement soon.

And then the lights went out.

There were no mobile phones to light up, and people in the dark began to worry. Someone lit a lighter, but it was of little use. A girl started crying in the carriage. People gradually began to worry and grumble, saying what an outrage. Through the grumbling, my father could make out the sounds from the tunnel: the murmuring had become louder.

"The tracks are flooded," a passenger said knowingly. — We'll be standing for a long time.

People started to worry, someone had already panicked and started shouting that the tunnel was going to flood up to the ceiling, and they would all drown here.

The train had been waiting for ten minutes. The water was gurgling quite clearly now — it seemed as if it was flowing directly under the carriages, and in a rather violent stream. In addition, there was another sound — as if someone was slapping wet palms on the glass and rubbing the glass with a characteristic creak. You never know what anyone does in the dark from idleness — my father did not pay attention to it at first, but then realized that the sound, firstly, was moving - the "flip—floper", invisible in the dark, moved from one end of the car to the other, faded away, and then returned back. And secondly, the sound was clearly coming from outside.

Even my father felt a chill here. Other passengers also began to notice something was amiss. At first, an aunt told them not to bully, but then a more attentive citizen whispered, "It's outside," and everyone fell silent at once.

Soon, the sound began to come from the other side of the car, as if this bully had easily bypassed the car and walked on the other side. The train was standing in pitch darkness in a tunnel in which water was clearly gurgling. The invisible minx easily reached the windows with his hands, although everyone can imagine the height of the car. At the same time, he jokingly walked around the car in a circle, as if the coupling between the cars was not a hindrance to him.

The guy with the lighter decided to investigate what was going on there. When the sound got closer to him (he was standing at the door), he lit a light and held it up to the glass...

Everyone who saw who was outside jumped to the other side of the carriage at once, so that it swayed. A face was staring at the glass. White, even bluer. It was difficult to see the details through the glass, but this creature had small dark eyes framed by thick dark circles, like those of a terminally ill person. His mouth was wide open, and the skin around it was sagging and flabby. It was only visible for a couple of seconds, then the guy dropped the lighter, and the car plunged back into darkness. Now the slapping on the glass has become more frequent. Someone screamed, "Close the windows!" People huddled together in the center of the car in a panic. Then the splashing of water was heard already inside the carriage, as if someone had knocked over a bucket on the floor...

My father doesn't remember much about what happened next, but for about five minutes there was complete confusion — people were screaming, clinging to each other, no one understood anything. And then suddenly the lights turned on. People looked at each other and at the black windows. The splashing stopped, the murmuring of the water subsided. The train started moving slowly. When the doors opened at the station, people rushed out so quickly that those on duty at the station even became worried.

And when my father looked back, he saw that the sides of the car and the windows were all wet, although, as it turned out later, there was no flooding of the tunnel, there was just a wiring malfunction, which was repaired in ten minutes.

The subway incident

 I went down to the subway. The time was about eleven o'clock in the evening. As usual, there was a lot to do at work on Friday, which is why I came home so late. Very tired, I entered the last carriage. Ignoring everyone, I sat down on an empty seat, turned on the player at full volume and closed my eyes. Fortunately, it was necessary to go along one branch — however, to the very end.

I must have dozed off. When I woke up, the train had already stopped. I noticed that there was no one near me. Looking around, I saw that I was the only one in the carriage. This alarmed me, but then I looked into another carriage and calmed down. A large group was sitting there and discussing something. The train began to accelerate, and I finally calmed down. But then a song went through the player, followed by another one... I knew that we had a long commute between stations on the line, but it was only for a little over two minutes, and both songs lasted at least three minutes. The train was still traveling at the same speed.

I went to the glass between the carriages and looked at the company from the front carriage. They looked calm, but something about them seemed strange to me. There were three of them—two girls and a guy. One of the girls was sitting with her back to me, facing the others. Suddenly, I realized what had confused me: the girl sitting with her back was moving her arm too rhythmically. Every fifteen seconds, she raised her hand, twirled it, explaining something, and lowered it again, like a wound-up mechanism — with precision to the second. Then I noticed the same pattern in the guy. He nodded his head with the same frequency. I knocked on them, but they were doing the same thing at regular intervals.

"I like trains," came a voice from behind.

A chill ran through me. I forced myself to turn around. A boy of about six years old stood near one of the doors and looked out the window.

 I could barely manage, being absolutely sure that there was no one in the car a minute ago.

—Alexey,— he introduced himself seriously, looking at me with green eyes. Then he turned to the window and stared in fascination.

— Why are you alone, where are your parents?

"My parents left without me," he sighed. — Mom was crying, but they couldn't take me away...

The boy sighed again and continued:

— The station is coming soon, and I'll go for a ride, — he looked at me and smiled. — I really loved riding the subway and on the train to visit my grandmother...

Suddenly I woke up, sitting in a crowded carriage. I stood up, giving way to a lady, and stood all the way home, looking at the people crowding around me. When I got home, I poured myself some hot tea and went online. I spent an hour typing queries for the name of the station, stage, and nearby stations — until finally, on one of the news feeds, I found a mention of the boy's death right in the train carriage on the stretch between stations. There was a picture of a boy on the side. Alexey was looking at me from the monitor screen.

Since then, I have been unable to sleep on the subway and, driving along the stretch between these stations, I always remember the boy with green eyes who loves to ride trains.

TV

One day my TV burned out and I decided to buy a new one. I worked as a security guard in a supermarket, well, of course, the salary was too much, so I couldn't afford a high-quality and good TV.

The next day, I went to buy a TV at a private market, accidentally noticed a strange store of various things and decided to go there. There were a lot of different watches, all kinds of books, souvenirs, old tape recorders, mirrors and many different things. After walking a little further, I came across a TV, it was lamp-mounted, but not small, it was old, black in color, the name was somehow incomprehensible. And the amount was ridiculous, only 100 rubles. I wondered why it was so cheap. Later, I realized the reason for such a low price!

I came home and put the TV in front of the couch. When I turned on the TV, I was surprised that the quality was excellent, how lucky I was, I was happy... I spent the whole evening watching TV and went to bed. In the middle of the night, I woke up to a strange knocking sound, as if tapping on glass, in my sleep I thought it was tree branches hitting the glass, but when my head cleared, I realized that there was no wind outside. The pounding continued...

Opening my eyes, I began to listen to where the knocking was coming from, it seemed to me that the knocking was coming from the TV. I sat down on the couch, started watching TV, and suddenly noticed some movement on the screen, decided to turn on the light, but it didn't turn on, probably a power plant malfunction, I thought.

Going to the window, I pulled back the curtains and the moonlight illuminated the room. I went and sat in front of the TV, looked at the screen, I saw something terrible, there was someone's terrible face on the screen, I had never seen such a terrible face in any horror movie. There were no eyes on the face, there were only two holes from which blood was flowing, and the mouth was cut almost to the ears and sewn with thick thread, the skin was blue and long black hair. Out of fear, I leaned to the side and fell down in a daze. The hair was so long that it started to come out of the screen, then it slowly started to come out of the TV.

Out of fear, I ran screaming out of the gym, put on a windbreaker and flip-flops, and ran outside. Near the house, I kept looking at my window without looking away, then I noticed a dark silhouette near my window, I was standing and looking at this shadow, slowly moving back, suddenly the glass of my window broke into pieces. I winced a little, but when I looked out the window again, the shadow was gone.

I was outside all night, and it was scary to enter the apartment. When it started to get light, I calmed down and decided to go into the apartment. When I entered the hall, I saw that the TV was in place, as if nothing had happened. After assessing the situation, I thought that if I threw the TV away, someone might pick it up and take it for themselves, so I decided to smash the TV. I took out the TV with a big hammer and went into the house where there was an abandoned 3-room apartment and there I completely gouged out the TV.

A month has passed, and everything has returned to normal. Having saved up a little money, I bought myself a normal good TV in a normal hardware store. And I put new glass in the frame. And one evening, after work, I sat down to watch TV, as usual, and on some news I heard that a man's corpse had been found in front of the TV, the man's eyes had been cut out, and his mouth had been slit and sewn with thread. The windows and locks were locked from the inside, and the police couldn't figure out what had happened there. When the story from the apartment was shown, I froze again, there was the same TV on the table that I had smashed...

The Witch's Curse

 The southern regions of Russia are rich in witches and witches. This was talked about even before the October Revolution, but rumors are still leaking out.

About six months ago, a girl told me about an old woman flying at night.

I was visiting the village once. My grandmother lived there, so I came for a vacation. I got off the bus and walked down a country road.

Suddenly I see a figure looming in the woods. I looked closer: a creepy old woman hobbles, dirty, shaggy, hump on her back. I stop in fright, and an old woman screams at me from the thicket in a raspy voice:

– What are you staring at, haven't you seen Grandma? Wait, now you'll see – it won't seem enough!

Then the old one hobbled towards me, laughing cunningly. But I've often heard stories about witches, so I was pretty scared.

An old woman came up to me, and she glared with angry eyes. I almost lost my breath in horror. And she realized that I was scared, grinned, and said smugly:

"You'll be damned forever now!" You'll remember Grandma!  And she ran her nasty bony hand over my cheek. Then she muttered angrily to herself and went back into the forest.

Previously, I would have perceived such a story as another horror story, you'd think, some kind of witch, there are a lot of crazy people around. But within a year of that meeting, I started having health problems. My wife left, taking the child with her, and just recently I suffered a heart attack, although I had never had heart problems before.…

Just don't turn around

 This story was told to me by my neighbor Julia. A few years ago, she and her husband Sasha rented an apartment.

One morning, when her husband was at work, the girl woke up because it seemed to her that someone was stroking her hair. She got up from the bed, looked around and lay back down, deciding that she had made a mistake. Less than ten minutes later, she felt someone's touch again. She became so scared that she was afraid to move. It was over in a couple of minutes.

A few days later, when she was alone at home again, something even more terrifying happened. Yulia was lying on the bed, facing the wall, and dozing.

Suddenly, she heard someone breathing behind her, and someone's cold fingers touched her neck. Assuming that it was her husband who had returned from work, Julia asked sleepily:

– Sasha, is that you?

I heard it from behind:

— no. Just don't turn around.

As if scalded, Julia ran out of the apartment, squeezing her eyes shut. Later, she and her husband found out that a young guy who had hanged himself in the bedroom had lived in the apartment before them.…

Do not turn off the light

 "Dad, don't turn off the light," the boy asked when his father wished him good night and headed for the door.

My father shook his head disapprovingly.

– At your age, it's already a shame to be afraid of the dark.

"It's not the dark I'm afraid of,– the boy whispered, pulling the blanket higher.

But Dad had already pressed the switch, and the room was plunged into darkness.

"Don't be afraid, son. My mom and I are right here, if anything," my father said, leaving the room. – Everything will be fine.

"Yes, but you can't save me from her," the boy wanted to scream, but instead he nodded weakly and said:

–Okay, Dad. Good night.

As soon as the door to his room closed, the boy dived under the covers with his head. The fear, however, has not gone away. He could have called his mom, of course, and she would have listened to his request, but Dad might have gotten angry.

–I wonder what you would do now," the boy thought of his father, and pulled the blanket closer under him.

He didn't know how long he had been lying there, afraid to move and open his eyes. His alert ears picked up the tiniest rustle. The flashlight, his only means of escape, remained on the table.

"How could I get caught so stupidly?" – the boy thought excitedly to himself. "If only we could get to the table." How many steps? Four? Five?

The clock in the hallway struck midnight.

"So it's been two hours," the boy whispered to himself. "God, I'm so scared!" Can you still try to get to the table?! You just need to…

There was a sound from the door, a creak, faint, barely discernible. The boy froze and shrank.

"Let it just be my imagination, please, let it just be my imagination," the boy pleaded in an undertone.

The creaking was repeated a little closer. Then even closer. Someone was slowly approaching him.

"It's too late… This is... this is the end..." the boy whispered almost crying.

The footsteps stopped by the bed. Every cell in his body, every nerve was tense to the point of pain.

Suddenly, a soft, melodious female laugh rang out directly above him.

"Are you without your trinket today?" – A woman's voice said softly. – It's sad. We had a lot of fun last time!

The boy was holding his ears tightly with his palms under the blanket.

– It won't work! – the voice intoned again and laughed.

The voice became a little louder. It seemed to be coming from inside my head. And the scariest thing was that the sound calmed him down.

"You don't want to talk again?" "What is it?" the voice asked. "Well, I don't insist. Eventually, someday you'll want to answer. Maybe even sooner than you think.

There was such confidence in the voice that the boy almost believed it himself.

– You can't give in! Resist! Resist!  The boy kept telling himself.

"It's no use, my good man. Fighting with yourself is stupid," the voice replied casually."How old are you?"

"Don't think! Don't think about anything!" the boy was already repeating like a prayer.

His own thoughts began to drift away and only that voice filled his whole being.

"Nine years?" – the voice replied thoughtfully. – Such an adult! I guess your mom doesn't kiss you at bedtime anymore.

The boy nodded faster than he realized. The voice laughed softly again.

– I understand. You probably want to be kissed?

He couldn't lie. The voice wouldn't let him think. The boy could only obey the enchanting sound. He made a last desperate attempt to escape.

"Get out!"  The boy shouted.

"It's a pity, my dear,– the voice replied softly with a restless sadness. – Don't resist what you crave! Are you afraid? People are always afraid of the unknown, but when they find out…

The boy shuddered. He felt the edge of his bed bend under the weight of someone's body.

"Don't be afraid, my good one," the voice said softly, and did not let the fear break through.

The boy didn't even move when a hand was placed on his shoulder over the blanket. The grave chill that went through him from that touch was replaced by a pleasant coolness.

"Don't resist...– the voice whispered softly.

There was so much sensuality in the voice now that the boy wouldn't even think of doing it. He was filled with a new, previously unknown feeling of intimacy with someone. When his mother hugged him, he felt safe, but he had never felt such excitement.

–Do you want me to kiss you?" "What is it?" the voice asked.

- Yes.

The boy nodded so hard that the edge of the blanket slipped off his head. However, he didn't care about that at all now. The only thing that mattered was that voice coming out of the darkness every night, just like now. But never so close.

"That's right, my good one,– a voice sounded very close.

The boy felt a light breath on his neck.

–Open your eyes,– the voice said.

- No! – the boy's inner voice shouted. "It's a trap!" I know! I can't! Help!

"I command you!"  The voice literally burned him cold. – Open your eyes!

The boy squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to utter at least a sound. The spasm in his throat was gone, but the words struggled to come out.

- No! Go away! – The boy croaked, - Get out!

The voice hissed. There was no understanding or affection left in him. Only the icy cold. With growing horror, the boy felt the icy hands of the creature creeping up to his neck. He gathered his remaining strength and shouted with all his might:

– DAD!

His parents' anxious voices were heard in the next room, then quick footsteps and the door of his room opened, letting in bright light from the hallway lamps.

The boy's eyes narrowed. My father was standing in the doorway. There was worry and fear in his eyes.

"What happened?" "What is it?" he asked, looking around the room.

The boy also looked around. No one. He leaned back on the pillow with a feeling of incredible relief.

"Nothing, Dad, I just had a terrible dream," the boy replied.

His father came into the room and sat next to him on the bed.

"Is everything all right, son?" How are you doing?  He reached out and touched his son's hair. "My God, you're soaking wet!"

–It's... nothing, it's fine.

The boy felt completely exhausted after the experience and could barely move his tongue.

–Dad, really, I'm probably going to fall asleep right now," said the son.

– Of course you will, – the father got up with visible relief.

"Dad..." the boy said almost in a whisper, "just one request."…

"Whatever you say, son,– his father replied.

"Don't turn off the light," the boy said, already falling asleep.…