This happened to me on March 16, 2015. Honestly, only now I found the strength to think it over and tell at least someone. I still don’t understand what exactly happened to me that Monday, and I sincerely hope that a real explanation can be found.
I live on the outskirts of the city in a 16-story "Brezhnevka" - one might say, in the last skyscraper, after which a remote private sector with rickety decaying wooden houses and overgrown vegetable gardens goes across the road. This private sector is inhabited only by ancient women and drunken alcoholics. From the very moment I moved here, I did not like this abandoned "village" under the windows, and now I am simply afraid to appear on the street at night.
On March 16, as usual, I returned from school in the evening. The teacher left me after pairs (we were working on my diploma), and I barely made it to the last minibus home. That day I was extremely tired, I was hungry, and there was definitely no food at home (my mother was on duty, I cook). My stop is almost the end, and when I drove up to the house, there was no one left in the minibus. Coming out at my stop, I found that the street was also deserted. This did not surprise me - after all, the hour is late, and it gets dark early. But the deserted sidewalk, the empty road (there were no cars either) and the darkness all around (here we have lanterns burning through one at best) oppressed. And this private sector across the road almost without a single fire, only black silhouettes of houses, shabby trees and power line poles … In general, I plugged my ears with headphones, put my hands in my pockets and walked briskly from the bus stop towards the house. The narrow path was covered with ice, so I had to slow down to avoid slipping. Somewhere dogs barked loudly, and I had to take out my headphones - I still didn't have enough to stumble upon a pack of stray dogs that were found in the same damn private sector. I had almost reached the sixteen-story buildings, in which the light was so welcoming - I just had to go through the arch. And then I saw it.
Someone was on the other side of the arch. I instinctively slowed down. The figure was barely distinguishable, and if it were still in the depths of the arch, I would not have noticed it at all, but this someone was already coming out from that side, and a hunched silhouette loomed in the light of a lantern hanging from the other side of the house. Something was wrong with this figure. She moved very slowly, and at first I thought that it was some kind of granny who was late and is now carefully sneaking into the arch so as not to fall on the ice. Or some alcoholic crawling home (although the figure did not sway, did not stagger, but simply slowly crawled in the same direction where I was going). Yet something alerted me. Maybe some instinct has awakened. Despite hunger and fatigue, I completely lost the desire to follow this … man? Something tickled strangely in the solar plexus region, and I felt a vague alarm. But I tried to brush it off: I had a hard day, I was very tired and hungry, and in general, I'm a grown guy who can stand up for myself. Who am I afraid of? Old grandmother? Or some drunkard who can hardly stand on his feet?
In general, I did not go around the house, but also went through the arch, not taking my eyes off the strange silhouette. And as soon as I approached the arch, the figure suddenly froze. I just stood rooted to the spot. Once again I felt a sucking anxiety somewhere inside, already clearly developing into some kind of panic horror. Instinctively, I jerked to the side, stepping out of the light of the lantern into the dense shadow of the house (probably, subconsciously tried to hide). The figure began to turn slowly. And then my hair on the back of my head began to stir, and my chest went cold. This … I don't even know how to describe it. In profile, the figure was in the shape of the letter "L", really remotely resembling a hunched head, but the upper part of the figure was disproportionately longer than the lower one. The creature was leaning either on a stick, or it was its limb, and the head (if it was a head) was somehow dangling and simply huge. Naturally, I did not see the eyes of this creature, but with my skin I felt that it was looking, looking directly at me. Breathing stuck in my throat, I could not breathe, and some kind of veil clouded my thoughts. My head just pounded: “What is this? What is it? What the hell is this? " It did not look like a man, but if it was still a man, then what should he be in the light? What kind of terrible disease could distort all proportions so terribly?
For a few moments the creature did not move, and then jerked in my direction, hobbled rather quickly on its three limbs (or how many of them it had there, I did not understand). The panic stupor released me, and I rushed back to the side of the road as I had never run in my life. I literally flew, miraculously not stumbling or slipping on the icy path. I felt it rushing after me and even, in my opinion, heard its stomp. I could not even scream, but only ran forward, and there was not a soul around. Jumping out onto the roadway, I ran along the asphalt towards the nearest intersection, where there was at least some movement. And, as in a terrible dream, I thought that I would not reach. To my right was that private sector, and with my peripheral vision it seemed to me that there were also some shadows teeming with, and I was afraid to turn my head and look. Jumping out to the crossroadsI almost got run over. But I was not shot down, but only signaled. I crossed the intersection and ran to a bus stop where several people were standing. They looked at me like I was crazy, and I finally risked turning around. Naturally, there was no one behind. I still couldn’t catch my breath, sweat was rolling in a stream, it hurt in my side, and my heart was pounding so that I was afraid it would stop. I have never experienced such fear in my life (except, perhaps, one incident from childhood, which, by the way, is also ambiguous, but that's another story). I thought I was going to get hysterical and I would either burst into tears or burst out laughing. But gradually I calmed down. I certainly didn't want to go back - my mother was on duty, we had no pets, no one was waiting at home. I called my friend, who lived in a rented apartment a block from here, and asked to spend the night with him. How I got to him, I remember vaguely. And I didn't tell him anything - I said that my mother had left, and I left the keys at home, so I couldn't get into the apartment. I don’t think he believed me, but he didn’t ask me either. He knows that I tell very little to anyone, and does not put pressure on me, so I am friends with him.
In the morning I came home. I did not go through the arch, although in the daylight it is all visible. And now a few weeks have passed - nothing more happened. But the fear remained. I am very afraid to live here, I did not like this area right away. What should I do? Should I tell my mom or a friend about this? What if they don't believe? And most importantly - what was it?..