I usually spent all school holidays in the village with my grandmother. This happened over the course of several years, and every time I heard a warning that under no pretext I should not approach the lower ravine.
There were two ravines, an upper and a lower one, on the upper one we went skiing, sledging, but we really didn’t go to the lower one. The older guys were telling something like that, as if they saw something incomprehensible there and that it was very scary. Time passed, and interest in the lower ravine grew with us. Finally we decided that we could no longer endure and we must go there.
I was already 14 years old then, my cousin a little less. For a long time we figured out what we would do if we also saw something. In the end, we agreed not to leave each other. To the ravine they walked in roundabout ways, even laughed at the strange fears of the locals. It was a bright January day, the sun blinded the eyes, the snow poured and sparkled. Well, what can spoil the mood on such a wonderful day?
The lower ravine was not as deep as we expected, and there was nothing special there. Bushes, some kind of fallen trees. Silence all around. And suddenly we saw a chain of footprints, which in a strange way began as if out of nowhere. There is untouched snow all around, there is not even any path, but there are traces! Of course, we were a little frightened, but not enough to scream with fear. The real horror came after …
At the bottom of the ravine, strange spots suddenly appeared, at first small, then more and more. On the pure white snow, they looked like black strokes. After some time, the human shadows were clearly visible, and they moved as if people were walking along the bottom of the ravine. But there were no people, and there was not a single person around except us!
And the shadows became very dense and even more black. I don’t remember how many there were, it was as if we were rooted in the ground and with eyes wide with horror looked at these black moving shadows. Most importantly, there was no strength even to tear my legs off the ground. Shadows still moved along the bottom of the ravine, and if even one touched us, we would probably die of fear.
How long this movement lasted, I also cannot say. I only remember that there was such an incomprehensible sound, as if ice had cracked, and everything disappeared at once. That's when we rushed home with all our might. Forty years have passed since that terrible day, and what it was, I still do not understand.
Sergey Romanov, Nizhny Novgorod
Promotional video: