# **Story 1: "The House at the End of the Fog"****Genre:** psychological crime • mystery • darkness • full story-

## **PROLOGUE**

The house stood alone on a hill, in a place where the fog never truly lifted. It was said that even at noon, the light there was as pale as paper, and the silence so thick it seemed to have its own weight.

It was here that the body of Adam Riedel, a renowned psychiatrist, was found, shot dead with a single, precise shot to the chest. There were no signs of forced entry in the house. Nor was there a murder weapon.

On the wall, next to the dead man, someone had written a single word in his blood:

**"SHE'S BACK"**

No one knew who they were talking about.

---

## **CHAPTER 1 – THE DETECTIVE AND THE FOG**

Detective **Helena Lorenz** was called to the scene at dawn. She had a reputation for being cool, logical, and distrustful of cases "out of the ordinary." From the moment she stepped inside, however, she sensed that this investigation would be different.

The house was locked from the inside. All the windows were bolted. There were no signs of a struggle.

Apart from Riedel's body, the only person inside was his cleaning lady, who had found him and nearly lost consciousness. She claimed to have seen a woman's shadow in the living room—but no one was on the surveillance video.

Helena noted this but didn't comment. She knew that an investigation began with questions, not judgments.

--

## **CHAPTER 2 – PATIENTS AND SECRETS**

Riedel was a psychiatrist, but not an ordinary one. His patients had a red annotation in their files: **"non-standard perception disorders, extreme paranoia"**.

Helena began the interrogation.

### **1. Sophie Brandt**

Sophie was a young woman who had been treated by Riedel for two years. She had been having nightmares in which she saw a "woman with white hair." She claimed the doctor had promised her help because he "knew who she was."

"Who?" Helena asked.

"She's coming back," Sophie replied. "And if the doctor can't stop her... we'll all be lost."

She didn't look like a fraud. More like someone living in constant fear.

### **2. Karl Eben**

A former military man who participated in an experimental psychology program. He claimed:

"Riedel was messing with people's memories. Not just mine. He knew too much. He knew what we did..."

He refused to go on.

### **3. Miriam Falk**

An elegant, cool, seemingly stable woman. She was the only one who didn't seem devastated by the news of the psychiatrist's death.

"It had to happen," she said. "He was playing God. He was trying to write something into the human subconscious... And the woman everyone talks about doesn't exist."

But her gaze said something else. She looked away when they spoke of a "return."

--

## **CHAPTER 3 – RIEDEL'S DIARY**

A diary was found in the psychiatrist's office. A very personal one.

At first, they were simple notes about therapy. But then the tone of the notes changed, becoming increasingly obsessive.

> *"She's speaking through them. These three people have a common denominator I don't yet understand."*

> *"If she returns, it will be through me."*

> *"I have to protect them. I have to stop her."*

> *"If I die, look in room number 4."*

Problem: there was no "room number 4" in the house.

But in the basement, Helena found an old, built-in wall.

Behind it – a hidden room, small, cramped, and completely soundproof. The door on the inside did indeed have the number **4** on it.

--

## **CHAPTER 4 – THE ROOM THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST**

The room contained a single chair and an old camera. In the corner – a metal box locked with three padlocks.

Helena took her to the lab. After opening, they found:

* VHS tapes, numbered 1–6

* envelope marked **“DO NOT WATCH ALONE”**

* photo of a woman with white hair, signed **“L.”**

No name.

--

## **CHAPTER 5 – TAPES**

These were recordings from therapy sessions. But not regular ones.

The patients were hypnotized. Their voices sounded different. They repeated the same phrases:

**“She’s back.”**

**“She’s looking at us.”**

**“Dr. Riedel sees her.”**

Miriam, usually composed, screamed on the recording that “the white woman is in his head.”

Sophie cried and said that “L.” wanted to get back what had been taken from her.

Karl, under hypnosis, said something terrifying:

**“We created her.”**

---

## **CHAPTER 6 – THE PAST THAT WASN’T TALKED ABOUT**

Helena found a connection: 20 years earlier, there had been a secret government psychological project called **“Lazarus”**.

The participants included…

Sophie – as a child.

Karl – as a soldier.

Miriam – as a test analyst.

The leader was then a young psychiatrist, **Adam Riedel**.

The goal of the project was to create a common, artificial trauma figure that all the people subjected to “know”would act” in the same way. She was to be used for research on memory, fear, and human behavior.

This figure was a **woman with white hair**.

She was given the working name: **Livia**.

The project was discontinued because participants began… **seeing her while awake**.

Livia became more than an implanted illusion.

Riedel closed the project and destroyed the documents. But his patients remembered.

---

## **CHAPTER 7 – WHO KILLED?**

Motives?

– Sophie – she was terrified, but she didn't have access to a weapon.

– Karl – he was jealous of Riedel, but he had a strong alibi.

– Miriam – she was the only one who showed no emotion.

Helena examined the details and finally found something that connected all the clues:

In room number 4, there was a microscopic streak on the floor. Powder.

Analysis revealed: **remains Old stage paint**.

The kind used in the "Lazarus" project to make up the actress playing Livia during the first tests.

And that actress was... **Miriam Falk**.

---

## **CHAPTER 8 – CONFESSION**

Helena visited Miriam in the evening.

The woman was strangely calm, saying only:

"He wanted to end something that should never have happened. But I... I am already. Not Miriam. Not for long. Livia must live, since everyone remembers her."

There was madness in her eyes.

She didn't shoot—she was unarmed.

But she killed Riedel differently:

**she put him under deep hypnosis, using techniques he himself taught her**.

Riedel fired the shot himself, convinced he was doing something necessary.

Miriam simply grabbed the gun and ran away.

Psychological manipulation – exquisite, precise, deadly.

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## **EPILOGUE**

Miriam was committed to a closed psychiatric facility. She never confessed. She claimed that **Livia** had killed Riedel.

Sophie stopped seeing the "white woman" after Miriam's arrest.

Karl confessed to the detective that the Lazarus Project never truly died – it was just waiting for someone to bring it back to life.

And Helena?

To this day, as the lights in her office pass, she thinks she catches the figure of a woman with white hair in the corner of her eye.

But she turns around – and there's no one there.

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If you want, I'll send you **Story 2: "The Night the Silence Fell"** immediately – a longer, more complex story set in a big city, with a multi-layered police intrigue.

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