Battlefield

My father told me the story. He's quite an adult, a serious man, always a skeptic, didn't believe in any "otherworldly nonsense," and taught me that it's the living, not the dead, that we should fear. But one day, when I was already a big girl, I went to visit my dad, and he told me a story that happened to him, which made him change his mind.

It was 2005. Dad went on vacation to the Kaluga region (I can't remember the exact name of the area—I've forgotten it). He had an old friend there, a priest (I don't remember his name either). So he went to see him. He stayed for a day or two, and then they decided to get out into nature: camping, fishing, all that stuff... They packed their fishing rods, provisions, and drove off.

They arrived at an incredibly beautiful, picturesque spot and settled in. A friend told my father that there had been fierce fighting in this area during the war, and that there was a birch grove nearby, rumored to be practically a mass grave. Many people had died in the fighting back then, but they remained there, buried together, and that was all... They decided to take a walk to this grove. They were already approaching it, but first they had to cross a small field. They were walking across the field, talking, when suddenly some unknown force made them stop. I'll tell you what my father told me:

"We stopped in one place, but we couldn't go any further. I tried to take a step, but my legs wouldn't obey me. I tried to say something, but it was as if my tongue had gone numb; I couldn't utter a word. I looked at my friend—and he was experiencing the same thing. We looked at each other, unable to speak. And then my head felt heavy, I felt sleepy, and we both passed out.

I woke up in a thicket of reeds. My friend was lying unconscious next to me. I crawled over to him and started shaking him. He came to. We both couldn't figure out how we got here. We looked around. If we, healthy, large men, had come here ourselves, there would have been a trail left behind, the reeds would have been flattened, but no—the reeds stood untouched all around. We could only wonder: how did we get here?

We climbed out and discovered we were not far from where we'd left the car, although the field we'd been walking through was completely in the opposite direction. We were surprised, of course, but not scared, even though we couldn't logically explain our movements. Fishing was no longer on our minds, so we decided to postpone it until the morning.

It was getting late. We pitched a tent, lit a fire, ate dinner, and went to bed. We lay there, but sleep wouldn't come. I decided to get out of the tent and have a smoke. I sat there, smoking... For some reason, I glanced at my watch; it read exactly midnight. And suddenly I saw a small cloud floating along the ground, then it rose, grew into a human figure, resembling a soldier in a greatcoat and helmet, and floated off into the distance, toward that birch grove. I whistled for my friend to make sure I wasn't going crazy. And together we watched further—another cloud followed that figure, also growing into a human figure and floating above the ground. Behind it, another, and another, and another... We counted about a hundred.

Words can't describe how eerie it was to watch. They left one after another, and all was calm. But after that, sleep wouldn't come. We barely made it to morning, forgot about fishing, and left.

Later, one of the old-timers told us that a group of young people had come to the area earlier to excavate—looking for orders, medals, and other items. And that night, someone had strangled them; there were even marks on their necks. Thank God, everyone survived."

My father finished his story. The room was dimly lit, and my hair stood on end. It was even strange to hear such a story from my father, knowing how skeptical he had previously been about ghosts and similar phenomena. I asked, "Dad, what about what you said about fearing the living, not the dead?" To which he replied, "You know, I realized then that ghosts are unlikely to cause any material harm, but they can easily drive you crazy. And we got off easy..."