A hunchbacked old woman

I was an ordinary guy—I had friends, I studied at a prestigious university, everything in my life was fine. Until then.

This summer, I broke my leg (I fell down a steep slope while walking back with friends after fishing). It seemed like a simple fracture, but it turned out I had a dislocated vertebra in my lower back. The doctor said I was lucky I got off easy and added, "You'll spend the next month at home." I was incredibly frustrated—the last month of vacation, and I had to sit at home like a leash. But treatment is treatment.

From that moment on, I sat at home day after day (I lived in a residential area), and this boredom slowly but surely drove me crazy. Then one fine day, as I was sitting drinking tea, the doorbell rang. I opened it. On the other side was a hunchbacked old woman, very nice-looking, whom I had never seen in my life. She asked for a glass of water. Surprised by such a request, I nevertheless hobbled to the kitchen on crutches, poured a glass of water, and returned, but the old woman was gone. I assumed she simply hadn't waited, closed the door, went into my room, turned on my player, and started listening to music.

Sleep crept up on me. I dreamed of that hunchbacked old woman: she was in my apartment, standing at the end of the hallway, her eyes bulging, her eerie gaze directed straight at me. This time, she wasn't so welcoming. She opened her mouth and began mumbling something, slowly approaching me. Her gray hair was falling out before my eyes.

I woke up to a terrible pain in my lower back and leg, as if someone had gone through my legs with a saw. It was already night. I somehow made it to the bathroom to wash my face, got out some toothpaste and a toothbrush, and began brushing my teeth. I washed up, glanced in the mirror on the dresser, and there, right behind me, was that old woman, looking straight at me and reaching out her hands. Her face was horribly contorted, her mouth open, some kind of mucus oozing out, her eyes bulging so much they looked like they were about to burst. I was speechless with fear and turned around abruptly—no one was there. Forgetting the pain in my lower back, I made my way to my room. It was three in the morning. I turned on the light and sat there until the early hours.

In the morning, I called a friend and asked him to come spend the night. He agreed. I told him what had happened. As I expected, he explained that I'd been cooped up here for so long, and it was getting on my nerves.

Evening. It was getting dark outside, I felt sleepy, and my friend lay down next to me on the floor. I fell asleep and had the same dream—a hallway, and at the end of it, that old woman, standing closer than yesterday, was about to grab me, her odor of rottenness terribly emanating from her. And suddenly, unexpectedly, she slipped past me into the room. I ran after her and saw her grab my friend and sink her vile mouth into his. I tried to help him, but I couldn't—I felt paralyzed.

I woke up to a sharp pain in my back. I immediately tried to wake my friend, but it didn't work. I started shaking his arm, turning him over onto his back, and his already blue face was frozen in horror...

Words can't describe the feelings I experienced at that moment. The ambulance arrived, and they pronounced him dead from internal hemorrhaging.

After that night, the nightmare ended. But my life had gone awry: I was dragged through the courts, but acquitted. Nevertheless, my friends began to be wary of me, and I was expelled from university. And I still don't know what kind of creature it was, or why it chose my friend and not me...