Ambush

 

Outside the city, in the gardens, teeming with life in the summer but deserted in the winter, I have a dacha. One winter, my friends and I agreed to go there for a barbecue. Since there was no heating there, I left early to warm up the dacha with electric stoves, while the others picked up the girls, then went to the store, and then headed back to my place.

After buying some cigarettes, I got in the car, turned on the music, and drove off. The gardens were a thirty-minute drive away, there was no traffic, and I arrived quickly. It was only five o'clock, and it was already getting dark outside. Having reached the entrance to the gardens, I turned off the highway and drove along the dirt road to my dacha. Arriving at the destination, I got out of the car, lit a cigarette, and looked around: the dachas were covered in snow, the lampposts were out (no one needs them in winter), the stars were starting to appear brighter in the sky...

The phone rang. It was Ilya, the only one who knew where to go. He was calling to confirm something about grocery shopping. After talking with him, I took the keys and went to open the dacha. The snow was knee-deep, so I had to grab a shovel and clear a small space for the grill. Then, having unlocked the dacha, I went inside, turned on the light, and turned on the heater. After that, I walked around the dacha, looking around. I found some old clothes and decided to change so I wouldn't have to worry about getting dirty. Then I went out into the yard and started preparing – I brought some firewood, a grill, some paper, and turned on the streetlights...

Meanwhile, it had become completely dark outside. The sky was strewn with stars. I couldn't see anything beyond the gate, as far as the flashlight could reach. I clamped a cigarette between my teeth and tried to light a match with my frozen hands when I suddenly heard the alarm going off on my car, which was parked on the main road on the other side of the dacha. "What the hell," I thought, and, grabbing the flashlight, I walked toward it. Approaching the car, which was screeching and flashing like a Christmas tree, I turned off the alarm and walked around it, trying to figure out what had triggered it. Finding nothing, I wondered if a cat had jumped on the hood and run away, or something... I was about to return to my property when my cell phone rang again. It was Ilya again, who, as it turned out, had been driving along the highway for ten minutes, looking for a way into my gardens. We agreed that I would pull onto the highway and he would spot me by the headlights. I got into the car, which by this time was so covered in a light snowfall that I couldn't see anything through the windshield. I turned on the wipers, cleared the snow from the windshield, and immediately turned on the high beams.

What I saw in the headlights stunned me. About five meters from my car stood a creature on two legs, its arms hanging down to its knees, with thin, unusually long fingers. Its body was wrapped in some rags that must have once been clothing. It had a bald head, completely black eyes, two holes in place of a nose, and a mouth with thin, long teeth protruding from under its upper lip... It stood and looked at me, squinting slightly in the headlights, and I looked at it, unable to move from the terror that overwhelmed me. The first thought that flashed through my mind was: maybe it was just a sick homeless person, an alcoholic, perhaps a fire victim... I tried to find some logical explanation for what I saw right in front of the hood of my car. And then this creature blinked—not like a human blinking vertically, but in an unnatural horizontal manner.

At that moment, I snapped out of my stupor, put the car in reverse, and floored the gas pedal. The car roared into reverse, and without even checking the mirrors, just watching the receding silhouette, I somehow maneuvered into the intersection, turned sharply, and accelerated toward the highway. I was going about 60 kilometers per hour (the usual speed limit in the gardens is 10 kilometers per hour). When I reached the gate (the exit from the gardens), despair overwhelmed me, for I couldn't have imagined such a thing: the gate was closed and chained. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw that the creature wasn't just running, it was practically charging toward me, like a huge dog. Even from inside the car, I could hear something between its breathing and its growling.

I sank into my seat. My heart was pounding like crazy. I started crying, the hopelessness of the situation forcing tears from my eyes. I couldn't make a sound from sheer terror. I simply sat and watched the impetuous figure approaching in the darkness of the night, moving swiftly, and now very close. The road, where a passing car is rare at such a time, was just over seven meters away... and there were chained iron gates. The thought of ramming them flashed through my mind, but I knew it would be futile. Seeing what was so close, I pressed the door lock button, pressed myself into the seat, and squeezed my eyes shut.

I sat there for half a minute. There was no movement. Silence. I couldn't bear the insane tension. I opened my eyes and looked out my window. There was no one there. I turned around and looked at the back.The headlights illuminated only the snow. Sitting upright, I was about to drive away, but then I noticed black eyes staring straight at me in the left window, just a few dozen centimeters away. The creature stood right next to my car, hunched over so that its head was level with mine. Its breath melted a patch of frozen ice on the glass. I simply didn't have the strength to feel terror or panic. I froze and waited. The creature looked at me with what seemed like a predatory gaze, blinking occasionally in the same way I described above...

The headlights hit me in the face and brought me back to my senses. It was Ilya, who had spotted my car around the turn. The creature instantly jumped to the side and, making a sound reminiscent of a dog's whine, dashed off into the depths of the gardens, running its "paw" across the car, leaving a scratch. Ilya drove up to the gate, untied the chain, and entered the gardens. He approached me, a smile on his face; it was clear he was in a good mood. Music was playing from his car, and the laughter of the kids could be heard. Another car pulled up behind him. The whole gang was there. Seeing me in a sorry state, Ilya tried for several minutes to signal me with gestures to open the door. Coming to my senses, I persuaded everyone to leave the area. I was only able to explain to them what had happened the next day. They saw my state of mind and the scratch on the car, and I don't think any of them didn't believe me.

The next day, Ilya went over, turned off the heaters, and locked up the dacha, not seeing anything suspicious. I soon sold the plot for next to nothing, never having set foot back there again.