**March 8**

This happened when I was in my third year at the polytechnic. Our group was mostly girls—lots of them—and just one guy. Everyone got along well, but I was closest to a girl named Katya. She lived alone in a two-room apartment, which had previously belonged to her older brother—but one evening he went out to the store and never returned. His body was found a month later in the attic. What happened to him is still unknown.

Since Katya lived alone, we always celebrated holidays together at her place. Naturally, there was some alcohol, but just a little—after all, we were girls! That day was March 8. By seven in the evening, everyone had gathered, we quickly set the table, and started celebrating. Our Mishanya gave a congratulatory toast, and we all clinked glasses laughingly. Strangely, it seemed calm, yet three (!) glasses shattered simultaneously. We exchanged glances; someone nervously joked… Well, who knows, accidents happen. Soon we turned on music and started dancing. Some people felt it wasn’t enough alcohol, so they went to the store. Katya and I stepped outside for some fresh air, and when we came back, we found a dead rat by the door. The first thought in our heads: “Some kids messing around.” As we put the body in a bag, we planned how to catch and punish the mischievous kids.

It was around midnight when everyone started leaving. Only Tanya and I stayed overnight at Katya’s. The girls were getting dressed, we turned off the music, and then someone knocked very loudly on the door. We all looked at each other in confusion and laughed a little (we were slightly tipsy). We assumed the neighbors had run out of patience, but when we looked through the peephole, no one was there. Keep in mind we looked immediately after the knock—so someone had knocked and run away. I felt uneasy at the thought of spending the night in a stranger’s apartment, with pranksters lurking outside.

After everyone left, the three of us started cleaning. I was tidying my room when I heard Tanya scream. She ran out of the kitchen into the hallway, trembling. When I asked what happened, she pointed at the window: “Someone’s looking in!” (The apartment was on the first floor.) We went to check everything—nothing. I started to get angry. I thought, if I catch them, I’ll tear their ears off! Tanya explained that it was a girl in a long white dress, with no upper clothing. We nodded, and Katya grew quiet and thoughtful. My friends were scared, and I reasoned that it was dark outside—Tanya probably couldn’t see clearly, it could be just her imagination.

Around 2 a.m., we went to bed. The girls took the sofa, and I took the bed. I was just dozing off when a thunderous knock at the door made me jump out of bed. The girls screamed. My heart was pounding so fast I was afraid it would leap out of my chest. I usually handle stress well; horror movies feel like cartoons to me. I tiptoed to the door. My friends hissed at me—don’t go. The loud knocking continued. I reached the door, peeked through the peephole… no one. But the knocking continued. I dashed back to my friends, and they were already pulling out their phones, debating who to call: rescuers, police, or maybe an ambulance?

Suddenly the knocking stopped. Tanya called her boyfriend, asking him to come over. He refused, advised her to drink less, and hung up (by the way, they broke up after this). The knocking stopped, and we sat in silence, teeth chattering, hands shaking. I told the girls I hadn’t seen anyone through the peephole. They were completely freaked out and started praying.

All the while, the door to the room was open, and through the doorway, we could see part of the hallway and the corner of the entrance door. Suddenly, the hairs on my head stood on end—the bathroom light turned on by itself! We screamed again, all three of us. Shortly after, the water in the bathroom and kitchen turned on. We were too scared to go and turn off the faucets, and outside the window, the wind had picked up, whistling through the cracks, adding to the horror… We sat like that until dawn, listening to the water run. When morning came, we went to check everything. All was intact, but on the kitchen and bathroom floors were wet footprints. I had never moved so fast in my life…

I visited Katya a few more times after that, but nothing strange ever happened again. No one believes what happened to us. Now we laugh about it, but at the time, it was truly terrifying.