Night Ring

It was 3:15 a.m. when a piercing doorbell rang, shattering the blissful silence of the night. I was living alone in a three-room apartment. Raising my head from the pillow, I froze, trying to figure out whether I'd dreamed the sound or if someone had actually rung the bell.

After a while, the doorbell rang again. Cursing and muttering, I got out of bed and headed toward the front door. In a drowsy, automatic way, I reached for the handle with one hand and the latch with the other, trying to slide it open.

The fact that it was dark outside and someone was ringing my doorbell was already suspicious, but I, eager to get back to sleep, somehow didn't care. A sudden sound stopped me. My neighbor was unlocking his door.

 I decided he'd finally made it home and, turning around, was trudging back to bed when suddenly a wild scream erupted from behind the door, belonging to the aforementioned neighbor.

His heartbreaking scream woke me completely. The scream stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Fear and curiosity—that's what took hold of me in those seconds. On tiptoe, like a spy, I crept up to my door and pressed my face to the peephole.

On the landing, three meters away, lay my neighbor, his limbs twitching convulsively. And on him sat a creature—a woman in dirty white clothes. Her loose red hair shook along with her head as she quickly, rapidly nibbled at the poor guy's face.

The creature suddenly froze. You know, like a dog that freezes in a snarl when someone tries to take away its food while it's eating. It turned its head toward my door. Her mouth twisted, and she let out a joyful, anticipatory moan. As if she sensed a different, far more delicious delicacy awaiting her behind my door.

I sank. Sank, and, without taking my eyes off the door, began to crawl back until I hit the wall.

There was a knock, the doorknob shook, and then the whole door. I just sat and watched.

I came to my senses when it was already light outside. Someone was persistently ringing my doorbell. As soon as I came to and heard the ringing, I instantly felt as terrified as I had been that night, but then I realized that the people who had found my neighbor's body had called the police.

Before opening the door, I questioned them at length to make sure they were indeed people.

No one believed my version of events. They're still looking for the "psychopath" who attacked the poor guy.

Be careful.