Sleepover at my sister's

Last weekend, my daughter and I went to visit my second cousin, my wife. My wife was good friends with Zhenya's son, Matvey. As soon as we finished lunch, the kids ran outside.

The weather was beautiful, a light snow was falling. The kids were building a snowman in the yard. Meanwhile, Zhenya and I were drinking hot coffee and chatting.

The antique clock, which I had inherited from my grandmother, struck five. I wrapped myself in a blanket and went to the window to call the children. They came running home in a flash. I watched them all evening, catching myself wondering if something was wrong with the children. While they were playing on the computer in their room, I decided to talk to Zhenya to see if she noticed anything strange. My sister looked at me strangely and snapped, "No!" Then I decided not to ask any more questions.

 The strange thing was that the children were unusually silent—they weren't laughing, just sitting quietly, as if afraid to wake someone, even though they'd been having a blast on our previous visits. The evening turned out to be unusually short. The children went to bed. My sister and I went to bed too. I couldn't sleep for some reason, so I turned on the nightlight.

It was already about one o'clock when Zhenya suddenly said:

"You know, I'm starting to get scared. Ever since our neighbor passed away, I've been hearing sounds all the time..."

I almost laughed, because my sister never believed in anything mystical and was the most staunch skeptic, and then this happened.

"You don't believe me," she said, "but my Matvey heard it all too."

And suddenly, through the wall in the neighboring apartment, I heard some strange sounds—voices, like a funeral service. I was scared to death myself, because I knew no one lived there. It was an indescribable feeling—like something out of a horror movie. I refused to believe what was happening. About ten minutes later, the sounds died down, and I lay there, afraid to move. And my sister said:

"Matvey, I'm afraid Polya told him everything..."

For the rest of the night, I kept hearing heavy footsteps behind the wall. In the morning, I packed up with Polka and went home. Of course, I offered to let my sister come with us, but she flatly refused.