As midnight struck, a previously suppressed fear shot through him. A moment later, the front door opened. He jumped to his feet, gripping the doorbell tighter. The door closed, and he saw a slender, white, blurred, and semi-transparent figure, seemingly woven from mist. He couldn't believe his eyes; he'd expected a human being, and what he saw couldn't possibly be. Despite his surprise and fear, he leaped for the door. He was already a meter away when it slammed shut with a bang. He grabbed the doorknob, but he couldn't even move it. He tugged with all his might, but to no avail, as if held from the other side by some immense force.
Finally, he let go of the doorknob and ran to the other door, leading into the room. Just as he'd suspected, it too couldn't be opened. Then he heard a noise in the hallway. The loud clatter of many pairs of heavy boots reminded him of the clatter of military boots. The sounds coming from behind the door sounded as if a dozen or so soldiers had marched through the corridor. Then he heard a loud door slam, a woman's high-pitched, ear-splitting scream, a slap as if someone had been slapped. The screaming stopped. Someone was thrown onto the bed, a dull thud and the groan of springs.
"Pretty girl, very pretty," someone said in Russian in a thick, booming voice.
"Don't be afraid, we'll only love and caress you. You'll learn how a Red Army soldier can please a woman.
" "Nooooooooooooo!!!" the woman screamed at the top of her voice.
"Yes, yes. You'll be as happy with us as in heaven. " The
woman screamed again desperately, and after a moment her scream was muffled. From behind the door came moaning, panting, laughter, curses, the steady, monotonous sound of springs, the creaking of the bed, and the thumping of heavy boots, as if many people were walking around the room. Then the front door slammed, he heard hurried footsteps in the hallway, and the slam of the bedroom door.
Someone shouted with immense fury, but Janek couldn't understand it over the din outside. Then he heard the sound of blows, and several bodies fell heavily to the floor. He heard dull blows, as if many people were simultaneously beating the carpet, and a man's scream. A moment later, the screams faded, and he heard muffled moans, gasps, and the creaking of the bed again. This went on for almost an hour. Janek thought he was going mad. From the next room came sounds like a crowd of men raping a woman, and he was trapped in the kitchen, caged, unable to do anything. Finally, someone said,
"Leave her alone. She's already dead."
Then he heard the clatter of feet in the corridor, and silence fell. Janek waited a moment, then cautiously turned the doorknob. She yielded without resistance, so he opened the door and froze. A meter from the threshold, her back to him stood a slender girl in a diaphanous white dress. He wanted to say something, but his voice froze in his throat. He cleared his throat, and then the girl turned to him. A cold sweat broke out on him, and he clenched his teeth to keep from screaming. The girl had the face of a decomposing corpse, a grimace of immeasurable pain etched on it. She smiled at him, and he shuddered with fear—he had never seen such a macabre smile in his life, for the girl had no lips, and the large, decayed, crooked teeth reminded him more of a vampire than a human. She muttered at him with her single eye, set in a deep socket, and gave a terrifying chuckle. He lowered his gaze, avoiding her mangled face, and then noticed dark, thick blood running down her long, very slender legs, dripping onto the floor, forming a large puddle.
The specter took a step toward him and extended his hand. Janek stepped back, clutching the steel bar tightly in his hand. His back hit something and he instinctively turned around. His blood ran cold. Behind him stood a tall, slender man in a black suit, holding a bloody axe. His face was horribly mangled: swollen and bloody, with large flakes of skin hanging loose and wounds deep to the bone. When he blinked one eye and extended his hand, Janek jumped aside and leaned back against the wall, picking up the bar.
The man ignored him. He approached the girl, took her hand, and they entered the room, leaving behind a trail of blood that continued to drip in large drops from the axe and the woman's legs. Janek stood still and watched as the man passionately kissed the girl's cadaverous face, as if oblivious to her macabre appearance and the fact that she had no lips. Then the ghost led his lover to the bed. The girl lay down, lifted her dress, and spread her legs wide. She grabbed the man's hand and pulled her toward her. He lay on top of her, and they began to kiss passionately, panting and moaning.
As the clock began to strike one, the ghostly lover stood and took his partner in his arms. He turned toward Janek, baring his teeth in a terrifying smile. Carrying the girl, he walked past Janek, almost bumping his shoulder. The woman laughed loudly and harshly, staring at Janek and contorting herself in a ghastly parody of a smile, while blood continued to drip from her thighs in large drops, spattering the floor. The boy carried his partner out into the yard, closing the door with his foot and howling like a wolf at the moon. When the final, fifth blow sounded, there was no one left in the house but him.
Janek reached the window but didn't notice them again. They vanished as if they had vanished into thin air. Janek waited a moment for his pulse to slow, then entered the room. He screwed in the bulb and switched on the lamp. As light flooded the room, he could examine the terrible mess – all the chairs were overturned, the bloody sheet torn and scattered, and the pillow and duvet lay on the floor, filthy with numerous footprints.
After his earlier experiences, he had absolutely no desire to clean the room. He closed the door and turned off the light. As he left the house for his car, the whites of his curious eyes gleamed in the window of the neighboring house, and then he noticed the movement of the curtain. The neighbors must have known well what was going on in the old, former German house.
Irena was very surprised when her husband entered the apartment at half past one. Janek was as pale as a sheet and had a dull, strange look in his eyes.
"And what about you?" she asked. "You called to say you'd be sleeping in Zielonów. You look like you've seen death.
" *****
On Friday after work, Janek quickly ate dinner and drove to Zielonów. His wife wanted to go with him, but he excused himself by saying he was going to the forester's for a drink and wouldn't be back until the morning, so she'd have to sleep alone anyway.
Janek hadn't planned on visiting the forester at all. He went to the parish house, wanting to talk to the local priest. Priests are known for their meticulous record keeping, so he'd easily be able to find out who lived in his house and when. He also hoped to learn more about the dramatic events in his new home, especially since in small towns, the priest is the best source of information on all local matters.
He rang the doorbell at the parish house, but no one answered, so he entered a small nearby church in search of the priest. The darkness inside was illuminated only by a faint light barely filtering through the small, blue-and-red stained-glass windows. He didn't notice anyone inside, so he shouted,
"Hello, is anyone here? Father, is there a priest?"
He was about to leave when he heard footsteps coming from the old wooden altar. An old man in a cassock, leaning on a cane, was walking toward him. He looked to be about eighty, gray as a dove, and stooped considerably. Janek approached him and greeted him:
"Praised be he!
" "Forever and ever, amen.
" "I know what you're here about," the old man said. "Let's sit in a pew and talk... You mean the house you bought from the Poznań man," the priest said, glaring at him through his thick glasses.
"Yes, exactly. How do you know?" Janek stared intently at the priest's wrinkled face. He noticed that the old man had a dark mouse the size of a dime below the left corner of his mouth and a large wart on his forehead.
"It's not hard to guess. For years, people have been saying that this house is haunted. None of the previous owners stayed there for more than a week. Apparently, someone or something walks around the house at night; you can hear screams, moans, laughter, the clatter of heavy boots. In general, people say strange things happen there.
" "People say... And you don't know what goes on there?"
"I don't know. I've never slept there. As a priest, I shouldn't believe in such things, but it seems to me that after what happened there, what happened in this house, incredible stories could be happening now. The evil done always leaves a trace, and enormous evil can even be visible years later."
"I heard that during the war, the Russians tortured a German woman to death in this house.
" "Yes, they did, the damned bastards! It was sixty years ago, I was eighteen, and I remember it all like it was yesterday! A young German couple, Mr. and Mrs. Klause, lived in this house. Back then, every third person in Zielonów was German. He, Jurgen, was twenty-three. To avoid going to war, he put his left hand on a tree stump and chopped off two fingers himself. And she, Marlena, was two years younger—beautiful as a picture, tall, slim, long-haired blonde. Pretty as an angel. I lived three houses away, so I saw them every day. And even—I can tell you this because I'm already an old man with one foot in the grave, and back then I was a young boy who didn't even think he'd dedicate his life to God—that I fell in love with her with my first, puppy-like love. I would have done anything to be with her." But Marlena was already married and, of course, paid no attention to me. Sorry, I'm getting off topic. I'm an old man... She and her husband made mad love. It was a pleasure to watch them cooing like lovebirds, always together, constantly cuddling and kissing...
"And the Russians killed her?"
"Yes. She was three months pregnant when, in January 1945, the Russians, steadily pushing the Nazis westward, reached Zielonów. Sir, what a wilderness it was, animals, brutes straight from hell! They stole, plundered, destroyed everything, and if anyone resisted, they killed without a second thought! And they raped young girls as if they'd never seen a woman before. Devils incarnate, constantly drunk to the point of unconsciousness. They burst into the Klauses' house that day—it was a Sunday—. Marlena was alone because Jurgen had gone into the forest to gather wood; it was very cold, and that's why he didn't want to take his wife with him. They started beating her, then raping her. Fifteen or twenty of them! Can you imagine that? And that's when Jurgen returned. He grabbed an axe and rushed into the house to defend his wife. He killed one and seriously wounded the other before they beat him to death with rifle butts." Then, to avoid traces, they buried him somewhere in the forest. People saw them carrying him. They probably had orders not to kill the local population and were afraid of punishment.
- And what happened to Marlena?
- What could have happened if twenty feral bastards raped her? They tortured the girl to death! No one saw her again, so they probably buried the girl somewhere in the yard.
- So why did they carry Jurgen to the forest?
- I don't know. Maybe they didn't want anyone to find the bodies and blame him for the two murders.
- And has it been haunted ever since?
- No, it started being haunted about ten years ago, and it's getting worse every year. People give the house a wide berth at night, and the neighbors let their dogs loose, lock themselves up, and never step outside.
- What do you think, Father? Why is it haunted? And what can I do to stop it? I didn't buy the house to be empty, and now it's simply impossible to live in it!
"You see, neither Marlena nor Jurgen were buried in a cemetery, in the same grave, as they surely would have wanted. Now they wander the world, suspended between earthly and eternal life. They can't tell anyone, but I think they're trying to make people understand that they're unhappy because their bodies weren't placed in consecrated ground. After all, they loved each other so deeply, they would surely want to be buried together after death, as befits a loving couple.
" "So why weren't their bodies searched for and buried in a cemetery, in the same grave?" Janek somehow didn't believe that burial in consecrated ground was the deciding factor, but he couldn't rule it out categorically. "
What do you mean, they weren't? People searched for a long time, but unfortunately, they couldn't find anything." "
So, what do you think, Father? What should I do?
" "You have to face the apparition. " Perhaps then he will give you a sign that will help you understand what you need to do to help your lost soul. But will you have the courage?
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