Darkness in the forest

Two police officers were slowly approaching "Losiny Ostrov" park.

"No, come on Zhenya, you gotta agree, this is some kind of bullshit!" one of them exclaimed indignantly. "This is already the second time we're coming here! Let the mounted police deal with this during the day, not us suffering this crap at night."

"There have been a lot of calls, so it must be for a reason!" his young partner responded thoughtfully.

"I'm gonna call the duty officer right now, what kind of nonsense is this, maybe it's some kind of prank! Yesterday we rushed here during the day, today at night. Hold on, I'll call Mikha!"

The first guardian of order stopped and lit a cigarette, dialing the number. His thick fingers poked at the screen, pressing the necessary digits. Since

Anatoly was not Caesar (able to smoke, talk, and walk simultaneously), the procession temporarily halted. As often happens, the patrol car carried two officers: Anatoly Smirnov — a portly driver of thirty-four years, and his partner, twenty-eight-year-old Evgeny Dorokhov.

"So, what did they say?" Zhenya inquired when his colleague finished talking.

"Some bullshit, he said different people called. Both men and women, even two old ladies."

"Strange..."

For this occasion, Evgeny and Anatoly had gone out yesterday at three in the afternoon. Then a call came in that a mummy was walking near the forest. And even if you could ignore it, since there was a call, it had to be checked. While the two officers were on their way, a couple more calls were registered... This time it was about a huge bat and a knight in armor with a huge sword. That day, the police walked through the forest but found nothing. This time, the witness spoke of a skeleton on a horse...

"This is a complete mess, I'm telling you, they shouldn't call us, but those, what are they called..." Anatoly hesitated.

"Exorcists?" his partner suggested.

"Who?!! Where do you even get such words!? Yeah, probably them! But it's all clear to me, there's some youth gathering in the forest, they dressed up and are scaring people. Of course they got drunk and are raising hell, and there might even be minors among them?" Smirnov asked dreamily. "That's when we'll bust them and nail them good!"

"We'll see, we haven't found anyone yet!" Zhenya smiled.

"Eh, I'm just saying, we won't find shit here. We'll smoke at the edge and head back." — This park is a real, impenetrable forest, you can only wander through it at night.

The police officers stopped by a path leading into the dark depths of the forest and lit up. It was a hot June evening, and the air was just cooling down after the daytime heat. The streams of air from the forest were cooler, and the men turned towards it, inhaling deeply and peering into the path disappearing into the depths.

"So, are you really quitting?" Anatoly asked distrustfully.

"Yes, my wife is three months pregnant, I don't want to smoke near her, and especially when the child is born."

"Pff, that's such nonsense, I smoke right next to my brat and it's fine!" Smirnov grumbled discontentedly.

"Children easily imitate their parents' habits," the young man objected.

"You're being a smartass again, think you're smart or something?"

Zhenya didn't answer; the last thing he wanted was to start an argument, so he decided to simply ignore the stupid question.

"You're always such a weirdo, are you coming with us on the weekend?"

"No, I have things to do with my wife."

"Of course you have things, what kind of things could a man have when there's fishing?" Anatoly squinted discontentedly and looked at his partner.

"If fishing consists of getting drunk on vodka, I'd rather spend time with my family."

"You're always like this, as if you're not a real man!" — That Olga is all over you, and you can't even fuck her! And she's a fine-looking woman, if I were in your place, I'd give it to her good in both holes!"

"I don't want to cheat."

"You're definitely a fool, such a woman!" — If I were..." Smirnov began his usual spiel.

"Quiet!" Evgeny exclaimed. "Look," he pointed his finger at the asphalt path disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

Anatoly looked in that direction and was stunned. A thin old man in blue slippers and a long nightshirt was approaching them. His gray hair and wedge-shaped beard hadn't been combed in a long time; from under the overgrown face peered a sharp nose and insane eyes that looked at the police officers with an empty gaze. The old man came closer, and the guys could see rusty shackles on his hands, emitting a sinister clinking.

"Hey, old man, where are you from!?" Anatoly broke the silence.

The old man stopped and stared at the police officers. The partners exchanged glances and slowly walked towards the strange man. But before they had gone even a few meters, the old man squealed, lifted the hem of his shirt, and ran into the forest. Evgeny and his partner ran after him

"Wait, maybe we can help you," Evgeny shouted after the fleeing old man.

"Stop, damn it, stop, I'm telling you!" Anatoly yelled.

But the elderly man, despite his advanced age, ran very fast. After just five minutes of pursuit, Evgeny stopped and realized he wasn't sure which direction the old man had run. His partner was nowhere to be seen; apparently, the extremely athletic Anatoly had fallen far behind. Dorokhov looked around and lit a cigarette. What were the chances he'd find that old man in the forest? But unwillingness to give up drove him forward, and after finishing his smoke, the young man headed in the direction where the old man might have run. He stubbornly walked forward until he saw the silhouette of a girl with a dog ahead. "Great!" he thought, maybe she knows something. But as the stranger approached, Dorokhov broke into a sweat... He shouldn't ask her anything! The girl was dressed in a fluffy ball gown, and a dagger was sticking out of her neck. "What is this, what is this!?" — the young man turned away, afraid to look at her face. His heart was pounding wildly, and he stubbornly walked forward, feeling them getting closer and closer to each other with every second. Evgeny tried not to look at her; he was afraid to see her face like fire. And then they were side by side; he glanced furtively in her direction and regretted it. A fanged creature half the girl's height was slapping its powerful paws on the path. The monster turned its maw and, with a single yellow eye located in the center of its face, measured the policeman with an intent gaze. Its jaws monotonously clicked, exposing a row of long fangs. Dorokhov turned away and walked on. He wanted to forget this pair, forget the putrid stench emanating from them. It was the smell of death and decay...

It was unknown how long Evgeny's numb legs carried him. After walking a sufficient distance, the young man allowed himself to look back, but there was no one behind him anymore. The policeman collapsed on the ground under the nearest tree. Leaning against the trunk and lighting a cigarette, the guy tried to pull himself together and calm the chills shaking him. Intuition told him he needed to run from here. Something devilish was going on here! While he was trying to recover and gather his thoughts, a new character was walking along the path. A tall, thin man in extremely unusual clothing. A black robe with red sleeves and a belt on the shoulders had sharp protrusions. His black cloak had a red lining inside. And a black turban with red stripes on the sides was inlaid with a ruby and a scarlet feather in the center. The stranger's face was very elongated and resembled a dried fruit. A hooked nose, a goatee, and other facial features gave him a resemblance to an Arab sheikh. Evgeny peered at the stranger, trying to make him out in the moonlight. The strangest thing was, somewhere the young man had already seen this man, but where, he couldn't remember for the life of him... So the unknown Arab passed by on the path...

Evgeny stood up and gathered his courage. He was a policeman, which meant he had to do something! The young man walked further along the path. With each step, his former decisiveness and confidence returned. "There must be a normal explanation for this!" he reassured himself. Although Zhenya understood that going further might not be the best decision, stubbornness and curiosity drove him forward.

With a new turn in the path, Evgeny encountered a hare. It would have been fine, but the animal was over a meter long and pink.

The animal sat on its hind legs, phlegmatically scratching its fat belly with its front paws. The young man stopped, looking at the hare in puzzlement. A hare is a hare, if you didn't count the color and considerable size. The beast glanced at the policeman disapprovingly and hurried between the trees deeper into the park. Without much thought, Zhenya followed it. "Great, just like Lewis Carroll, only he had a rabbit, and I have a fat hare," the young man mused. The animal moved faster and faster, and he had to increase his speed to keep up. Branches painfully whipped his cheeks; running in a bulletproof vest was quite problematic, but the young man stubbornly moved forward. A small ravine, which the hare easily descended and just as easily ascended, Zhenya overcame with difficulty. "So, which burrow will he lead me to?" the policeman wondered. The distance between him and the hare kept increasing, and at one point, it simply disappeared from view. Zhenya ran on inertia for a while longer, but realizing he had no idea which direction the beast had dashed off, he stopped and leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath. He had lost the "long-eared one" and now had no idea what to do next, or even where he was. His hands mechanically found the pack and took out a cigarette. "What kind of nonsense, do I have a night of failed pursuits today!?" the young man decided. "And what next?" the policeman asked himself, inhaling the bitter smoke. His gaze caught movement in the grass. And now even closer, and closer! Evgeny crouched, carefully examining the ground; it wasn't an animal or anything like that. A black wave was running across the ground. Like a shadow, it slid over the soil, grass, tree roots at regular intervals. Evgeny touched the ground with his hand but felt nothing, only for a moment his palm and feet were covered by the passing darkness. Another notable point — the wave reached the places where the young man stood at different speeds. If you looked to the left, it had passed several seconds ago, while on the right it was only approaching. "Is it possible that this pulsation is coming from some point?" Evgeny wondered. He finished his cigarette and walked towards the strange waves...

Soon enough, he came out onto a small clearing and was stunned. It was filled with strange creatures. Clinging to the wood with its claws, a gargoyle hung on a tree. Nearby, a boar of enormous size paced, grunting discontentedly from time to time. A huge serpent encircled the clearing with long coils, and the reptile's large head rose above the ground, looking coldly at Evgeny. The policeman could barely count how many strange creatures were here. But what amazed the young man most was something else; among all this rabble, there was someone who stood out the most and was the most real of all the others. A little boy of about five or six was quietly crying, sitting next to a bush. He hugged his legs and buried his head in his knees. An ordinary child in ordinary jeans and a T-shirt, if you didn't count that the clothes were torn and stained in places. Next to the boy sat a warrior in Japanese armor with a two-meter halberd lying at his feet. It was from the kid that the dark pulsation in the form of black waves emanated.

"Hey, kid, come on, everything will be alright!" Zhenya shouted to him. The boy lifted his head, his grimy, tear-stained face stared at him.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine!" the policeman repeated, already thinking about how to get closer to the child.

The problem was that the huge serpent encircled the piece of land around the boy with its coils. It wasn't easy to climb over the monster's body, which was about a meter thick in places. Evgeny approached closely and froze. The snake didn't show aggressive intent, but the young man had no doubt that if something went wrong, he wouldn't leave alive. "The moment of truth!" he smirked. Slowly, very slowly, he reached his hand towards the snake's body. The moment his palm touched the scaly, slightly cool skin of the reptile, the young man felt surprise. "So, they are all real!?" he realized. The policeman looked carefully at the monster; it didn't react to what was happening at all; it seemed it hadn't even noticed. At the moment when the young man was already preparing to climb over the serpent's body, a noise was heard from behind.

"So this is where the stronghold of this shit is!" he heard a familiar voice.

Dorokhov turned around and saw his partner. He couldn't make out his face but heard his noisy breathing and agitated voice. In his hands, he clutched a Makarov pistol.

"Everyone back, you fucking bitches, back, I said!" he yelled in a voice not his own, waving the weapon. "I'll shoot all this devilry right now!"

"Anatoly, calm down!"

"Ah, and you're here, what are you standing for, get your gun out!" Smirnov shouted.

"Please, calm down, you're getting a bit worked up," Evgeny spoke in a calm voice; he felt the snake stirring behind him.

"What, you think I'm crazy?" Anatoly hissed angrily. "Standing here among them! — You're the one who's lost it! — I'll shoot all this freak show right now!"

He raised the pistol and began aiming at the boar. "Shit, shit!" flashed through Zhenya's mind. He lunged at his partner with all his might. He pushed him in the side with all his strength, a shot rang out, and they both tumbled to the ground.

"Traitor, you damn traitor," Smirnov hissed.

Zhenya got up and punched his partner hard in the jaw. Anatoly, who was getting up, couldn't stand up; thrown back by the blow, he fell to the ground and, groaning, fell silent. Dorokhov approached and checked on Smirnov; he was unconscious.

The young man turned and looked at the spot where the boy had been. The snake had coiled several rings around the place, and the child was completely out of sight. The samurai in armor stood in front, holding his halberd out before him. All the inhabitants around were extremely agitated. The boar was circling and grunting viciously, but it didn't seem like the shot had hit him, so the young man exhaled calmly. A huge bird was flying over the clearing, and strange creatures were circling. Black waves passed over the ground with considerable frequency, adding even more ominousness.

"Hey, kid, kid, can you hear me? — Don't worry, it's all over!"

The policeman stood and simply continued talking out loud, telling something. He didn't know if the child could hear him or not. But gradually the inhabitants began to calm down. The boar lay down on the grass, the gargoyle climbed back onto the tree, even the birds were no longer visible. Zhenya talked more and more, not stopping. He didn't even notice how he started talking about himself, about his wife, for some reason. The samurai laid down his halberd and sat beside it. The snake began to move, freeing the child from its captivity. The grimy little face looked at the guest with interest.

"So your name is Evgeny?" the boy asked timidly.

"Yes, yes," the young man was glad.

He came closer and closer.

"What's your name?" Dorokhov inquired; he was already slowly approaching the sam