The Folveshch

10. The Folveshch

"Sit down," I told him, and he did so with a vile grin stitched to his face. "Irina is here to see you."

"I'm hungry." He licked the beads of blood off his lower lip, giving Irina the once-over. "How do you taste?"

"Aleksy, stop that. Now, Irina, what was it you needed so urgently?"

"Um ... I wanted to talk to him about my daughter, Annina."

"Why me?" Aleksy asked.

"Because I think you may be the only one who can tell me what's happening to her."

"Is that so? Go on."

"Well ... I shouldn't really be here. My husband doesn't know I've come to see you, and I–I don't know exactly what happened, but ­–"

Aleksy rolled his eyes. "The important bit."

"Oh, well, according to my husband, Annina didn't come home from choir one evening last week. He went out and searched the breadth of the village for her, only to find her on Strangers' Pass. Thank God Annina wasn't hurt, but my husband said she was ... out of character. He found her glued to the spot; in the end Avgustin had to pick her up and carry her home. When we got her inside she asked us about the ... the Folveshch."

Aleksy's muscles tensed, almost as if he buzzed with excitement. "Is there more?"

"W–We explained it's just a story, but the strange part is that we've never told her it."

"And your husband, Avgustin? Is he okay?"

"Fine. But Annina isn't. She's frightened of everything. She's always been such a bold little girl, but that day changed her, and she now says the Folveshch looks in through the windows at night. Whenever Avgustin and I come to her when she's crying, there's nothing out there."

Aleksy sat back in his chair, putting his genitals on show. He'd picked a fine time to parade around nude in front of two women, but his sense of mischief was always a small source of amusement to me and so I let it go ... mostly for Irina's discomfort.

"Do you have curtains?" he continued airily, placing his hands on his thighs with deliberation.

"S-Shutters for the winter."

"Those will do. Keep them closed."

"So you think someone is watching her?"

"Nothing is watching her," I cut in before Aleksy could so much as draw breath. "Keep the shutters closed to soothe her anxiety – that's all he means."

"Your daughter will be fine," Aleksy told her. "The Folveshch targets the men of the village, not little girls. It's your husband I worry for; he ought to be terrified."

"Aleksy!" I snarled.

"Annina led him off the pass," he continued. "She took him to the Folveshch, just like I did to my father when I was nine."

"What do you mean she 'led' him there?" said Irina. "She's a child! She didn't know what she was doing."

"Well nor did I at the time, but it was me who invited the Folveshch to come out of the woods. Papa needed some quality wood, but it was getting late, so we split up in search of big trees to mark for felling the next day. The night came, and my father grew concerned for my whereabouts and came looking for me. He said he found me off the pass, in a clearing, talking to myself. When he picked me up I came out of a daze and didn't remember anything about wandering off the road. As he walked us home, the Folveshch followed about half a kilometre behind. I kept glancing back at it and my father asked me what I was looking at. He couldn't see anything following us, just like you and Avgustin can't see the Folveshch out of your daughter's window. No, not yet."

"Not yet?" Irina breathed.

"It'll appear when you don't expect it to, like it did for Papa. The same winter we saw the Folveshch he was never the same again, and it's haunted me ever since. I always feel it watching; hear it clawing at the outside walls for my attention. Scratch ... Scratch... Scratching. Always grinning. But it's never comes inside. Know why?"

Irina shook her head. "Nyet."

"Because I do everything I can not to be scared of it. It calls my name in the wind at night, but when I was with Papa I felt safe, just like I do with Stefan. Close the shutters, sleep by her side, and Annina will drift off without fear. It's trying to get to your husband through her first, because children believe far more easily than adults. Stamp out the fear before the Folveshch appears before Avgustin. For my father, it was only a matter of weeks."

Irina seemed even more shaken. "Okay," she muttered with a small smile. "I'll do that." She thanked us for our time and left.

After Irina had closed the door behind her, I threw my newspaper at Aleksy. "Put some damn clothes on," I barked. "What did you have to go and do that for?"

He laughed and wiped his nose on his hand. "You told me to play the part, didn't you?"

"Not exactly what I meant."

"Be a sport. Irina and the rest of Renkassk think you house some kind of monster in your cellar, and instead of fearing the Folveshch, they fear a supposed cannibal instead. Don't you see how much of a good thing that is?"

I frowned.

"As long as the people aren't actively scared of it, the Folveshch can't prey on them. That's why you've never noticed it around Renkassk, Stefan, because you don't believe me in the slightest. You're ignorant, you lucky bastard; you don't even know its face."