Jennifer. Residence of Grief. Viktor Khorunzhy

pecking the window.

      Together with Jennifer, the women examined the door and the floor in the corridor, but found no claw marks that must have been left there in a great number.

      “Jenny, dear, it was just a delusion!” Ms. Walker and Mrs. Brown were reassuring their young neighbor. “Yesterday turned out to be too tough for you…”

      Their words sounded so convincingly that they even made the girl feel ashamed – maybe, it really was nothing, but a dream? Indeed, how would dogs or wolves have got inside the house to pound on her door?

      Having calmed down a bit, she agreed to try and have some sleep again, however she didn’t want the neighbors to stay in her room. She was not six, but sixteen after all! Perhaps, she overstrained herself indeed and now simply fell victim to a nightmare…

      Having closed the door again, Jenny dived under her blanket, however she could not turn off the light – her recent inner turmoil had been too strong. Tiredness gained on the upper hand and soon enough the girl was fast asleep…

      Cold, gloomy morning peeped in her window with grey fog. Jennifer finally opened her eyes. Both neighbors had still been here – she saw them when she got downstairs after having brushed up a little. They couldn’t stay any longer, going to go away, but they promised they might come back in the evening.

      The girl saw them to the door. Now she was all alone again.

      Pending silence turned out to be suddenly heavy and sticky: to disperse it somehow, Jenny turned on the TV. However, she had no desire to watch it, so trying to keep herself occupied, she started to set out the dishes into cabinets as they had already been washed after yesterday’s dinner.

      Jennifer bluntly refused to think of how she would live without her parents – she wanted to look only as far into the future as tomorrow. Everyday work brought her to her senses a little. The girl cleaned up rooms on the first floor, scraped out the kitchen shining and even cleaned the fireplace. Usually it was the job for their housemaid coming twice a week, but Alisson Parker as a homemaker was keeping their home clean herself as well. She always thought cleaning up was one of the most useful kinds of activity for a girl. That was why Jennifer feared of no household work. And now, performing some routine labor laded her into an illusion things had been the same again. Any minute her mum would open the door and praise her diligence…

      The front door flung open indeed; it was probably one of her neighbors returned. But Jenny was vainly expecting for the guest to approach her – no one appeared in the kitchen. Maybe, she had been looked for in another room?

      Without letting the duster off her hands, the girl peeped into the corridor. The door had already been shut, and silence prevailed in the house – no sound of steps, no call, nothing…

      “Ms. Walker!” Jennifer called, but no one answered her.

      And suddenly she felt a presence – there obviously was someone behind her… Having turned around sharply, the girl froze rooted to the spot – right in front of her, she saw a huge beast resembling a dog. Or rather it would have resembled a dog if it hadn’t been standing hindpaw, towering over Jennifer a good half a meter high. Reddish fur hung down in dirty shreds, hooked claws stuck out of its forepaws.

      Startled and terrified, Jenny lost her hold of the duster and moved back. Having swung on its bended hindpaws, the beast headed after, having fixed its muddy, anger-full eyes on her. Having instinctively felt she couldn’t back-pedal, the girl jerked aside and flung into the kitchen, having shut the door after herself just a second before the huge body of an incredible monster bumped heavily against the other side of it. Another blow made the door begin to shake, and a picture fell off the wall with a bang. Without wasting any time, Jennifer dashed to the backdoor, jumped over the stairs and found herself outside. Without reducing her speed, she ran out to the street and almost knocked Mrs. Brown off her feet.

      “Sweetums! What happened?”

      “For pity's sake, call the police, hurry! Our house has been broken into… there’s some beast inside, it almost attacked me!” Jenny shouted, grabbing the woman’s hand. “Please, hurry!"

      Mrs. Brown’s round face had a mixture of bewilderment and distrust on it. However, Jenny probably looked only too convincing with her pale face and fiery, terrified eyes. Having pulled a radiophone out of her coat’s pocket, the woman dialed the number of a rescue force.

      …Half an hour after the police had searched the house through, the neighbors drawn by the noise of the police sirens started dispersing disappointedly. Jenny caught their sympathetic, curious stares now and then. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see people whispering behind her back and shaking their heads. The police didn’t spot the beast itself, as well as any sign of its forced entry. No one believed Jennifer’s words – the girl realized that, just the same as the fact that she was considered to be mad now. As if she could make up this terrible beast in her house only to get herself noticed…

      She wanted to talk with no one anymore: in a minute, the police cars would go away and she would be left alone again, face to face with that horror lurking in her house. Lurking, hoping to wait for her…

      Jenny was looking at her home and realizing she could not feel safe inside it anymore. It ceased to be her shelter – its windows looked threatening. And no one would ever make her enter it again…

      Chapter 5

      An Occasional Passer-by

      William liked walks. Not only because they were good for his health. Where could one think things over calmly, if not outside? Though it really was a bit odd – to be alone, one needed to mingle in the crowd… He even preferred to walk to his job, crossing several blocks between his dear Garden Street and always-busy Wind Road. However, for his evening strolls with his permanent companion and pet, an Italian mastiff Radge, William chose quiet streets or green squares. Luckily, there were plenty of such places in the city.

      This time, he also wandered in one of those – he was really fond of that cozy street with a French name Kantalle. William liked strolling past neat yards with green lawns and flower-beds. It was pleasant to see occasional passers-by taking somewhat surprised notice of his pet. Radge had a perfect size: while moving, he wasn’t simply striking out his paws down the road like all other dogs did, but walked majestically and proudly, like a true aristocrat. Sort of a black dog lord, allowing his master to lead himself on a leash.

      “It’s still unknown, who walks whom,” William put it off with a jest while answering his friends’ questions about him being tired of taking his dog for a walk every day.

      But now, passers-by weren’t up to them: everybody’s attention was drawn by a mansion down the street, with two police cars and an ambulance parked next to it.

      Being slightly surprised, William came closer.

      On the lawn in front of the house, a girl was sitting on her feet right on the grass. Her long fair hair was tumbled and her shoulders were covered with only a thin camisole despite chilly weather.

      Meantime, a couple of policemen were standing at the porch and carrying on a conversation with a tall doctor in a white coat.

      “What happened here?” William asked a woman standing to his right.

      She measured him with her quick eye before answering; however, she seemed to find him trustworthy after all.

      “At first, they said some animal had sneaked into the house. But the police checked everything here and found no traces… poor Jenny! She’s not herself. She’s afraid of coming back in the house, so she’s sitting on the lawn.”

      William looked at the girl again, this time closer – her face seemed vaguely familiar. Where could he have seen her?

      She was sitting immotile, looking unseeingly straight ahead. Those eyes…

      It seemed she was the one he had seen near the theatre a couple of days ago. She was eyeing Radge so closely… Perhaps, William would have paid no attention to the stranger-girl, but she seemed so pretty to him…

      “What happened to her?” he asked the woman carefully.

      “Her