The cold autumn wind chased colorful leaves along the asphalt, and little Artyom felt just as lonely and abandoned as one of them. The orphanage was not a home to him, but a state institution where life flowed by in dull, joyless gray. And once again he ran away, unable to bear the weight of … Read more
Gray office walls seemed especially dreary that day, swallowing the dim light of an autumn morning. Anna Igorevna stood by the window, staring at the rain-soaked rooftops, and felt a heavy stone rise to her throat. The news she had just learned had turned her familiar world upside down. — “Anna Igorevna, are you listening … Read more
One evening, in the very heart of a big city, in a place where the air was steeped in the scent of expensive coffee and freshly cut flowers and the walls shimmered with dignified velvet, a waitress named Arina was finishing her shift. Her day had been long and hectic, but the last hours always … Read more
Anatoly Lvovich slowly leaned back against the back of his massive leather chair. It wasn’t just a piece of furniture—it was a gift, the most expensive and coveted one, that his only daughter, Elena, had given him two years earlier. Back then, her eyes shining, she insisted that this exact model was praised by the … Read more
Warm rays of the morning sun streamed gently through the tall stained-glass windows of the spacious lobby of the Eden Hotel, scattering highlights across the floor polished to a mirror shine. The air was filled with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and warm pastries, creating the illusion of a perfect, tranquil world. Amid the … Read more
The turn of the key in the brass keyhole sounded sharp and alien in the silence of the entryway, as if shattering a fragile calm. Exhausted after a long workday, Maksim tensed at the sound. With a heavy sigh, he pushed the solid oak door, crossed the threshold of his own home—and immediately felt that … Read more
Artem never imagined that an ordinary autumn day would so radically change his entire life. He was walking along the noisy streets of Moscow, lost in thought, on his way to yet another business meeting which, as so often happened, was suddenly canceled. The weather was raw; heavy leaden clouds blanketed the sky, from which … Read more
What I found in my grandfather’s old dresser turned my whole life upside down and made me question everyone I thought I knew. I drifted through the hospital corridors like a ghost, a soundless shadow in a white coat. The click of my heels thudded in my temples, and the fluorescent lights looked unnaturally poisonous, … Read more
He slid the key into the lock with such a quiet, treacherous whisper it felt as if it were piercing not metal, but my own heart. A new, shiny, cold key, smelling of someone else’s sweat and someone else’s ambitions. Galina Sergeyevna gave a bitter smile— the old, faithful lock that had lived through so … Read more
Lidia walked along the frozen asphalt, and each step echoed in her temples with a dull, nagging pain. The city drifted in the dusk, the glow of the streetlamps blurring before her eyes like droplets of watercolor on wet paper. She had thought it was just exhaustion—endless projects, deadlines, sleepless nights. She told herself that … Read more