Page 58 of Foul Days

“I didn’t want to panic you. What happened?”

“I had a nightmare. When I woke up, I couldn’t move.”

Kosara knew the answer, but she asked the question nonetheless, hoping she was wrong. “Why?”

“There was a girl. A teenager. She was sitting on top of my chest, and she was getting heavier and heavier until I couldn’t breathe, and she was staring at me with those huge, black eyes.…”

“Her name is Nevena. She’s a kikimora. And her eyes are brown.” Kosara hadn’t intended to say that last sentence out loud. Why did it matter what colour her eyes were?

This is not Nevena, she reminded herself once again, just like she’d done for years. This is Nevena’s fear personified. This is Nevena’s anger. This is not your sister.

“What did she look like?” she heard herself asking. “Did she look all right?”

Asen blinked. “What do you mean? There was a stab wound in her chest and blood running all down her hair.” He looked at the sheets. He’d gathered them into a ball when he’d been twisting and turning. “There’s no blood. I’m sure she had blood running down her hair.”

“It wasn’t real blood. I told you, Nevena is a kikimora.”

“What’s a kikimora?”

Kosara pulled at the skin around her nails, watching it change from flesh to shadow between her fingertips. “A type of spirit. Of a murdered person. They rise from the pool of spilled blood.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I did. I told you not to come into this room. This is Nevena’s room.”

The colour began to return to Asen’s face. “Can you get rid of her?”

Kosara hesitated. “The only way to send away a kikimora is to bring justice to her murderer.”

“I see. Who killed her?”

I did. Dear God, I killed her. I can tell you what it sounded like when the knife sank into her chest. My hands are still sticky with her blood.

“You know what,” Kosara kept her tone light, “I haven’t got a clue.”

“You never thought to find out?”

“We’re not all detectives, Bakharov. Come on, get out of here and go to my parents’ room like I told you to.”

“I can’t. The bed’s broken. The mattress is completely destroyed.”

Kosara suspected the household spirits had been throwing parties while she’d been away. “Fine. You can sleep in my room.”

She built a barricade of pillows in the middle of the bed, so that it was completely obvious: this half was hers, and the other one was his.

She pointedly ignored him as he walked in, clutching his pillow. She definitely didn’t pay any attention to how short the boxer shorts he slept in were, or how tight that undershirt was. No attention whatsoever.

“I hope you don’t snore,” she mumbled. Then, she turned around and didn’t hear Asen’s response because she was already asleep.

11

Day Six

Kosara dreamed of Nevena, tears filling her brown eyes.

“Just kill me, alright?” Nevena kept repeating. “Just kill me.”

When Kosara woke up, the room was blurry. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her nightgown.

---