My name is Veronica, I am thirty-two years old, I live with my husband Dmitry and two children - my nine-year-old son Maxim and my four-year-old daughter Lisa. In the family where I grew up, I was... not very well-liked, let's call it that. But now I am doing well, and only those who love me are around me.
And yet... A few months ago, I started having recurring nightmares. There was a fire. A house was burning that I knew for a fact wasn't mine. But at the same time, I know for a fact that I lived there. But how is that possible, if the house where I grew up and the one where I live now have only one thing in common: they are nothing like the house in my dream. But then how did I get there and why do I know it so well?
Tired of my nightmares, I decided to seek help from a psychotherapist. The therapist I found, Dr. Lazorev, was known for treating his patients with... hypnosis. With his help, some of his patients remembered stories that happened when they were under two years old. I don't remember how old I was when the fire story happened, but I was definitely 18. Which means Dr. Lazorev should definitely help me. Our first session is today.
***
- Well, Veronica Evgenievna, are you ready?
- Yeah. (chuckles)
- Now I'm going to put you in a trance. In the course of this procedure we must get to the age and year when you lived in the house from your dream.
- I see.
And the session began...
***
- What's your name?
- Veronika Meerova.
- How old are you?
- Nineteen.
- Where are you located?
- In the old house.
- What's the situation there? And is there anyone else there besides you?
As I looked around the house, I remembered everything. Because you don't forget things like that.
***
Sometimes in our lives we have such incredible events that it is impossible to tell anyone about them for one simple reason: no one will believe them. And then you yourself start to doubt: was it really true? Yes, it did.
***
As I said, my relationship with my parents has always been strained. My older brother Lenka was always their only favorite and the light in the window. For some unknown reason I had to please him in everything. I could well "forget" to praise for some rather serious achievements, but for the slightest accidental slip-up I was waiting for a tirade of "what a good boy Lenya" and punishment. But at the same time I was not harmful at all. Not only that, I was an obscenely malleable child. My daughter Lisa has never been like that. In her four years Lisa can sometimes do something wrong, but she knows that even if she is punished, no one will make a disaster out of it. And the demands on her and her brother have always been the same.
I had only one person in my childhood who was always on my side. It was my beloved grandmother. All my life, my grandmother tried to get through to my parents and talk some sense into them about who my brother would grow up to be if they kept it up. Before I turned nineteen, my grandmother got very sick and one day she said:
- I feel, Veronica, that I don't have long to live.
- Grandma, come on.
- Don't deny it, I can feel it. Remember when I went to make my will? Well, I left everything I own, especially the apartment, to you.
- Grandma...
- All thanks later. I made the will in the first place so your parents wouldn't force you to share it with your brother. And you know as well as I do that they will. Now for what you need to do. As soon as the will comes into effect, sell this apartment, and use the money to buy a new apartment just for yourself. And most importantly, do everything as quickly as possible and don't tell anyone your new address.
Of course, I promised my grandmother that I would do exactly as she said. She was right about everything. Grandma died a month after we talked. And of course, when it became known to whom she bequeathed everything, there was a terrible scandal. I heard all kinds of theories! And that my grandmother did it because she was not in her right mind (and for a long time)! There was also a version that she left everything to me, because she "always indulged only one Veronica". Lenka, by the way, didn't take much part in the scandal, just sarcastically dropped it:
- Good job, sister!
Tired of the scandal, I quickly ran out of the notary's office, got in my car and drove to the house that was now officially mine.
I never realized what happened. I only remember that I was driving in my car through the evening city, it was already dark, and suddenly I saw a light coming at me...some kind of light. I tried to pull in somewhere and stop, but...blacked out. When I woke up, there was some strange man walking around. He was thin and completely bald. I don't know why, but I knew right away he wasn't from around here. Really, at first, I thought I'd just been in an accident and it was just a regular doctor. But then I'd be in the hospital. The same place was a strange house, remotely reminiscent of my grandmother's, but not as beautiful, and very old.
The people who found me turned out to be strange creatures who fed on...energy. Yeah, they never drank anyone's blood, but they were distantly related to vampires. And, as their Elder (who found me) said, they try to keep a low profile because humans will do anything to kill them. Well, in my own way, I could understand them.
***
Even before my son was born, I told my family that if we had a boy, his name would be Maxim.
- Maxim? - My husband interrogated me - I like that name too. But why did you choose it?
And I couldn't answer that question. You see, when people say that, it often happens that they choose a name that was the name of someone very good. But the thing is that neither my husband nor I, neither in my family nor among my acquaintances had any Maxim. And now I remembered who this mysterious namesake of my son was.
***
Everyone called him Max. Of all my new friends, he cared about me the most, and he always tried to be there for me. His friends even made fun of us, but not in a mean way. The Elder sighed sadly and said:
- Max... We can't take Veronica with us anyway.
And everyone knew what he was talking about - people were hostile to my new friends, and if we were found, nothing good could be expected.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for trouble to strike. That night I woke up to Max trying to wake me up:
- Sweetheart... Get up, Veronica, we have to run!
It turned out some people had found the house and... started a fire. But worst of all, I lost my baby in the fire. Max's baby.
***
After the fire, I woke up only in the hospital, where I found out about the miscarriage. When I got out of the hospital, I went straight to look for my car. Strangely enough, it was right where I had left it, unharmed. And that was strange, because I had spent more than a month at my friends' house from another world, and when I got there, I thought I had been in an accident. All my other stuff was fine too. So after getting out of the hospital, I set about doing my grandmother's will. The tenants of her house, I found very quickly, and a new home for myself even faster. And although I do not communicate with my parents and brother, I am happy, because there are people who love me. And I am done with nightmares forever.
The end.