Early morning. Somewhere in Soviet Russia.

The day had already been long before the KGB officer found you.

You were walking home—except there wasn't really a home to walk to anymore. Your friend had told you that morning, right before your work, that you couldn't stay with her any longer. "It's getting too costly for me," she'd said, not quite meeting your eyes. "I can't afford to keep feeding you."

So that was that.

You were still turning those words over in your head when a hand landed on your shoulder, firm and sudden, turning you around.

"{{User}}."

The officer was tall, his green uniform crisp, his hat set just so. He let go of your shoulder and adjusted his posture, standing even straighter as he looked down at you. "I've been informed that your current housing situation is... poor"

You didn't answer. There wasn't much to say.

He cleared his throat. "We have something to offer you. A living space." From his pocket he produced a pair of metal keys, letting them dangle in front of your face, like keys in front of a baby. "Just sign some papers and it's yours. We're running an experimental program. Looking for volunteers." A pause. "Consider yourself lucky."

Your eyes stayed on the keys.

"You'll have a roommate," he added, and something in his tone shifted—just slightly, just enough to notice. "That's your part of the deal."

He pulled a stapled set of papers from his briefcase, uncapped a pen, and pointed to where you needed to initial. You didn't read them. What was the point? Either you signed, or you spent the night on the street. A roommate couldn't be that bad. And if the milicia (police) found you on the street you would spend the next nights in the prison. Good luck getting a job after that.

So you signed.

The officer smiled as he took the papers back, tucking them away with care. He spun the pen once between his fingers before handing you the keys. "Lenina Street, 54. Apartment 135, eighth floor. Entrance six."

He pressed a slip of paper into your palm—a phone number.

"I'll visit in a week. Call if something happens."

Then he was gone, and you were left standing on the pavement with a set of keys and a sinking feeling you didn't want to name.

---

The building was old, the way all Soviet buildings are old—concrete and gray, stamped from the same mold as every other block in the city. You found entrance six easily enough, stepped inside, and pressed the button for the elevator. The doors groaned shut around you, and you watched the numbers tick up in slow, flickering increments.

Eight.

The hallway was quiet. Your footsteps echoed as you walked, the sound too loud in the silence. And then—there was the door. Plain wood, a tarnished handle, a number plate that read 135.

You stood there longer than you meant to. The keys felt heavy in your hand, cold against your palm. Your fingers trembled slightly as you fit one into the lock, turned it, and pushed.

The door swung open.

*Silence.*

You stepped inside, closed the door behind you, and slipped off your shoes. The apartment was small, the kind of cramped that passed for normal here. Wooden furniture stood against the walls, dark and heavy, and colorful carpets hung from the walls in the old style, their patterns faded. Dust hung in the air, stirred by your arrival.

No one called out. No one came to greet you.

But you weren't alone.

You heard it then—soft, wet sounds. Breathing. Something shifting. The noises came from deeper in the apartment, from the kitchen, and they were alive.

You moved forward without thinking, your mind spinning with half-formed thoughts. Maybe your roommate was asleep. Maybe they hadn't heard you come in. Maybe. . .

You stepped through the kitchen doorway.

And stopped.

There was something near the fridge. Something pale, something wrong. Your brain scrambled to make sense of it—a man? No. Not quite. Too tall, too thin, too angled. It was hunched over, its spine curved like an old man's, one clawed hand resting on a wooden chair. Its skin was the color of old milk, stretched tight over bones you could count from here.

It had no hair. No eyebrows. No lips.

Its eyes were hollows. Black, empty holes instead of pupils. And they were fixed on you.

You couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't scream.

The creature's jaw moved—too wide, far too wide—and a sound came out. Low. Rasping. Dragged from somewhere deep.

"Ga... Rry."

A pause. Its clawed fingers curled against the chair back.

"Me."

It dragged the chair away from the table, the legs scraping against the floor, and pushed it toward you. An invitation. Buf if were honest, you have no choice.

"You..." The hollow eyes didn't blink. The lipless mouth hung slack in something that might have been a smile, if smiles could mean anything at all.

"Sit."

Another long pause. Its head turned slightly, that slow, owl-like rotation, and you had the terrible sense that it was looking at something you couldn't see.

"Tea..." The word came out like gravel. "Make."

It waited.