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masasha26 · 2 years

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the witch's ring

It was just before the German War. In the evening, a young single Cossack named Ilya was returning home from the fair. When I parted with friends and relatives, I had a good drink on the road. It was so good that on the road he began to overcome a heavy nap. The Cossack fought with her, but the dream turned out to be stronger. His black horse, named Bandit, knew the way to the hut, and the Cossack decided that he could take a little nap, and let go of the reins. The bandit slowly stomped in the moan of his native farm along the road winding between the steppe gullies, and the brave Cossack Ilya was resting after a successful day.

And already evening has come. Dusk descended, and then a black haze enveloped the earth. If it wasn't for the big white moon at sunrise, the road wouldn't be made out at all. But the Bandit walked calmly.

The Cossack was lying in the cart with his eyes closed, being in a sweet semi-oblivion, and seemed to hear everything and felt how the bumpy primer stretches under the wheels, how the cart creaks on every bump. And he saw the white round shoulders of the soldier Anfisa, her gentle hands, and the full breasts of the widow Natalia, her hips steep and strong. "There are enough widows and soldiers for my age!" thought Ilya with a smile.

Suddenly everything stopped at once - both the creaking and the shaking of the cart. Other sounds appeared - full of alarm: an owl hooted somewhere close, then a night bird laughed and silence fell. The Cossack opened his eyes. It was night. The bandit, a calm, friendly animal, was shaking and wheezing, trying to retreat to the cart. "Wolves?" - flashed through the Cossack's head. He felt with his hand for the gun that was lying next to him in the cart.

Ilya looked around, even though it was dark, he saw a familiar place: the house was just around the corner, there were only a couple of miles left. Near the farmyard. And the road by lies on the old bridge over the river with a dam. And on the banks there are tall oaks and willows, behind which the moon hides. And in the faint light of the moon, the Cossack saw something white on the road, the size of a dog...

And the horse is trembling, raring to rear up. Ilya looked at the fallen cemetery fence, at the outlines of the crooked grave crosses emerging in the dark, and he felt terrible. Then I remembered that he was a Cossack after all, and his father was a Cossack, and his grandfather, and great-grandfather. Ilya swore to himself, took a gun and jumped off the cart. He took a step towards a white object on the road, cursed out loud, unable to remember a single prayer, and cocked the triggers. And take this object, and go quietly to the Cossack.

Ilya took a closer look - and not like a wolf, so - a small dog. "Ugh, you, damn!.." - the Cossack spat in his heart, and the sweat runs cold down his back, the finger on the trigger does not obey at all and some kind of animal fear came to his throat. Ilya has finally sobered up, looks wide-eyed at a white approaching object and cannot move.

And suddenly, as if a whitish fog enveloped the creature on the road, and this fog began to grow. A Cossack is looking, and right in front of him stands a black-haired girl of unprecedented beauty, in a white dress that looks like a shroud, and the skin seems to glow from the inside with moonlight. "Don't be afraid," the girl tells him in a beautiful voice, "Ilya. Take me in marriage. I will be a faithful wife to you."

Then the Cossack remembered how he had said with a laugh at the fair at the fair that there was no beauty in the world that would make him walk down the aisle. That neither God nor Satan has a bride for him. Pondered. He looks, and the girl holds out her hand to him. The Cossack took her hand, and the hand was light, weightless, as if cast from moonlight, and cold. And the horse is even more furious than before, trying to shy away. "Stop, Bandit!.." - Ilya kindly muttered at the stupid animal. He liked the girl too much.

"And here's a ring to remember you by," the girl tells him, and as if out of nowhere, a gold ring appears on the palm of her hand. Ilya took that ring as if in a dream. And she says: "You put it on your finger." He put it on without thinking, as if he had whispered who. "Now you and I are engaged," says the girl.

- What's your name, beauty? The Cossack asked, fascinated.

"Marya," she replies.

- Are you cold, tea? - the Cossack shook his head, trying to disperse the obsession. - I'll wrap you up with a blanket right now, in my cart there... And then you're in one dress, and the night is cold...

And the girl laughs. And suddenly the Cossack realizes that something is wrong in her. Large black eyes glow with some kind of reddish tint. The gaze is unblinking. And her laugh is kind of strange, as if inanimate.

- Lord, save and preserve... - the Cossack babbled with belated fear. And he tries to take the ring off his finger. And it doesn't come off. - Get out, evil spirits!.. By Christ-God, please! - the Cossack shouts and sees how a grimace of pain has disfigured the girl's face.

- You shouldn't do that, - the girl moans and pulls her hands to the Cossack. - After all, I wanted to be nice to you ...

And Ilya, you know, one thing babbles with terrible fear:

- God save me! Get out, evil spirits!..

I remembered about the cross on my neck. He grabbed it so that the cross in his hand remained together with the lace.

- Get out!.. - shouts at the creature in the shroud with a terrible grimace instead of a face, and holds a cross in front of him.

The girl lowered her hands. And broadcasts in an inhuman voice:

- Now you will regret, Ilya, that you did not take me as a wife! - and howled like some kind of animal.

A Cossack sees: a white mist in front of him instead of a girl. Ilya took off like a whirlwind and, it seems, in an instant rushed two versts that separated him from home. When he came running, he locked himself in the hut, only then was he able to unclench the palm in which he held the Orthodox cross. He looks, and there's a ring on his ring finger...

The Cossack did not close his eyes until the morning, sat in the corner under the icon with a saber in one hand, with an Orthodox cross in the other. I sat and looked at the ill-fated ring, which seemed to have grown into my finger to the point of pain. He just kept repeating until the roosters began to sing: "Leave me, witch! Leave me..."

The bandit came in the morning. Tortured, covered in soap, with bruised legs and the remains of a torn harness. Ilya took him to the barn, washed his wounds with kerosene, gave him water and oats. And the horse refuses to eat, shies away from the owner, with fear squints at the hand with the ring.

All day the Cossack did not leave the hut, did not unlock the windows and doors. All day long he had been trying to remove the damned ring from his hand-a gift from the witch. And he rubbed his hand with soap, and dipped his finger in oil, and tried to slip a silk thread under the ring - all in vain. At the end of the day, I decided to sharpen the ring with a rasp. But even though it looked like gold, there were not even scratches on it from the rough sharp metal. Everything is fine. The Cossack realized that this ring was enchanted. I looked out the window, and it was already getting dark outside.

Fearing the onset of night, Ilya decided to get drunk. He put a bottle of moonshine on the table, smashed a good slice of bacon from a whole salted piece with a saber, broke off black bread. And he began to drink. One cup after another. I wanted to get drunk to unconsciousness. And it seems that he started getting drunk, but then, the more he drank, the more sober he became. And the darkness was gathering outside the window.

The Cossack lit the candles that he found in the hut, placed them in all corners and at the windows, and began to pray in front of the icon with a lamp, asking for protection and to remove this damned ring from his finger! I listened to every rustle with apprehension, to the barely audible crackling of the candle.

And so, when the clock struck twelve, the Cossack heard as if someone was calling him outside the window. Calls so affectionately:

- Come out to me, my betrothed Ilyusha. I'm languishing without you.

Cautiously, the Cossack approached the window, pulled back the curtain. He sees yesterday's girl in white standing at the hut. And her face is white, as if not alive. And the eyes are closed. And plaintively so asks:

- Come out to me, Ilyusha. I feel bad without you.

Horror gripped the whole body and squeezed the throat of the Cossack. But he kissed the cross, gathered all his will into a fist and was able to pronounce:

- Leave me, witch! I'm not your betrothed!

- How not narrowed? - The girl doesn't open her eyes. - You put on my ring. So now you're mine forever!

- And I will go to church tomorrow, - the Cossack found himself, - I will repent to my father, I will pray. I will wash away my sins and throw off this demonic ring.

The Cossack did not have time to blink an eye, and the white face is already there - next to it, only a thin glass separates the Cossack from the witch. And her eyes are terribly open, and there is red blood in them instead of pupils.

- You're not going to church! - hissing face, and pale lips do not even move. - You won't show the rings! Otherwise it will be bad for you. Very bad!

The Cossack almost suffocated with fear, and then he sees, and this is not a face at all, but a whitish fog creeping by the window.

- Ugh, you, damn it! Ilya breathed out with relief. "I'll see things when I'm drunk."

I looked through another window that looks out onto Khutorskaya Street, and there is no fog there. I looked again at the window that looks out into the courtyard, and I saw: a cloud of white fog stretching through the vegetable gardens towards the churchyard. "The river is there. Dampness. So the fog is hanging," the Cossack reassured himself, took a sip of moonshine and fell asleep.

Early in the morning, the Cossack put on everything clean, saddled the faithful Bandit and went to the village to pray in the temple. He gave to the poor, donated to the church, defended the entire service. After the service, he waited for the priest at the exit of the temple and, greatly worried, told him everything about the ring without concealment, as it was.

Father Mikhail listened, did not interrupt. Then he looked at the ring and called the Cossack back to the temple. There he created a prayer for the atonement of sins and the salvation of the soul of the servant of God Elijah. Then he told the Cossack to put his finger with the ring in a bowl of holy water.

Ilya put his finger into the bowl and heard the ring sizzle. As if red-hot in the fire burned the whole hand. Ilya pulled his finger out of the bowl, and the ring remained lying at the bottom.

- Take it, - said Father Mikhail, - take it to the place where you met with evil spirits, bury it and say a prayer three times. When you come home, sprinkle the hut with holy water. And also say a prayer three times. If the witch comes again, sprinkle holy water on her and say a prayer. Fast today. Come to church again tomorrow.

Cautiously, the Cossack took the ring out of the bowl. But the hand no longer burned. He looks, and the ring is not gold at all, forged from some kind of black metal and very old, as if it had been lying in the ground for a long time. Ilya was surprised, tied him in a rag, thanked Father Mikhail, took holy water in a glass bottle and went to the old bridge.

Although the day was sunny and warm, the sight of the graveyard with graves made the Cossack shiver, as if from the cold. Ilya dismounted, tied his horse in the shade to the railing of the bridge, felt a rag with a ring in his pocket, took a bottle of holy water and went to look for a place. Ilya looked around, noticed where he met the witch at night, came up, looked around again - did anyone see? - knelt down by the road, dug a hole, unwrapped a rag and threw a ring into the hole. And he threw the rag into a cygnet that grew thickly on the sloping roadside. He filled the hole with dry earth, stamped his boot firmly on top, prepared a bottle of holy water and began to read a prayer aloud.

At the first words of the prayer, the wind, out of nowhere, rose strong. Tore the cap off the Cossack's head. Ilya rushed to catch up with his cap and caught up already in the field at the fence of the churchyard. She caught on a dry prickly bush growing on a barely noticeable grave mound. Hooked and hanging. And on the mound there is no cross, no designation with the name of the deceased. And the wind died down.

"I wonder who's lying here?" - the Cossack thought and suddenly remembered that earlier suicides and witches were buried behind the cemetery fence. Maybe it was about this grave that his old grandmother Agafya told him in childhood? And she said about her youth that her elder brother Ilya also buried the beautiful Mary, who was reputed to be a witch on the farm, behind the fence of the farm cemetery. This Marya was famous for her beauty from early youth, so famous that wealthy Cossacks came from the village to woo her. But Marya fell in love with the dashing Cossack Ilya, the brother of grandmother Agafya. She loved him so much that she was ready to die for him. And Ilya loved another one - Marya's friend Olga. And when Marya found out about Olga's impending engagement to Ilya, she sold her soul to Satan, sent a former sleeping sickness on her friend, locked her in a closet, and she turned into Olga and went to church for the wedding with Ilya.

And on the wedding night, Ilya's Orthodox cross touched her face and the spell was gone. Marya could have killed Ilya then, yes, apparently, she loved him very much and apologized. And he didn't forgive. He tied up the witch and went to the Cossack circle with her. The Cossacks decided that they should kill Mary. And Ilya is obliged to do this.

They say that before her death, Maria Ilya said these words: "You're my betrothed now. You put on my ring. So now you are mine forever!"

Ilya killed Marya - he hacked her with a saber and buried her with his own hands behind the cemetery. On the same day, Olga, her brother's beloved, died without regaining consciousness. And Ilya died a year later, exactly the day and hour of Mary's death. They say she took him to her.

Since then, there has been a popular story that every year in the surrounding farms on the day of Mary's death some young and unmarried Cossack passes away. And the night before her death, Marya herself seems to visit him.

Ilya remembered this fairy tale of Grandma Agafya, glanced at the overgrown grave mound, and he was so shaken that he did not remember how he ended up riding a Bandit. And already in his hut he realized that he had not fulfilled the order of Father Mikhail - he had not read the prayer over the ring three times. And I left my cap there. But the Cossack had neither the desire nor the strength to go back to the cemetery.

"I returned the ring! What else does she want from me!" Ilya tried to calm himself down. But he himself understood that this was only an excuse that Marya would come to him at night with or without a ring. And then the Cossack realized with horror that he had left a bottle of holy water there on the road near the cemetery, which Father Mikhail had given him for the cause. Ilya looked out the window, and it was already evening outside. It's too late to go to the church to the village. And it will be a shame to blame Father Mikhail for cowardice.

And then Ilya decided to cheat. He went out into the street and invited to his hut the same as himself, Cossacks - young and dashing to moonshine. The carousal began. Ilya put all his supplies on the table - he didn't regret anything. He drinks and treats his comrades, he bellows songs with everyone, and he looks at the clock by the window with one eye. Here the hands converged on twelve. Ilya ran up to the window, then to the other - no one was visible on the street. Ilya sat down at the table, just took a deep breath, saw the door open, and Marya herself was standing on the threshold in a colorful dress, and in her hands she had forgotten her cap. And her face seems to be alive, and her eyes don't glow with red fire. Ilya is watching and can't utter a word. And his comrades instantly fell silent, looking at the unearthly beauty.

"You forgot your cap," Marya says in a melodious voice, goes into the hut and sits on the bench next to Ilya. He stares so intently into the eyes of a Cossack. Then he turns to his comrades:

"Why are you walking here alone," Marya says with a sly smile. - And the girls there, behind the farm on the shore, are bored, singing songs, waiting for you.

"We'll go," the comrades mutter uncertainly. - We stayed too long. - And they begin to leave the hut one by one, but from the doors as one they turn their heads in the direction of the guest.

Ilya wants to stop them, but he can't even lift a finger under Marya's gaze.

As soon as he and the witch were left alone in the hut, the speech again comes to the Cossack.

- I gave you the ring back! Ilya says cautiously.

- You buried him in the ground. So he didn't return it.

"But I don't have your ring."

"You're wrong," Marya grins. - Look near the icon by the lamp.

Ilya goes and is horrified to find a dark ring on a shelf near the icon itself. And a rag is lying next to it.

- How is this possible? - the Cossack mutters.

- It's yours. You should have done as Pop Mikhail told you! - the witch grins. "You're mine now.

"Are you going to kill me?" - somehow the Cossack asks indifferently.

- Why? - the witch grins again and does not take her beautiful eyes off the Cossack. - I'm alive now myself.

- How is this possible? Ilya asks again, referring to the changes taking place with Mary.

She understands him.

"Even though you took off the ring," she says, "you didn't perform the ceremony. Your life belongs to me. Through you, I can appear in the world of people. Only my life now depends on you. We are connected with you, Ilyusha, do you understand?

- I don't understand!

- You look so much like your great-uncle Ilya! - Marya stretched out her hand and stroked the Cossack's cheek with her palm.

He initially recoiled, expecting to feel the grave cold, but he felt the touch of warm living fingers.

"You're not dead.

"Not at night. And if you take me as your wife, then I will be able to live in this world all my life ruined by your grandfather. Tell me, do you like me?

Ilya was terrified, but he drove the fear away from himself, remembering that he was a Cossack by blood and that his father was a Cossack, and his grandfather and great-grandfather. And a Cossack should not be afraid of evil spirits.

- I like you! The Cossack boldly blurted out. - But why do you want to return to this world, Marya?

- I want to atone for my sin, Ilyusha. I want to beg my soul from God, so as not to wander forever between this world and that. You have no idea what a terrible punishment it is to have no peace. And I also want love. The real one.

"And if we get married, won't you die?"

- Not soon.

- And will you really become my wife?

- you won't have a better wife, Ilyusha. I can do everything. I'll fuck you.

- And by this act of mine I will not commit a mortal sin myself?

- On the contrary. You will save a lost soul. You will help the dying. A good deed will be credited to you.

- And your former master?.. - Ilya was afraid to say the name of Satan out loud.

"I promised to serve him for fifty years. The deadline has expired. Now I want to beg my soul. Will you help me, Ilya?

The Cossack pondered. The fear has passed. Needless to say, Marya is the envy of everyone. And the time to get married has already come. On the other hand, he will do a good deed by this act - he will help the repentance of the sinner. Yes, and in his eyes he will become higher - after all, only the most dashing Cossack can marry a witch!

- I agree. I'm going to marry you, Marya! Here's my hand!

- Only we need to get married in the temple right this night.

- I agree! I will give Father Mikhail everything he asks for - all his money - he will marry.

- And then it will be impossible to cheat on each other - it's a sin.

- We'll figure it out somehow.

- And other sins cannot be committed.

- Listen, it's like I'm not talking to a witch right now!

- With a former witch, Ilyusha.

- Are there any former witches?

- And this, Ilyusha, depends on men. They can make women witches, or they can make beautiful wives.

- Okay. But, chur, let's agree that you won't scare me at night anymore.

- If you call me affectionately by my name, you'll love me, then I won't, Ilyusha. You and I will have to take care of each other. Because when one person passes away, the other one will also pass away. You and I are connected by a ring. And I, in turn, hope that you will never reproach me with being fifty years older than you.

- How can I reproach you - you look like a young girl. I will not reproach. By the way, Marya, how old were you when my grandfather Ilya?.. Well, you know...

- Nineteen. Only you have to remember it yourself.

- Why should I remember?

- Because in your young and strong body, Ilyusha, lives the soul of that Ilya, whom I loved more than life. I was waiting for you and I waited...

- I don't understand.

- The Orthodox Church does not accept this. But the transmigration of souls exists. Souls come to Earth and leave, then come back again, changing bodies. I know, I've seen that world-the world where souls live.

"Why don't I remember anything?"

- I'll help you remember. In the meantime, trust me, Ilya...

The next morning, the comrades came to Ilya's house to have a hangover. The hut was open and empty. Ilya and his guest, with whom the Cossacks left a friend at night, were nowhere to be found. And the Bandit's stable was empty. And there was a rumor in the neighborhood that on the night of the disappearance of the Cossack Ilya, the light was on in the stanitsa church of Father Mikhail until the morning. But Father Mikhail himself only kept silent to all the questions.

Many years have passed since then. Ilya never showed up at his native farm. They said different things: that the witch Mary killed him; that Ilya went to distant lands and took Mary with him; that Ilya died on the German side, then on the Civil side; after that they said that they saw Ilya with his beautiful wife right in the capital itself.

But one thing is absolutely certain: young single Cossacks in the vicinity of the farm where Ilya's grandfather hacked down the witch stopped dying.

#story songs #story #storytelling #storyteller #scary stories #bedtime stories #love

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