Category: ДЕТИ

Katya had always known that beauty was her main trump card. Her mother had been saying it ever since her daughter learned to walk in high heels without tripping over her own feet. “Katenka, you need to make a good match. You’ve got everything for it—looks and charm.” Then she would turn to her elder […]

Graduation night was supposed to be a shining bridge between childhood and adult life, but for Alisa it turned out to be just another door slammed in her face. The air in the apartment was thick and stale, smelling of old cabbage and dashed hopes. “Go to the dance? Buy a dress?” Her mother, Vera […]

The first sound forced its way through the thickness of a heavy, dead sleep like a rusty nail through rotten wood. Faint, thin, it was barely distinguishable from the creak of floorboards or the wind moaning in the stove pipe. But a mother’s heart—that tireless, eternal watchman—answered it instantly, clenching tight in her chest. Arina […]

Larisa stood by the kitchen window, watching the neighbor load a stroller into the trunk of her car. Forty-one years old, and still dependent on public transport and the rare chance to use her husband’s car. Design projects were scattered all over the city, clients wanted meetings at inconvenient times, and there she was, suffering […]

Artyom found out about the layoff on a Friday, right before the weekend. The boss called him into his office, explained about “staff optimization” and a crisis in the industry, handed him a notice and severance pay. The thirty-year-old software engineer went home with a heavy feeling in his chest, but tried to stay optimistic. […]

Anna Sergeyevna always came to work fifteen minutes early. Not out of zeal or a desire to impress—just because it felt right. While other employees were hastily finishing their coffee in the hallway, she was already sorting the mail, preparing documents for signature, and checking the director’s meeting schedule. Her workstation—a small desk outside the […]

The shadow of the tall poplar outside had already fallen across half the yard when the worst thing in all sixteen years of the Beketovs’ life together began. The air in the living room—thick with cigarette smoke and mute tension—felt like you could slice it with a knife. Artyom Viktorovich, a man with hands etched […]

“Don’t touch me! Let me go! Don’t!” That desperate cry rang out over the river’s smooth surface and died away—heard by almost no one, understood by no one—swallowed up by heat thick as honey. The languid, exhausting swelter pressed the grasses to the ground, silenced the birds, and muffled sound itself, as if brushing aside […]