Many of us went to visit our grandmother in the village in the summer. So, the story took place in one of them, in the Republic of Tatarstan. Usually in the summer a lot of young people came there, and not only from the republic itself, but also from neighboring regions. We left the house at about 8 o'clock in the evening, as it was necessary first to help grandmother and grandfather with the housework, after which we gathered in an unfinished bakery, which was located at the entrance to the village. Already there they decided what to do, and walked until morning.
On one of these July nights (it was about 2 nights) we were returning home. To make it clear: the village where my grandparents lived has three streets running parallel to each other. My house and the houses of most of my friends and acquaintances were on the third street. It turned out that along the way, everyone stayed one by one at their houses, and me, since my house is in the middle, was seen off by those who remained and those who were going further, living at the end of the street.
I don’t know why, but that very night there were no guys living at the end of the street, and I was not so much the last, but the only one, since we were walking home with a friend who lived at the very beginning of the street. Stopping at his house, we talked about something, and in the process of communicating, I just drew attention to the fact that a lantern was shining near my house, whereas before it was not there and it was very dark outside. The comrade said that progress reached them, so they were installed, but very rarely: one at the beginning of the street, another near my house, and the last one somewhere at the end of the street. I remember exactly that when I first drew attention to this, there was no one under this very lantern. After half a minute we said goodbye, I walked towards the house and saw that there was a small man standing near this lamp, on the edge of the road. I immediately realized that it was a grandmother, because the headscarf on her head was discernible, although the distance was about 30-40 meters to her. This grandmother seemed strange to me right away, since the time was late, but I, considering that she was a neighbor from the opposite house, did not pay much attention to this. Coming closer, I become more and more convinced that this is really a granny, since in addition to a shawl, she was wearing a quilted jacket, a long dress and galoshes. All the clothes were black, and no other shades were distinguished. “It’s like there’s a shadow,” - then I thought and began to fantasize, to think about how I would run away from it. Then he grinned and, thinking that I was a grown man (then I was 15 years old) and if anything, I could fight back even evil spirits, approached the house.
Coming closer and closer, I saw that she was looking towards the opposite house. Thinking that this is a neighbor from this house, I calmed down, since she was just about the same height. I went up to her very close and greeted her, calling her by name, but she did not react in any way. It was then that I really got scared, since all her clothes were black as night! Moreover, even the hands were black! Heart in my heels, but I'm practically at my gate. To avoid trouble, I walk past her, but I do not take my eyes off, so that if anything - to give a fight. The last thing was that when I started to equal her and walked behind her back, she, standing in one place, began to turn her head in my direction. When I was practically at arm's length from the gate, her head was turned 180 degrees, but, damn it, she didn't have a face - just blackness! Comprehending with retardation that a person cannot turn his head like that, I pull the handle of the gate, but it is closed (usually it was always closed at night). I don’t remember how, but somehow I fell over this very gate, although it was high, and found myself at home in a moment. I immediately ran to the window overlooking the street, but, as expected, I saw no one there.
I told my grandma about this story, and she said that everything could be, since this neighbor, according to rumors, is a witch. A few years later, this very neighbor died, and they found her at home all black, as if burned alive, but the interior items next to which she was found were safe and sound. Such a story.
In the Loknyansky district of the Pskov region there is a place that the locals prefer to keep silent about. And the thing is that the people have long believed that those who talk a lot about this village will certainly die, and in the very near future. Are the fears really not groundless or that this settlement, located 16 km from the regional center, has practically died out, are not mystical reasons at all guilty?
Over the past 50 years, the villagers have died, and most often the deaths were not caused by natural causes (disease, epidemics, old age, etc.). Either the boy drowns, then the blacksmith will receive a fatal blow to the head with a horse's hoof, then the milkmaid, suddenly crazed, will raise the bull on his horns, then the carpenter will fall from the roof. Quite strong women and men were dying from some kind of rapidly developing unknown diseases.
Around the same time, half a century ago, rumors of an ominous phenomenon began to circulate. And whether in fact something in the village was not right, or fear just got big eyes, but once two teenage shepherds told with horror how in the thicket of the forest, which they knew like the back of their hand, they found a clearing with charred earth. A herd of cows, stepping on the very middle of it, flared up and fell through the ground. The old-timer, having heard this story, told that his grandfather had told him about such a killer meadow, which, like a huge funnel-hole, sucked in all living things, terrifying the locals.
In Loknyansky district, popular rumor has worked well with this phenomenon, with which a lot of legends are today associated. Some are sure that under the clearing there is a labyrinth with numerous intricate passages, from where strange creatures get to the surface at night and kidnap children. Even on bright sunny days, there is fog over the clearing, in which you can see some ghostly shadows. Some could see animals in them, others - dwarf people. A person who stepped into the clearing disappears without a trace. Although there were cases when people returned, this did not happen immediately, and they were in some kind of inhibited state and unconscious.
Someone will tell you a different story that goes even deeper. They say that many centuries ago a princely castle stood on this place. Once there was a strong thunderstorm, and suddenly dozens of lightning bolts were removed into the structure, which in a matter of minutes fell into the ground. Since then, the meadow looks burnt in winter and summer, and a ring of dried trees and bushes has formed around it, tightly intertwined with branches, forming a solid natural “fence”.
Some of the "eyewitnesses", however, claim that the meadow, on the contrary, looks green and very attractive for birds and animals that find their death here - when they get to this place, they fall dead, but their bodies do not rot for a very long time, until the corpse only the skeleton remains. From time to time, the anomalous field expands its boundaries, into which the village sometimes falls. There, suddenly without any reason, a series of deaths, accidents, murders, fires, etc. begins.
Those who tried to leave here say that after a few kilometers, an unknown force makes them come back. In the war, the glade brought local residents to their advantage - the German troops occupying the surrounding territories could not reach this village. Apparently, they also fell victims to a murderous place. Today the rumor about the killer meadow continues to live among the Loknyans. You will be told about her much more and more vividly than in this material. No one lives in the most ruinous village. And only the most daring and desperate strangers staying in neighboring villages go to that forest. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, such adventurism ends in disappearances and deaths.
It was later revealed that all this belonged to the naturalist Thomas Theodore Merlin, the son of a wealthy aristocrat and a famous biologist of the 18th century.
All found objects are part of the collection of Merlin's cryptids.
Thomas Theodore Merlin dedicated his life to collecting and studying strange specimens.
His mother died in childbirth and he was raised by his father. He was an introverted person who spent most of his life alone. He constantly traveled to collect bizarre specimens of species that had not yet been cataloged by zoologists and naturalists of the time.
Among the various anomalies attributed to Thomas Merlin was one according to which, at 80 years old, he looked like a 40-year-old man. It was believed that this was due to the fact that during one of his trips he discovered the secret of the tribe he visited. This tribe practiced the dark arts to prolong life.
Some scholars condemned his collection. They thought it was a scam. In their opinion, all the exhibits were not found, but were made by Thomas.
The scientist mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the 19th century. In 1942, a man posing as Thomas Merlin handed over the building in which the boxes were found to an orphanage. The only condition was not to sell the house and never open the basement. Soon after, the mysterious stranger disappeared and was never seen again. The orphanage staff kept their word and never opened the basement. However, in the 1960s, the orphanage had to leave the building. The house was demolished. The builders, who destroyed it almost to the ground, managed to find the legendary collection of cryptids ...
