Chapter 1 - SIXTY KILOSEvery day, a woman bought sixty kilos of beef.
Nobody in the village could understand why.
Her name was Lidia.
She was seventy-one years old, thin as a dry branch, with silver hair usually tied behind her neck and hands permanently stained by years of gardening.
For more than twenty years, Lidia had lived alone in a small stone house near the edge of the village.
She had never been rich.
She never drove.
She rarely went into town.
And she had certainly never bought sixty kilos of meat.
So when she entered Ovidiu's butcher shop at six-thirty on Monday morning and quietly said, "Sixty kilos," the butcher thought he had misheard her.
"Sixty what?"
"Kilos."
Ovidiu lowered the knife in his hand.
"For a wedding?"
Lidia shook her head.
"A family dinner."
Ovidiu almost laughed.
"You've got enough meat there for half the village."
But Lidia didn't smile.
She opened a small brown purse, pulled out a bundle of old banknotes and began counting them with trembling fingers.
Her hands were shaking so badly that she dropped two bills.
Ovidiu noticed something strange.
There was dirt underneath her fingernails.
Not garden dirt.
Dark, almost black mud.
"Everything okay, Lidia?"
She looked toward the shop window.
The street outside was empty.
Then she looked over her shoulder.
"No questions."
That was the first thing she had ever said to him that sounded like a warning.
Ovidiu packed the meat.
Ten kilos.
Then another ten.
Then another.
Soon, the packages covered the counter.
When he finished, Lidia paid every cent, loaded the bags into an old blue van that looked like it had not passed inspection in twenty years, and drove away.
By noon, the village was talking.
By evening, everyone had a theory.
Maybe she was feeding stray dogs.
Maybe she had started selling meat secretly.
Maybe there was a restaurant nobody knew about.
One neighbor swore she had seen Lidia carrying the bags toward the forest.
But nobody knew why.
That night, Ovidiu called Lidia's house.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
The following morning, she returned.
"Sixty kilos."
Ovidiu stared at her.
"Again?"
"Again."
"How many people are coming to this family dinner?"
Lidia froze.
Then she said the words that made Ovidiu's stomach tighten.
"My son."
Ovidiu's smile disappeared.
"Lidia..."
She picked up the bags.
"My son has come home."
There was something so final in the way she said it that Ovidiu didn't correct her.
He watched her leave.
Two hours later, he called the village cemetery.
He asked the caretaker to check an old grave.
Lidia's only son, Stefan.
Dead for eleven years.
A motorcycle accident.
Twenty-nine years old.
Buried beneath a cracked stone angel.
The caretaker confirmed it.
Ovidiu sat behind the counter for several minutes without moving.
Then he remembered something.
Three nights earlier, he had seen a light in the forest.
Near the abandoned shipyard.
A place everyone avoided.
The old ship had belonged to a dismantling company that had gone bankrupt decades ago. One rusted cargo vessel had been dragged deep inland after a flood changed the river channel.
People called it the Dead Ship.
Children dared each other to touch its hull.
Adults stayed away.
The ship had no electricity.
No running water.
No reason for anybody to be there.
Yet three nights earlier, Ovidiu had seen a yellow light flickering inside it.
That afternoon, he decided to follow Lidia.
He waited until she left the butcher shop.
Then he followed at a distance.
The road disappeared into the woods.
Lidia drove slowly.
Too slowly.
Several times, she stopped and looked behind her.
Ovidiu hid his motorcycle behind trees.
She continued.
Twenty minutes later, the abandoned ship appeared between the pines.
Lidia parked.
She opened the back of the van.
Sixty kilos of beef.
She carried the first bag to the ship.
Then another.
Then another.
The metal door opened.
A darkness swallowed her.
Ovidiu waited.
Five minutes.
Ten.
Then he heard something.
A sound from inside.
Not barking.
Not growling.
Crying.
A human voice.
Very faint.
"Please..."
Ovidiu stepped forward.
Then another voice whispered from inside.
"Mom?"
He froze.
Lidia came running out.
She looked directly at him.
For the first time, Ovidiu saw terror in the old woman's eyes.
"You followed me."
"I heard someone."
Lidia grabbed his arm.
"Go home."
"Who is inside?"
She looked toward the ship.
Then back at him.
"My son."
Ovidiu swallowed.
"Your son is dead."
Lidia's lips trembled.
"I know."
A sudden metallic bang came from inside the ship.
Both of them turned.
Another bang.
Then another.
Something was hitting the door.
Lidia stepped backward.
"Please," she whispered. "Do not make them hear you."
"Them?"
The fourth bang was louder.
The metal door shook.
Ovidiu stared at the rusted hull.
Then he heard several voices at once.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All whispering the same thing.
"Don't let them come back."
Ovidiu looked at Lidia.
She was crying now.
And before he could ask who "they" were, a fifth bang tore through the forest.
The door began to open from the inside.
May you like
And Lidia screamed.
"RUN."
