Kiperina is left speechless for a moment. She never imagined the story would take a turn like this.
Kiperina: I'm so sorry. That's such a horrible thing to have happened to you.
Woman: The one who should apologize is me, child. Such a tale, no one would feel happy hearing it, да?
Woman: I hadn't planned to say all this, but somehow, it's such an odd thing. I hope I haven't upset you.
The story clutches at her heart, and a question is lodged in her throat, one that another listener asks on her behalf.
Han Zhang: Wait, seriously, you mean a monster from hell attacked your husband?
Woman: No. How could that be?
Woman: The well's only a meter wide; how could anything dangerous have come from it?
The woman offers a strange smile that slowly turns cold.
Woman: Besides, I'm a doctor. His wounds were caused by a knife.
Woman: And I found the bloodstained knife a few meters away.
Woman: So, I brought the hounds in and had them follow the scent to track down that "monster."
Hound: Woof-woof! Woof! Woof!
The hounds bark wildly as a fearful face peeks out from the shadows of the building.
A face she recognizes.
Woman: Mr. Vasily.
Woman: What are you doing here?
Driller II: Is that blood on his clothes?
Driller III: He's the one! Grab him!
Woman: Vasily was a pitiable man. I've known him for a long time.
Woman: He came to my mother's clinic late one night, carrying a strange old man in his arms. Back then, he was the most kind-hearted young man in town, and everyone loved him.
Woman: I used to help at her clinic. Every time he walked by, he'd take out chocolate from his pocket and say it was a treat for "good kiddies."
She closes her eyes and pauses for a moment.
Woman: When I saw him again at the drilling site, I could hardly believe I was looking at the same man.
Woman: He would have been in his early forties then, but he was hunched and gaunt. If someone told you he was sixty, you would have believed it.
She sighs, eyes filled with sympathy, but there is something darker in it.
Was it anger or hatred? Maybe both? Perhaps neither?
Kiperina cannot say for sure. In the end, she simply asks in a whisper.
Kiperina: What happened to make him like that?
Woman: He never spoke of his past. I only learned of it from the others.
Woman: He said something he shouldn't have when he was drunk, and the following day, he was taken away. Nobody heard from him for a long time.
Woman: They say he was sent to the Vorkuta mine. Arseny once shared a dorm with him. He said that he often woke up in the night, screaming.
Woman: He said that Vasily always claimed he didn't say anything wrong, and that he knew who informed on him, but every time he would tell us a different name.
Woman: Whoever it was, that place broke him, and he no longer believed in anyone or anything. The kind gentleman I knew as a child might as well already be dead.
Kiperina: Is that why he did something so terrible?
Kiperina: How is she? I mean, your daughter.
Woman: Our child ... my most precious treasure ...
Woman: She vanished.
Vasily: Curious, very curious! She should be right here.
Vasily: Ugh!
The butt of a rifle hits his back, and the man tumbles into the snow.
Driller II: Talk now!
Driller III: This old man's been out of his mind all day. He probably doesn't even remember. The whole thing is a mess.
Driller III: The snow keeps coming down. A child that small, in this weather ...
The man on the ground leaps up as if scorched by the snow.
Vasily: I don't remember! Please! Just listen to me! We can't keep drilling!
Vasily: The sounds from below ... I know those sounds! Something horrible is going to happen, something very bad!
Vasily: They're going to take us all there, to hell! I won't go back there!
He screams, his voice eventually faltering and fading.
Vasily: I just wanted to frighten you.
Vasily: I was planning to hide the girl, to make it seem like a warning from the demon, so that you and Arseny would stop. Without you, everyone else would agree to end this.
Vasily: I didn't think I would wake him.
Vasily: I brought the knife for a little courage. I never imagined—I thought ...
Vasily: Larissa, please forgive me.
Woman: Then the police took him away. I never saw him again, and they never found our girl.
Woman: I don't know if I truly hate him. He was a pitiable old man, driven insane by his hardships. But I know that I can't forgive him for what he's done.
Woman: I just hope to never see his face again.
Kiperina: ...
Kiperina has no response to the woman's story, only an ache of sympathy.
Reality cannot be changed, and any consolation she offers would be a futile gesture. She understands that more than anyone else.
Han Zhang: sigh I'm such a mushy little salamander. I just can't handle stuff like this.
The little salamander swishes its tail and hangs its head over the side of its container.
The cabin falls into silence.
Until at last, Kiperina sees the woman's eyes lift up and out the window.
Woman: Oh, would you look at that? The snow's stopped.
Kiperina: Hmm? It really has.
Woman: Do you see those two small hills over there?
Kiperina moves closer to the window.
Kiperina: You mean those two there side-by-side?
Woman: That's where he said he left our girl in the divot between them. He wanted to shelter her from the wind.
Woman: She was somewhere around there.
Kiperina finally understands.
Kiperina: That's why you come here so often?
Kiperina: You're still looking for her?
Woman: It's the only thing I have to go on.
Woman: Some days I imagine that I might see a kind old woman holding a little girl's hand, saying, "I found you here many years ago, you know ..."
Woman: Who knows. It's possible, isn't it?
The woman offers a heartbreaking smile, and Kiperina feels again at a loss to speak.
A child left alone in the snow—how could she have survived? It's impossible. It would take a miracle if someone finds her by accident.
Kiperina: Hold on.
The realization hits her like a bullet, ricocheting around in her chest.
Kiperina: Then your child was lost around here during a snowstorm. When did this happen?
Kiperina: Did she have her name stitched onto her blanket?
Kiperina: What was her name?
The idea seems impossible to consider, but—
As soon as the thought enters her head, it cannot be dismissed. The chaos leaves her mind blank, and Kiperina holds her breath.
After a long pause, she watches the woman open her mouth confusedly.
Woman: Daksha. Her name is Daksha.
Woman: She is my eldest daughter.
Kiperina: ...
Kiperina: Oh, I see.
Is it disappointment or relief she feels in the pit of her stomach? She responds blankly, pausing as if unsure of what to say next.
Fortunately, the sound of the door opening breaks the pause before it looms too heavily.
Girl: Mamma!
Boy: I knew you were here, Mamma! But you didn't tell us this time.
Boy: Uhm. Who's this lady?
