Will You Agree to Be a Victim?

Fifth Story
- Will you agree to become a victim?
- I will, - the girl replies, barely holding back a laugh.
Distant Karelia, a snow-covered forest, a frozen lake etched with rays of a pentagram, and a group of very young people who have come here for winter holidays. Night, candles lit in their hands, the cold glint of steel on the blade of a knife passed around in a circle, drops of blood falling into the snow from cut palms… A game or reality? For someone it’s a game, while for someone else death is truly flirting. So how will this terrible ritual end? With fun? Or with disaster?
Exactly a year has passed since the young people set off for Karelia. Exactly a year has passed since they vanished without a trace. The search yielded no results; it was as if the boys and girls dissolved into thin air along with their cars and gear. But their parents do not give up hope. They seize on any opportunity, even the faintest one.