In a split second, she managed to see far more than she needed to. A plainclothes policeman—one of the three who had entered the apartment building when Olya returned to the playground—picked Irа up, turned her face away from the terrible scene, but not quickly enough: she saw that the body in the doorway wasn’t just decapitated— it was literally torn apart, and chunks of flesh floated in a huge puddle of blood…
Good heavens, where did it all come from, why all these strange coincidences? Why is she afraid of this apartment again? Why does this childhood episode, right now, won’t let her go—forcing her to relive it in her memories and replay it in her dreams?