In a small, inconspicuous shop, a small, inconspicuous person works as a salesperson. He is banal, ordinary and gray. But he has a secret, perhaps terrible, perhaps deadly. Sometimes, in the evenings, when no one is around, a strange creature appears to him, a human-sized wooden puppet depicting a clown. The threads that control her limbs and head are hidden in the shadows above. The clown is always silent, waiting. And one day he will still take what he came for.© D. Tikhonov For the first time in Russian - DARKER magazine. No. 10 October 2014, October 20, 2014