Arseniy Popov

As a child, Anton had an imaginary friend, Arseniy. His parents didn't pay much attention to it. Many children invent invisible friends, so their son's stories seemed like ordinary childhood fantasies. Everything changed when Shastun began telling stories he couldn't possibly know: about missing people, accidents, and events that occurred days after his stories. Sometimes these were trivial details, sometimes news stories that would later be shown on television. He answered all questions with the same answer: Arseniy told him.

As Popov grew older, he disappeared. Anton stopped mentioning his name, and new friends, concerns, and hobbies appeared. Over time, memories of his strange friend almost faded from his memory and began to seem like fiction. But many years later, he saw the face of a wanted criminal on the news and immediately recognized his childhood friend.

Shocked, Anton began searching for information about Arseniy and discovered oddities. Old diaries contained entries about people and places he'd only encountered as an adult. Some names meant nothing to him then, but now belonged to acquaintances from his circle. A boy resembling Popov appeared in several family photographs, though none of the relatives remembered him or could explain his presence in the pictures. The more Shastun learned, the more convinced he became that Arseniy had never been a figment of his imagination.

One day, Anton watched an interview with Popov. Everything seemed perfectly normal until, at the very end, Arseniy turned to the camera. His gaze was strange and overly attentive, as if he were looking not at the audience but directly at Anton. And then he said quietly:

• You finally remembered me.