So, I heard this story, a traumatizing story of a girl from Montana. This was during my senior year in high school, when the urge to finish last minute projects came in. Trying to bustle so you could just have that brick hell that they called school.
I don’t know why or how the conversation got started. Where it originated from, or the cause of it’s seemingly exaggerated existence. All I know is that I was at a school computer, late that day. My friend, Ariana walked in, laughing at me for being such a nerd and studying for the last exam.
We went back and forth, for a moment, and shared snooty comments and bad jokes. You know, how most good friends communicate with each other.
As soon as we stopped talking though, I stated to look through the tabs on my computer. As soon as I had found the tab I was looking for, a music site, my friend was started to snicker to herself.
“You know, Dayton, I can tell you a pretty cool story, if you aren’t a chicken to listen to it!” She shouted at me, grinning before she sits down in a chair next to me.
As she was sitting down, she pulled the back of the chair to the front, presumably so she could lean on it.
As soon as she started to talk, I took off the headphones from the audiobook I was listening to for history. The music app had stopped being used so I could listen to the book.
As soon as I was completely at attention with her, she smirks, and suddenly gains a straight face, looking at the music tab on the computer screen again, before looking me dead in the face with a simple frown. She was silent a moment, as if to ask herself if she really wanted to tell me anything at all. I was at that long where I was going to ask what she was trying to say, when-
“Once, in a remote area in central Montana, there lived a girl. Her home life was simple, for the most part; and she didn’t have a problem making friends.”
Oh nevermind, she must have just been pausing for dramatic effect. From there, I can’t remember thinking of much, I just listened to the story…
“Her name was Katyusha Ozolouki. A name that really stuck out, if most were honest with themselves. However, she was rather simple, in contradictory of her outlandish title.
Katyusha never had a bad home life, with it being so… uneventful, and kind of looming humdrum. Her dad worked at a grocery store as a carry out. Her mother however remained unemployed. They had enough money to get them by, to be comfortable. Along the way though, sometimes it was not enough. There was bills, emotional stress, sickness, and other wonderful things to drag them down.
A decent worker at school, and the quiet type all seemed fine and dandy. That didn’t change the fact that she was still very much a social butterfly. Not one who was able to be bullied easily.
She had a reputation, a music maker. That is what she was called by almost anyone. Bursting into song, drumming her fingers on desks, and most of all, musical edits. Everything. As someone who was musically inclined, she of course had enemies. One of which was other people’s jealousy.
Teachers would boast about how she was able to make great music on a whim, and say she was destined to get into any musical career she wanted. So, others held a grudge, namely Nathan. He used to be at the top of his music class, lagging behind in the rest of his credits to support his dream.
Going all through high school, his envy for the Russian American was steadily growing with her presence and success.
The time over the years had only wore down on patience and, relentlessness. Even when he was in school, he was always trying to bully her. Trying. Every time he works bully her, physically, emotionally, verbally. It never worked! It was like a light switch, she would look at him blankly. The blank stare in the matter of an instant, no matter what was going on. It pissed him off so much.
Until, there was that one day… He noticed she was acting strange. She would itch her arms and stare at them. Mumble to herself or make more noise. It all happened on the day she forgot her headphones. The day right before the awards at school at the end if the year.
With that in mind, Nathan finally had a plan.
The next day, the awards at school went by smoothly, until it was time for the music awards. Three students were called to a tall strange. One that used stairs to go up on both sides. With the gap that remained between the staircase and stage, there was a simple little decoration.
A black metal fence, with dulled but pointed tops. Going up at least another foot from the bar that stretched across the length of the fence.
The initial design of the stage was to mimick the community college. The fence about the very same as the one that went around the said building.
As soon as they were called to the stage, Nathan grabbed a pair of scissors, and snipped the wire to Katyusha’s headphones. Making what little bit of music was able to be heard immediately cut short. Once again, there was only a static look, which grinded his gears more.
As their names were called, they have their way up to the stage where the principle stood with their papers. Time allowed itself to slow.
Heart beating, breathing heavy, he glanced over at the girl, still holding her now useless headphones in her right hand. In a matter of time, he saw it. She started to itch again, looking at her arms, holding her head. Her fingers twitching as she holds them close.
‘What a freak!’ he thought to himself. His eyes travel down, as the paper she was about to receive falls to the floor.
Now was his chance! He could get even with her for stealing his place! Bending down, he reached for the paper, and picks it up, before he pretends to trip. Falling right into Katyusha’s legs. With a great shove, and lack of thought, off the side of the stage Katyusha went. The wrong side, opposite of where Nathan pushed her, all because of a cable that had been used to power a large speaker.
He didn’t see anything at first, but he certainly heard it. He heard the cracks of bone, piercing of skin, dripping of blood, and a single choked gag along with the release of a thick liquid hitting the wooden floor.
Looking over the side, he felt sick instantly. Katyusha was impaled on the fence. Diagonally strewn over the lethal metal structure. One is the many up pointing spikes drove through her left eye, from the back of the head. Anything narrowly escaping her neck. The third going in between bones that would have got the ribs if she was an inch closer. Other spikes miss most of her vital organs and nerve systems.
Somehow though, she lived. After she was taken to the hospital, she always had headphones in when they were not operating on her. This was due to the fact that she would always ask for them in her sleep. Begging for them, on account of the voices she was hearing. It calmed her down. Kept her level and steady.
Nathan refused to go away unless he saw her. He never intended to almost kill her. Heck her didn’t want to even injure her that bad. He just wanted to make her look like a clutz or just dumb In front if everyone by knocking her down to the floor.
It wasn’t until he meet Katyusha’s parents that he realized she was not wealthy either. They weren’t going to be able to pay for the operation. So, they were going to have to let her go.
Nathan finally decided to throw away his pride, and begged neighbors, friends, cousins, family, and even strangers for money to help with her operation. Offering to do chores, and sell items. It took two months. Months of hard labor and stressed time.
All that spare time spent next to her bed, apologizing to her over and over and over again. Telling her that he was sorry. She knew he pushed her. Yet… she still forgave him the one time she was conscious.
In the last two days after her operation, one of Nathan’s friends, Danny went with him. Danny was a particularly mean kid, who also abused the use of trust, drugs and medication. He was also a high school drop out.
Nathan’s first thought on taking him in was that it was going to result in bad news. However the other kept insisting he wanted to feel what it was like to worry for somebody.
It was indeed a bad idea. Every time Nathan wasn’t looking, Danny took the headphones off of Katyusha’s head, in turn making Nathan have to put them back on and scold Danny for the action.
As soon as closing hours how, Nathan refused to leave until Danny left, and they both had to be beckoned out of the room. As soon as the two walked by, Danny once again pulled off the earphones sneakily. The nurses and doctors keeping a close eye on him in particular because if his record. They were now worried about actions dinner directly, not indirectly, which is where the problem started.
As soon as they were out of the building, Danny pulls out a knife and he cut the power circuits to the hospital. Making the building go black. Due to how small the town was, they never felt it necessary to have guards at these areas.
The building put itself in lock down. Meaning the doors all locked themselves and refused to open unless it was from the inside. There were no doctors in Katyusha’s room.
As soon as the doctors for to get room they could hear her screaming, trying to block voices out, and get the bugs off of herself. The alarm going off only put pressure on her.
The doctors had to try and use tools to open the doors, settling for a pickaxe and sledgehammer that they found in a nearby utility closet. Busting open the glass, and opening the door from the inside, the doctors all tried to corral Katyusha who was rocking back and forth, shaking as she hummed.
Putting their hands on her shoulder was a lethal mistake.
I’m the morning, Nathan was woken up by his parents, shaking him into consciousness as soon as they got the news. At first, Nathan was in denial on what he was hearing. What happened last night… But as soon as he saw it on television, he knew it was not a lie…
The police were telling him what happened… What they saw on the footage..
Katyusha bringing her whole body around, grabbing the pick axe and bringing it down on a doctor’s head, demanding her MP3 player. And the crazy laughing, all while she itched at her arms. Her brown eyes gaining a crazed glaze to them.
She did the same thing to other doctors, while ending up taking a bit of damage herself. Even taking the hammer to other doctors and smashing heads in, breaking bones. Then she electrocuted another few.
After doctors stopped going in her room, she found the spare headphones in the table by her hospital bed and plugs them in, turning on the music. As soon as she saw what she had done, she started to sob. Within an hour, it turned into laughter. The entirety of the situation all falling on her. The power wasn’t all back, bit the cameras only worked for to them being battery operated. Others were linked to a separate power reserve.
Katyusha got her clothes, and escaped through a window while avoiding everyone she was running across. Either by killing or sneaking by. Until she was no longer in view of the cameras.
Many patients died, because the power was the only thing keeping them alive. Such as air tanks and machine related medicinal purposes.
Nathan was distraught, not because of the money he wasted trying to save Katyusha, not because he didn’t know who cut the power source, though he had a good idea. It was because he never had the ability to properly make up and apologize to Katyusha, not does he know where she is.
Over the next month, Nathan had ratted Danny out, and the other escaped prison, twice. Having to be caught again. He was on the loose once again .
Walking home after work, he was listening to one of the remixes he found on YouTube. It was by Katyusha, of course. It was actually… About him….
It was labeled “Mean Mugger” as amusing as the title was, it was more serious, and it also wasn’t calling him out. It was trying to actually understand him. Which she did rather well. Though some things were off, Minor details.
He was so wrapped up in the song, he was crying. He also was to distracted to notice the figure behind him before they dragged him into an alleyway.
As soon as he got a good look, he dropped his phone, making the screen turn on, and the highlighted song in the middle of the screen was none other than ‘Mean Mugger’.
The face looking back at him was Danny, the other glaring as he clearly scoffed and growls. “You little punk!! You ratted me out, didn’t you! You shithead!”
Nathan bit his lip as he yells back to him, cursing about the other cutting the power and moving Katyusha’s headphones.
As the fight broke out, the eye too wrapped up to notice a third person join in. And in mere minutes, they were both unconscious…”
–
My friend stopping the tale brought me back to attention. It has been 45 minutes, I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn’t know just how much time it has taken to tell.
“Then what happened?” I asked her, only to have her look away as he sighed, also looking at her clock that was over her right wrist. Before she looks back at me.
“Not much else, I’m afraid… You know that abandoned library at the North end of town?” She asked to me bluntly
“Yeah, I do, why?” I questioned her back, wondering where she was going with this.
“Legend says that Katyusha took Nate and Danny there. She killed Danny, and let Nathan leave unscathed. Though he refused to say anything about it, he is still alive to this day. They made amends, and he even knows, or knew what she did with her kills… You see after she killed those doctors, she could never go back to the way she was. It was too hard, she liked to kill.”
Again, I was interested. I don’t knew why though…
“She killed Danny by playing music on a computer, and blasting his ears out along with rattling his brain. You know, head trauma…”
I looked at my friend again, as she gets up, putting the chair back where she got it from
” And… Nathan?”
“…nobody knows what he witnessed, but he doesn’t talk about it. He still had a very high opinion of Katyusha, or so it’s said.”
With that, my friend left me that night… And the story stuck with me ever since… Though my friend didn’t.
She ended up dead a few weeks later. So I guess I should tell you why she ended up talking to me, and how it connected to the tab of music I had opened on the computer…
She snickered to herself, and went to that website, and downloaded the a song that was made by the user that uploaded ‘Mean Mugger’ and a small notification popped up briefly. I had a chance to read it, since I read fast. The message box said ‘Your address has been added’ before vanishing within the same ten minutes.
After that again, she left. Heading for home.
I was stuck sitting there to wonder more. A growing fear of music lingering in my gut in case one of those computers was hacked and the music blasts.
I guess I might as well explain what she looks like as well, to get her image out of my mind. I ran across an image of her when I looked into her name.
She was about 5″11, with pale skin and bright brown eyes. Her hair was Platinum blonde, short cut to suit her face. Though he was part Russian, she had a smaller nose and chin build. In the picture I had, she was wearing a fancy white woman’s top with light frills and slightly baggy sleeves. Her pants were medium blue overalls that only went down to her knees in a loose fit just above a pair of knee high white socks and brown hiking boots. She had on s pair of shiny blue head phones with a white cord and a bracelet on her right hand. She also had a rather large bust and a rectangular body shape.
As unimportant as this information seems… If you run across anyone dressed like this, just try to run…. If you can’t, pray. She. Is. Everywhere!!
