"He probably just drank himself silly! Ha-ha!" But that evening, he didn’t just start believing in ghosts. It felt like he started believing in God.

Tonight, Nikolai decided to have a little drink. Just a little… maybe three bottles of beer? And even after those three bottles, he could still walk straight.

He was walking across the snow-covered clearing at night—his usual test site for helicopters. The place was as familiar to him as his own workshop. But instead of the expected emptiness, he saw a girl standing in the snowdrifts.

— "Hey, miss? Are you lost?" — he called out.

But the girl remained motionless. Swearing under his breath, he approached her and threw his jacket over her shoulders.

— "Are you deaf? What are you doing here alone?" — he asked, crossing his arms in annoyance.

He looked around, but when his gaze returned to where the girl had been, she was gone… Of course, Nikolai didn’t immediately think of anything supernatural:

— "She could’ve at least left the jacket."

A week passed after that incident. Almost every night, Nikolai saw the mysterious figure of the girl. But every time he got closer, she vanished.

His colleagues had already started gossiping about how Nikolai was "chasing ghosts."

Most of them just laughed:

— "He probably just drank himself silly! Ha-ha!"

But every day, Nikolai became more and more obsessed with catching this figure—if only to get his favorite jacket back!

One night, he finally decided not to go to that damned clearing.

— "To hell with that girl! I'm not some puppy chasing after a woman," — he muttered irritably, turning on his side.

He was just drifting off to sleep when his door suddenly creaked open. Reflexively, he swore:

— "Room’s occupied! Get the hell out!"

But instead of a response, he heard a quiet voice:

— "You didn’t come to me tonight…"

Nikolai turned sharply, spotting the same ghostly figure of the girl.

— "So, you came to me instead?" — he muttered in surprise. — "Well, women are even less welcome here. How the hell did you get in?"