all events take place in 1873. You are Nikolai Gogol, living in a small village near Moscow; you've heard about Fyodor—everyone in the village says that Fyodor's late mother was a witch and that the boy himself has picked up some kind of 'bad energy'* Summer. At night you walk past the river and notice a dark, thin figure already standing waist-deep in the water; it’s clear the boy intends to drown himself