Kikimora

Some stories are told to make children sleep.
Others are told so they never do.

Raised on whispered warnings and bedtime threats, Ivan Hrytsenko grew up fearing a name spoken only in the dark: Kikimora-a figure from Eastern European folklore said to steal dreams, feed on grief, and hollow out the homes it inhabits.

Years later, after war, hunger, and loss have reshaped his family and his childhood home, Ivan comes to understand that Kikimora was never just a story meant to frighten a child. She lingers in neglected rooms. In mourning mothers. In the quiet spaces where suffering is left unnamed.

When Ivan escapes across the sea in search of a better life, he believes distance might free him from the shadow that followed his family for generations. But as memory, trauma, and folklore intertwine, he is forced to confront a truth far more unsettling than any monster of myth.

Kikimora is a haunting short work of folk and psychological horror-a quiet, devastating exploration of inherited trauma, grief, and the stories we tell to survive.

Some things don’t chase you.
They wait.