It was another monotonous night shift at RetroSound, the vintage audio store nestled between a used bookstore and a closed-down diner on the outskirts of town. The store was my sanctuary, filled with relics of a bygone era: vinyl records, antique radios, and the scent of dust mixed with aged wood. My task for the night was inventory - a task I found both tedious and comforting.
To break the silence, I decided to play DJ, spinning the dial on an old Panasonic radio that had seen better days. Static filled the air as I searched for a station, any station, that wasn’t playing the latest pop or news updates about the city’s unending construction projects.
“Come on, you ancient thing,” I muttered, giving the radio a gentle tap.
And then, something caught my ear. It wasn’t the classic rock I hoped for, nor was it the smooth jazz I often settled with. It was something… otherworldly. A station playing nostalgic music, crackling through the airwaves as if it were being broadcast from another time. And then, a song began—abruptly, no intro, just a haunting female voice singing in a language I couldn’t understand.
“Whoa, what’s this?” I mused aloud, my boredom instantly forgotten.
The song was eerie, beautiful, and utterly mesmerizing. The host returned briefly, mentioning the title, “Lullaby of Shadows,” and the artist, Ekaterina of Shadows, but provided no backstory or details.
Curiosity ignited within me. I couldn’t shake the melody from my head the next day. It played over and over, a loop that wouldn’t stop. At work, I tried to describe it to my colleague, Mike.”It was eerie, man. Like nothing I’ve heard before,” I explained, humming the tune.
Mike, always the skeptic, raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you picked up some pirate radio station. Stuff’s rare but not unheard of.”
The next day, fueled by an obsessive need to find the song, I turned to the internet. I posted on several music forums, describing the song and its abrupt introduction, asking if anyone recognized it. Days passed with only a trickle of generic responses, until one message caught my eye.
—-
Message from OldWorldMelodies:“Your description of ‘Lullaby of Shadows’ brought back memories of my late grandfather’s record collection. He was fond of Soviet-era music, and this song was among his favorites. I believe I have the record you’re seeking and would be willing to send it to you.”
—-
Intrigued and a bit skeptical, I replied, providing my mailing address but not expecting much. To my surprise, a package arrived a week later, containing the promised record. Eager to dive deeper into this mystery, I decided to play it at the audio store where I worked, thinking the vintage equipment there would do it justice.
“Hey, check this out,” I called to my colleagues, Alexei and Marina, as I placed the record on the turntable. The song started, Ekaterina’s voice filling the store with its haunting melody.
“Wow, this is… different,” Marina commented, her brow furrowed in a mix of confusion and fascination.
Alexei, usually the joker of our group, was silent, his gaze fixed on the spinning record. As the song played on, a palpable tension settled over us, a strange, unsettling atmosphere that I couldn’t shake off.
Once the song ended, the effect was immediate. Marina complained of feeling dizzy, while Alexei mentioned a sudden headache. I felt a chill run down my spine, but I brushed it off as a coincidence.
The days following the record’s playback at the store unfolded like a sequence from a nightmare I couldn’t wake from. Marina and Alexei, once vibrant and full of life, had succumbed to an inexplicable malaise, their voices distant echoes over the phone, filled with confusion and an underlying fear they couldn’t name. But it was Alexei’s fate that veered into the truly macabre, a chilling episode that seemed ripped from the darkest of tales.
It started with a phone call I’ll never forget. Marina, her voice barely a whisper, relayed the news of Alexei’s untimely demise. The details were sparse, shrouded in uncertainty, but the essence was horrifyingly clear: Alexei had been found dead in his apartment under bizarre circumstances.
Driven by a morbid need to understand, I visited the scene, an act I would come to regret. The air was thick with an unshakeable coldness as I stepped into his living space, now a tableau of unworldly quiet. Alexei was there, seated in his favorite armchair, facing the now silent record player. It was a scene of eerie tranquility, but the reality was far from peaceful.
His eyes were open, staring into the void with an expression of sheer terror, as if he had witnessed an unspeakable horror in his final moments. The room was charged with a palpable sense of dread, a heavy aura that seemed to whisper of unseen presences lurking just beyond the veil of reality. The police mentioned a heart attack, but the unsettling atmosphere, the look of horror frozen on Alexei’s face, spoke of causes far removed from the natural.
Distraught and desperate for answers, I updated my forum post with everything that had happened. That’s when “SiberianTruth” contacted me via email.
—-
Message from SiberianTruth:
Subject: Urgent: The Truth About “Lullaby of Shadows”
Hey,
I stumbled upon your post about “Lullaby of Shadows” and, man, it sent chills down my spine. I couldn’t just scroll past without giving you a heads-up about what you’ve gotten yourself into. This song… it’s not just a piece of music; it’s more like a cursed relic from a time and place that was steeped in mystery and darkness.
First off, Ekaterina of Shadows wasn’t her real name. It was Ekaterina Ivanovna Petrova, a woman whose voice could chill your blood not because it was eerie, but because it carried the weight of genuine sorrow and pain. Born in Yaroslavl in 1905, she was a child of tumultuous times, growing up in the shadow of a crumbling empire only to find herself caught in the throes of the Soviet regime. Her music was her escape, her way of touching something beyond the grim reality she lived in.
The composer, a guy named Mikhail Andreyevich Vasilyev, was a bit of a recluse, obsessed with folklore and the occult. He believed music was a bridge to the otherworldly, a way to communicate with spirits. Vasilyev was the one who crafted the melodies that Ekaterina’s voice would later bring to life. They were kindred spirits in a way, both lost in their search for something beyond the veil.
As for the lyrics, they were penned by a poet named Anna Sergeyevna Kuznetsova. Anna was fascinated by the dark tales and legends of old Russia, the kind of stories that made you question the nature of reality. She saw in Ekaterina a muse, a voice that could give life to her words, weaving them into a tapestry of sound and emotion that was both beautiful and terrifying.
The song “Lullaby of Shadows” was their magnum opus, a culmination of their collective obsession with the unseen. Here’s a rough translation of the lyrics:
‘Lullaby of Shadows’
At the midnight hour, when the fogs drift by,
Sleep, my child, do not disturb the silence.
I summon the unseen forces of shadows,
Let them come to us, hidden in the darkness.
The wind whispers ancient incantations,
Let your dreams be filled with shadows.
Under the moon, where darkness dwells forever,
Sleep, until they come from the depths of the night.
Quiet… do you hear? It’s the rustle of wings,
These are spirits, they’ve arrived at our feast.
Fear not, my little one, it’s just a game,
A game of shadows swirling around us.
Close your eyes, surrender to the night’s dreams,
Let them take you away to distant places.
Among the dead and ghosts, you’ll find peace,
Sleep, until dawn drives the night away.
Sleep, my child, in a world full of wonders,
The shadows promise you dreams without woes.
As long as you hear my lullaby,
Sleep, and know: in the darkness, you’re not alone.
And it goes on, delving deeper into the realm of spirits and shadows, a lullaby not for the living but for the souls caught between worlds. It’s said that Ekaterina put all of her soul into that recording, a final act of communion with the unseen. Not long after, overwhelmed by her obsessions and perhaps haunted by what she had touched, she took her own life.
The song was meant to be lost, buried with the secrets of its creators. But music, like spirits, has a way of crossing boundaries we thought impenetrable. Your post, man, it’s like opening a door that was meant to stay closed. People have reported feeling watched, hearing whispers, and suffering from nightmares that feel all too real after listening to the song.
I get the allure, the pull of uncovering something hidden, of sharing a lost piece of art with the world. But some things are lost for a reason. “Lullaby of Shadows” is a beautiful nightmare, a melody that reaches out from the darkness, not to soothe but to remind us that some doors should remain closed.
Be careful, alright? Not just with what you listen to, but with what you unleash into the world. Some shadows are best left undisturbed.
Take care,
SiberianTruth
—-
Attached to the message is a black and white photo of Ekaterina. She stands solemnly, her eyes piercing, as if staring through the lens and into the soul of the viewer. Her expression is one of profound sadness mixed with a hint of something unexplainable, a testament to her tragic and mysterious legacy.
As the days passed, weighed down by the loss of Alexei and the chilling revelations from “SiberianTruth,” I found myself at a crossroads. The logical part of me screamed to heed the warnings, to bury the song and forget it ever existed. Yet, there was another part, driven by an insatiable curiosity and a desire to share this hauntingly beautiful anomaly with the world. Perhaps, I thought, there was a way to satisfy both—to share the song but also to caution against its potentially malevolent power.
I decided to digitize the record and prepare it for upload to YouTube. Sitting in front of my computer, I drafted a description that detailed everything: the mysterious origins of “Lullaby of Shadows,” the tragic story of Ekaterina of Shadows, the eerie incidents that followed the song’s playback, and the stark warnings about its effects. My hope was that by framing the song within its dark narrative, listeners would tread carefully, armed with the knowledge of its history and the strange occurrences linked to it.
With a mix of trepidation and resolve, I clicked “Upload.” As the progress bar inched forward, a part of me wondered if I was making a grave mistake. Yet, there was no turning back now. The digital ether would soon carry “Lullaby of Shadows” across the globe, its melody available to anyone daring enough to listen.
I included a clear warning in the video’s description:
“Listen with caution. The history of this song is as haunting as its melody. It has been linked to strange occurrences and is shrouded in mystery. Let this serve not just as a testament to a lost piece of music history, but as a reminder of the power and mystery that music can hold.”
As I hit “Publish,” the song, now a digital ghost, was set free into the world. I could only hope that my warning would be heeded.
Listen at your own risk: “Lullaby of Shadows” - Ekaterina of Shadows: https://youtu.be/ijn4WMY8z9I?si=xZgSkOZv81efjEYf
The reaction was immediate and overwhelming. Views climbed, comments poured in, and the story of “Lullaby of Shadows” spread like wildfire. People shared their own experiences with the song, some claiming to feel a deep sense of unease, others fascinated by its lore, and a few skeptics dismissing the warnings as mere superstition.
Days turned into weeks, and the fervor around the song only grew. Yet, no new incidents were reported, leaving me to wonder if perhaps the digitization of the song had somehow diluted its supposed powers, or if the collective foreknowledge of its history had immunized listeners against its effects.
The mystery of “Lullaby of Shadows” and Ekaterina of Shadows remained unsolved, a haunting melody floating in the digital ether, its true power—if any—locked within its notes, waiting for the next unsuspecting listener to uncover.
As for me, I was left with more questions than answers. Had I done the right thing by sharing the song, or had I unwittingly invited something sinister into the lives of countless others? Only time would tell, but one thing was certain: the song that had so abruptly entered my life had changed it forever, leaving a haunting echo that would never quite fade away.