The Secrets of the Two-Faced Maiden. Part 2

Natalia noticed significant changes in Valentin’s behavior – he was sluggish, inattentive, sometimes sleeping for three days straight, and other times extremely agitated and barely able to sleep. Natalia decided to go with Valentin to her dacha. Since she could not walk on her own, she persuaded Elena to come along and help with the household chores. Valentin stayed at the dacha for about two months. He regained his strength, began sleeping normally, and returned to his former self.

Natalia told Valentin that, most likely, someone had laced his food during the visit with a substance that caused hallucinations and irrational behavior. At the time, Natalia thought Valentin’s ex-wife, who did not want to share the apartment with him, might have been involved.

During the same period of time, my mother’s sister, Aunt Lida, who had envied Natalia’s mother all her life, died. On this day, Natalia and Valentin were on the beach. Suddenly a seagull began to circle over them and scream like a madman. All the vacationers could not understand what this seagull wanted. At this time, her sister Elena came to the beach and said that her father had arrived and reported that Aunt Lida had died today at the dacha in the neighboring cooperative and that the funeral would be the day after tomorrow. That evening, another event happened that greatly frightened not only Natalia and her sister, but also Valentin. A heavy thunderstorm began in the evening. Suddenly a bird began to beat against the window with a terrible cry, it simply threw itself at the glass and beat against them. That night Natalia, her sister and Valentin all prayed together until the bird calmed down. Valentin only wondered what kind of aunt we had? The funeral was standard. Valentin did not go to the funeral, he stayed with Diana the dog at the dacha.

A week later, Natalia decided to return to the city and send Valentin home to Donetsk, as she realized that her former feelings for him had disappeared, she was more concerned about the state of her spine, and not about marriage games. Moreover, Valentin had previously committed an act that became the main reason for Natalia’s disappointment in him. When Natalia was carrying watches for sale to Poland, Valentin gave her some of his amount for the purchase, then he himself took the watches for this amount and those watches that Natalia bought for her own funds. In the next such trip, Natalia brought Valentin a watch for a large sum. He refused to take these watches, but demanded that he return his part of the money for which Natalia bought the watches. Natalia returned this amount to him only after she was forced to stay in Poland and sell such a large number of watches herself. Some of the watches had to be sold at cost to wholesalers in order to pay off with Valentin. And some of the watches that she purchased for her own funds remained unsold. On this fateful trip, Natalia and her friends Alla and Irina were robbed, and Natalia was left with practically nothing. After that, she stopped answering Valentin’s calls. 4 years later, when Valentin came, she thought that perhaps he would become the very «pill» that would put her on her feet. But Natalia became the «pill» for Valentin. One autumn day, her sister Elena went to the train station and bought Valentin a ticket in the opposite direction. Natalia put him before the fact. Valentin did not want to leave, said that he had a lot of money, that he wanted to live with Natalia. He cried and begged Natalia to think and break up with him. But Natalia had already made a decision.

Elena’s Sister’s Dream about the Death of Her Brother and Sister-in-Law in a Car Accident

When Valentin left, her sister Elena began to have a terrible dream again that her brother and sister-in-law were in a car accident and died. And only her nephew remained alive, who at that time was 2 years old. She had such a dream three times. Then there were visions in reality as well. Natalia realized that Elena’s dreams always come true since childhood. Although she had very strained relations with her brother since childhood, she decided to warn him about the impending danger in order for him to refrain from driving until 40 days after Aunt Lida. At the same time, Natalia and her sister visited three Churches in one day and ordered akathists for the health of the entire family of her brother for 40 days. On the day when it was 40 days from the day of death for Aunt Lida, her brother, sister-in-law and son were driving in the old car of their father, «Zaporozhets», and got into an accident. Only by a miracle, all three of them remained alive, receiving minor abrasions and bruises. But this became the basis for Natalia’s brother to accuse her and her sister of having staged this accident themselves with their acquaintances, since they knew about it in advance.

Saint Nicholas the Miracle Worker Heals Natalia in a Dream

Six months after the death of her aunt Lida, Natalia dreamed of Saint Nicholas the Miracle Worker, who healed her spine in the dream with a blessed fire that does not burn, using a huge candle. In the dream, Natalia saw a certain temple. On the temple’s table stood a thousand silver bells – the smallest only a few millimeters, with each subsequent bell larger than the previous one, forming a chain of bells.

Natalia observed the service from a distance, which was led by an elder in a red robe. He approached the table with the silver bells and struck the smallest bell with a small staff. The bell produced a delicate sound and pushed the next bell. In this way, the bells, pushing each other, created an incredibly beautiful chime, which grew in richness as the bells increased in size along the chain. Natalia stood frozen in awe at the extraordinary beauty of the ringing.

At that moment, the elder noticed her. He called her over and asked what was wrong with her spine. Natalia replied that she could not walk. The elder took a huge candle and lit it, asking Natalia to turn her back to him. She understood that he intended to move the candle’s flame along her back. She asked if she would get burned by the flame. The elder answered that it was blessed fire and it would not burn.

Natalia stood quietly. As the elder moved the flame along her back, she felt only warmth and a deep sense of peace. In the dream, she did not recognize the elder who was healing her. The next day after the dream, Natalia felt as if something in her back had been «switched on.» She stood up, walked around – there was no pain, and her spine was straight. Within a week, she was not just walking but running. A week later, Natalia went to Minsk for another session at the institute.

At the Troitsk estate, Natalia and her sister entered a church and saw, opposite the entrance, a huge icon of Saint Nicholas the Miracle Worker in a red robe. Natalia thanked Saint Nicholas for her healing. However, after the incident with the orange, Natalia could not even take a sip of wine without feeling unwell, and the same symptoms would return. This continued for more than ten years.

Natalia Learns About the Fortune-Telling and the Search for the Girl with Three Life Lines. Meeting with Yuri Semenchuk

Three years later, when Natalia moved from her grandmother Irina’s place to live with her parents, a neighbor from her building, Vyacheslav Kolyadov, began courting her. His older brother was the best friend of Yuri Semenchuk. One evening, he invited Natalia and her friend Olga to a restaurant. There, they met a mutual acquaintance, Alexander Sovеl, who at that time was the chairman of a dacha cooperative where Natalia’s father had purchased a burned-down dacha from a friend and begun building a house.

Alexander was already quite drunk and began asking Natalia and Olga if they had seen a girl with three life lines on her palms. He explained that about fifteen years ago, a large sum of money went missing from their company – or rather, it had been stolen. A clairvoyant in Moscow had charged him $5,000 and told him that this money would be returned to him and his friends by a girl with three life lines on her palms, someone who had «two faces in one,» like a Janus figure.

The clairvoyant had also predicted that the girl came from a very high lineage on her mother’s side, though she was unaware of her ancestry. She belonged to a very noble, possibly even royal, family. When he and others discovered her lineage, they would be extremely surprised. The clairvoyant also said that she was currently living with someone who was practically a «thief-in-law,» that she was ill, and that she had personal problems with this man – the thief who had stolen the money. Furthermore, he would try to kill her.

Alexander added that he had already searched half of Belarus and Russia but had not found even one person with two life lines, let alone three. Alexander himself had two life lines on his palm. The clairvoyant had predicted that the girl would be entitled to 10% of the stolen sum. By the time she revealed the location of the money, he would have already spent one-third of it. Only two-thirds of the money would be returned. Alexander wondered why, if she was entitled to such a sum, she remained silent.

When Natalia heard about the search for the girl with three life lines, she hid her hands, sensing danger. Besides the three life lines, almost nothing in this fortune-telling matched her reality – she did not know anything about her noble ancestry, the company’s money, or who had stolen it. She remained silent. Moreover, Alexander was the best friend of Yuri Semenchuk, with whom Natalia already had serious problems.

However, her friend Olga, already fairly drunk, said that she had seen someone with such a palm. Natalia nudged Olga and told her to be quiet. Olga then explained that she had simply read in a book about three life lines, which supposedly indicated that the person was of royal descent. Alexander believed this explanation, and Natalia felt relieved. She thought that if she showed her hands now, they would start questioning her, and she knew nothing.

At home, Natalia told Elena about what had happened at the restaurant. Elena also concluded that Natalia had nothing to do with this fortune-telling or the money. At that time, Natalia had not yet connected Alexander Kovalev’s strange behavior with Alexander Sovel’s story about the fortune-telling.

Some time later, Natalia met Yuri Semenchuk near the entrance to her building. He began threatening her again. Natalia told him everything she thought about him to his face and said that if he did not want to forget about his America, he should forget about her. She told him, «You should fear me,» and that she would never forget all his proposals, and that he had beaten her «with his feet» while she was bedridden. All of this happened in front of her friend Olga, who was walking home with Natalia. Yuri became very frightened – extremely frightened. He apparently thought that Natalia was walking with Elena, not a friend. When he realized it was a friend, effectively a witness to his threats, he ran into the building entrance. However, he said the words:

– You’re all finished, your whole family – maximum two months left to live.

The next day, Zhenya Semenchuk came to visit Natalia. He suddenly became interested in palmistry and asked to see the palms of Natalia and her sister. Natalia instinctively sensed great danger. When Zhenya arrived, Natalia was peeling potatoes in the kitchen. She realized that as long as her hands were dirty, her palms were not visible. She remembered the incident at the restaurant and decided again to hide her three life lines. Natalia peeled almost an entire bucket of potatoes, but Zhenya did not leave. She showed Zhenya her dirty hands, and he asked her to wash them. Then her sister Elena showed him her hands, which had only one life line, and explained that her palms were the same as Natalia’s because they were twins and everything was identical. This argument alone convinced Zhenya, and he left. Natalia hoped that she had managed to outsmart Zhenya. However, she understood that he had been sent by his older brother, Yura. Whether Zhenya’s account had convinced Yura, Natalia could not know.

1.5 Months After the Meeting with Yura at the Entrance One and a half months after the encounter with Yura near the entrance, Natalia’s father was summoned by the chief prosecutor of the Novobelitsky District in the city of Gomel. The prosecutor told him that Natalia’s entire family had been targeted by hitmen from the criminal underworld for $20,000. He was puzzled as to why their modest family appeared on a list alongside the families of gangsters. The prosecutor also said that two families on this list had already been killed, and Natalia’s family was next. However, three days before the hit was to be carried out, the hitmen themselves were killed, and this list was found among their belongings.

Later, the prosecutor came to Natalia’s home and spoke with her and her sister. Natalia and her sister could not understand what he wanted from them. No one had any reason to target Natalia’s family, let alone pay such a large sum. Natalia assumed that the prosecutor was joking and did not believe him. She did not mention the threats from the neighbor, Yura Semenchuk, as she could not imagine he was capable of such actions. Still, certain doubts lingered in her mind.

Natalia Receives Information About a Hidden Treasure in a Cottage

Later that same year, at the end of August, some local neighborhood guys came to visit Natalia and her sister. They occasionally came over to sober up. These were the neighbor from the floor, Igor Shaladonov, and his friend Yura. Both were highly agitated. Igor Shaladonov’s family had also suffered from the actions of Yura Semenchuk, because Zhenya had lent money to the wife of Igor’s older brother. Later, Yura imposed high interest rates and forced them to make an unequal exchange of their three-room apartment for a house in a small settlement 40 km from the city.

Igor and Yura recounted a strange event that had happened to them that night. Since the previous evening, they had been drinking in the company of Zhenya Semenchuk. Zhenya boasted that his brother owned a very luxurious cottage in the 5th microdistrict of the city, which he had purchased for $50,000. On a dare, Zhenya called a taxi, and at 3 a.m., they went to see the cottage. Igor Shaladonov, Yura, Oleg (nicknamed «Fat»), and Slava Kolyadov went along.

When they arrived, they saw some familiar guys from the neighboring yard, who at 3 a.m. in August were moving paving stones near the house under artificial lighting. When the visitors entered the house, they were shocked by the luxury inside. All the door handles were gilded, the fireplace grill was also gilded, and the furniture and entire interior were extremely expensive. This was not just a house – it was an emperor’s palace.

After some time, the owner, Yura, arrived. He began beating his brother Zhenya, kicked out Igor, Yura, and Oleg, and left Slava in the cottage. Later, the guys had to walk from one district of the city to another because they had no money for a taxi. Sitting in Natalia’s kitchen, Igor and Yura were so stunned by what they had seen in the cottage that they could not understand how Yura, living in such luxury, could oppress his former friends and neighbors, taking their last possessions.

When the guys left, Natalia was left with only one thought from their entire story – Yura Semenchuk had buried a treasure under the paving stones. However, the guys had not realized this, as they had focused on the wealth of the house rather than the actions of its owner.

A week later, Slava Kolyadov came to see Natalia and told her a strange story that had happened to him. He had been visiting Yura Semenchuk in his cottage and then remembered nothing. He woke up in the intensive care unit. The doctors barely saved him. Some people had found him on the street and called an ambulance. The doctors said it was 100% poisoning and that he had been extremely lucky to reach the hospital in time. He asked Natalia if he had called her that day. Natalia explained that the guys had come by and said that Slava had stayed at Yura Semenchuk’s cottage, who was the best friend of his older brother. Slava’s relatives had been searching for the person who poisoned him, but of course, no one could imagine Yura Semenchuk being involved. Natalia realized that it was Yura who had poisoned Slava to eliminate an unnecessary witness.

A few months later, the guys came to visit again and said that the people who had been moving the paving stones could not be found by their relatives. They had simply disappeared. The only thing known was that someone had called them to work somewhere, and that was all. Natalia realized that searching for these guys among the living was pointless. That’s when she understood the extent of what Yura Semenchuk was capable of.

Fortune-Telling by a Clairvoyant About Buying a Car

Natalia decided to consult a clairvoyant man in the city of Yura to find out what awaited her in the future. The clairvoyant predicted that Natalia would personally bring a car from abroad, that she was being pursued by a man from the criminal world, and that he would create obstacles for her departure abroad. He said she would have problems at customs because of this, but she would deceive him and travel to England at the age of 36—38, but not earlier.

To Natalia’s surprise, he also said that she would manage large sums of money in Gomel, and when she went abroad, she would own and manage billions. Then he asked to see her hand. When he looked at her palm, rolling his eyes and barely holding his breath, he quietly exhaled and said, «It will happen exactly as I see it.»

He also said that Natalia’s female hormones were disrupted and that her illness was not in her spine, but inflammation of the sacrum. He cursed the doctors, calling them idiots, and advised her to check her hormones and treat the pelvic joints and sacrum in case of a new flare-up, and to

After all these events, Natalia lived for some time in relative calm without major problems. After dreaming of Saint Nicholas the Miracle Worker, who healed her spine, Natalia traveled to Minsk to study at the institute with her sister. Her father also arranged for her to work at a private company where he was serving as deputy director at the time. The company’s main office was in another city, so it made no sense to rent a separate office; her father worked from home, and Natalia helped him. This allowed her to continue her studies at the institute.

Trip to Crimea in 1999 – Attempted Murder

In 1999, after September 15, shortly after celebrating her mother’s birthday, Natalia, her sister Elena, and their mother went on vacation to Alushta in Crimea. By that time, Natalia had mostly recovered from the effects of the poisoning, although she weighed only 45 kg. They decided to go to the sea to restore their health. The vacation was going well. They rented an apartment near the sea. Since Natalia did not drink alcohol and was self-conscious about her thinness, she and her sister chose nearly empty beaches and hardly went out in the evenings. It was the end of the season, and there were very few tourists.The vacation went well, except for three incidents that left a very unpleasant impression.

The first incident occurred on the beach. Natalia and her sister did not enjoy extreme water activities offered by the local young men and consistently refused, even when offered free rides on a «banana boat» or jet ski. On one of the last days, they were persuaded to ride the banana boat, under the condition that it would be slow and careful along the shore, as Elena was very afraid of deep water. Natalia and her sister were fitted with life jackets and set off.

However, they were not taken along carefully. Instead of staying near the shore, they were taken far out, where the beach was barely visible, beyond the buoys. With no choice, they were whipped along at high speed (the sea was rough, with a small storm) for about half an hour or more, while the operators tried to throw them off the banana boat. Natalia and her sister initially reacted badly to the speed, with only one thought – to avoid capsizing. After a few minutes, however, they adapted to the extreme ride and even began to enjoy it.

The person driving the motorboat ahead would cut the engine, stop sharply, cross almost directly in front of the banana boat, and then suddenly accelerate. Natalia and her sister clung to the banana boat like pendulums to maintain balance. They leaned at a 90-degree angle to the water, barely grazing it with their shoulders, but the banana boat kept returning upright. They traveled at very high speed, water hitting their faces, barely able to hear each other. Natalia kept telling Elena how to tilt her body to prevent the banana from flipping.

After about 25 minutes, Natalia felt her arms were very tired, especially Elena’s, as she was physically weaker. Natalia alternated hands to hold on, letting one rest while the other held tight, and shouted for her sister to do the same. Had they continued for another 15 minutes, they would have been too exhausted to hold on any longer. Fortunately, the driver lacked the endurance – or perhaps did not want to spend more fuel – and headed toward the shore.

As they approached the shore, a man was lying and sunbathing on a mattress near a buoy. Natalia asked him if she should tow him, knowing that during calm periods, a mattress could drift out to sea. Years earlier, Elena and a friend had almost been carried out to sea on a pedal boat. The man refused. When they reached the shore, the second young man servicing the water sports equipment was extremely surprised that Natalia and her sister were completely dry, meaning they had not capsized even once. It is unclear what Natalia’s mother told him, but the young men quickly packed up and left, staring at Natalia and her sister with strange eyes.

Natalia was pleased that she and her sister had, in a sense, «outsmarted» them. Everything turned out well, although if someone asks to be taken carefully, it likely indicates a serious reason. At the time, Natalia thought the young men’s behavior was harmless mischief. Many years later, however, she learned that these were not ordinary water sports operators, but trained hitmen. Apparently, guardian angels had once again protected Natalia and her sister from death.

The Second Incident – A Few Days Before the Extreme Banana Boat Ride

The second incident occurred a couple of days before the extreme banana boat ride. As usual, after breakfast, Natalia went to the beach with her mother and sister. But when they arrived, they saw an ambulance. They approached to see what had happened. It turned out that a young man, about 23—25 years old, had dived into the water and hit his head on the rocks. He was being carried on a stretcher past Natalia and her sister. When he saw them, he became happy, even sitting up on the stretcher. He stopped the medics and said strange words to Natalia and her sister:

– «Get out of here. They want to kill you. Just trust me – you cannot be here. Go back to your city, home.»

Everyone nearby asked Natalia and her sister:

– Do you know this guy? Are you acquainted with him?

Natalia replied that she and her sister were seeing him for the first time and that he must have been confused or delirious from a concussion. The ambulance took him away. Nevertheless, the weight of his words left a very heavy impression on Natalia. She asked the locals about the young man and was told that he was a local, working at the beach, knew the seabed very well, and was a strong swimmer. Everyone was surprised that he had dived so carelessly, especially since there had been a storm warning and many beaches were closed.

A day later, Natalia learned that the young man had died in the hospital. The heavy feeling from his words deepened. Although she understood that she was in a foreign city on vacation, unknown to anyone, and it was unclear who might want to harm her and her sister, she initially thought it was a meaningless coincidence and forgot about it. Only later did she realize that the young man might have been telling the truth, and that the way the local athletes had taken her and her sister on the banana boat could have been their last experience in life. The man lying on the mattress near the buoy had likely been a deliberately placed witness to their potential tragic fate.