In the morning I stepped out onto the balcony and noticed something strange right inside the wall, something moving within it: at that moment I was seized by real horror, especially when I realized what it was 

I went out onto the balcony almost automatically — to open the window, breathe in the air, wake up. And suddenly my gaze seemed to stumble upon the wall. There was something there. It was moving.

Slowly, strangely, as if it had a life of its own. Everything inside me tightened. The first thought was a shadow. The second was a snake. My heart dropped into my heels, my palms grew sweaty, my breathing became uneven. I froze and just stared, afraid even to blink.

But the longer I looked, the more I understood that it didn’t look like a snake. The movements were different — not smooth, but jerky, helpless. The creature seemed to be dragging itself forward, moving inside the wall, while its tail remained outside. “Probably something huge with a thin tail,” I thought.

A wave of anxiety and disgust mixed with fear washed over me. It felt as if I had seen something forbidden, something not meant for human eyes. I wanted to scream and at the same time simply leave and forget everything.

When I found out what exactly was in my wall, I was horrified  Details in the first comment 

I stepped closer, already trembling. And then I realized it was stuck in a crack in the wall. Neither forward nor back. That was when the realization came — it was a skink. A real lizard. Alive.

And at that moment, fear abruptly turned into compassion. It struggled, clung with its little legs, but couldn’t free itself. I could see how exhausted it was, how its tail twitched, and my heart grew heavy.

Gathering my courage, I gently helped it get out. My heart was pounding, but I did it. The skink froze for a moment and then quickly scurried away, as if it had never been there.

Later I learned that skinks are not dangerous to people. They are not venomous, not aggressive, and bite only if they are very frightened or handled roughly.

Usually they are simply afraid and try to run away. And strangely enough, after all that horror, I felt calm. I not only stopped being afraid — I felt that I had done the right thing.