It was late at night and Ivan was in his bed. Blanket pulled up to his chin and eyes closed. The white scarf still wrapped around his neck like it's a part of him. The soft sound of wind rustling the leaves made shiver ran down his spine. He always dislikes the sound of that, especially when it's at night. It creeps him out.
Everyone was asleep in the huge mansion of the Russian man, the Lithuanian secretary, the Estonian computer technician and the small Latvian house keeper. Ivan sighed and rolls around in his bed, changing his position. Then he heard the leaves outside rustle again. He winced, the cold wind brushed against his cheek and he looked up to see the window was left open.
"What…"
Annoyed and sure that he closed them before coming to bed, he get up and approached the window, once again shutting them, locking them in the process. Outside everything was covered in pristine, white snow. It looked like a winter wonderland outside but Ivan doesn't have the heart to sit down and appreciate the view outside. He had had a rough day and all he wanted to do is to just lie down and sleep, not caring if his mansion burn down or the Americans' come attacking, he just needs his sleep.
Once again, he walked towards his bed. He sat down slowly and lies down, closing his eyes and inhales deeply. Suddenly he heard the bed creak and he felt weight on his bed. He panicked and opened his eyes, a pair of violet eyes identical to his look straight back at him.
When he was about to scream , the person pushed him down to his bed and sat on top of him, pointing a knife at his neck. Ivan blinked a few times and when his eyes adjusted to the light, he noticed his little sister Natalia, of all people, grinning at him like a Cheshire cat on top of him. Small delicate hand holding such a dangerous weapon pointing at him. Apparently she sneaked in from the window when he was not looking.
"Hello, big brother."
Ivan winced as the sharp end of the knife pressed into his skin; small droplets of blood began to appear at the small cut made.
"Na-Natalia… what are you…"
"Hush, big brother, you don't want to wake the others do you?" Natalia purred as she lean in closer to the big Russian man lying under her. She cocked her head to a side and sniffed the air around him.
"Hm… you were out to find her again, didn't you?" she asks, face darkening, knuckles turning white from the strong grip on the knife.
"What is so good about her, hmm? Ain't I better than her? If you want love, I can give you more than the love she can give you! A hundred times, a thousand times, a million times more, but why'd you choose her and not me? Am I no good? Am I no better than her? Why, big brother why?"
"Because she's not psychotic like you!" Ivan replied through gritted teeth. He gripped the sheets below him as she dig the knife deeper into his skin, the scarf was dyed with his blood and the metallic smell of it was overwhelming.
"Me? Psychotic? Don't make me laugh. I was as normal as all of you people, you, Yekaterina, Toris, Eduard and Raivis. I am normal, maybe even more normal than some of you. And you call me psychotic? Hah! Bullshit!"
Tears were forming in her eyes as she speaks. The violet orbs were blurred by the tears. Ivan suddenly feels sorry for her. She was just a child, his sister even. What in the world possessed her to fall in love with a big clumsy Russian man like him? He couldn't understand that.
"You know, you're the first person I feel this much for, no other person loved me the way you do. I was the black sheep of the family. You and Yekaterina good at everything. Drawing, music, fencing, dancing, singing, pottery even, and I can't even do any of those! Father wants to disown me, mother doesn't like me, Yekaterina feels sorry for me but you… you look at me like I was just like everyone else. You told me, 'Even if you can't do anything, you're still our family.' And I believed you, I thought that you were my family, I thought you all are my family, but one day, that one freaking day I overheard father and mother talking, they said that maybe it's time for me to know my past. What past? I said, what freaking past? I was just like you people, no? But, no big brother, I was wrong; I was adopted for crying out loud! I am not your sister, I am not father and mother's child, I am not Yekaterina's sister and I am not a Braginskaya! I was told that I was an Arlovskaya! I am not Natalia Braginskaya but I am Natalia Arlovskaya! What kind of bullshit was that? Well I start to be rebellious, running away from home, smoking, doing drugs, drinking, cutting my hair short, fighting with people… father got so mad that he chased me out of the house holding his revolver, that's right, he chased me out of the house with a freaking gun. That's how bad it became, but you're not there to witness those, you're freaking away with you stupid girlfriend. While I was sleeping on the streets all cold and hungry, you're freaking around with you girlfriend in some expensive 5 star hotel in some tropical place!"
Tears start to fall freely from her eyes as she screamed her story at him. Her tears wetted her cheeks and some of them fell down to Ivan's face. Ivan looked up at his crying sister, not knowing what to say, what to do. Should he get up and comfort her? Put his arms around her and tell her it's ok? He wasn't there when all of that happened, he was old enough to go to college and he found a girlfriend also. When he graduated and come back home, his mother told him that Natalia was gone for almost 8 months, he was shocked. Then he found a letter on his dresser telling him that she was thankful for what he did when they were younger and hope that one day she will see him again. Also she confesses her love to him, he got so disgusted he tore the paper into pieces and threw it into the bin, thinking that it was just a sick joke. But now, seeing that she was here, sitting on top of him, telling him her story, he had to believe her and it disgust him to no ends. How can my own sister fall in love with me? It's just wrong, so so wrong.
"I realized that I couldn't have your heart, you'd never love me, I know that. You think that it's wrong, it's disgusting, just like all the people out there, Yekaterina screamed at me about that when I told her. That bitch, think when she has huge boobs she's so high and mighty. But never mind, as long as I know that my love for you is true, I'm fine. But big brother, do you know that I really, really like you? I love you so much that every time I think of you my heart beats so hard that I felt that it would fall right out of my chest? Do you know that? Do you know that every time I see you, butterflies start flying around in my stomach and it's like the most wonderful feeling in the world?"
Natalia removes the knife from his neck and point it right at his heart.
"Do you know how it feels? Do you know how I feel? It feels a little like this…"
She pressed the knife into his skin; Ivan yelped and bit his bottom lip. The pain was horrible; it hurt more that being shot in the knee, knowing that it was his sister that had caused it. Fresh blood flowed down his chest as a deep gash formed right above his heart.
"Please Natalia, stop it. It hurts." Ivan pleaded.
"I want you to know how I feel big brother, when you start seeing that bitch. It hurts more than this you know? More, a hundred times, a thousand times more."
She made another deep cut under his heart and Ivan was seeing stars, he was dizzy and his head feels heavy. He was losing a lot of blood and his pajama, his scarf was stained with blood. Natalia smirks and continue to carve a square shape on his chest, around his heart.
"If I can't have your heart then no one should!"
She continues cutting, stabbing, deepening the wound on her brother. Ivan was already unconscious, his eyes closed and his chest bloody.
After what seemed like a few moments, Natalia finally stopped cutting and begin to run her hands into the skin she damaged. She touched something soft and moving; she pulled it out and starts laughing.
"That way, no one will be able to own your heart anymore."
And dub, dub, dub goes the bloody heart in her hand.