Rasputin
"Would you like a match good sir?" Anastasia timidly asked as she approached yet another potential customer, "They're only…"
"Get away from me you street urchin," the man scoffed as he knocked the match out of her hand, snapping it in two before storming away as he muttered under his breath. Anastasia sighed dejectedly as she bent down to pick up the remnants of her livelihood. It had only been six months since her family had been taken from the palace yet in that time she had come to learn a great many things….starvation being amongst the most prevalent in her mind. The second most prevalent was fear.
The rumors about Rasputin spread through St. Petersburg like wildfire in the wake of his 'demise' and the downfall of the tsar.
They called him the man who could not be killed.
A prostitute had supposedly attempted to murder him a few years earlier by running him clean through with a knife. As his guts spilled onto the ground, the woman had crowed proudly that she had managed to kill the 'antichrist' – something that Anya truly believed now that the idea had been put into her mind – yet somehow Rasputin managed to survive.
Within a few years – during which time filthy rumors about her mother were apparently also spread like wildfire – hatred for Rasputin had grown exponentially. So much so that apparently a few members of the royal family had attempted to have him killed – whether it was under her father's orders or not was unclear. They had laced his food with enough cyanide to kill five men yet he had allegedly acted like it didn't affect him in the slightest. They beat him mercilessly and shot him multiple times yet he still managed to hold on. Finally, frustrated beyond measure by the man who simply refused to die, they tossed him into the freezing Neva river. They had supposedly found his body, done an autopsy even, and yet…and yet…
One thing was clear. While he may have fallen through the ice that fateful day, there was no doubt in Anastasia's mind that he had survived. He would make good on his threat if it was the last thing he ever did.
"If I am killed by common men, you and your children will rule Russia for centuries to come; if I am killed by one of your stock, you and your family will be killed by the Russian people!"