Hey guys as usual I love reading your reviews! Shout out to chillthebeans for always reviewing! Thanks so much! Also I don't own the show.
I wake up freezing cold on a hard surface. The bruises from the day before hurt my body more than yesterday. Especially the one from when Vlad almost cracked my head open on the cage. He has some real anger issues, I think. Yesterday's events fly through my head, Viktor, the ship, Igor and Irina. Irina! My eyes flicker open as I do not feel her body next to me. I sit up and look around. None of the girls lying down match Irina's long black hair and narrow face. Did Vlad take her?
"Sasha" I hear her whisper. I whip my head to the right. She is leaning up against the wall behind me, which is why I did not see her before.
"Irina you scared me. I thought Vlad had taken you." I say breathing a sigh of relief.
"No! I am just an early bird, my dad-"she cuts off.
I look at her with concern. She displays a fake smile on her face.
"I just wish I knew what time it is" she remarks. Time! My papa's watch, what has happened to it? Fear and worry blazes through me. I have lost the only thing that matters to me. The only thing I had left from my father. Sorrow overcomes me. Tears fill my eyes.
"Sasha are you alright?" Irina asks me.
"Yes" I reply.
No one can know who I am. She is about to ask me what is wrong again, but the guard from the night before busts through the door again ringing a bell.
"Get up." he barks.
The girls that were not already awake sit up, yawn, and rub their eyes.
"Now." he shouts.
We scramble up and file into a line.
"Girls, there will be a schedule every day; you will do whatever we ask of you. Your jobs will rotate each day. As well as one girl will be chosen to visit Vlad's room." He tells us, a mischievous look in his eye tells me it is not good.
With that he turns and leads us out the door. He herds us down the narrow hallway back into the mess hall. Irina and I took our seats at the farthest table again. The line continues as it had last night, but this time Viktor fills our bowels with a watered down version of oatmeal. It is somehow worse than the "soup" from last night. On his way back Viktor stops by our table.
"Good morning Sasha." he says with his heavy Russian accent, slightly bending down in the process.
I feel a light weight drop into my hoodies pocket. He continues to march past our table. Irina gives me a strange look, but does not ask questions. I reach my hand into my pocket and feel the cold touch of metal on my fingers. I pull it out slightly from my pocket. The glint of my Papa's watch catches my eye! I start to tear up, silently thanking Viktor in my head. Clutching it close to my body I promise never to let it out of my sight again. Irina has a questionable look in her eye, but I ignore it and continue eating my breakfast.
After breakfast Irina and I begin working. Vlad has us girls doing every job imaginable. Today Irina and I are assigned to laundry. Each girl had two pairs of identical clothing; you wear one pair one day and wash the other and it repeats. I wash and Irina hangs the clothes to dry. They will not dry in this boat everything is always wet, cold and musty. I dip the clothes in the bin full of water and scrub them with a harsh soap scrubbing of a layer of my skin in the process. The water is so cold it is numbing my hands down to the bone. We finish the clothes and move on to the pillows and blankets. It takes us all day. Irina and I stay silent, not knowing if we are allowed to talk. It is actually nice it gives me some time to think to myself. The boat is so jam packed full of girls there really I no such thing as privacy anymore. I know it is getting close to dinner as my stomach aches with hunger. About an hour later a guard comes into the empty room and escorts me and Irina to the dining hall. The guards serve us the same as dinner the night before. After dinner we report back to our rooms to talk quietly. Irina and I begin to get to know each other. We start with simple questions, like our favorite colors.
"Blue" I reply.
"Green" she answers.
About ten minutes later the girl that was chosen to visit Vlad today stumbles in. She is significantly shorter than me and Irina; she had long auburn hair and bright green eyes. She is shaking and crying, her friends run up to her. We hear them whispering about what Vlad wanted. My stomach rolls. He is making us practice, for our jobs in America.
"Sasha?" Irina asks. I had drifted off into my own thoughts.
"Sorry" I reply.
"It is time for bed" she says.
"Goodnight Irina" I whisper as the guard turns the light out.
The next day after breakfast we are called to do dishes. This time Irina washes and I dry. After a while of silence Irina takes a deep breath.
"Do you want to know how I got here?" she asks, her voice trembling
"Only if want to tell me." I reply, but curiosity fills me.
"My family was dirt poor. We lived in the little town of Babushkin. My mother worked very hard to keep my father happy. He was a drunk, always buying more than we could afford. He treated me and my mother like slaves. "She laughs at the irony as we continue scrubbing the bowls of the oatmeal, which has started to harden to the side of the bowl.
"He was always ordering me to bring him more Vodki and always making me feel uncomfortable. Saying how beautiful I was and grabbing me if I did not bring him the drinks fast enough." Irina begins to cry.
I could see the pain in Irina's eyes. I felt closer to the girl then before, she was all I had left. I cross the room and pull her into a hug. I stroke her hair as her sobs shake her in my arms. After a minute she returns to the bin and continues with her story.
"One day, a few weeks ago, my mother fell ill and could not go to her job for weeks. We ran out of money. So my father dragged me to a shady warehouse, like the one I went to. He sold me for money and that was that." Tears were flowing out of Irina's eyes and she is shaking again.
"I trusted him, I thought he was harmless, he was my father." She cried.
Guilt flashes through me. I had it a lot better off than lots of girls in Russia. I take Irina's face in my hands and in Russian I share with her one of my Papa's lessons.
"You must stay strong Irina, it is the only way you will survive" I say. She takes a few shaky breathes beginning to calm down. Just then a guard bangs through the door,
"Irina!" he cried out. "It is your turn to visit Vlad."
Fear shoots through me; I cannot let her get hurt. I look to the strong, but now disheveled girl. Remembering what Viktor said about Vlad and weakness in the girls, I wipe my hands on the towel and walk towards the guard.
"Yes" I say. I see a look of surprise on Irina's face from the corner of my eyes.
"You are Irina?" he asks.
"Yes" I answer. A look of confusion flashes through his eyes, but he goes along with it. The playful glint returns to his eye. I turn and look at Irina. She tries to protest but the look in my shushes her. She mouths the words thank you as she wipes the tears from her face. The guard leads me down the same hallway every room is on, but we take a right turn and venture down a new hallway. It looks identical to the other one but there is a door at the end of it. He marches up to it, but leans off to the side to stand next to the door. He motions for me to go in. I take a deep breath and try to swallow the lump in my throat, as my hand reaches for the door knob.
Tell me what you think!