A/N: This chapter went faster than I had expected, it actually took only two days to write. But since my sister stole our computer as she went away I haven't been able to upload 'til now. (I think it got faster as we comes to things I like to write... oh wellXD)
Aaaand as usual I forgot what I was supposed to say^^"
Thanks for reading, and if you see anything that makes your eyes bleed, just tell me :3
Then, just like that, the letters stopped coming.
To say I wasn't worried would be just as wrong as saying that the world wasn't round. And for me, the world was spinning way too fast at the moment as I felt things be set in motion. Usually it would take some times for the letter going back and forth, but never this long. For me it didn't really matter what the letters said, not that I didn't care, but the simple thing of getting them would be of most importance. They were needed for us to check on the others, seeing how they were and if they were fine. And also to warn each other if necessary.
There had been one or two times before now when the letters had stopped like this. But I would always get some kind of foreboding someway. Like that they wrote in the last letter before the stop about how they would have to switch hideout. Though, even though I then knew the reason I wouldn't get any letters from one of my brothers it didn't stop me from worry. And it had never happened that both of them would stop like this without any reason. The only reason I could think of was the worst. I kept my patience a little bit longer, hoping that there would just be a delay in the postal-service, or that they would have had to move quickly and didn't have the time to tell me. Anything like that. But after a week, without a word from either of them, I was really scared.
My nightmares started again, too. Unlike the last one, in that cold isolated room, this was not sparkled of a memory. It always begins the same way. I would wake up in a room with over fifteen doors in it. I knew I would only get out from one of them and would always start looking after the right one. Some of the doors were locked; some of them ended in a corridor of darkness; and some just took me into the same room I began in. I would always get to the right door as it was last. As I walked towards it, the sound under me would go from clattering to splashing. Water would drip from underneath the wooden-door and slowly fill up the floor. Once the whole floor was wet, there wasn't any wood under my feet anymore.
I walked on water. Weirdly, it wasn't strange or anything for me as the water somehow held me up. Not even when I looked down into the place where the water got so deep it was black I would become scared. The water comforted me, even as I knew it was impossible doing what I did. The door wasn't locked, and easily went up. As I stepped over the doorstep the bad part of the nightmare would begin. I would be at the beginning of a long corridor, without any more doors, and as I stepped into the hallway the entrance I had came from would slam shut and disappear. I tried to find it again, but to no use. I would then start to walk down the hallway, looking for another exit. Then I would start to run, and finally I would realize that I was running from something. I had to find the entrance of the long corridor. The floor started to turn out like pieces from a puzzle that fell as I ran over them. I would constantly have to speed up. Since I was in a dream I didn't get tired, but fear would make me feel heavier. Finally I would get to the end of the hallway, seeing a door. It would be harder to open than the one I had come through, and I had to hurry as the floor disappeared under me. But finally I would be it open just as the last piece disappeared into an eternal darkness.
The water was there again, and I ran out on it letting me catch the breath I didn't have for a moment. It was beautiful there. The sky was just a bit paler than the water I was standing on, just as light as if the sun stood at its highest. But there was no sun. This somehow didn't bother me, dream logic to blame, as I started to walk away from the door that just as the other one had disappeared into thin air. I didn't bother this time, since I didn't like that door. I just kept walking on the calm water, towards the horizon where sea and sky connected. But just as I looked at those blending tones of blue, something happened. Slowly the outline of the sea would be colored black. And it spread quickly like someone was painting the scene with a giant paintbrush. As the outline came closer, swallowing my blue sea, I realized the true colour of the poison. Red. The darkest kind of red, just as blood without any oxygen.
I knew that once the red liquid hit me, I would be swallowed. I didn't want that of course, but in that dream always did the same thing which always surprised me. I started to run towards the blood-like water. I never knew why I did it, just that I had to and I couldn't stop myself. As I put one foot on the red, it immediately got caught and I was dragged into the slimy-liquid as if being pulled by an unknown source. It felt like hands dragged me deeper down, and I couldn't fight them as they surrounded my body and dragged me further away from the blue waters. For some reason that I couldn't fully make out, that made me feel calm. I knew that the sea wouldn't be polluted now. The red got down in my throat as I tried to breathe, and would fill me from my inside. It was everywhere. Knowing that I wouldn't see the light of the endless sky again, I let it take control over my body.
I would always wake in cold-sweat. Even If I always felt calm in that last moment, I would always wake panicked and crying. At least I didn't scream as I always did after my former nightmare, but this one left me shivering in my bed unable to fall asleep. This particular night, I let worry cover me whole and decided to try and contact my brothers. Sneaking out of the room was not hard, and I checked carefully if Peter was asleep, he was, and I even got down the stairs without making a sound. I took the cordless telephone and went to the part of the house I knew the ones inside would hear me least. I started pressing the numbers I'd learned by heart. I put the phone to my ear and listened, hoping Eduard would pick the phone up. I got an answer immediately.
"The number you're seeking is not available at the moment, please call again." The phone quieted down and left me with a beeping sound in my ear as it expected me to follow the artificial woman's advice. I swallowed as I took the phone away from my ear. I started to dial the next number Eduard had given me, trying to calm myself with breathing as I once again listened to the beeping in the phone. The phone called once, twice and I started chewing my lower lip. Please answer! The third time, the phone was picked up.
"Hello?" Polish. I almost sighted in relief, and licked my lips. It wasn't Toris, but I knew who it was anyway and it made me a little bit more confident as I answered.
"Um… Mr. Feliks?" I asked and waited for an answer, there was a moment of silence on the other side of the line.
"Ah! Raivis, it's you isn't it?" He sounded happy, but there was something hinting in his voice. I couldn't quite make out what it was, but the difference from his normal voice was obvious. He worked as a designer, and always had confidence in his works. He was of that kind who knew exactly what he wanted and how he would make it the best. I had noticed that right away as he had helped me with my house. But now that confidence had died away. The happiness was forced. My hands became sweaty, and I grasped the phone tighter, trying not to speak loud as to wake the others in the house.
"Can… can I speak to Toris please?" I knew how much my voice was shaking but I couldn't do anything about it. He probably noticed it right away and there was another silence from his side. When he spoke again he couldn't fake his voice anymore.
"I'm sorry… he's not here." Sadness and regret.
"What happened!" After I'd realized that I had almost screamed out, I turned quiet listening if there was another sound in the house, telling me if someone had woken up. There was nothing though, only darkness. The breathing in the phone had started to tremble, I listened closely.
"I… like, I've got no idea. He's just… gone." I regretted my outburst when I heard that his voice had started to shake, almost like he was crying. If Toris was gone… Feliks probably knew what that meant. They were close enough to tell each other everything it wouldn't surprise me if he got Toris to spill everything. "I just went out a moment, not long, but when I came back he wasn't there." It wouldn't surprise me if he was crying. Even though he usually was so confident it wasn't hard to see he could be emotional when he wanted. "I've been looking everywhere… but I can't find him. I tried to contact Eduard but…" his voice trailed off. When listening to his voice I got the feeling that he was letting many things out but that it still was hard, so the words was forced and strained.
"I-I know…" I whispered, scared that I would start crying too. So it was true, Ivan had taken both of them. I just prayed he hadn't hurt them.
"Has… he come to you? I mean after the last time." The voice was hesitant and I shook my head before remembering he couldn't see me.
"N-not yet…" I stuttered changing the ear I held the phone to, scared that I would drop it as my hand had started to get sweaty. "B-but I g-guess I'm n-next…" I added with a humorless laugh pulling my feet up on the chair I was on. I felt like I needed to keep myself from falling apart.
"You've got people with you, right?" He suddenly asked, and a flash of my friends and the grown-ups too who had helped me came through my mind. I let myself smile and hummed sadly but agreeing into the phone. "Stay with them and I'm sure you're gonna be fine…" a little bit of confidence found its way back into his voice and it made me glad too. "I'll… I'll continue to look after them. But… I would like to see you too." The confident was still there, and I could hear that this was something he decided long before I called. "I think Toris would have wanted me to check on you." Sadness again, but I knew his words were true, that was really something my worrywart of a brother would do. "I'll come around—"
"No!"I suddenly interrupted him and I had to be quiet again to check if I'd woken anyone up. "You can't come here…" I didn't want my friends to know about it just yet. They would probably be really worried and never leave me alone. The word would probably go around quickly if someone saw me talking with Feliks, without Toris, and ask questions. That wouldn't be good. "T-there's a town pretty near here, we c-can meet up there instead." I hope it didn't sound too weird, and he seemed to think it over.
"Okay… it's alright with me." He finally agreed and we started deciding time and place. Not that it was really deciding precisely. We said it would be around five, just after I'd quitted school, and we would meet up at the largest market deciding where we should talk more then.
OxOxOxO
Two days after, at the day that Feliks and I had decided on I was lucky in school. The teacher of the last lesson was sick and we only got homework in exchange that we could go home and skip the last lesson. The clock was half past two by then. One and a half hour before the bus I would take to the city left. That meant I had some time before I had to go. Arthur had stopped picking us up after school, now when my foot was better, and that made me more confident in what I was about to do. When Peter and I got home we was met by a horrible smell, and we found Arthur in the kitchen. After he and Peter had traded some insults and words I swallowed. Here goes nothing. "I was thinking of going into the city, since I need to get some things." It was half true anyway, but I wasn't sure that Arthur would let me go alone. But just as me the others had begun to let down their guard and Arthur just made me promise to be home before seven, a promise I gladly gave in exchange of going without anyone.
Peter was harder to convince not to follow, but I reminded him of the homework we had until tomorrow that I'd already done, but he hadn't started with. After resisting some whining from him I got him to agree to stay home, and as he said I would: "Leave me to my destiny following Arthur's food." I went a bit before I had to just to have time since there was no way I could contact Feliks if I missed this. But on the way to the stop, I found myself standing in front of my old house. The door was unlocked, and I stepped inside for the first time in over a month.
Nothing had changed at all, except it having a kind of ghostly feel to it. After being in a house full of life, my old one seemed… well… dead. There were only a few things that were gone, but I knew those were the things the other had plucked together and taken to me. I walked over the living room, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in the bottom of my foot. Taking it up, I realized that I'd stepped on glass. There weren't any big shards on the floor, but I already knew what had been here. Someone had obviously picked the photo up, and taken the glass up too. There seemed to be some left though. I plucked the little invisible piece out of my foot, glad it wasn't that big and went away from the place.
If you were to count on the clock hanging on the side of the wall; I had around 25 minutes until the bus came. It would take only ten minutes to walk to the stop so I had really much time left. I was just about to go out again, when I glanced up the stairs. Deciding to check another thing I walked up the stairs towards my room. As I got up, a strange smell found my nose and I walked a bit faster, understanding it came from my room. There was a cold pit of a bad feeling in my stomach. But I opened the door anyway.
I understood where the smell came from the moment I came inside. There were flowers all over my room. Only two different sorts though. The first one I recognized immediately, knowing that the sunflower was Ivan's favorite flower. The second sort was my favorite, the daisy. Most of the flowers were already rotting, being here since long. And somehow I was kind of glad for that, but still the smell was overwhelming and I started to move out from my old room again. A clear streak of yellow hit my eyes, and I turned a bit looking at the floor next to me. A sunflower and a small daisy laid there, alone and both fresh. They couldn't have been added for over a dag ago. Horror hit me as I realized he must have been here, maybe just a few hours ago. The air around me made me feel choking and dizzy, and I retreated from my room. At the doorstep I noticed another thing. There laid the pieces of the photo, being ripped in many small parts. I ran over them and out from the house, having almost tripped in the stairs. That would have been ironic if I had hurt myself.
I ran almost the whole way to the stop, realizing there was ten minutes left. It felt longer as I waited, and almost bliss came to me as the bus arrived, just one or two minutes late. The bus ride itself took about forty minutes, leaving me with twenty to find Feliks. The town was big, and I honestly didn't know where to go as I got off the bus. After a while I got the general direction of the market. I walked faster than usual through the unfamiliar streets, feeling as if multiple eyes were watching my every step. I hoped I would be getting to the meeting point soon. The market was actually bigger than I had expected, and full with people. I blended into the mass, looking around after the blond haired designer. Now being short was really something I cursed seeing how I was pushed around. Finally I spotted some blond, shoulder long hair and I set course towards Feliks. He also looked around, but never at me. Sometimes his look would go over me, and then I mean over, not on. After much pushing and apologizing I was almost by him. Then I suddenly couldn't go forward anymore.
Instead I was pulled back harshly, my wrist becoming captive and being used to pull me. The hand around my wrist let me go but was replaced with an arm wrapping itself around my chest. It took me less than a moment to recognize the body behind me I was pressed against and my breath stopped in my throat. No, this wasn't happening. I struggled hard trying to pull away, but Ivan simply lifted me up using the hand he held tightly around my chest, making my struggles powerless. With the grip hardening I tried to kick him, not making a difference in his hold in the least. His grip was tightening my chest. I wouldn't be able to breathe if this kept up. No one being around seemed to notice anything and I pulled in a breath to scream. Ivan's hand suddenly covered both my mouth and nose as a reaction. I assumed it was to keep me from screaming but then I felt a light smell, sweet and chemical, coming from a cloth that covered my airways. Chloroform. This realization made me want to struggle harder, but I could feel the liquid mixed with air come into me every time I took a breath. Darkness started to take over and I tried hopelessly to take his hand away. Ivan placed a kiss on the top of my head as he felt my body die out of strength.
"Sleep, my dear one." He whispered being close enough for me to hear him clearly even in the mass of people we were in. My feet touched the ground as Ivan put me down, but I knew that I would fall to the same asphalt if he let go of me. Still, that he wouldn't was a fact. He wouldn't let me go, never. Just as I was about to be forced asleep, the crowd split for a second and I had a clear line towards Feliks. Just at that time he looked back at us for a moment his eyes widening. But the moment he met my eyes, he looked away. There was one last thought through my mind.
"Was that regret in his eyes?"
And Ivan shows up again! ^A^
