A/N: ASDFGHJKL THIS IS SO LATE BWAAAH I'M SORRY OTL ;_;
Okay. I'm calm. And I'm back. This is the penultimate chapter and the last one with anything from the roleplay.
Natalia woke up in an unfamiliar place, but she was calmed when she saw that Ivan was right next to her.
"W-what happened? T-this isn't the asylum." She looked around, the place was even more trashed than the hospital, it looked like the town...but it couldn't be, could it?
"We..left...we got out...I've always wanted to get out." Ivan answered, feeling as close to happy as he had in a long time.
"Brat! You're safe and we are free! We. Are. Free. I never thought I would say those words again!" Natalia burst into tears of joy and hugged her brother tight.
"Why do you call me brother? Are...are you really my sister?" Ivan couldn't remember her, he recalled knowing her but could bring forth no memory of having a sister.
"She isn't, she's just crazy."
"No...I think she is..."
Natalia frowned but nodded "I-I am your sister..." Natalia would always love her brother, even if he had forgotten her.
"You...you must be my sister...because...you s-said something about Yao...and I know I have a memory of Yao...it is s-somewhere...w-who is Yao?"
It pained Natalia to have to explain to Ivan who the person was whom he had once loved so much."Y-Yao is a very good f-friend of yours...you loved each other and he made you very happy, you always smiled around him..."
Ivan willed himself to remember Yao, there was a shadow, a ghost of memory there. He made you very happy, Ivan thought; he knew there had once been love, a lot of love, he had been in love. "I wish I remembered when I could be happy."
"Y-you will be happy again!" Natalia started to cry again, this time in sadness.
"You...you don't get it! I can't be h-happy!" Ivan reached into his coat and pulled out a small, worn out booklet; it was one of the pamphlets he had gotten from the doctor when he had been diagnosed. He kept them all and looked at them often; this one had one symptom in particular circled in it: the inability to experience pleasure. When Natalia saw this tears flowed freely down her cheeks.
"N-no! That is a lie! You will be h-happy!" She scrunched the paper up a little in her hand and shoved it back to Ivan, who sighed and took it back.
"No..it's just the way it is...that's what they always said...they were sorry...there was nothing they could do...t's too late now." One thing he could remember was being locked up in the asylum, because it was those hours he had replayed in his head while he sat in his cell.
"Brat! Don't listen to them! They were lying and they will always lie!" she looked straight into his eyes, "Now smile..."
"Nyet, that is just what it is. That is why they sent me." Ivan shook his head, he had long ago given up on smiling.
"She cares about you too much."
"I don't think it's too much...I need it."
Natalia started pleading, she was desperate to stop her brother from being miserable. "D-dammit! Brat! Ivan! Please smile! Don't listen to the voices and smile!"
Ivan forced a small smile "It doesn't make any difference."
"But it makes you look better, t-try to smile more often..." Natalia had seen a hint of the Ivan she used to know when he smiled, he had always had a smile on his face back then.
"I do not care how I look." Ivan's expression went back to being cold and sad.
Natalia sighed and gave up on getting her brother to smile, "Alright, we should go, we can't stay here forever." She got up and looked outside, but stopped when she saw the destruction all around. "I-it happened...they were...they were right..."
"W-what?" Ivan was confused, the wreckage didn't seem so off to him; all he really knew was the dilapidated asylum.
"The war...they started another w-world war...there..there must have been a b-bomb here..." Natalia started walking around, motioning for Ivan to follow her; she searched for a pay phone, and after a few minutes was able to find one that still worked.
"Who will you call?"
"I-I will call Yao..." Natalia pulled a small paper from in her dress with shaking hands, it had Yao's phone number written on it. She had seen Yao once, not long before she was put into the hospital herself, and on that day, after explaining to Yao what had happened, Natalia swore she would get them to meet again, so she had kept his phone number tucked away safely for years. She picked up the phone and dialed his number. "Y-Yao? It's Natalia, I kept my promise, I have Ivan and we are by what used to be the d-diner..."
"Nyet! Don't even think about taking me to Yao! I don't want f-friends and I really don't want a boyfriend! I am d-destined to be miserable and I don't need to make anyone else m-miserable with me!"
"Don't say that! You are never going back to that hospital, I want you to live and be happy brother! That's all I want!" Natalia implored him to see reason.
"I told you before, I can't be happy! I can't be happy, and I don't want f-friends, and everyone is better off if I just go back!" Now Ivan was starting to cry, and Natalia held him by his shoulders.
"P-please let me do this...your going to see Yao and get better...you are going to be happy, I just need you to trust me on this." Natalia begged, trying to keep herself from crying as well.
"Nyet! K-keep me away from him! I am a m-monster." Ivan was starting to break Natalia's heart.
A car pulled up and the driver called out to the two, "I am Yao's butler, I assume you're Ivan and Natalia?"
"Da!" Natalia called back "G-get in the car Ivan..."
"Damn it I don't want to!" Ivan argued, but then Natalia pushed him in, but did not get into the car herself. "Aren't you coming?"
"Nyet, I can't go with Yao, I will find our sestra and go live with her." If they don't catch me and take me back to the prison first, she thought.
Ivan watched as he got farther from his sister, then turned to the driver sheepishly."I-I'm sorry but, I don't know if I want to go to Yao's house." The driver stopped the car and looked at Ivan.
"You don't? I though you would for sure; he really misses you, he talks about you all the time."
"My sister told you what's wrong with me, da? Well, because of that, I c-can't be happy, a-at all. I don't want to make anyone else miserable. You say he misses me, but y-you're wrong; Yao misses w-who I was, n-not me. N-no one loves me n-now; I am a monster. P-please take me b-back to the hospital, it's w-where I belong." Ivan said, determined not to show Yao what he'd become.
"I can't take you back! That place was making your condition worse, I can see that being out of there is good for you." The driver argued.
"Nyet! Don't argue with me! I-I don't even hardly remember Yao, h-he can't see what I'm like now. I need someone to t-take care of me, and i-it is not going to b-be Yao. Drive me back to the prison, now." Ivan demanded, and the driver couldn't argue any more so he turned around and went back to the dilapidated asylum.
"Well, here we are." The driver said reluctantly as he let Ivan out of the car and watched him trudge back into the prison.
A/N: My heart is breaking from this story guys ;_;
This is the second to last chapter, I plan to post the last one on Valentines day, because the ending to a tragedy is so great for Valentines...
I love my reviewers and appreciate very much if you submit your opinions!
As always most of what Natalia says and a good percent of the action is credited to Snickums10 (Natalia)!
