A month from the last chapter. Basically, Ivan ran from the Gulag on December 11th after a month spent on the Gulag.

* •

China
December 12th
1958

Toris was waiting for so long he almost thought he was hallucinating when Ivan, Eduard, and Raivis were seen hiking the peak.

The day started like the month he has been living in that strange house. It has been weird basically living with two men he knew from very few time, however, his life wasn't the most natural one at that moment. He enjoyed the company. Toris never thought he could enjoy another kind of food besides the precious Lithuanian cuisine, howbeit Sadik's cookery was gospel. He never thought he was going to be interested in someone's life outside a hospital, but Gupta's history was mythology according to Sadik's tales. He liked Sadik's delighted personality and Gupta's steady behaviour. Even when Sadik starts a competition with a sofa and Gupta wears Egyptian make-up to sleep. They were great together. They were humble; they shared everything like food, places to sleep - they can sleep anywhere - and clothes. Even showers, which was kind of weird but they didn't want to waste water and they didn't consume the unnecessary. Sometimes Toris has to remember them humans need to eat every three hours because they would spend a whole day without eating anything or only having a single meal.

The day started like any other. Sadik's food; Gupta's prayers; Toris wondering about graves, lanterns, and family. But he saw something at the end of the peak while he was cleaning the place because his companies aren't bothered by dirty places. At first, he was scared of Russian soldiers coming to kill him, so he hid behind the Turkish tall figure like the coward he was.

"Is that... It looks like a bear." Sadik announced whilst he was grabbing his knife. Gupta held his gun too, but with more skill, since the Turkish used to only operated with white weapons. On the other hand, his friend even gives names for his guns. Sadik said Egyptians think names are holy and powerful. "Let's go see who that bastard is, Muhammad."

Gupta rolled his eyes and rolled his carpet for praying. He used to roll his eyes more than he rolled his carpet and he prays at least ten times a day. The Lithuanian was getting used to them, but he still is shocked by Sadik's habits to give money to stray dogs and Anupo, Geb, and Nut - Gupta's guns.

He was going to hide like he was doing almost every time he heard a weird noise. Still, he saw platinum hair being coloured by the sunset.

"Ivan!"

"Who?" Sadik inquired while drinking from his empty bottle. Sometimes Gupta and Toris would put water to make him drink it, but he would always complain if it's too much. "Is that a drink?"

"That is my friend!"

"Bok! He is taller than me. It won't end like this."

Gupta rolled his eyes.

Toris left the balcony where they were embracing the vision of the sunset and ran through the front garden as if he was running for his life. He tripped on some rock before he was crawling and running again. The breeze was relief among his clothes and the sunlight was energy caressing his skin. He saw Eduard's tall figure and Ivan holding Raivis in the piggyback ride. They were skinnier, paler and sadder than they used to be, nonetheless, they were walking and breathing. Toris didn't have to steal their souls from death or scream for them to come back.

Toris could have tried for years to describe in words the relief he felt, but only heaven can turn something so intense in words. Not a single word could express the sensation in the warmth when he embraced his brothers into a hug. All the tests they had to pass just to encounter each other again and all the horrible visions the three endured faded when they held hands against their abusers. They were on the grass kneeling, holding back tears, facing the things that broke them apart and balancing their miseries. Raivis' abandonment, Eduard's memories, and Toris' loneliness became the most simple and beautiful kind of sensation a human can embrace in their interior. Just a family holding hands and staring at each other like a faithful man looking at religion.

"Toris?"

"It's me, Raivis! Can't you recognize your older brother? I tried everything to bring you back. I'm deeply sorry for everything..." Toris apologized with guilty matching his skin. "I just wanted to be with Feliks again and I put all of us in danger."

"There is nothing to apologize for, brother." Raivis retorted in a wise voice. "We didn't love Feliks as much as you, but we also loved him. We wouldn't abandon him the same way you wouldn't."

The Lithuanian looked at his brothers.

"Raivis... Your eyes..." He mumbled and held back tears. His little brother, the one he carried through the stairs to the bed every time he fell asleep on the couch, was staring at the ground without blinking and his eyes were clearly damaged. "What happened?"

"Some kind of dust entered my eyes when I was working on the mines separating coal." He explained and he sounded older than he really was. "I can only see things if they are close, but it's still unfocused and I have awful headaches. I'm fine, though. I think I can be partially blind better in a place different from a Gulag. It's not a dead end."

He sounded extremely sad, yet he was smiling and everything about his face was wise and experienced. He grew up in adversity as a diamond in the rough.

Toris' tears were almost protesting to be shredded. His chest was aching when he used his medical eyes to search for injuries in his brothers. He was scared of finding anything else, still, he searched. The vision was the same from when Toris treated soldiers coming from prisoners' camps. A horrifying disaster he used to deal plainly, but those were his brothers and he was almost wailing when he stopped at Eduard's hand and noticed the cuts.

"Brother... Who did that to you?" He mumbled and waited for an answer from Eduard. His brother just stared at him with despair in a line in his mouth and compassion in his eyes while caressing Toris' hand with his fingers. He waited for so long he was already glancing at Raivis for an explanation, but the Latvian was silent. He gazed at Eduard's emotionless expression. Why was he the only one breaking? "Why aren't you speaking? You used to talk all the time. Talk to me, Eduard! Tino is going to speak all those hours alone? I think he is capable of that occurrence, but still- Say you are okay and say you..."

Forgive me.

He chuckled nervously while the world was crumbling around him. He glanced at Raivis' sad face.

"Raivis, why isn't our brother talking?"

"He is quieter now." The Latvian answered with a crack in his voice, then he smiled a broken beam. "At least we are alive."

The boy started to cry.

The brothers hugged for a long time. Eduard kissing Toris' forehead, Raivis laying on the Estonian's shoulder and the Lithuanian caressing the hair of the Latvian. They were separated for so long it felt wrong to return to the "More Talk, Less Touch" policy which meant "Think Pretty Things Only." At least for today, they held each other carefully and let their sadness fill their souls.

Toris noticed Ivan staring at them carrying something on his back. The Russian had envy deeply heavy in his eyes, nonetheless, his expression was flat. He was wearing a prisoner's clothing, his eyes were deep in his skull, his hand was obviously damaged and he looked awfully broken. He was holding the crotch on his back as if it was hurting.

Ivan did so much. Toris thought. Yet there is no one to receive him with this love.

The Lithuanian extended his hand to the Russian and smiled. The brightest beam he could perform when so much has been destroyed for them. Ivan stared at him like he was already dead.

"Спасибо." He thanked the Russian while he was still holding his brothers. "Thank you! Thank you! You did something truly good. I don't even know how to thank you."

"I know."

Ivan held the crotch in his arms like a baby and opened the tissue. Toris was stunned when he let go of his brothers to look at the child. The boy was painfully skinny in a worse way than Eduard and Raivis as if it's been a long time since he has eaten anything and his whole body was dirty with dried blood and black dust. He had dark hair, an adorable face and his teeth were appearing as if he was tired of keeping them inside his mouth but he didn't want to smile. He didn't look alive. His clothes were bleeding.

Raivis and Eduard seemed familiar with the child.

"His name is Maxim Popescu. He was shot. Can you save him?"

•

It was so good to come back to his normal clothes, weapons, temperature, and scarf. Ivan was feeling calmer looking at the mirror and wondering through the scar underneath the old piece of the crotch in his neck. He noticed the heavy and white lines with a little apprehension. It was his fault that the perfect trophy was injured. He was weak. It's honourable to have someone murdering you in a fight. Suicide is not honourable.

Eduard and Raivis were resting on the mattress since they finished eating a little portion of sustenance. They weren't willing to sleep in separated beds after so long sleeping on the same square meter in Karlag so the Estonian was cuddling with his little brother. Ivan wanted to sleep too, he was deadly exhausted, but he needed to drink to sleep. Sleeping with Taalay was a complete class for him. He even managed to hold his flashbacks more closely to himself or he might hurt her.

One day he started to see the same person that he choked when he was a teenager in Eduard's face. He started to lose his mind. The Estonian was completely shocked by that reaction and Ivan was glad he didn't understand Russian when he started to explain himself for the first person he killed. Another day, he saw Yao in Taalay's face and he started to wail in Mandarin. He ended up making the guards punish him with heavy torture and he was only alive because Taalay said he was dreaming and a sleepwalker. He was trying to keep himself centralized, however, Ivan wanted to forget the month he had. He was lucky he was alive after the famine and the labour for months. Sleeping with strangers and waking some, especially Taalay, by screaming in his sleep every night. The heavy labour destroying his muscles and the torture destroying his psyche.

Ivan sat beside the bed with the sleeping child and held his knees for a very long time. He was firm when he said he wanted Maxim on Mei Chan's room and the Lithuanian treated the diseased boy around cats and pink things.

Toris sighed when he finished suturing the boy's wounds. He held the bullet in his index and toe and stared at it as if it was radioactive. Ivan thought that the Lithuanian treated people in Vilnius for years before he started to save soldiers during the Great War and in the two scenarios, the doctor treated patients without basic resources. He has always been an incredible doctor with poor medicine.

"I tried everything, Ivan. But I don't think he is going to live, at all... He is too weak. We were lucky Gupta and Sadik are universal donators of blood and we could make a transfusion to keep him alive. He lost a lot of blood... But I am surprised you crossed a border with him on your back. A true miracle." Toris explained with a guilty posture. He sat on the bed and cleaned his hands covered in crimson. "And even if he does, I don't think he'll ever be able to walk again. The bullet damaged his medulla permanently. Luckily, he didn't seem to lose anything from his under systems besides his movements. Still, he needs strong antibiotics to alleviate the light infection or it will spread. I would appreciate at least some vitamins to keep his body strong enough to function. He isn't nurtured enough to a normal recuperation. He needs a hospital for a small chance of living another day."

Ivan peered at the boy laying on the bloody sheets. The Russian carried the child all the way from Karlag to the truck when Maxim was shot by the guards that ruined the attempt to escape. A hundred people were running with Ivan, Eduard and Raivis to the truck, but only fifty people made it. The Russian saw the boy dying to a shot on the snow and he risked his life to bring his body with him. He carried Maxim on his back until he reached Yao's house. Ivan remembers the boy's heart on his skin and a single name. He remembers talking to the boy on the truck while he was almost fainting. He remembers asking about every child in the Gulag.

"There is no hospital around here. At maximum, some traditional doctor." The Russian announced tiredly. "There might be hospitals in Beijing."

"There is no way we can move him now that I already removed the projectile. He needs to rest!" Toris elucidated firmly and Ivan never saw him more ominous than in that moment. "But I need something to stop the infection before he dies. I don't think there is medicine near, but he is definitely going to die without it. He was already lucky the bacteria is not grave and it didn't spread farther because you were smart to don't remove the bullet. But it will spread."

He felt his veins stretching and he couldn't hear anything.

"Ivan... Are you okay?"

Ivan was thinking fast, everything was hurting in a way he couldn't concentrate on his surroundings and his mind was almost blank of emotions in general. His hands were shaking in abnormal speed matching his blood pressure and breath when he tensed his shoulders and faked the inexpressive face that was against his turbulent interior. What was happening to him? He felt trapped in his own skin. In the prison, he built the ruins utilizing invisible scars and everything seemed cursed.

"If he is going to die either way put a bullet in his brain, then. It's easier. He is not alive, anyway."

Toris had his eyes widened. Gupta and Sadik raised from the pink poofs they were sitting on the ground. They were careful when peeking at Ivan.

"What do you mean?"

The Russian was angry and sweating when he stood up. He smiled.

"We should not spend ammunition on this one." Ivan opined grabbing his military knife and smiling. "A cut in the neck is nothing I can't wash with snow."

"It's a child! You can kill him because you can't fix him." The Lithuanian clarified standing between Maxim and Ivan. "What is happening to you? You are not like that, are you? We were understanding each other. What happened to you in that place?"

His vision was blurring and he was in the Gulag again. Ivan felt as if his veins were burning. He wanted to rip his own skin to feel free.

"Ivan?"

"He is wasting our resources."

"Killing a child because of the resources we don't have in the first place? You sound like every country in the fucking world. Are you insane!?" Sadik asked grabbing a gun from Gupta's pocket and aiming at the Russian. "Are you heartless!?"

"Oh, haven't you heard?"

"Drop the knife!"

"How do I say that in Turkish? Oh, right! Siktir git!"

"Don't you dare speak my language again!"

"Don't worry. I don't care about your nationality since your country is nothing but a whole history of genocide."

"I'll kill you!

"I am expensive to kill, but go on."

Something changed in Sadik's calm appearance and Toris trembled. He watched as someone smaller got between both of them.

He was Egyptian as far as Toris told him and he looked more like an energy than matter in fact. Ivan sensed he was going to be killed by Sadik, however, Gupta was patiently between them as a steady rock and the man wasn't moving a centimetre. When the Turkish saw him, he stopped completely. Sadik stared at him like he was having a whole conversation in the silence with his friend. He said something in Arabic and Ivan wished he could understand. Then Sadik responded it in Turkish. It was similar to Kazakh enough for Ivan to understand.

"Can I kill this one?" He asked. "Please, just one more."

"There will be a day it won't be lovely to turn the bodies you bury into seeds."

Sadik stopped fighting and he backed away from both as if he accepted the words. Then Gupta stared at Ivan. He was looking at him with wisdom and he continued to stare whilst he grabbed something on his pocket and gave it to the Russian as he was giving light to a dark place. It was a withered yellow flower that was probably worse than before he put in his pocket. Then, he said a long sentence to Sadik and the Turkish was almost red from holding back his anger.

"He said there are a man and a woman we met once in Mauritania that can help the child. He is a nurse and she is a doctor and they are close to here in a small village. It's a chance." Sadik explained and crossed his arms. A heavy glare in his eyes almost made him go for Ivan's throat again, nevertheless, he turned around as if he was trying to avoid looking at him. "He also said it's over."

The Russian stared at him for a moment, but Gupta was too rough to bow. Too strong to make Ivan say something else or insist. He felt transparent against those eyes and he hated it.

He resigned from Mei Chan's room and went to the room belonged to him when he was living there. He kneeled on the ground where he was able to contemplate the twilight through the window. That room was the last place he felt truly safe.

Why was he speaking and acting like that?

Why was he so frustrated?

He was having a hard time trying to understand and figure what was happening in his interior. Something was awfully hurtful in his memory, but he wasn't able to focus. If he gets lapses in his vision, Ivan can't understand why it's so hurtful to think things through. The Russian just knew he was dealing with a lot of frustration because he wanted to save Maxim. It felt strange and he preferred to act the way he did rather than explain the reasons he was breathing hard to himself. Ivan missed the simplicity of the military. They were understandable to him. Perhaps, he should stop disobeying them out of selfishness and come back to his responsibility. He should leave that house because there was nothing for him there.

He tripped on something on the plain floor of his room when he stood up. A small train. He didn't understand why there was a toy in his old room. It didn't look like something Yao would give to Mei Chan. Li Xiao didn't like normal toys; he preferred to play with a ball. Hai Guo was a teenager that hated trains that take him to the labour and loved boats that take him far away from land. Yao wasn't the type to have toys, besides a Hello Kitty pillow. Ivan was deeply confused, but he didn't want to think.

The wind was abnormally strong when Ivan left Yao's house, welcomed the night in his dark interior and ignored how the stars were brighter than everywhere he went in the last years. A sky he used to admire in the house when he was hiding from Yao and his children. The nights and days he spent hiding in someplace dark because he was afraid of those new people. Then Yao showed a hideout behind the wall of his room and Ivan started to hide there. He would find blankets, food and water inside of it.

Ivan grabbed his things on the balcony and stared at the lanterns on the red stairs under the wind bells echoing. Two lanterns. One for Hai Guo and one for Li Xiao. None for him. He balanced his head before he started to run. He sprinted a little faster and crossed the snow dissolving on the ground. He didn't stop until he tripped and fell on a raw hole. The reason why he fell was very simple. He needed to hide behind a small flaw on the ground until he was laying down on the dirt because there was someone acting weirdly in his car. Ivan waited before he looked over his shoulder.

Four soldiers wielding Soviet uniforms were examining Ivan's car next to the main road. They wouldn't be in a country outside the Soviet Union in the perfect display if they didn't know about the betrayal. They wouldn't be in a small village next to the mountains and nothing else because of any other reason besides Ivan's presence. This only meant he was discovered. The Russian documented the people that knew he was travelling.

He remembered a payment he gave by phone.

"One thing about my past is that my language's teacher was Wang Yao."

"Boring... I thought you were going to say something like 'I sold my virginity to buy vodka.'"

Boris. The Russian paid the Bulgarian just a useless memory for the last payment, but it was destructive. He should know that a simple sentence with a single name was dangerous in Boris' hands.

Ivan concentrated on the present.

He crawled back to the same way he came until the snow was covering him with its white colour. He sensed all kinds of different tones of white when he used camouflage to hide and crawl until he was at the edge of the path to Yao's house. He started to run in a dangerous hike that would be better if he wasn't recovering from all the suffering he felt in Karlag. The Russian was so exhausted he wasn't even feeling cold when he ran to the house. He entered Mei Chan's room with speed and found Toris cleaning the child's wound with cotton and delicacy. He looked at the Russian and he was going to say something, but Ivan was already holding his shoulders.

"You need to hide!" He ordered hurting his hand when he dragged the door open. He was still healing from his broken wrist. "Where is that Turkish and that Egyptian? We might need their guns."

Toris blinked confused.

"They left to find the doctor and the nurse. Do you think they are okay."

"I don't know. Honestly, Maxim and your brothers are my priority now. They can perish."

He was thinking fast when he grabbed a knife and gave it to Toris.

"You, Eduard, Raivis and Maxim need to hide in Yao's bunker right now!"

"What bunker, Ivan?" He asked with a trembling voice. They were wasting time and Ivan heard steps. "You can't move him."

He groaned and grabbed the edge of the mattress using his good hand. He lugged it through the corridor while Toris was keeping Maxim unaffected till they reached Yao's room. Eduard and Raivis were awoken and talking to each other in Lithuanian on the mattress. They were startled by the interruption which was based on Ivan pushing the furniture out of the way to show a fake wall. That forged part hid a bunker.

He glanced at Eduard wearing Hai Guo's glasses without the lenses, but this was a discussion for another time.

In a minute they were in the hideout and the Russian was calmer with them completely hidden. He looked at Toris holding Maxim's mattress, the boy breathing hard and sweating, Eduard was a pity of quiet despair, and Raivis appeared to be close to crying.

"Keep quiet!" Ivan ordered to Toris as a siren. "Don't leave here no matter what you hear. Break out after an hour everything is silent and don't even think about making a noise."

Everyone started speaking at the same time, but Ivan was able to catch only Toris' words in English. Nothing important. He heard things breaking downstairs.

"Shut up!" He yelled and everyone was quiet. They stared at Ivan in a wait for another yell but Ivan threw his scarf in Toris. Perhaps, this was the last time Ivan was going to see Toris, Eduard, Raivis and Maxim. "Is there still Vodka down the basement?"

Toris agreed with his head.

Ivan closed the bunker.

•

Aggressive shouts were the perfect definitions of an infernal song and Toris was trying the hardest to sing heavenly hymns in his mind. He couldn't understand what the men were saying since they spoke in Russian. He heard punches, kicks and long periods where he just heard disastrous sounds he didn't want to imagine. There was a time where they seemed to be breaking everything in the house looking for something. It's been so long since they started that horrible situation the Lithuanian was surprised Ivan was still alive after so long.

The bunker seemed like a room that was borning from the wall and it even had a small window. It wasn't smart if there were bombs, so Toris wondered what someone could hide for in it. It was extremely dark if not for the open window revealing the moonlight. There was a lock on the entrance that the Lithuanian locked after he understood there was nothing he could perform for Ivan. Raivis was crying and Eduard was covering his ears. Toris tried to clean Maxim's wound to avoid another infection, howbeit he was shaking too much. It was inhumane what they were doing and it was unbearable to hear it most of the times. Sometimes they would laugh, sometimes they would break things and yell.

It stopped. Everything went quiet for a whole moment.

"Oh, thanks!" Raivis exclaimed with a crack in his voice. He disregarded Toris making a sign to instruct him to stay quiet. "It's over."

Ivan started to scream. Not only a short use of his voice, but he was also wailing in complete pain and they heard something slam on the wall. Toris held the locker with resentment and discomfort. Everything that happened a few minutes before disappeared from the Lithuanian's mind and he just saw a patient he wanted to take care of. He wanted to give Ivan the retribution for saving his family by saving him from that horrible pain. Any excuse was perfect. He needed to stop that outrageous situation, but he was shaking too much to open the locker.

Eduard hugged his waist and brought him down.

"What are you doing!? I have to help him!" Toris exclaimed and fought for his freedom with Ivan's screams as a soundtrack. "He is going to die!"

"Everything he suffered in all this time is going to mean nothing if they find out about us."

Toris glanced at Eduard. He wondered how he has spent such a large amount of time without hearing his brother's voice for it to sound so intense. The Lithuanian stopped fighting and sat on the ground again. Ivan continued screaming.

"But he will die!"

"And we will die if they find us. Choose!"

Toris stared at him completely shocked because he didn't recognise Raivis' voice.

"What are you saying, Raivis? Eduard, let me go."

"Don't lose yourself another time to someone. You tend to forget yourself to give everything to others." He sanctioned. "We can't share this decision with you, Toris. We won't allow Ivan to screw our chance of peace even if he is the same person who gave it to us. You are helping him till the point it's disturbing your life and I'm going to make sure you don't pass that limit. No more. You did the same thing with..."

"Eduard!"

Raivis interrupted Eduard before he could say "Feliks".

"It's the truth! Toris has always loved Feliks and would give up everything for him, but Feliks wouldn't do the same. I won't allow you to return to this relationship. It's abuse with yourself, brother."

Toris didn't respond. He thought about it and perhaps Eduard was right. He has always tried to explain to Feliks that he wanted to stay in Lithuania, but his friend was attempting to make Toris leave with him to Poland or elsewhere far away from USSR. The Lithuanian didn't want to leave his beloved country, so he was doing anything Feliks wanted to make sure he overlooks the condition of leaving. It was hard to endure Feliks' insistence on that subject. He used to say he wanted to protect Toris, however, he has always got hateful when he hears a "no".

"Let's talk... Please." Toris begged with a ragged voice. "Anything."

"What happened after we were taken?"

He looked at his little brother before telling everything that happened. Hungary, the Americans, being a double spy and the month spent on that house with Sadik and Gupta. He didn't know how much time Ivan spent screaming, nonetheless, they talked the whole time about good experiences as if the screams were a background melody. They were silent when Ivan was just breathing heavily and his voice sounded like an animal trying to catch air. The man talked some more and it was difficult to tell if they got a response. Everything was silent for a long time. They spent the time wondering if they have the nerve to go out.

It was opaque in the sunrise when Toris unlocked the door and glanced at the room. Raivis stayed with Maxim and Eduard accompanied him through the destroyed house. The brothers went to the room with only a toy in it to see how the Russian was. They were shocked when they noticed how the house was an incredible and sad mess. They searched through the doors. They destroyed everything in the room with things from the sea and the cute things. Even the room with nothing had dirty Toris didn't want to look at. Yao's room was untouched.

The vision they had when they opened the last room was even more shocking, to say the least. Ivan's body was displaying bruises in a sickening way as if he had stains that could be washed, but that wasn't the case. He was covered in blood and other liquids and his skin were pale with all the dark colours disturbing his figure. He was laying with his belly on the mattress and the vision matched the broken windows and the blood stretching itself on the floor.

The Lithuanian ran at Ivan's aid. The doctor tried to touch the man's neck to see if he was breathing and was surprised to see the man was completely awake. Ivan stared at Toris with tears falling down his eyes without any mask. That was his real face. He wasn't in a disguise and that was so sad Toris felt sick. The Russian was dropped on the mattress with his limbs numb and his head falling on the ground.

"What did they do to you?"

Ivan continued to stare at him as if he was too oblivious to sense anything around him or he was too exhausted to speak. His eyes were red as the blood in the sheets and his bruises were an unpleasant complement to his tragedy. It was completely nauseating to look at him and the pity in the Lithuanian's chest was becoming unbearable.

He looked for injuries and if it was going to be bad to move him, however, he had nothing critical. Only tons of bruises, bite marks, a hickey in his leg, a lot of spaces where his skin was shredded, and an old scar in his neck. The blood belonged to his interior since it was spilling from his nose and mouth.

"Can we give him a shower?" Eduard asked with a crack in his voice. He took his glasses off. "I would definitely want a shower after someone..."

"Don't you dare say it!" Toris groaned protective. "Shut up and help me."

Toris held the Russian's arms and noticed how fragile they were when Ivan moaned with pain. Eduard held his other arm and they lifted him with a little difficult, especially because he looked like a broken doll. Even his legs weren't firm for walking. They dragged him towards the bathroom with every step a single whine from Ivan's mouth. He was trying to talk, but in the end, he was only sobbing and breathing harshly. He wasn't exactly heavy, but his broad shoulders were an inconvenience to surpass. When they reached the bathroom at the end of the corridor, Raivis was standing at Yao's door. He just didn't widen his eyes because he wasn't able to focus his vision on anything.

"What is that?"

"Can you turn on the shower, Raivis?"

"I think I can... I can't see straight; is that Ivan? Is he okay?"

"Just go! Find clothes for him after that."

His little brother flinched and obeyed in a scared way. He turned on the shower and went to Yao's room. Toris dragged Ivan into the water making his own clothes all wet and Eduard accompanied him without complaining. This was different from his old exigent brother and the Lithuanian was startled. They held Ivan under the water while his white hair turned to grey and everything was leaving his body with the water as a solvent. Ivan was falling, but Toris and Eduard were doing their hardest to maintain him in his weak feet. He was pale and was obviously in complete shock, too weak to move at all and Toris had nothing in his mind to help at that moment. Not a single word can amend that cruelty.

"You know the worst part?" Eduard asked while the water was destroying his new clothes from the room with a lot of ocean. His voice was an acute angle making everything more melancholic. "This is not the worst I have seen or heard. I learned that people can easily forget that others are humans."

Those words weren't inaccurate.

After the shower, Ivan wasn't inclined to let anyone touch him, pushed everyone aside and sat on the ground in the shower. Raivis found a mandarin jacket in perfect red and white pants in the Chinese's stuff and Toris complemented with the worn scarf before dressing him up. When the Russian saw the old crotch he seemed more willing to allow them to touch him again. They dried his body with a little difficulty, since he was shaking, and dragged his massive body towards Yao's room. Toris was able to look his body and he noticed new bite marks, fewer bruises, another disgusting hickey, but not a single cut. All the blood came from inside Ivan's body. Not an isolated permanent mark beside his memory. Toris treated his broken nose, covered him in layers of improvised bandages, treated his wrist as if it was something crucial and gave him a natural medicine for pain Gupta brought with him.

When they finished, Ivan was wrapped in several blankets. Toris put the plasters that were only displaying his purple eyes. His silver hair was an adorable mess and it even made him more adorable when his eyes were closing a little more each second.

"What else can we do?"

"Nothing else. I think he needs to sleep."

"I wonder what they did to him."

"I wonder what they didn't."

After Ivan closed his haunted eyes and slept, Toris brushed his humid hair.

"It's over."

* •

Anupo = Anubis. God of death and funerals in Egyptian religion.

Geb = Egyptian god of the Earth.

Nut = Egyptian goddess of the sky.

All the tests they had to pass just to encounter each other again and all the horrible visions the three endured faded when they held hands against their abusers.

This makes a reference to the Baltic Way. This was a pacific protest, a peaceful political demonstration, that occurred on 23 August 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometres across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia which were considered at the time to be constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The demonstration originated in "Black Ribbon Day" protests held in the western cities in the 1980s. It marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The pact and its secret protocols divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940. The event was organised by Baltic pro-independence movements: Rahvarinne of Estonia, the Tautas fronte of Latvia, and Sąjūdis of Lithuania. The protest was designed to draw global attention by demonstrating a popular desire for independence and showcasing solidarity among the three nations. It has been described as an effective publicity campaign and an emotionally captivating and visually stunning scene. Of course, it happened thirty years from this day, however, I needed to make the reference, even in the narrative. This gesture was just too perfect.

Bok = Swear word in Turkish. I learned with my Turkish friend, Erkan. It basically means "Shit".

Siktir git = Fuck you. Courtesy from Erkan.

"Don't worry. I don't care about your nationality since your country is nothing but a whole history of genocide."

Nothing to declare but...

Bulgaria:
During the April Uprising in Bulgaria against Ottoman rule, over 15,000 non-combatant Bulgarian civilians were massacred by the Ottoman army between 1876 and 1878, with the worst single incident being the Batak massacre.

Armenia:
In April 1915 the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic decimation of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying intensity until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By 1923 virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared. They basically deported Armenian in terrible conditions and they would travel in 19000 people and arrive with 2500. Some people were shot in the Syrian desert and some people vanished without explanation.

Greece:
The Greek genocide, including the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population carried out in Anatolia during World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922) on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. It was instigated by the government of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish national movement against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire and it included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, summary expulsions, arbitrary execution, and the destruction of Eastern Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious monuments. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. Most of the refugees and survivors fled to Greece (adding over a quarter to the prior population of Greece). Some, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire.

Assyrians:
The Assyrian nation is one of the world's most ancient. As an ethnic and religious minority in the Middle East, the Assyrians have long suffered from riots and persecution. During World War I, the Turks murdered hundreds of thousands of Assyrians; between one half and two-thirds of all Assyrians living in the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish government continues to deny the Assyrian Genocide. In August 1894 an Armenian revolt erupted in the Sason district. The Ottomans responded to the revolt with great cruelty, murdering scores of Armenians. Armenian protests led to further massacres of Armenians, committed by Turks and Kurds over a three-year period. The killing initially directed at the Armenian population quickly spread to and afflicted all Christian minorities in the Empire. In the years 1895-1896, the Turks and Kurds butchered Assyrians in Diyarbakir and Urhoy. Some 25,000 Assyrians were murdered in this massacre, which became known as the "Hamidean Massacre," named after Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

There is more about these genocides, but this is the resumed version I could manage.