Chapter Four
Gleb looked up and saw a huge clock towering above the other buildings. "Hey, Anya. Look."
Anya turned her head and her mouth dropped, "That's huge! I wonder how long it took to build it."
The two walked further into the city and someone stopped them, "Hello, welcome to London! How may I help you?"
"Вы знаете, что он говорит?" Anya asked Gleb.
"Неа." Gleb replied.
The Englishman looked at them both, "Ah, you're from Russia. That's a long way from here. I think I have someone for you." He left and after a few minutes came back with someone, the new man said, "Hello. Welcome to London. I will be your teacher."
Anya and Gleb looked at each other with shocked expressions, Gleb turned back, "You know Russian? And what will you be teaching us?"
The man looked at them with a big grin, "Why yes, I speak many languages so I can help people who move from a different country to this one! I will be teaching you the English language so you can live here properly."
"Thanks?" Anya said. They followed the guide into a small square, where they sat on a bench, "Hey, what's your name?"
The guide looked at Anya, "I'm Aaron, and who might you be?"
"I'm Anya."
Gleb was looking at the clock, "Gleb. How long did it take you guys to build that tower?"
"It took thirteen years," Aaron looked happily at the structure, "built sometime in the 1800s. Though I'm not exactly sure when."
The guide taught them simple sentences in English and sent them to an apartment. The next day they learned more English and were pretty confident in their sentences, so the guide let them look at the city. After wandering around for hours, they sat down on a bench in a park by the clock which they figured out was called Big Ben. It started to grow dark, "It's much warmer here than it is in Russia. It feels nice." Anya said. Gleb took a deep breath, "Yeah, and it smells better too." Anya chuckled, but she had to know something, "What you said before, in Russia. Do you actually love me? Do you actually mean it? You weren't just saying that?"
Gleb was surprised at the sudden question, "Well, yeah. I meant it. Why do you ask? Do you not trust what I say?"
She sighed in relief, "No, I was just wondering."
Gleb didn't expect this, neither did Anya, but he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. She pulled back after a long moment. They just stared at each other. They went back to the apartment in awkward silence.
They were adjusting pretty well in London, though they couldn't speak English very well. They kept struggling with the w, v, r, and th sounds. After a week of practice, they could speak it quite fluently. Both of them agreed that they would stay in England for a long time.
. . . . . .
A few weeks earlier
Ikanov was outraged when he found out that Gleb killed his best friend. He decided to bring some of his comrades to go look for him and that little princess. He got on a train and asked where the last group went, "The last train went to Germany." The conductor said.
"Take us there right now!" Ikanov tossed him a stack of money for the train ride.
The train was moving and after a couple of hours the train stopped in Germany. Ikanov and the comrades immediately ran off into the town. One of the men held up a wanted poster revealing it to a soldier, "Have you seen these people?"
"Yeah," the German hissed, "They set us back an entire week! He was slow, and she! Oho, she almost killed half of our workers on purpose to get outta work!"
"That sounds exactly like a Romanov." He spat under his breath.
One of the smaller comrades stepped forward, "Which way did they go?"
"I think they went to England. There's a bus that's going there tonight. Catch it and bring us with you, we have some things to deal with."
Perfect. He made a short laugh. It was almost midnight when the bus arrived, it dropped them off at a ferry port. They boarded and landed in London. He saw Anya sitting on a bench alone, Gleb not far off. Gleb looked like he was talking to a group of people. "Comrades, he's distracted. Let's get the girl." They all nodded and ran after her.
Anya was picked up and immediately gagged with a cloth, tied tightly around her mouth and head. "Ghmph! Hmph!" Anya shouted as loud as she could. Someone saw this and ran to alert the police. This caught some attention and soon everyone started to scream and yell. Gleb turned around and pulled out his pistol. Ikanov did the same thing, pointing the gun at Anya's head, "If you move, I'll shoot her," the other comrades pulled out their guns, "If you shoot any one of us, we all shoot her."
Gleb stared at Anya, she was terrified and looked so fragile and small. He put the gun back to his side, and looked down. Ikanov smirked and started to back away. His gun was pointed away from her, but was scanning for any police who could shoot him. "Zakhar, Boris. If you hear a gunshot, fire at the girl." Two comrades stepped forward, "Yes, sir!"
Ikanov saw one of his comrades and mistook it for an officer, he fired a warning shot in the air, but Zkahr and Boris took it as a signal to fire. They aimed their guns and fired. One of the bullets hit her arm, and the other her leg. She yelped in pain. "Stop! We need her alive." He quietly threatened them. Boris looked confused, "But didn't you say for us to shoot her if we hear-" Ikanov slapped him in the face, "You idiots! It was a threat so we could get away with her."
Zakhar nodded slowly, "Oh!" he said louder so everyone could hear, "We were just threatening you! We didn't actually mean it!"
Ikanov slapped his mouth shut, "That time we didn't mean it. Now we do." he corrected the error.
Anya tried to run since they were all distracted. He grabbed her arm, then punched her across the face. Afterwards, he pointed his gun at Gleb and fired. Gleb clutched his side, then fell to the ground.
Anya stared, her eyes becoming moist. He shot another bullet into the air, she screamed and couldn't hold back the tears. She kept telling herself not to cry, but she was in pain, and Gleb was lying on the ground. She also had to go back with Ikanov to his little dungeon.
Ikanov led her to a ferry, where they got off and took a train back to Russia. They arrived and took her to an actual prison. Ikanov whispered in her ear, "Don't be so scared. We just have to deal with you first." He laughed for a couple of seconds. Dumb Romanov.
It was morning and Anya was brought out of the prison into the square. Ikanov called everyone around, "Today, comrades! Today, we make an example of criminals. Those who are royalty, and those who commit murder. This tyrant is both. This murderer is none other than the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov."
The crowd gasped when they saw her. Anya heard some of what they were saying, "It's really her?" and a small group, "I wish they wouldn't kill her. She could make Russia better."
Zakhar stepped forward, "Any suggestions on how we should deal with her?"
"Tie her to a tree and let the beasts take care of her!" Anya's eyes widened in horror. "Drag her around on the streets by car! Or a horse!" she stepped back. "Maybe you should slowly cut her into pieces!" her eyes started to water. The crowd started to chant, "Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!" Ikanov grabbed her arm and threw her into the crowd. She looked back at him and pleaded through the gag. She was crying at this point, she didn't want to die. She was scared, and was getting picked up by Russians.
One punched her, then another threw her across the street. They tied her up and tied her to a horse. They scared the horse, so it kicked her then it ran off, dragging her through Petersburg. It stopped and they untied her. She backed away into a wall trying to escape. Ikanov stepped through the crowd, he pulled out the broken dagger, "Any last words princess?"
"Mphmphnf." She tried to say.
"Right." he ungagged her, "What were you saying?"
She quivered, "I think you've got the wrong princess. I don't even remember my childhood. Please." She had tears running down her cheeks.
He looked down and dropped the dagger. Boris picked it up and drove it into her shoulder, "Come on everybody, give one hit, then leave her in the road. Or," he pushed the dagger deeper, pinning her to the wall, "we can leave her here."
Everybody stepped forward and gave their share of beating. One of the people from the crowd waited till everyone was gone. He removed the dagger and she could only make out a small whimper. He dragged her into an alleyway and left her there. "Hey, princess,." the man replied before leaving, "If you need me, my name's Dimitry."
She just nodded before passing out. Before losing all consciousness, she heard someone weakly running, she was picked up and taken somewhere.