'He woke her then and trembling and obedient
She ate that burning heart out of his hand;
Weeping I saw him then depart from me.'
La Vita Nuova, Dante Alighieri.
HER BURNING HEART
The Story of Lilia Derevko by JetNoir
Note: This story has been written especially for Penelope S. Cartwright, who asked me to try and give the back-story of Lilia. I'm not sure if this is what anybody else will like, but I'm going to try my best. I've given this a moderate rating, as the first chapter is moderately benign, though it contains some threats of violence; but I have a feeling it could get more macabre, warranting a stricter rating! Also, please assume that everyone is speaking in Russian, although I'm afraid I don't know any (and writing in two languages simultaneously would be a real pain!)
CHAPTER ONE: 15th April 1982
St. Petersburg
When she was seven years old, Lilia Derevko first saw a man killed.
It was her father that had pulled the trigger, and weeping she ran home. She had just come away from ballet training, something she hated, but endured because she knew how it made her mother happy. Her grandmother had been a dancer, and if she though about it, her mother could sometimes see her mother swirling to the sound of Tchaikovsky. Lilia's interests ran in another direction. Not the stylistic sensibilities of art, but the steely cold facts of science.
"Lilia!" bellowed her father, far behind her, "Lilia! Get back here now!" But Lilia wasn't listening, and on she ran, through dirty streets, the late snow starting to melt, the pure white, dirtied by mud, slowly disappearing.
That man. He had been alive. Then the next minute he hadn't been.
Her father was a murderer.
Tears flooded down her face, and yet she didn't know what to do. Dare she go home? Face her father, and beg for the protection of her mother?
Yet she had the experiment.
That settled it. With no-where else to go, home it had to be.
"Mummy!" As soon as she ran through the door, Lilia's mother rushed towards her, and started gabbling, seeing Lilia's tears;
"Lilia! What is it? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"Daddy…he…he's,"
"Done what sweetheart?"
"He's killed someone!" Lilia broke down into a sobbing fit.
"And you saw this," said her mother, "I'll kill him!"
"Mummy," cried Lilia, shocked, "you can't!"
"Just a figure of speech, sweetheart. But we're going to have words."
But when her father stormed through the door, a few hours later, those words were never spoken.
"Where is he?" he bellowed, "Lilia!"
Lilia's mother stepped in front of him:
"You've been drinking."
"So?"
"So! You promised Constantine. You promised your other work wouldn't involve her!"
"Don't you understand Anna? If she goes to the police, they will find out. They will kill her, and they will kill you. And I will languish in jail. Where is she?"
Anna Derevko remained silent.
"She'd better be upstairs!" snapped Constantine, barging past his wife, and going into Lilia's bedroom without knocking.
Lilia's eyes widened at the sight of her father, not quite in fear, but not in trust.
"Lilia," he began, speaking softly, dangerously, "why did you run away from me? Disobey me?" Lilia remained silent.
"I know what you saw me do. It's time for you to face up to reality. Where do you think all the money for the dance lessons comes from? They're expensive. Why do you think we eat so well? Who do you think has that kind of money?"
"Mafia?" Lilia murmured. Her father nodded:
"Yes. The Mafia. I work for honourably people, and they favour me in return. But Lilia…other people don't see the world as I do. As we do…as a family. You cannot tell anyone. Not one of your friends, nobody. Lilia…I'm deadly serious. If you do…I'll cut your little finger off. Do you understand?"
Lilia shrieked, and frantically scrabbled backwards, hiding her hands.
"And you know that I will," said her father as he walked out the door.
-
Lilia Derevko never told a soul about her father's crime, at least, not until much later.
She never went to another dance lesson again…
Note: Right, sorry about the sudden ending, but I think writing about Lilia's entire life is going to be extraordinarily difficult – if not impossible, so this is going to be a tad episodic. This is obviously going to be about Lilia, but if you keep reading, you should see some familiar faces. This has also been published simultaneously with two other Hannibal fics, that all intertwine, as a sort of celebration of my first year as a fanfic author! Anyway, hoped you enjoyed it, and please review!
Disclaimer: Hannibal is copyright to Thomas Harris; and the story, plus original characters to me. This story has been written on the understanding that you may read it and print it out; but you may not pass it off as your own, hire it out, or sell it for money. You also may not put it on your own or any other web page without my express written permission. Thankyou!
JetNoir