Hey guys, I hope you're doing well! Read on to find out which critical part of the original books happens next! ;)
Gonna reply to reviews on the previous chapter, thanks so much for the love and to everyone who reviewed!
Guest: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter! And it's good to hear you liked the perspective I added to the arrest. I felt like that chapter was missing something for a long time and couldn't figure out what it was. But then I had a conversation with a friend about systemic racism in the residency application process (about how so many Caucasians in my class got spots in the competitive specialties they wanted whereas so many Asians in my class didn't get a residency spot or didn't get what they wanted) and it left me with a lot of emotions, which in turn fuelled the paragraphs about Adrian politics and systemic racism and added that missing piece to the chapter.
Tessa Jane: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter! And thank you for the congratulations ^-^
Disclaimer: I do not own the Embassy Row series and all the characters (except for Tanner and Jordan and Alexei's Moscow friends (Roman, Eugene, Josef, and Yulia), who are my own creations). They belong to Ally Carter. I am merely using her characters and plotline to create this fanfiction. I have no intention of profiting off the Embassy Row series in any way. This fanfiction is purely for entertainment purposes and would not exist without Ally Carter's wonderful works.
The events that happen in this fanfiction are not meant to be representative of real life. Any similarities to any real-life events or fictional works is purely coincidental and not intentional (with the exception of the original Embassy Row books by Ally Carter since this fanfiction is literally Take the Key and Lock Her Up but from Alexei's, not Grace's, perspective). The character's actions may not always reflect my own opinions or views. Based on what happens in this chapter, I do not condone using fake ID's.
Content warning: mild
This fanfiction is rated T, for suggestive themes, language, and violence. This chapter contains mentions of mental health, death, and incarceration. Please read at your own discretion.
Chapter Twelve: Binevale, Revisited
After learning that Grace's mother had gone to Binevale, we disembarked the train in Dubrovnia, instead of taking it all the way to Adria. Surely, Binevale had to contain something that could help Grace. I really didn't want to go back there, especially after everything that had happened that night a couple months ago. But unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice. Besides, it was the best for Grace so I was going to follow her, even though every fibre of my being didn't want to.
That weird feeling, like someone was watching me, remained in the back of my mind as the train edged closer to Dubrovnia's capital. I tried my best to quell that fear, telling myself that supernatural entities weren't real and that everything was going to be just fine. However, that didn't stop the small pit from forming in my stomach or the lingering doubts in my mind.
And that was how I found myself driving down the main highway in an ancient car that was older than all of us. This was the cheapest car for rent at the train station so of course, we were going to take it. Maybe that was why the rental attendant had so easily let us rent it, even with our fake ID's. I didn't trust this car one bit, not with all the noises it made and the jerks I felt every time we drove over a bump in the road. I didn't even want to think about how much this car would act up once we turned onto that narrow, unmarked dirt road.
"Alexei, are you sure about this?" Rosie asked, as we drove past the festival grounds just outside the capital city. Almost instantly, the scenery changed, from modern city to steep mountains. The air was much colder than in Valancia, even though it was only early autumn, making it feel very ominous. "I mean, I know the Soviet Union was big and stuff, but that was a long time ago. Maybe …"
"It was not so long ago if you are Russian." Growing up, my father and Mikhail had taught me a lot of Russian history. Even though the fall of the Soviet Union had happened long before I was born, the stories about Soviet-era life passed down from them made me feel like I had experienced it in some way. Whenever I went to Moscow, it was hard to miss the little reminders of Soviet-era life, a core component of Russian identity, something that non-Russians wouldn't be able to truly comprehend.
As we drove down the narrow road, the reminders of Soviet-era life in Dubrovnia jumped out at me. Like many of its neighbours, it too was once part of the Soviet Union. However, it didn't feel like a modern-day country to me, especially out here in the countryside, where it looked like something straight out of a historical movie. It wouldn't take much of a stretch of my imagination to believe it really was the 1970's or 1980's, at the height of the Soviet empire.
"Turn up the heat, will you?" Megan asked. I quickly peeked in the rearview, seeing her, Grace, and Noah shivering in the backseat, practically huddling into each other for warmth. Sure, the three of them may have been used to warmer climates but this was nothing. The three of them wouldn't last long in Moscow's bitter, subzero winters. Now, that was something to complain about. I glanced over at Rosie, a smirk on her face. At least she understood where I was coming from.
I turned onto the narrow, unmarked dirt road, getting flashbacks of driving down the same road but in a different car. However, the end goal was the same in both cases: find Binevale. Earlier in the summer, that had just been a drunken, late night adventure. Now, it was a life or death mission to uncover some of the world's best kept secrets.
The air changed again, creating an icy chill as a sharp wind blew, whipping the leaves off the ground. I turned up the heat just a touch, figuring I'd give into the poor, unaccustomed travellers in the back. I didn't dare crank it though because the last thing I needed was for this car to start sputtering and die on us in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, Roman's fancy car had done a better job of getting us down this road. I prayed this car would make it, at least until we got to Binevale.
"How far?" Noah asked. I knew we didn't have much further to go. I quickly glanced in the rearview, seeing Megan scrolling through her phone.
"It should be close, but I don't see anything," Megan said, confirming my thoughts. Sure enough, I spotted the small break in the trees, the indication for us to pull off the dirt road and onto the rough terrain. I carefully maneuvered the car along, trying to minimize the impact with each bump or dip we hit. When I spotted the familiar steep hill, I slowly rolled the car to a stop, parking by the surrounding forest.
"What is it?" Grace asked. "What's wrong?"
"We walk," I replied, taking the keys out of the ignition. I got out of the car, heading towards the hill. As I ascended, the memories of another night, where I had walked up the same hill, came rushing back to me. Back then, I had been begrudgingly dragged along, trying to keep my friends in order as they went ballistic over Binevale. But now, I was the crazy one leading that adventure, especially since this was somewhat familiar territory. If I turned to my left, I would spot the unusually large cluster of trees where Roman, Eugene, and Josef had hidden, waiting for the perfect opportunity to scare me.
"I thought we were going to Binevale," Rosie said, as she ran alongside me.
"We are. We're here." I stepped onto the top of the hill, looking down at the surrounding area. Now in the broad daylight, I saw so much more. There was the same cluster of buildings that I recognized from before. However, I was now able to make out a large, three-story, cinder-block and stone structure which looked like the main building. A few smaller buildings were situated nearby. What really stood out was the tall, chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, roping the buildings into one massive complex. Sure, it could have been a military base, like I originally thought, but taking in the buildings with a new eye, I saw just how much it truly resembled the prison of horrors from those childhood stories, suddenly becoming much more real.
"Is it a prison?" Megan asked. She unzipped her backpack, pulling out a large camera with a massive telephoto lens. She snapped pictures at lightning speed, rotating the camera every which way.
"Of a sort," I replied. At least, not in the conventional sense they were likely thinking of.
"This can't be it," Grace said, shaking her head, her face contorted in confusion. "Why would my mom come here? It doesn't exactly scream antiquities."
"Technically, it's not here." There wouldn't be any old artifacts here. But perhaps, there was a chance these buildings housed people who knew about them. Who could possibly be here, that would be of interest to Grace's mother?
I turned to find Noah giving me a funny look. "Girls like it when you're cryptic, don't they?" He turned to Megan. "Should I start being cryptic?"
Megan just shrugged him off, looking at me instead. "Alexei, what is this place?"
I couldn't help the sad smile that crept onto my face, recalling years of childhood stories and threats. "It's where you send the people you want to disappear." I looked over at Grace, taking in the complex with wide eyes.
"I'm not sure what it is," I said. "Not exactly. It was built by the Soviets not long after the Second World War. Many believe it is a prison …"
"Of course it's a prison," Rosie said, rolling her eyes. "I mean look at it. What else could it be?" No one really knew what Binevale was. To us Russian children growing up, it was a legendary place shrouded in mystery. We had all wondered if one day, we'd see it with our own eyes. Of course, there were stories of people who had been shipped to Binevale. But none of them ever came back to tell the tale, creating further legends. The adults were sure to keep quiet about it, simply reminding us that we had to behave or we'd be sent to Binevale. To this day, I never quite knew what to believe about Binevale, not even as I was standing here, looking down on the very real buildings.
"A hospital." A look of cold horror washed over Grace's face. "It's a hospital."
"No way." Rosie shook her head. "Look at that place. How are people supposed to get better in there?"
"They aren't," Grace said. At once, all eyes were on me, no doubt looking for confirmation, as I was the resident Binevale expert.
"People who go into Binevale do not come out," I stated, speaking one of the many horrible truths about the place. When I had said that to Yulia in passing, it was just another statement that didn't carry much weight. Yet, looking down at it now, it very much looked like a place where people were sent to disappear, to live out the rest of their lives in misery until their passing.
Noah put an arm around Grace, who had started rocking, eyes locked straight ahead, unfocused, unmoving. I feared she was going to have another panic attack, but why? Did she know something about this place that the rest of us didn't?
"Are you sure, Alexei?" Megan looked at me, lowering her camera. "I've never heard of it. And, I don't like to brag, but I read a lot. I mean a lot. And most of it is classified." I couldn't help but laugh. Binevale was a tale that existed solely within Russian borders. There was no way anyone outside of Russia would have heard of it, unless, perhaps, they were part of extremely secretive and classified groups like the Society.
"I'm sure," I said, looking at the drab buildings below us. I couldn't stop myself from muttering the nursery rhyme, that familiar couplet from my childhood.
"What does that mean?" Rosie asked.
"It is hard to translate, but it basically means Troubled children take a train. They take a train to Binevale." I laughed, then shrugged. They wouldn't fully appreciate it anyways. "In Russian, it is very clever. And it rhymes."
"What is it? What does it mean?" Grace asked.
"It's something parents say to naughty children. It is the Russian version of Be good or the boogeyman will get you." Because Russia was so hardcore, our nursery rhymes didn't consist of mythical creatures but far more realistic, threatening institutions. I supposed that was why many Russian children turned out so cold-hearted, myself included.
"I don't get it," Rosie exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration. "Why would bad kids get sent to a hospital? That doesn't make any sense."
"It does. If it's a mental hospital," Grace said. "You don't have to be bad. You just have to be crazy." Something about her words struck me as odd. Was it possible she had been to Binevale before? Jamie had mentioned once that Grace had been hospitalized after her mother's death. He just never said what kind of hospital. Was it possible Grace had been in a psychiatric hospital? The thought of her strapped to a bed, sedatives flowing through her system, greatly bothered me. How could anyone do that to her, let alone any child suffering from mental illness? No wonder people who went to Binevale didn't ever leave, at least not with their sanity intact.
"I never knew it was real," I said, taking yet another look at the nondescript buildings. "Even driving here, I kept thinking that it couldn't possibly be real. But there it is." Well, it looked like this visit had proved that my Moscow friends had been on to something. Binevale wasn't just a tale from our childhoods; it was very much real, serving every purpose outlined in those stories. Knowing that made the tales much more sinister, confirming that there very much was a place for troubled children to be locked up and tortured until their light faded away.
"I hate to say it, but Rosie's right," Megan said. It didn't surprise me that she'd be skeptical. After all, she hadn't grown up with those tales, hearing them every time she stepped out of line.
"Hey!" Rosie said, spinning on Megan. Megan calmly lowered her camera, clicking through the images she had taken. I walked over, glancing over her shoulder to take a peek. Thanks to her massive lens, the buildings had been rendered in incredibly fine detail. Cracks snaked up the walls, as did rust on the pipes, showing the building's age. Bars crossed over the tiny windows, suggesting Binevale was just as much a prison as it was a psychiatric hospital. Clearly, this was a place that had stood the test of time, frightening thousands of children and torturing the ones bad enough to warrant punishment.
"It doesn't make any sense," Megan continued, clicking through the images. "Why would Grace's mom come here?" As if by fluke, or perhaps conjured by Megan's words, the next image showed a face peering out from a window. Once again, the telephoto lens had captured astonishing detail, clearly demarcating the features of the haunted-looking face. All of a sudden, that weird feeling washed over me but then compounded, hitting me full force. As I glanced at the screen on Megan's camera, unable to believe the face staring back at me, I couldn't help but feel like that exact same face was watching me from the window, weaving its way into every corner of my mind. And all at once, the pieces of the puzzle we had been trying to solve clicked together.
Even as I took a deep breath, to tell them the reason I now had for Grace's mother coming here, I felt like I was trapped in a terrible nightmare. "Because that's my mom."
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next chapter will be up between May 29 and June 6.
This was originally supposed to be a 6000+ word chapter that I had been planning to post right after my licensing exam but then I got busy with all my grad events last week (which means I've officially finished medical school and have my MD now!). I didn't want to delay another chapter so I split it in half and decided to post the first half now (especially since there are still some unfinished bits in the second half that may take a while to sort out). So hopefully I'll get the second half out sooner rather than later, especially since it's now revealed that Alexei's mother is in Binevale! Stay tuned for the second half to find out how he feels about that revelation!