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“You fucked up this time, Krystof. Betrayed the family,” Maxim growls through gritted teeth.
Krystof shakes his head. “No, Maxim, you never understood. He is not the family,” he points down to father who is starting to wake. “We are the family, and he betrayed us, our siblings. Look how few of us are left!”
My mind drifts to thoughts of my brothers long gone. Viktor, Alexei, Artur, Dmitri….
“Pizdets, you’ll pay for this!” Maxim shouts.
He rushes toward Krystof, but his rage is clearly making him less focused, a lesson I remember watching Father drill in to him.
“Any fight, whether physical or mental, requires all of your attention. Anger takes up too much, lessens our reason. Calm yourself before a battle, and you’ll always win.”
Maxim doesn’t take Father’s advice now, flailing wildly at Krystof who, except for the fire in his eyes, appears as calm as ever. They grapple a moment before Krystof manages to throw Maxim off, using his weight against him.
I realize then that I don’t hear the dogs anymore and wonder if they ran off after they….
“You should run.”
It takes me a moment to realize Krystof is speaking to me, his eyes still on Maxim who is pulling himself up from the ground. I shake my head vehemently.
“I won’t leave you,” I rasp, my throat still sore from when Father choked me. The corner of Krystof’s mouth turns up, and he gives me the briefest nods.
“Then maybe you can help me with this?”
I glance around the clearing to see Father shifting, Maxim getting ready to attack Krystof once more.
Dmitri running from the dogs flashes through my mind, and I smile in confirmation, reaching over to the large branch that was dropped. It takes me a moment to stand, my limbs still shaking, but I manage to lift both myself and the branch. My eyes fall on Father. Vasily.
The son of a bitch who made my sixteen years a living hell, who killed my brothers, and kept us prisoner in our own home. A pathetic excuse for a man who wanted to sell me.
Though its only seconds, time seems to slow as I cross the clearing to the man I’ve called Father my whole life. When I reach him, I note the trickle of blood coming from his hairline, and my smile grows wider. He groans, looking up at me as red runs into his eyes. Confusion quickly gives way to anger, and he strikes out a hand at me, but I dodge it with a laugh even though it hurts my ribs to do so.
“Stupid old man,” I taunt him. “There was never any other way this could have ended.”
Lifting it over my head, I bring the branch down as hard as I can. The resounding crack echoes across the landscape, and though I think that did it, I lift it again. And again.
The wet splatter is the only sound I register as his face quickly becomes unrecognizable. I don’t realize I’m laughing until a hand lands on my shoulder. I whip around with the branch raised to look into Krystof’s face. His face has a few splatters of blood, but when his eyes widen, I look down, realizing I’m significantly more covered than him. I glance over his shoulder and see Maxim’s prone body. A fight I missed because I was so intent on taking out the man who caused me so much misery.
I feel some remorse for Maxim, who I know was forced in to this life just like us, but he caused me almost as much pain as Father. He had a choice, same as us.
I meet Krystof’s eyes, and the anger rushes out of me. The branch drops from my hand, and I feel something crack inside me as my eldest brother pulls me to him, wrapping his arms around me as I sob into his chest.
The scent of blood and offal heating against the stones smells strong. I sniffle and pull back, looking around us once more before searching off into the distance where Dmitri ran. Krystof takes my chin and turns my face to his, shaking his head.
“It won’t help to see,” he tells me as my head drops. I know he’s right, so I nod. I don’t think I can handle seeing his body without it breaking me completely.
“Do you know where Anya is?” he asks me, and I frown, having forgotten about her completely.
“She’d be in the cellar canning, I think,” I reply, and he nods.
“Wait here.”
I sniffle again and nod, making my way over to a favorite boulder near the front of the house. Krystof cracks his neck before striding into the house. I wonder for only a moment what he plans to do before realizing I don’t really care.
Dmitri’s death has brought me something I didn’t expect. Indifference.
Something in me changed today.
I don’t know what Krystof and I will do now, but I don’t have the energy to even worry about it. The one person I truly loved
