Anastasia

16- for the love of a sister

"UNCLE, STOP!" he rushed over to them, Dragging Artyomov away from his sister with him fighting back angrily. "This is not what we discussed!" Alex tried to calm his uncle down, but it wasn't working.

"How dare she talk to me like that!" Artyomov seethed through his teeth. Through this whole thing, Annya made sure her legs stayed in place and out of sight. He turned his back to Annya, holding the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his composure before turning back to place her, and the chair back to their original position.

"Like i have always been trying to tell you, your grace: you behave like a lady, you will be treated like a lady" Annya rolled her eyes at the oncoming lecture that her uncle used to rattle off every time he saw her. "How many times have you come home beaten and bruised? How many times have you come home dirty, and cursing like a grown man? And I'm not even going to mention all your 'friends' you invite over. And those sliver of fabric you call clothes, walking out looking like a cheap whore." he let out an exasperated sigh as Annya threw her head back, trying to look bord as she was trying to find alternate escapes around the room. "Honestly, Anya. There's no wonder why no man has taken a proper liking to you." Annya subetelly looked up at Alex, and he looked back with a sympathetic expression as he shook his head once, confirming that he kept Sean out of the picture. He didn't want to bring in anyone that didn't need to be brought in. Annya shot him a small nod of gratitude, but still made sure he knew that nothing was forgiven. Through all this, Artyomov was still talking, missing their whole conversation.

"So you're going to kill me because I'm not ladylike enough?" Annya interrupted, unable to sit through the rest of his lecture.

"Oh, Anya, my dear. Of course not. I'm just securing your brother's rightful place, that's all. It's nothing personal." he placed her gag back in her mouth and roughly tapped her cheek twice before turning around to walk out. Annya looked back at Alex, seeing him walk away as well, with hunched shoulders. The guilt was weighing on him, but she knew he wouldn't do anything about it.

She chose to put that rage aside to dwell on it another time while she focussed on an escape plan. She had to assume Alex had told their uncle about how they previously escaped, so there's a good chance that security has increased around the house, and even more so around the exit they had previously used. She had checked for exits, windows and drafts as well as blindspots. She wasn't able to find any clear escape. There were a few vents worth considering, but that plan could end either really well or really bad.

She sat in her silence in a while, trying to map out an exit plan, the blueprint of the house racing past her in her mind originating from her location like she was the one running down the hallways. She assumed the worst in regards to security. About one or two guards at every entrance or exit. Since she knew most of the guards, she knew most of their patterns and worked around them, running through all the possibilities that she would have to work with.

She looked around the room looking for any blinking light indicating any cameras, even if it was a small indicator. She was glad that there was poor lighting to aid the search, but she had doubted there would be any just because there was hardly any means of technology to avoid communication to the outside world if a prisoner had snuck in a radio or phone. Not even beepers would work. But regardless, she had spent about five minutes staring at each wall. Looking for anything that would indicate a camera, but came up empty.

If there was nothing to check the status of her capture, that means security was multiplied. She looked back at the bomb placed behind her, trying to assess it as much as she could with the limited view she had on it. The trip wire attached wasn't hidden and didn't seem to have been attempted to be hidden. It wasn't for one of the members to find. Every initiate would be taught to assume there was one of those at every entrance and if Annya was honest, she used to think anyone who would fall for it, had no place in the mafia anyway. It was for a civilian. The only one who would know to look for her there. The only civilian who would know where there was.