Loving You Is Forbidden (Third Book of "Fire and Ice" series)

CH 15: "Breaking free from the cage's bars"

Dear all,

As I anticipated today, here is the new chapter, and as I already anticipated, it is rather long, intense and filled with different emotions. Why you ask? Because...well, you'll see.

I must tell you this: I did not plan this chapter, as I was working on the following one regarding the Halloween party, but how to say it? This chapter wrote it by itself...it had to be written, especially after leaving Tolya and Oleg in such status in Chapter 14.

I hope you will enjoy it and you know I will be looking forward to reading your comments, messages and opinions :-)

I would like to thank you All as always, because you always overwhelm me with lovely and sweet messages. Thank you!

For this, I would like to dedicate the chapter to all of you, in particular to marie_luu, as a special thanks for your messages and for keeping reading my stories :-)

Now, I have posted a picture of Anatoly (--> obviously handsome Alexander Ludwig) where he shows a rather peculiar smile: I will let you guess who took the picture ^_^ As for the song, I thought that "Somewhere I Belong" from Linkin Park perfectly fits this chapter and its contents. I would like to say this: Chester Bennington, RIP. You will be missed by many.

And now, please enjoy the new chapter and let me know what you think about it!

"And I just can't keep living this way, so starting today I'm breaking outta this cage. I'm standing up, I'ma face my demons," by Eminem in "Not Afraid".

OLEG POV:

When I woke up, the rain had not stopped and outside the sky was still dark. It was early as usual, for the simple reason my body was used to it and made it into a habit. I kept on my bed listening to the sound of rain against the window and then, my eyes slowly moved to the sleeping figure of Anatoly. A quiet and quick laugh left my mouth as I witnessed the way in which he was sleeping: he had of course occupied most of the bed, resting on his belly with his head touching my shoulder, throwing his legs wide apart, one arm around my torso and the other angled in an odd way over his head. How could he sleep in such way? Twice he had waked me up during night with his trashing around. Once he had literally hit me with his elbow as he moved around mumbling in his dreams. I said nothing and simply pushed him away gently, trying to not wake him up. Sleeping beside this punk here could be a challenging experience in terms of getting real slumber.

There was nothing urgent on my schedule today, thus I decided to indulge in this moment for longer than usual. He moved a bit, muttering something unintelligible in his sleep, and his arm tightened the grip on me, his fingers almost digging into my flesh. I took a deep breath to moderate and control the sudden emotion moved from his gesture and from the thought of what had happened yesterday. I closed my eyes and took another breath. The moment that piece of trash threatened Anatoly with a gun, I felt as if someone had carved my heart out with bare hands. I swear that it was a split decision not to kill him. It took that rationality long gained and hardly trained to rule my personal emotions. I could have terminated all them with my hands and feel no regret.

They had not only threatened and hurt Anatoly, but I remembered clearly one of the policemen explaining they were wanted for having killed two people on street with their motorbikes, not realizing they even did that, given they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. An image from my past surfaced in my mind: the priest of the village along with an officer knocking on our door, having to explain to our family a rather difficult truth. My father had passed out on the sofa after having drunk himself unconscious, as apparently he did nothing else since he came back from the war. I resented that man and now it made me laugh to think I was deadly scared of him. But I was only a useless and scared, young brat. I still knew nothing. I was there alone with my grandmother and my very young sister, and for a moment it felt as if my world had been shattered.