Book 1: What We Had in the Beginning

Chapter 20: Escape

Everyone's quiet as Pouline falls to her knees and silently cries. Anton walks up behind her, takes the gun from her hands and forces Pouline back onto her feet. He then guides her to the door and everyone follows behind them. The Soldier is behind me as we leave the training room and his presence helps to calm me down. Anton did that on purpose and I have no doubt that Ivan had a hand in this as well. If he's worrying so much about us then why did he just order one of his officers to hurt Wendeliena so badly? Obviously she wouldn't be able to continue training after getting her leg broken. Was he trying to prove a point to try and scare us? Make us see that we're easily disposable? I don't understand him anymore and I hate that. I hate that I can't read him as easily as I use to. I hate that I have no control over anything, my feelings, my actions. I also hate that this is almost over. There's only 3 of us left. What will happen afterwards? Will the Soldier leave?

A wave of exhaustion crashes down on me as we're led to the washroom. Ivan, the Soldier, and a few of the officers go down to the first floor while me, Pouline, and the 4 officers make our way to the 2nd floor. They wait outside as we shower, silence the only thing filling the room and it's suffocating. Pouline has stopped crying by now, the only indication of what happened being her puffy eyes and hiccuping. As we finish with our shower, we wrap ourselves with our towels and follow the officers to the basement. When we reach the basement Pouline goes straight to her bed and immediately starts to change, not caring that the officers are still in the room. They shamelessly stare at her, making my blood boil at how unprofessional, immature, and perverted they are. I know I can't be shy or embarrassed about my body and I need to work on that. The Black Widow will need to use her body to manipulate and seduce her targets, I know this from what Ivan has told us. The Black Widow will be a temptress, a deadly one. I need to understand that and accept it. Making up my mind, I drop my towel and begin to put my clothes on. I feel their gaze on me and it makes my face hot. I hear snickers coming from behind me which makes me tighten the hold on my shirt as I roughly slip it over my head. Pouline has finished getting dressed and is now sitting on her bed running her fingers through her hair to brush it out. Doing the same, I try to ignore the way Anton keeps looking at her. It's not sexual or anything, because he knows if he tries something on her there will be severe consequences for him. Instead he's looking at her as if he can make her do anything, as if he knows exactly how to break her. If he hasn’t already.

After we finish brushing out our hair, we follow the officers out of the basement and to the dining room for dinner. The officers go to stand next to Ivan and everyone else at the front of the room. The first thing I notice is that Yelena is already sitting at the table eating which makes me feel relief that she's not dead. Her eyes dart to us and she immediately smiles, but it soon faulters when she notices who's missing. From the look on Pouline's face, Yelena can guess what happened. Pouline sits right across from her and I sit next to Yelena. The room is quiet as we eat. Glancing towards the front of the room, I find Ivan and everyone else just standing there. Tension fills the air, making it hard to breathe. The Soldier stands next to Ivan looking straight at me, then to Pouline and Yelena. Turning my head back towards them, I find Pouline picking at her food and Yelena trying to avoid eye contact. Right about now I just want to go to sleep. It's been a long day and I'm ready for today to be over. A few minutes later we get up and head back to the basement for bed. I found out what the 4th officer's name is, Dominik. He's the one that cuffs us, a little too tight might I add. All 4 of them wait for us to fall asleep, then leave. When they leave my eyes instantly begin to grow heavy and I welcome the much needed sleep.

***

“Get up! Both of you, now!” A loud voice echoes through the room, waking us up. It's Ivan and he looks furious, more furious then I've ever seen him. His face is red, his nostrils are flaring, and his eyes are practically blazing with fire. “Where is she?”