A Flash of Red

Chapter Forty

Harry

I went into a trance for the next week or so. The idea of Tara being harmed in any way made me feel numb. I don't remember having eaten much or speaking. I was growing thin, but tried to keep my strength up. My eyes followed the young guard who's name I have yet to learn. He came and went for days at a time, but now I knew where he went when he was gone. 

"Can I see the picture you have?" 

I blinked out of my thoughts and looked to Sophie.

"Why?"

"There's no affection here. Seeing love raises people's spirits."

"We weren't in love." I paused. "At least, not official love."

"There's no such thing as official love. The minute you feel it, it's love."

I stared at her for a few seconds before reaching into my pocket and tossing the paper at her.

"She was all I had here and now she's gone."

"She's not gone, Harry." Sophie said, looking at the picture. "Stop acting like she's dead." 

"We got in a fight right before we were separated. Those aren't the last words I wanted her to hear me say."

"I'm sure she knows how you felt."

"I'm not so sure she did."

"This is a nice poem." I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "This poem? It's sweet. I don't understand some of it, but from what I do it's beautifully written."

"You can read Russian?" She nodded. "Can you tell me what it says?"

"Um, yeah sure."

I leaned closer and looked at Tara's neat handwriting. 

'он воздух

он - свет 

Я имею в виду 

в суетливой ночи 

решение омрачено 

когда солнце поднимается выше 

но как-то я знаю 

должно быть, это любовь

"Okay, so this first line is centered around air. He is the air." I nodded. "This next one is the same thing but light. He is the light. The following two are kind of one phrase I think. The one I depend? Turn to? I'm not sure but then it says in a irregular or restless night. Does that make sense?" I gulped. Restless nights. The way I would coax her out of them and back into a sound sleep. I nodded. "The next one is about foggy vision and then the sun rising high or above. And then a realization. And..." She scrunched her eyebrows. I felt my hands shaking. "I'm sorry, I don't know the rest." 

"No, no thank you. That was amazing. I've been carrying it around without knowing what it said. She wrote it for me for my birthday."

"It's beautiful." She looked at the picture. "Just like her." She folded it up and placed it in my hand. "Definitely something worth fighting for."

I nodded.

"Definitely."

...

The next day Sophie was taken out by Petrov. 

She didn't come back.

...