Anya's Dream

Her Dream

Smoke filled her clouded vision. Ghostly figures surrounded her bed. They would disappear into the smoke and reappear like flickering candles. Each flicker scared her half to death. The handsome face of the Tsar smiled at her lovingly. He reached out to hold her shaking body and jerked his hand back when she began to shake harder. The stern faced tzarina repeated prayers to the lord all mighty, till they rang through Anya's mind driving her mad. The Tsarina placed her hand against the girl's cheek before disappearing. Three sisters surrounded her bed. They danced around her chanting a nursery rhyme.

"Ring around the rosie," They sung stopping to look at the terrified girl that cowered before them. The eldest walked up to the bed and kneeled before the shaking girl. The other two would follow in suit.

"Come on ———— aren't you going to sing with you?" One asked. Her ghostly voice rang through Anya's ears like the bells in Notre Dame. They never said her name when addressing her.

"Let's go work on our needlework," another said.

"Come on Schwipsig, you don't want to anger Mother," the third said. Schwipsig, little mischief or merry one, two things Anya most definitely was not. Yet they still called her that.

"Let's go be the little pair again ————-. It will be fun," he smallest of the three exclaimed, touching the Anya's shoulder.

"Or would you rather go speak with Rasputin, you know he misses us since Father made him leave," the eldest would say trying to get the girl out of bed.

"Who are you? Who is Rasputin?" Anya finally asked her voice shaking more than her body.

"He's our friend," they said showing the amulets they wore around their necks. In them was a picture and a prayer.

"———, I have a secret. Do you have a secret?" A boy's voice asked from behind Anya. She screamed and turned around quickly in her bed.

"We are all dead!" The boy exclaimed as Anya's world began to shake.

Her eyes darted open as the con man looked down at her. His hands were on her shoulders. As soon as he saw her eyes he let go of her.

"Anya it's just a dream," he said softly. She looked at him, inside her mind the prayers and sentences echoed.

"Who are they?" She asked. She looked down at her hands.

"The people in my head who seem to know me more than I even know myself," she continued

"Who am I?" She asked, looking back up to meet the con man's eyes.

"I don't know," he said sincerely. He had a hunch but he wasn't sure. She had been scared of the gun shots fired outside the train. The way she cowered was a sure sign of PTSD. Yet who wasn't afraid of gunshots. Then she had given him the diamond. The diamond that was found sewn into her under clothes. Just like how the royal family hid their jewels. Then there was the wall which opened up. His father had worked at the kitchen and often brought the con man along. Dimitri has instantly become friends with the young Grand Duchess, but that wasn't the first time they met. If she really was Anastasia, then he might tell the story he was wishing to tell and the answer he was begging to ask.

"It was June, there was a parade and on one of the floats was The Grand Duchess. I thought she was beautiful so I ran. I ran through the crowd, dodged the guess who tried to hold me back. The float stopped for a second. Yet that second was just long enough," he stood up.

"I looked at her in the eyes. She smiled at me. Then the float went on. The guards took me away from the parade," he said sighing and looking back at the frightened street sweeper.

"Try to remember," he urged her grabbing her hands.

"It was June," she started slowly.

"There was a parade going by. And a scruffy boy ran up to a float that I sat on," she paused and closed her eyes trying to remember.

"I smiled at him and he bowed.." she said the last part silently to the point Dimitri had to strain to hear her. His heart jumped out of his chest as he grabbed hold of the girl and hugged her tightly to his chest.

"Yes! It is you!" He cried.

"Anastasia!"