The year 1997 grew old, giving way to a new one at the beginning of January 1998. That month, another event occurred that shocked all the people who knew Dr. Tenma.
The Japanese neurosurgeon, for an unknown reason, escaped from the prison and disappeared again without a trace. There were voices that if he had escaped, he must have really had something on his conscience and reasons to be wanted, but those who knew him well didn't believe in these reasons. In particular, those closest to him didn't believe in these accusations. Dr. Reichwein even had an interview on the subject with a lawyer hired by patients from a hospital in Dusseldorf. But they couldn't understand why Tenma had taken such a reckless step and exposed himself to even greater suspicion.
****
The iron, slightly rusty fence was flooded with a plethora of rose twigs with sharp spikes, wrapped around it on all sides. There was a slightly tilted gate in this fence, leading straight to the sleeping in winter garden, around the abandoned house. The trees stood bare, without even the tiniest leaf, swaying and crackling with the cold north wind blowing on them.
There was a path leading to the house, heavily overgrown with weeds and long unused by any human; it ended at the stairs leading straight to the front door.
The floor stretched out from them in the interior; old wooden planks formed a jigsaw puzzle leading through the corridors to the back room of the mansion.
The door to it was gently open, and the broken plaster around its structure proved that until recently it had been bricked up with an additional wall. The door didn't have a handle. The empty opening where it should have been, let an icy cold flow through it while hiding a secret so terrible, no one had ever dreamed of in the worst of nightmares.
The room was deserted, but not empty. A portrait of a young woman hung over the long-unused fireplace at the far end of the door.
Her long blonde hair was pulled loose back and she was dressed in a white gown, holding a bouquet of blood red roses in her hands. She was beautiful, but at the same time incredible sadness and resignation were imprinted on her face... Like a doll, seated on a chair, she sat stiffly ignoring the beauty of her surroundings.
The room was pierced by a gentle ray of sunlight, falling on the girl's face and slightly illuminating her blue eyes. Her lips parted imperceptibly at the gesture, plunging her into deep thought related to her memories.
"Mother of twins."
The whisper of these words drowned out all the prevailing peace. It spread throughout the room, settling on the damaged surfaces that remembered the past of this place. It penetrated into its deepest crevices.
The young woman slowly directed her steps towards the exit, taking in the atmosphere that prevailed here with all her soul. The sound of her footsteps and the crackle of old wood grew farther and farther away from the blonde in a white dress sitting on a chair, and the last thing her red roses saw, were long, dark brown strands of hair fading into the distance.
****
February started calmly in Prague. There was almost no snow at all, and during the day the temperature rose slightly above zero, thanks to which walking through the streets of the city was not difficult in any way. Smoke rose from tenement houses, suggesting that there was warmth inside them. However, not everyone spent their days at home. Between the buildings of tenement houses on one of the streets, systematic blows echoed, made with extraordinary energy.
There was a boy, dressed in a jacket and a pair of light gloves to protect his hands from the prevailing cold. But he was in the middle of the play so warming up that after a while he stopped, took off his gloves and put them in his pocket. After briefly judging that he wasn't too cold without them, he picked up the ball lying on the ground and began to bounce it again. He practiced furiously, and it was easy to see that he enjoyed it a lot.
During his play, although his attention was focused on the ball, he was also observing the area out of the corner of his eye, so as not to accidentally hit a passer-by if someone was actually walking that way. After a long time, when he started feeling hunger in his stomach, he decided that he should go back to his apartment and eat something. So he bounced his ball trying to catch it in his hands, but at the same moment he noticed something that made his hands stop in a place for a moment.
The ball dropped, bounced off his shoe, and rolled towards the shadow created by a figure standing nearby. The newcomer stared at the round object lying next to her shoe for a moment, then looked up at the boy whose eyes showed bewilderment.
"Big sis!"
Without much thought, Emiko picked up the ball, then walked with it to the boy and smiled at him.
"Oh! Is that you, Dieter? What are you doing here?"
"I don't believe it!" He took the ball from her hands with a big smile on his lips. "I came here with Nina... And you, big sis, what are you doing here?" The girl's smile faded a little after this question, and her eyes looked at something invisible beyond his back.
" I'm looking for evidences to exculpate my brother and prove the existence of some twins... I suppose Dr. Reichwein and Nina told you something about it?" Dieter nodded.
"I know more or less what you mean." He looked at Emiko, who, even though she was talking to him, looked quite thoughtful. It was as if she had left her body on the ground, and her spirit wandered elsewhere... He clenched his hands tighter on the ball he was holding. "Maybe... Come with me? We'll eat something good... You should meet Nina. We were worried about you after the fire in the library, we thought something happened to you..." He finished the sentence with a slightly hushed voice, in which there was a slight sadness. The young woman smiled apologetically at him and put her arms around him gently, while taking care not to let the ball hit the ground again.
"It's true that I was there, but as you can see, I'm fine." She released him from her embrace and tilted her head slightly to the side. "Are you sure I won't bother you? I don't want to disturb..."
"Are you kidding ?!" The boy grabbed her hand with his free hand. "Come on now. It will be fun!" After that, they both smiled at each other and entered one of the tenement houses, holding hands.
****
The books were neatly stacked on the shelves, leaning lightly against each other's covers. The room was pleasantly warm, enhanced by the cream curtains casting the sunlight of its rays around it. At one point you could hear the door opening and after a while, someone entered the apartment. But it wasn't the sound of one, but two people.
"Take off your shoes and put them here... Ah, hang your coat over here..."
"Okay." The girlish voice that uttered this word, lured the blonde sitting on one of the chairs in the living room. Intrigued by the hitherto unknown sound, she got up from her seat and went out into the corridor. She stood in the doorway and looked in surprise at the boy who was standing next to a young, short woman taking off her winter boots and putting them in the previously indicated place.
"I'm back, Nina! And see who I brought to visit!" The girl quickly noticed dark brown strands of hair that swirled in the air, showing the face of the newcomer in the next moment. In the same second their eyes met and both froze in place.
They stared silently at each other... After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, both finally regained their voices.
"Are you... are you Tenma's sister?" The blonde approached her, feeling touched for some reason.
"My name is Emiko... and... You're Johan's sister, aren't you?" Nina nodded slightly.
"Yes." She was surprised to see that although the young Tenma smiled at her, in her eyes a fog covered with the tears appeared.
"I'm glad to finally get to know you personally." At these words Nina also smiled with a slight sadness in her eyes, and Dieter watched their behavior closely. He was pleased to noticing that there was an immediate understanding between them from the very beginning. The two young girls, although they met for the first time in their lives, looked as if they had been bound by a very strong bond for a long time. With little thought, the two approached each other and hugged, with a feeling of real relief and warmth.
"I'm also glad to meet the sister of a man so close to me. Dieter, Dr. Reichwein, Lotte, and Mr. Gillen have already told me a bit about you, Emiko."
"I followed the brother's case from the very beginning, so I also know a lot about you..." Young women released their embrace and laughed a little.
"Let's not stand in the corridor like that, come on, I'll make us some tea. And you, Dieter, you probably want to eat something, right?" She looked a bit playfully at the boy, whose stomach at the same moment announced its presence. His cheeks flushed slightly at the sound, and he pouted his lips at her.
"Do you have to ask about it?"
****
A not so long time later, the three of them were sitting in the living room, drinking hot tea and eating sandwiches prepared together. During this time, both told something more about each other, getting to know each one better. Nina first told about her childhood, then about the hard journey across the Czech-German border with her brother, and then about how they changed families, one after another. Later, she told about the events from 10 years ago when Dr. Tenma saved Johan's life after he was shot, and she lost her memory after these traumatic experiences. Her memories started reviving when she met Emiko's brother again, 10 years later, when he was accused of crimes he hadn't committed.
"So... you lived in the Three Frogs in your early childhood..."
"Yes, for the short time. Together with our mother. Why..." Nina was surprised when she noticed that Emiko rested her fisted hands on her knees, which began to tremble. "Something happened? Are you... are you all right?"
"I..." Young Tenma began slowly, recalling her deepest memories. "...I was there two months ago... in an apartment on the first floor, right by the stairs... I had felt something really strange..." Nina focused her full attention on her story as she continued. "When I entered the doorstep, I felt cold... then I heard the children laughing, screams... Someone was calling someone... 'Anna..'?" Nina opened her eyes wide, looking at the young woman sitting in front of her. "After that I passed out... I woke up a few hours later and met Johan..." Nina took her hands with hers in one movement, encouraging her.
"Oh, Emiko! He didn't do anything to you, did he?!"
"It's not that..." She shook her head. "When I ran up to him to hug him... It turned out that I woke up, this time for real. That, that was a dream too... I had a dream in a dream... did something so strange happened to you?" For a moment the blonde thought deeply.
"They say twins have an invisible bond from the birth... For example, if they suffer, the other one knows it, even if they are at the same moment on the other side of the world. I've experienced something like this... but a dream in a dream... No... never. But you know, it's a bit strange after all... " She looked into Emiko's eyes with real concern. "Johan used to call me Anna in the past..." At this information, Emiko's eyes opened wide.
"You mean that I... that I saw... that I heard..."
"Real events..." Nina stared at her face with her heart pounding. "I don't understand how or why... How on earth is such a thing even possible...?"
"I don't understand it myself..."
"You... you mentioned you wanted to hug him... didn't you?"
"Yes..." Emiko slightly bowed her head and bit her lips. "Even though... During the fire in the library... I... I wanted to kill your brother..."
For a moment there was a silence so great that it made their ears buzz from it. Both froze sitting still and unable to move even a millimeter. After a while, however, they realized that the sound of the clock ticking from the kitchen began to reach their ears.
"You wanted... Johan..."
"Yes, I..."
"You mustn't do that, Emiko!" Nina jumped up from her seat so abruptly that even Dieter jumped up in his own seat. "You cannot do it! Same with Dr. Tenma! It's me who have to..."
"N-Nina?!"
"It's me who have to shoot again! I have to kill my brother!" The girl's hands clearly started shaking. Young Tenma, without thinking, grabbed her hands.
"No, Nina!"
"It's not your fault! Not yours, can you hear me?! You both can't...!" The brown-haired girl frowned and released her hands, only to grab her face in the next second and look her straight in the eyes.
"I won't let anyone else die. I want to save him, do you understand? I want to save Johan!" Nina froze, not fully understanding the meaning of the words spoken a moment ago. Did Tenma's sister... Did Tenma's sister just say... "You didn't hear me wrong." Emiko smiled warmly at her, feeling that her eyes were filling with tears. "I want to save Johan."
"But... How do you want... Why...?" She couldn't understand at all.
In a few poignant sentences, Emiko told her about what happened during the ceremony, and for 4 days after it, in the hotel room. What she had discovered in Johan. Why she wanted to save him at all costs.
"... After spending these 4 days with him, I finally understood his motive... Why he wants to do this. Why does he want to take his own life..." Tears began to slowly flow from Emiko's eyes. "He suffers from the very beginning... From his childhood! Now I know that not only do I want to save my brother Kenzo... but also Johan. I don't want them to suffer anymore... Not the people I care about the most..."
Nina met her eyes with understanding. This simple gesture made both of them feel the same - full mutual understanding as they both wanted to save the same people; two men who were relentlessly nearing the collapse... Two girls felt that they had something more in common, as if they were family...
"But Emiko... We never had real names. Even now..."
"No, Nina." Kenzo's sister smiled warmly at her, wiping her eyes with one hand. "Names are created by people who are close to us and call us by them. That's why... you are Nina, thanks to my brother, Dieter, Dr. Reichwein and others... with whom you have formed a beautiful relationships. Even he... Even your brother has one name."
Emiko went to the bag lying on the other armchair, opened its zipper and took out a small notebook from inside, which when she opened it turned out to be a sketchbook. On the page given to Nina, there was a portrait of a handsome young man, surrounded by white roses.
"Johan. For me, he was, is and will always be."
Nina looked at the drawing, and then at the girl standing next to her, feeling that tears began to pour into her eyes with emotion.
"So create a Paradise for him, Emiko. I leave his heart to you."
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Author Note:
Emiko in Red Rose Mansion had so much vibe of Johan, that even I was shocked writing it! I still feel goosebumps reading it :o