"Just stay still!"
Sitting on the bed in his hotel room, Gleb couldn't stop fidgeting. He did nothing but move the yellow sheet from a hand to the other, bending, crumpling and reading it hundreds of times. He wanted to throw it away, to pretend he never received it, but would have been self-condemnation. When the cotton dampened with disinfectant touched the cut on his cheek, he winced and held back a little grimace of pain.
Vassilisa, still dressed in her evening gown, sat beside him and carefully cleaned up the wounds he had obtained during the fight with Dmitry. Superficial ones, mostly cuts and -- to his own surprise -- bites. He saw her withdraw her hand, as if surprised by his sudden movement.
"If you could just stop moving, it would hurt less!" the woman nervously scolded him. He pouted.
"But it burns!"
"It's disinfectant, it's normal!" she exclaimed "Gosh, you're being such a child!"
"I am not!" he snorted as he ran a hand through his dark hair, tensed. She noticed his tension, and raised an eyebrow, smirking.
"Are you thinking of her?" Vassilisa asked. The Deputy Commissioner rolled his eyes.
"Oh, there we go again."
The woman giggled.
"Come on, you can tell old Lisa!" she exclaimed, punching softly his shoulder "Are you thinking of her?"
He bit his lip.
"... no."
Vassilisa laughed.
"You hesitated."
"No, I didn't!" Gleb rose his voice "And now let's stop talking about this!"
Vassilisa giggled at this.
"Oh, sure, you're the boss." she said. The Deputy Commissioner threw her a glare that could have killed, but she continued smiling.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I won't betray you."
Gleb stretched his lips in a smile as fake as a wolf acting like as a lamb.
"Too bad you already did." he snapped, waving the yellow envelope in the air. She raised an eyebrow, again.
"It was my duty." she coldly spoke, with a bit of attitude in her tone.
"Yeah, right." he murmured sarcastically.
"I'm not kidding." Vassilisa replied "As absurd as it may seem, my husband has immediately noticed your absence."
Oh.
In spite of his spending time with Vera, he still hadn't gone idiot.
Dang.
"He sent me to Constantinople to find out what your intentions were." she continued. He watched her look down as she took more cotton and again moistened it with disinfectant, only to wait for the material to completely soak in the liquid. He couldn't get her point. It just didn't make sense.
She was sent there by her husband to spy on him and to control him.
Why not just report him and leave?
No.
Vassilisa had stayed, had warned him and had been kind enough to bring him back there, to his hotel room. And also had saved Dmitry's life: furious as Gleb had been the night before, he would have been able to wait for the dandy at the exit and to kill him with his own hands. That whole thing didn't make the slightest sense.
"Why are you doing this?"
Vassilisa raised her greenish eyes, confused.
"What?"
Gleb addressed the bottle of disinfectant that the woman had placed on the ground, then the cotton, and then his face and arms.
"This." he said "Why are you helping me?"
The answer that came out was not quite what he expected.
"I'm sorry for you."
He arched an eyebrow. He would have expected something like because I'm going to betray you as soon as you turn your back!, or a creepy because I like you!, but this, this was really a surprise. So perhaps she had a heart beneath her skin?
"I feel sorry for you." she repeated, wiping the cut on his cheek again "I can only imagine how you feel now. Torn apart by duty and love. It must be horrible to be forced to hurt someone you love the way you love her."
"I-" he stuttered "I d-d-don't love A-Anya ... "
Vassilisa stifled a laugh.
"Ah, yeah, I'm surely buying it!" she said "You think me blind?"
"This is just complicated." the Deputy Commissioner muttered before of raising a hand to brush his forehead. Gorlinsky's wife shook her head.
"It's not."
Gleb looked at her, puzzled. And tired. But she gave him a faint smile in return.
"It's the way you look at her." Vassilisa said, shrugging "You think you can hide it, but it's stronger than you. You can't control it -- you're a terrible actor, Vaganov, we both know that. And when you look at that girl ... your eyes cry. They seem to call out for her, and yet your mouth refuses to open. And do you know why?"
The man remained silent.
"Because you're proud. You're so awfully proud to not even allow yourself to at least think you could love someone. And yet your eyes tell otherwise. As much as your mind wants to deny it, you love her, and you can't stop." she finished, her voice creaking at the end "I know the feeling, it's the same with my husband. I know he's distant, but I love him nonetheless. But my love is not strong as yours. I would have never, and I mean never, left my homeland just to run after him. While ... look at you. Here you are. Pleading her silently to turn her head and to notice you."
They stared at each other for some moments, silence spread into the room. Gleb found himself gaping.
"That was ... " he started " ... creepy."
Vassilusa glared at him.
"Creepy? I just analyzed you and you tell me I'm creepy?"
"Hey, no one asked you to analyze me!"
"Were at least my words right?"
Gleb looked away, embarrassed. Yes, they were, his heart whispered to him. But he would never admit it out loud. After all, she was still an enemy. She was. She just had to be one. He again placed his eyes on the telegram she had given him, shaken.
Deputy Commissioner Gleb Sergeevič Vaganov, you have been discovered, STOP.
You are located in Paris on the trail of Anastasiya, STOP.
Rumors must be stopped, STOP.
Execute your orders, STOP.
Or it will be you yo be executed, STOP.
Short, fast, specific.
Only Gorlinsky could have written a telegram like that. And he was now struck. For either way he chose, he couldn't have won, since both would have been the wrong one, someway.
If he followed his heart, he would have been processed.
If he followed his orders, he would have seen his life being destroyed in front of his very eyes. And Russia had now exactly written what he feared the most.
Pull the trigger.
The only thought made his eyes tear up.
But he couldn't lie. Not that he wasn't able to, but, as Vassilisa had pointed out, he was horrible at acting natural with a lie, and Gorlinsky knew him too well: he understood immediately when he wasn't saying the truth. He had once said that his nose trembled when he didn't.
He was not a chameleon. He could not just hide the truth and just go back in Russia pretending nothing had happened.
Also because Gorlinsky would have noticed, and would have thrown him in front of the firing squad and the Deputy Commissioner of the KGB would have found himself being made an example.
And even if it happened, who would have missed, after all?
Gorlinsky?
Vassilisa?
Anya?
He sighed. Probably none of them.
He turned his head, he glanced at his father's gun, which had been carefully placed on the bedside table farthest from him. He leaned towards it, took in his hands and sighed again at the heaviness it carried. Gosh, he thought, I've been sighing quite a lot, lately.
He had no choice.
He had to use the gun, one way or another.
And one life would have finished.
One way or another.
"I must go." he spoke softly, his gaze on his Bolshevik uniform, which was hanging from the closet door. Vassilisa raised an eyebrow.
"Where?"
Gleb reached out to his uniform jacket and slowly put it on, his black eyes sadly fixed on the floor.
"To an old friend."
Someone would have received an unexpected visit.
~⭐~
A/N
CLIFFHANGER!! AAAND very short chapter, I know. Sorry about that, but I just wanted to break it to leave a bit of suspense -- that there probably isn't, so ... yeah, just being lazy. Oh, I'll tell you now, because I know I would forget otherwise: I'm going on vacation till August 12, so I don't really think I will be updating. But that doesn't mean I won't try to! And I will be super active if you need me!
Anyways, who do you think Gleb is going to visit? Hehehe, of course I know, but I just want to see if you can guess. That's pretty easy so I'm quite sure you will guess!
And now, question of the chapter: your ever favourite villain/antagonist song? It might come from anything! I, for example, fell in love with a fan made dark reprise of Love Is An Open Door from Frozen and I can't stop listening to it!! It's the song Hans should have had! But I also love Land Of Yesterday Reprise and Music of the Night. Aaand All I Ask of You Reprise. And Be Prepared from the Lion King!!! Ok, ok, I have many -- as you might have guessed, I love villains! Anyway, let me know your answers! I'm really curious!!! But when am I not, anyway?😂
I remain your obedient Storyteller,
Nor.Weg.