Book 1: What We Had in the Beginning

Chapter 1: Training Partners

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Natalia's POV

When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is the water-stained ceiling. Looking around I find that the other girls are still asleep. As I sit up and stretch, I can feel the muscles in my back pull and ache. The beds we have might as well be made of rocks. All they're really made of is a thin pad of cotton, a pillow case stuffed with straw, and a thin sheet, some even with holes. I still have about 2 hours until we have to wake up, but I've always had this habit of waking up a couple hours early. I uncuff my right hand from the bed post with a key that's hidden under my pillow and walk over to the small window at the corner of the room, seeing that the sun hasn't even begun to rise yet. So it must be somewhere around 5-6 in the morning. From what I can tell our room's in a basement, I don't remember ever going more than a couple yards from the building if I'm being honest. Most of the windows are boarded up so we can't see outside, except this one. I don't know if they're keeping us in or if they're just testing us to see who would try to escape. I recall a couple years ago one girl tried to squeeze her way out of this window and after that we never saw her again. I can't even remember her name or what she looked like. It's easy to get the girls here mixed up because they all look alike. They either have black or blonde hair, with blue or brown eyes. Most of the girls here aren't even from Russia, I can tell because when they speak Russian it has a slight accent to it. From what I can tell most of them are from Switzerland or Norway. Only a handful of us were Russian, but those girls are already gone. I'm the only one left.

I walk back over to my bed and kneel down onto the floor. Feeling around, my hand brushes against a brown, medium sized box. I pull it out and uncover it. All that's inside is a pair of training pants, 2 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of underwear, 1 bra, and 3 shirts. That's all we get, no shoes because we're inside most of the time and that would be too much of a luxury. When we do actually get to go outside it's because we're being punished. They blind fold us, pour ice cold water over our heads, and make us stand barefoot in the snow for hours and on rare occasions they'll strip us down naked. I haven't been punished like that yet and I'd like to keep it that way.

Getting up from the floor, I change into my training pants and a clean shirt. After I place the box back under my bed, I get up and quietly make my way up the stairs that lead out of the basement. I stop for a second and listen, waiting to make sure everyone's still asleep. I haven't been caught yet, but I like to think that they wouldn't punish me for waking up early and training.

When I'm sure no one's awake, I carefully make my way to the training room. After the many years of being here and sneaking to the training room, I've mastered the ability to not make a single sound while walking, or pretty much doing anything. Ivan says it's a good habit to have for the future.

I walk through the kitchen, which is on the first floor, and make my way to the staircase that leads to the training room. I'm not sure how many stories there are but so far I've only been up until the 4th floor. The 1st floor has the kitchen and dining hall. The 2nd floor is specifically for training purposes, from combat, dancing, espionage, speaking different languages, and practicing our covers. The 3rd floor has the infirmary and washroom where we do our laundry, shower, and brush our teeth. I can't really remember what's on the 4th floor but I know I've been up there. There are more floors but we aren't allowed to go up any further, we aren't allowed to really go anywhere by ourselves. I'm pretty sure they have extra rooms on the other floors but I'm not sure how many. Sometimes we hear screaming and a lot of noises but we've learned the hard way to not ask any questions about it.

I quietly make my way up the staircase until I get to the 2nd floor. The floor's made of grey concrete just like the whole building and has rusty pipes coming out from the ceiling. The pipes are for the plumbing only. We don't get any heat or hot water. We're lucky they give us blankets, they aren't that thick but it's enough to not let us freeze to death. The people here don't give us the luxuries normal people get, so it makes us grateful for the things that we do get.