Vermillion

44

"Rise and shine sweetheart" Michail taunted as Circe finally regained consciousness.

She groggily opened her eyes, rubbing her sore head with her palm.

"I suppose I have some explaining to do" Michail told her, taking a seat on a chair in front of the bed she was lying on. She seemed to be in some sort of basement, the bed was more like a cot you would find in a prison cell.

The man from the van, who Michail had referred to as her cousin was standing by the door, an angry look on his face.

"Yes. That would be appreciated" she spat.

"There's not much to explain really" he began, and Circe was glad he wasn't going to talk much. She couldn't stand the sound of his voice.

"When you were four years old, you were kidnapped from your bed by the Marchesi's, and given to an agency in Poland, where you would be trained as an assassin"

"Bullshit" she replied "I was born and raised in Poland"

"What year were you born?" he asked her.

"2002" she replied.

"1998" he corrected her "You were four when you were kidnapped from your bed in here in Russia, your mother had just been killed by the head of the Marchesi family, and I, along with the rest of your siblings were in mourning. We had put you to bed, so we could have time to ourselves without a young child asking too many questions, and when our father went to check on you again, you were gone"

"How am I supposed to believe this?" she asked him, unsure on whether she could trust him or not.

He handed her a photo.

"Do you recognise this?" he asked her.

It was a photo of when she was a baby, in the arms of her auntie who had passed when she was very young. It was hanging up on her mothers wall in Poland.

Circe nodded.

He then handed her another photo, a larger version of the one he had just given her, but they were surrounded by other people.

A middle aged man stood smiling next to her auntie, a girl around the age of five or six in front of him, and two teenage boys beside her.

She recognised one of the teenage boys immediately, even though he was much older now, it was most certainly Michail Kuznetsov.

Her mind was racing. This was crazy.

"The woman holding you is our mother, and the man next to her our father" he told her quietly.

"And the young girl and boy?" she asked.

"Well one of them is Katerina" he snapped "The woman you murdered last week" he said with venom in his tone.

"She had it coming" Circe replied, and her 'cousin' who was standing by the door stiffened.

"The other boy is my brother, who passed when he was twenty" Michail said quietly.

"He did not 'pass'" the man at the door growled "He was murdered by your boyfriend" he pointed towards Circe.

"His name was Nikolai" Michail told Circe, a sad look on his face "He was supposed to take lead after my father, but when he died the role was handed to me"

"I don't exactly understand any of this" Circe said, her head still sore and her mind racing.

"To put a long story short. The Marchesi's kidnapped you to be trained as an assassin. Their plan was to take you in when you were old enough, and have someone of our own blood kill us"

"The greatest revenge" Circe whispered.

"I'm going to give you some time to process this, Vladlena"

"Vladlena?" She asked.

"Vladlena Kuznetsov" he nodded "Your birth name"

Michail left the room, her cousin following suit, not before giving her an evil glance though.

She laid back on the cot and closed her eyes. She was too tired to try and process things right now, her head too heavy and sore.

:｡･:*:･ﾟ'★,｡･:*:･ﾟ'☆

Back at home, Raffaele was worried sick. He had spent the past three days trying to track down Circe's location, but each lead was another dead end.

"Raff you have to eat at some point" Ilaria sighed, dark bags under her bloodshot eyes from staying up and crying over her best friend.

"Take a seat Ilaria" Raffaele told her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I need to tell you about where Circe came from" he said darkly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

He proceeded to tell her exactly what Michail had told Circe, about her actually being 24, and sister to Michail Kuznetsov.

"That is just cruel" Ilaria spat.

"If you didn't know Circe the way you do, and she was just another assassin like the rest of them, woukd you really think that?" he asked.

Ilaria thought about it for a bit. Because she was emotionally attached to her, she was disgusted by what her father had done, but at the same time it was pure genius.

She thought they had trained her to be the greatest assassin in the world.

But, she was actually taken and trained in the first place, to kill the very people who created her.

"It would be the greatest revenge" Ilaria said quietly.

"Indeed" Raffaele replied.

"And you didn't tell her?" Ilaria asked.

"How could I?" he sighed "By the time we were on talking terms I had already fallen for her. I couldn't break news like that. She would probably leave us"

"She probably knows by now. It's been three days" Ilaria said, and Raffaele nodded.

"Were you ever going to tell her Raff?" she asked.

"I wanted to. I was planning to, I just didn't know how" He admitted "How could I tell someone so young and fragile that their whole life was a lie? That all of the years of pain and suffering she endured was just for the purpose of killing her own family"

Ilaria nodded sadly, deciding the conversation was at an end, and leaving the office.

She was worried sick about Circe, but she knew her best friend was strong enough to pull through.

The only thing she was worried about was how Circe would act towards them when she saw them again.