The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 67

Brooklyn sat across from Petra, the last girl she was escorting home. Sadly, she was the only surviving of a pair of sisters, that Brooklyn had been able to save. Her sister Olia had been twelve, and the culminating reason for her to kill Morozov's oldest son. Petra was silent, sitting straight up, looking out at the passing countryside.

"Are you worried? About seeing your parents again?" Brooklyn asked softly, in Polish. Ever since they had dropped off the second to last girl, Wioletta, who had also been from Poland, in her tiny village, Petra had been silent. The hours had passed, with the girl growing almost smaller into herself as they got closer to her home village of Tykocin.

"Will they hate me? They sold us. And I couldn't keep Olia safe." Petra whispered.

"I'm sure they had their reasons. That they felt there was no other option." Brooklyn shook her head. "And I'm sure they will understand that there was nothing you could do."

"I could have fought them. I could have tried harder to protect her." Petra wiped at her face. "Maybe I would have been able to fight them off. You did."

"I have been trained to fight men twice my size." Brooklyn soothed. "And honestly, Petra, there was nothing you could have done, not really. If anything, I would be taking your parents the ashes of both their daughters, rather than one, if you had. Those men... Those monsters.... they were going to do what they did, if you had fought them harder or not. Do not take their sins, onto your soul. You have enough time to add your own sins, later."

Petra gave a short nod, before biting her lip. "Will Olia ever forgive me?"

"The dead do not care, about the lives of the living." Brooklyn looked out the window of the train. "If they did, we would have less violence in the world. If the dead actually affected this world, we would have more care about it."

"Do you honestly live your life like that?" Petra asked, a bit of shock in her voice. "What about God? Do you not have faith?"

"Faith is for those who have something to lose." Brooklyn shook her head. "At this point, I've already lost everything. So why do I need to have faith?"
"Maybe you need it more than others." the teenage girl sounded wiser than her years. "Because faith is supposed to be meant for those who don't even know they need it."

"Maybe some day I can afford faith." Brooklyn smiled, wryly. "My biggest worry about that, is my sins are very dark. And I don't know if even a benevolent God would forgive them."

Her most recent being the assassinations of Stelluto and Morozov. Before that, Morozov's son and his men. Although, she was sure that might fall under the classification of 'an eye for an eye'. But before that... yes, her hands were soaked in the blood of many people. More than a few of them could possibly be considered innocent. So, yeah, if she believed a higher power, or even in Hell, she was certain of her final destination when she finally died.

"God is always there, even if you don't know it. He will be there when you least expect it. And He will welcome you back. Because He will always search for the one lost sheep, over the ninety nine that stayed." Petra gave her a sad smile. "Even if I am worried about Olia forgiving me, I know she did not die alone. Because my God would never leave a child to suffer like that, and not take her home, and into glory."

"Then you should also know that in that moment of death, Olia forgave you." Brooklyn raised her eyebrow. "Because if what you say is true, than she knew you loved her, and tried to fight to protect her. She knew you never meant for anything to happen to you."

Petra nodded. "Do you have siblings?"

"I have had several. And I have a little sister that I am raising." Brooklyn smiled. "She's five. And I know, if anything happened to her, like what happened to Olia, and I had been unable to stop it, I would be... I would be inconsolable. I would have dropped and not gotten up. It would have killed me. The fact that you are brave enough to go home, and face your parents, means you are and will always be stronger than me."