Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 45

~Ivan~

Ivan stared at Anna and Katerina. They were looking warningly into each other's eyes while Anna held a tight grip on Katerina's forearm. He could tell by Anna's stance that she was ready to smack her friend at any moment, her temper dripping from her sleeves. But she was slowly starting to falter as the moments passed and Katerina's expression didn't change.

He could always trust Anna because she never felt bad about any of the stuff that they did, and always found a way to make it sound ok. But this new girl was obviously starting to get to her if she was being set off just from a look. Katerina had not uttered a single word.

"Anna!" Ivan whisper yelled. "Not. Now."

She snapped out of it quickly, breaking away and crouching down beside Victoria. They would have to do the same thing that they did with George, except they wouldn't need to clean her skin as much.

They started by wiping down her face and hands, making sure that there were no signs of struggle or distress. Anna didn't meet his eye as he tried to get her attention. He needed to make sure that she was alright, but also to make sure that she wasn't going to do anything stupid to compromise their plans.

Ivan rose to take care of the poisoned tea. Like every other time, he would need to pour out the evidence and scrub anything left with a bleach-like substance. This poison was similar to an alcohol, so most of Victoria's symptoms pointed towards alcohol poisoning so long as there was no other evidence.

Upon emptying her canister of tea, Ivan looked up towards Katerina. She was simply staring at the table, her broken teacup sitting in a pool of poisoned liquid. She was frozen, and a rush of relief washed over him as he realised that it must be finally sinking in the tough choices that had to be made around here. Then he saw Petyr holding her hand under the table and out of sight. Her face was still blank, but she was holding his hand as if her life depended on it.

"Has Oksana agreed?" Anna mumbled. She looked up long enough to see him nod. "Good."

"Anna," he mumbled, crouching back beside her. "We need to include him in on the plan." She glanced up and squinted her eyes suspiciously at the pair, both paying them no mind.

"If anything, it'd be worse that way now," she mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper as she turned back to caring for the body. "If they're together they'll continue to work together. She'll rely on him to make all the decisions. If we keep it just with her then she'll show us her true colours. He will show him when he tries to defend her against Dominik."

Ivan couldn't argue with that. He regretted his words with Dominik about the matter but knew that their plan would already be fully set in motion before the commander would be able to do anything about it.

"Besides, it's risky enough seeing how much he likes her," she added with a faint smirk.

Ivan turned away and returned to his teacups, rinsing them out in the sink before adding the special bleaching liquid that of course, Anna had created. The water was scorching hot, but he allowed it to sting at his skin. Anna knew what bothered him, and he could do nothing to stop the feeling plummeting in his stomach.

Ivan and Dominik had known each other for the entirety of their military days. Six years was a long time to be following his commander through every training group, and now through every mission and every unit, but for Ivan, it was not long enough. He had a high amount of respect for Dominik's leadership, in more ways than one. He wanted to prove to him how he had always been by his side and to prove to him how blinded he had been to Katerina's mistakes just because of his guilt over Maria.

He found himself wishing that he had gotten as much attention from Dominik as he had given to Katerina. He still hadn't changed his mind about her being unfit for this kind of mission... Well perhaps none of them are, but orders were orders.