the underrated magician

the key I need

4 months passed by and it felt like 4 hours. Nothing special happened. Practice, slap, yelling, performance, practice, slap, yelling, performance and so on. I turned 17 3 days ago so it means I only got a year to try my best to escape the circus. Nothing's new. Volkov's door are locked and full of traps. No one except him can go inside and out. No one, for now.
After my performance I saw someone I didn't know coming from the front door. It was really late so I thought maybe some employees but no.. it was a boy the same age as me. He also got trapped and maybe he doesn't even know? Should I tell him? Should I warn him from Volkov? Should I not care about him? As he goes to the everyone's bedroom, he drops his suitcase on the bed and goes somewhere with Volkov. "Psst Medusa, who's that?" "No idea but.. he doesn't seem really talkative" Volkov doesn't accept any kids anymore. Why did he accept him then? Who is he?
I should've been sleeping but I can't. My brain cannot stop thinking about that boy. Why is he here. What happened to him? I'll try to talk to him tomorrow but I'll have to sleep now, tomorrow I'm practicing new trick.

On Sunday morning as I woke up, he wasn't there. Everybody was sleeping but his bed was empty. Where is he?
I get out of bed and walk as quiet as possible to not wake anyone up. Where did he go? As I walk past the tiger cage, I saw him cuddling with a Bengali tiger. Am I seeing that right? As I walk to him, he doesn't even notice me. "Hi, I see you're new here." He looks at me with no emotion in his eyes. I feel like it reminds me of someone but I don't know who. I feel like I've seen it before. "Well.. my name's Sasha and I'm a magician. Now you tell me" "I'm Alex and I am a tiger keeper" he says with a light Russian accent. I didn't really play attention.
The next day, Alex is barely visible and Volkov got mad, again..
He screamed something like "you fucking idiots why cannot you do something without mistake?" I wasn't listening to him but I heard something weird. Almost the same accent as Alex has. I thought it was coincidence but the eyes, the voice.. Alex knows Volkov and I have to find it how. Who is Alex? Why is he there? What does he have to do with Volkov? I guess the only method is to be closer to him. I'm not saying I want that but who are they?
That night I couldn't sleep. Alex was sleeping and so was everybody else. I could check his bags or stuff but what if he knows I'm after him? Isn't this the whole plan? As I looked at the floor trying to find a solution, I found something. A plank. But not any plank. This one was in different direction than the others. It had a little hole inside. Slowly as possible, I got up and went to check it out. "What the fuck can be there.. just please not some rotten rats or anything like that." After sticking hand inside there was some diary. There was something printed inside- initials. V.A. Ivanov. I've got back in bed and opened the diary. On the first page there was something that scared the fuck out of me.

If you got there, there's no turning back, someone has to destroy the circle."
Veronika Anastasia Ivanov
             

The scariest thing is, it's written in either blood or very very realistic red paint. As I look to the other pages, there's nothing "only" tiny blood stains. I'll keep this diary, I wanna get to know who was Veronika and why is she not there. I'm sure if I search deeper, I'll get to the bottom of the truth of everything. I can do it. But with need of Alex. He knows way more about Volkov he just didn't let me know it yet. But I figured it out. Now, I have to make him trust me, I'm doing it for everybody. We're family and we stick together. I'm their hope