Dirty reality made by gloved hands

XV

The room was dim. The scent of chemicals and medicine was heavily spread throughout the halls and the rooms. It stung the nose, it's a kind of smell that awakens a certain uneasiness in people, make your stomach flip in anxiety. The paranoia of the two calamities of death and disease whose eyes bore into the back of your head. The air was still and quiet, the only thing that disturbed this silence was the sound of boots slamming into the tiled floor.

With heavy steps and a heavy soul Soviet walked down the corridor of the hospital where he has been taken to. His wounds had been disinfected and dressed. A white bandage was tightly wrapped around his head covering his injured eye.

He walked out of the medical center and he stood in front of the door as it slammed shut behind him. He took a painfully deep breath as he saw Russia (at that time RSFSR*) talking with some soldiers from the NKVD*. Аs the soldiers saw the union they immediately stood with straight back. Soviet walked down the stairs mumbling "At ease." on his way down.

"Your car is here Sir!" Told one of them to the union but he ignored him.

"What are you doing here?" He grumbled to Russia.

"I came to visit you..?"

"Why?"

"Dad, you have been seriously injured and attacked by the Third Reich! Of course I immediately came to you!"

"Shouldn't have bothered." He said dryly, as he felt his blood starting to boil.

"Are you kidding me?" Smiled Russia wryly. He opened his mouth to say something but Soviet kept the word in him.

"What I mean, Son, is that why the fuck are you here and not sending troops to Belarus and Ukraine?! So why are you standing here? Did you come so you could rub it in my face that you were right about that the Reich would turn against us? As you said we are under a FUCKING ATTACK, SO GO AND DO WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO!" He shouted. Russia lowered his head. Nobody spoke, oppressing silence filled the air.

Soviet sighed and lighted a cigarette. He went too far.

Again.

Poor boy always wants to conform to his father, does everything as best as he can, but the union is always angry, always dissatisfied and never proud of his son. Soviet often felt guilty for raising Russia so strictly compared to his siblings, but as he is the eldest heir of the union, he cannot tolerate any resistance. As a result he often punished his son for his trespassing, mostly only with words but it has happened once or twice that he beat him as well. After an excruciatingly long pause Soviet finally spoke again.

"What is the damage so far?" Russia pursed his lips and shook his head bitterly

"The command control organisation has been destroyed, so for the longest time we couldn't form direct communication with the defence lines, this has been repaired since." He sighed. "Roughly, about 3 million troops marched into our territory throughout the whole border accompanied by aviation. Ukraine continuously reported incoming airstrikes and raids on his cities and..." his voice died down, his frame slightly trembled. "...they bombed our artillery barrage and several of our airfields. We lost close to 2000 aircrafts just yesterday." He slowly looked up to meet his father's gaze.

The union just stood there like a block of ice, he clenched his fists and his lips pursed into a thin line, he was clearly angry. He did not look at his son, instead looked into the distance, at the trees and the nearby houses. They were peaceful, at that is what Soviet needed at the moment.

Peace and quiet to think.

Without saying another word he turned away from his son and the car and started walking away with big slow steps. Russia just looked at him puzzled, he expected to be yelled at, or at least to listen to the dissatisfied opinion of his father but he took everything abnormally calmly. This was unusual of his father and it made Russia's gut twist deep inside of him in anxiety. This is not right.

"W-Wait! Where are you going now?!" He cried out in despair.

"I'm going to walk home. Don't you dare follow me."

"B-But-!"

"Think about your mistakes and we'll talk about what to do next at home." He said coldly and continued walking away leaving his son alone with the NKVD soldier.

***

He walked through the calmness of the nearby park. It was separated from the noise of Moscow, Nature only here was allowed to take over humanity with its majestic force. The warm summer wind blew calmly passing though the sound of bird chirping joyfully. Their music like a piano would sing under a finger of a famous pianist. No other composers' work did the Union admire more than the Nature's composer's masterpiece. Only if he himself wouldn't have ruined this beauty.

In the stillness of the atmosphere he was the devastating hurricane. With each step a thunder could be heard, he threw lightnings with his gaze and even the air around his presence seemed to drop a few degrees. It would be an understatement to say that he was angry, he was furious, everything in his aura screamed in negative tones. Right now, he was Nature's fury.

A terrible ache in his heart kept on nagging his mind but he tried to ignore it. The terrible poison of hate pumped though his veins defecting the nerves of being capable of compiling sensible, reasonable thoughts, instead his head was spinning with flashes of memories, and his heart felt more and more disgusting filling up with unwanted emotions.

How dare he. HOW DARE HE. After everything that has happened between us. After everything we've gone through. THIS IS WHAT I GET? THIS IS WHAT I DESERVE? You threw me away like a piece of trash like I was nothing to you, like you were nothing to me. I've supported you in everything I could! I looked after you not like your non-existent father! I did so many for you! AND YOU STABBED ME IN THE BACK!

He kept on ranting in his head, spreading profanities. With each word the pressure in his soul weighted more. This cannot be happening to him. What did he ever do to deserve this? He kept on walking and walking in the park more and more hurriedly as if someone was chasing him, almost setting off to running. However a sudden splash of water brought him out of his state of mind.

He had gone so deep into the park that he found himself next to the park's lake. The lake was surrounded by willow trees and only in a few places were covered by reeds and bulrushes along shores. The surface of the water was able to perfectly mirror the image of the sky, bringing the arch of heaven down to earth with its rich blue colours making one feel like he is walking around the clouds of the almighty. But now it turned gray. Now only the dull nauseating sliver colour of endlessness was reflected by the disturbed waves.

Soviet looked around in the direction of where the sound had come from. An animal has came too close to the shores and has fallen into the water. The gray lifeless waves were trying to swallow the poor thing whole while it was desperately fighting for its life.

Soviet seeing the unfortunate animal immediately rushed to help it. He took off his coat and pushed up the sleeves of his shirt. He lay down on his stomach and reached after the animal in panic. He grabbed it and pulled a soaked wet trembling kitten out of the water.

Soviet's heart ached at the kitten's desperate meowing. The union pulled the little animal closer to himself as the poor thing was shaking from the cold and shock. He carefully petted the kitten somehow trying to somehow calm it down, meanwhile he looked around looking for the kitten's mother but he saw no-one else besides them. The pressure in his chest worsened as he looked down again at the little shivering fur ball in his lap. Such a small cat, such a pure soul and yet it was left alone in this big world with no-one to rely on. Pain filled his heart and his lips began to tremble.

This little cat did not deserve to be treated like this.

Life is so unfair.

RSFSR* officially Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, but people often refer to it as Russian Federation, Soviet Russia or just Russia.

NKVD* People's Comissariat for Internal Affairs, "interior ministry" of the USSR. Its a secret police, similar to gestapo