Memoirs

Part Eight

I watched as the lilac sky reflected onto the still lake, the cool air circling around my body, engulfing me in what felt like a silk hug. I decided to come here alone after Harry left, I think that I was the only person who really knew of this place. I was known to find places that no one else could discover, I think that's how I was able to stay hidden for so long. I closed my eyes as I felt the wind go by, disrupting the peacefulness of the lake.

But my peacefulness was disrupted by the sounds of leaves crunching underneath someone's foot.

My body shot up so quickly that I believe I could have gotten whiplash. I turned to try and find the direction of the noise but I couldn't find one. I heard my heartbeat in my ears and the blood had drained itself from my face. "Who's there?" I asked, as if someone would actually answer.

Smooth.

There were more rustles and my heart rate increased and I felt as if I was going to vomit. I didn't hesitate before quickly jogging away from the lake before hearing a sickening laugh paired with an incoherent giggle, causing me to burst into a full sprint to get away from the sound.

I was imagining things, I had to be.

/

I walked into the cafe, knowing that Harry was working. I luckily brought my laptop and sat in the corner of the place so I couldn't bother him. Quickly opening it, I went to google to search for something I had been meaning to.

Google Search: Yanek S. Strüt

Hundreds of sites came up for him and numerous reviews of his work paired up to them. It surprised me to know so many people adored pictures of people in heart wrenching pain.

Letting my eyes wander a bit more I found his biography. According to this, Strüt was killed by assassination, 2 years ago. My body stiffened and I continued looking at his biography, which led me to a link of all his photographs he has ever taken. My eyes landed on the name of one place; дом дьявола (dom d'yavola). Meaning home of the devil in Russian. This was where I had spent most of my life, my entire life had circled this one place until I was fourteen. By the time I could actually get away, I lost the one person who seemed to matter most to me. I lost Rory.

The sun was up to our knees as we ran, my leg beginning to numb from the fall mixed with the cold of the snow. We didn't bring anything to keep us warm.

"Rory, my leg!" I cried out and I knew he felt sad. I knew he did, he came to me and pressed a soft kiss on my forehead, "I know and I'm sorry but we really have to move."

There were sirens going off and dog barks in the distance. We weren't even in the camp anymore yet the supreme had still managed to find us, he always did. "Where are we going?" I breathed trying to even my breath. He looked at one of the three pieces of folded paper in his hand.

"To the border of Russia, then if we can, America again. We're gonna go ho-" he paused mid sentence and I swear everything went in slow motion.

Rory began falling to the floor and his blood dispersed into the icy white snow. His chest had a bullet wound and I could see the supreme in the distance, smiling. "Rory!!" was all I could get out before my screams decided to follow. I was down by his side in a moment but he just kept telling me to run, that he needed me to be kept safe.

He shoved the two papers that were still folded in my hand and told me to go softly until he yelled and ordered me to, knowing he wasn't going to make it. My vision blurred as I stumbled out of my position and made a run from him. I could hear gunfire and bullets whizzing by my ear and body. I ignored it all and kept running, I ran more until I saw a road and a few stores.

My eyes stopped on an antique store and I quickly made my way inside earning a few stares. There was a woman there, she was confused but with the number of years I had been in Russia I was able to pick up on the language, so begged her to let me hide. I assume she heard the yells of the supreme and all of Russia knew of him in this time period. She quickly nodded and took me to a painting, for when she moved it; there was a small door that led to a tiny room.

"Go. I'll keep you safe."

My thoughts were interrupted by Harry placing tea and a piece of banana bread in front of me. "Is everything okay?" he asked, and my entire body felt cold. "Lily, you're crying." he said, drying my tears with his black sleeve. But I couldn't speak, I just shook my head and covered my own face.

He shouldn't be here with me, paying me any attention. He should be at work, but at the same time it was only me and an old man reading the newspaper in here. "I'm on break and I wanted to check on you. To make sure you felt safe.." he whispered and my heart lurched at the sound of his voice telling me that.

I took a deep breath, "Now I do.."

•
Now you know who he is. He is Rory and I know you all may be very confused about why it's Russia but that's because something like this happened in Germany. All the terror in the past had been with the Holocaust in Germany and other parts of Europe. But this was somewhat worse than both so I gave it to Russia to host this terror.

I think it fit and I'm happy with my choices. You will learn a bit more of Rory and Lily's relationship in the future but please realize that Lily had to grow up very very quickly. So in that scene she was more seventeen than she was fourteen.

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