Budapest » [Clintasha]

Chapter Two: The Bolshoi

Ivan snatched my hand up and dragged me swiftly back out to the lobby, yanking me between people almost carelessly, my arm was almost dislocated from my shoulder. I felt like a sled being hauled through the snow.

Once we were back out in the open space, Ivan stopped abruptly. I crashed into the back of him, staggering backward upon impact.

"Where are we going?"

I pestered, tugging at his arm.

He said nothing. His neck was stretched like a giraffe and he peered around sovereignly. His eyes were narrow and his gaze swept the room. He suddenly began walking again; taking long strides that I could barely keep up with.

He pulled me through the crowds of departing people, and deeper into the theatre. We rounded a corner, and started down an empty corridor.

"Ivan, where are we going?! I squawked with repetition. He did not respond.

At last we came to a halt by what was labelled the Stage door. Ivan knocked a few times.

A man in a sharp black suit and tie opened the door. I remembered thinking he rather resembled an eagle, with his pointy nose and dark prominent brow diluted with silver hairs. He was long and thin and rather bony and had a thin thatch of grey hair that was slowly creeping back over his head.

"Ivan..." The man cocked his head and looked over my shaking foster-father. "Come in."

A sinister smirk crept across his wrinkled features, plumping up his sagged cheeks and perking up the dark bags beneath his sunken brown eyes.

"Natalia, this is Vasily Karpov." He said with a timid voice.

"Ivan, why have you brought me here?" I whispered tugging at his sleeve.

Ivan pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his perspired forehead.

"Has he not told you? Ivan has another surprise for you."

He flashed a malevolent grin at Ivan as he lead us back to the stage through the side door. We entered the area that was now hidden by the red velvet curtain that had fallen at the end of the show. The burning hot stage lights were still switched on and a lot of the girls were back there practicing; still dancing, twirling on their toes to no music. They're faces were expressionless and they looked straight ahead as if they couldn't see.

"What is it?" I hissed to him.

"Girls!" Vasily clapped his hands and they all stopped what they were doing instantly and gathered round. Every last one of them had their eyes affixed to me; all of these taller girls staring at me. I felt intimidated and hid behind Ivan.

"It's okay. Everything is going to be alright." He ruffled my hair reassuringly. There were tears in his old grey blue eyes that darted about my face despairingly.

"Meet the newest member of the ballet." He swung out an arm dramatically and put the other around my back, I was shoved into the centre of the circle of girls.

"Ivan!" I shrieked.

"It's all going to be fine 'Talia." Ivan smiled sadly, his mouth in a crooked smile and his eyes filled with a reminiscent sorrow.

"You do want to join the ballet, don't you?" He snatched my chin up in his hand so I faced him and snarled at me. I could smell his rotten breath at the proximity.

I nodded silently, words escaped me.

"Good. Because Ivan assured me that you had always wanted to join the ballet; and if Ivan was lying I would have been very angry." He looked up at Ivan with his black beady eyes, frowning deeply.

Although he was offering me the opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream, I was scared. Ivan was crying. Ivan never cried. Something was wrong, very wrong; and it wasn't just Vasily's putrid breath.

"But I have a problem. If I am to allow you to join the ballet, you're going to have to go on tour with us, and that will mean that you never see Ivan again."

And in the space of two sentences my life had been turned upside down. That was the moment my life changed forever.

"Will you do that?"

I stuttered "Er..." I couldn't find the right words to say.

"She will."

Ivan stepped forwards and placed his hands firmly on my shoulders. I could hear the pain in his voice as he struggled to force the words out.

"Ivan?" I turned to face him.

"You will do as you're told." He said with a stern face, but a terrified voice that shook and trembled with every word.

"I don't want to leave you."

I buried my face in his abdomen and wrapped my arms as far as I could around his waist, hugging him tightly and convincing myself that I was never going to let go.

"You have no choice." He muttered.

"Can't you come with me?" I said into his thick black winter coat.

He looked up at Vasily, who continued to frown and shook his head slowly at Ivan.

"I'm sorry. I can't. I really wish I could."

He crouched down onto one knee and held either side of my face in his large calloused hands.

"Natalia, you have to know that I love you, and I've always loved you as if you were my own. I will always love you Natalia-, no matter what happens... This is goodbye."

I felt my heart shatter in my chest and tears began to pour from my eyes. He was getting rid of me. Why was he getting rid of me?

"I don't want you to go. You can't go."

"It'll be alright. You'll have a great time." He said through a tense jaw.

"Why do you have to leave?" I wept, snivelling in self pity.

"These things require dedication Natalia, and I can't be around if that needs to happen."

Ivan looked up to the man towering over us behind me, casting a lean shadow over me.

"So now it's time to say goodbye."

"I don't want to."

"I know you don't want to. But sometimes in life you have to do things that you don't want to."

He had begun sobbing; tears were spilling out of his old tired eyes and running down the crevices of the laughter lines around his inflamed red eyes.

"I love you." He whined, barely able to contain his sorrow for a moment longer.

He kissed me upon the forehead then smoothed out my auburn hair, sweeping aside the ringlets to look at my face for one last time.

"Goodbye." He embraced me, squeezing me so tight it felt like my body was about to explode. I tightened my arms around him, slinging them around the back of his neck.

He pulled away from me far too soon.

"Goodbye." I repeated back to him.

Moments later, two security bouncers dressed in tuxedoes grabbed him by either arm and escorted him away.

"I love you, Natalia!" He shouted as he was dragged from view; and that was the last time I ever saw Ivan.