CITY OF THE DEAD ✓

XI. ALEXEY

Ivan took me from behind and dragged me off the Volga. I tried to escape his grasp and yet was so unstable I took us both to the ground.

"You left him! You left him to die out there!"

"Vaska, stop. Stop!"

"He is another one of them; another casualty, another number in a statistic he didn't want to be a part of! You left him out there and you didn't let me try to save him!"

Uvarov restrained as I threw myself against his arms. I wanted to be back on the ice to the edge of the crater that had swallowed Alexey. My skin burned, my pulse was rapid and thundered in my ears.

I collapsed onto my side, tears draining from my eyes as I stared out onto the Volga where the bombs had stolen him from me. The ice had taken him meters from the place he would escape.

I grabbed handfuls of the sand and tighten my grasp around the grains. My legs pulled to my chest as I couldn't control the sobs once they took over. My arms wrapped around my gut and I close my eyes, shriveling up as I shook.

I couldn't look at the river.

Ivan led me off of the shore and over the banks to where the trees were growing. I slid off his shoulder and into the ground. He looked at the ridge of the banks and to the reinforcements who passed us and defended me with a hostile expression.

Uvarov maintained his distance and put his hand on my shoulder. I stared at the non-grey earth and the soil that had no specks of blood across its surface. The horizon was a vast sea of trees instead of rubble.

Sunlight crept through the branches and came to the ground in warm patches. Uvarov beside managed a smile before it faded.

"You've escaped the city," he muttered. "A feat some of us will never accomplish. I have to return to the east bank at some point today."

I flashed my blank, solemn gaze at him. Mist rolled from my eyes like a brewing storm front, causing concern in the man who watched it. I was numb from the loss and was so delirious, words fell from my lips without a second thought.

"When you find him-"

"Don't talk, you aren't ready."

"When you find him when you find Alexey, or if you ever do; don't bury him in one of the mass graves. Put his body on this side of the damn Volga, so he makes it out."

Ivan nodded and his eyes dropped to the coat. "He told you to steal it didn't he?"

My arms retracted through the sleeves as I wrapped them around my torso. Uvarov smiled and flicked a fleck of ash from his own coat.

"What am I going to do? Report you for treason? No, you've been through enough. Go home, Vaska, go home to recover."

"My home is, or was, in Stalingrad, and besides, I have no one to go home to in ruins. My sibling and Alexey are gone, my father is at the front, and my mother died from her sickness when I was a kid."

"So you have no rules to follow. You are free to go wherever you wish. No one is holding you back, you go live the life you have always wanted, and find someone else to share it with."

I rubbed the side of my face with the sleeve and brushed the droplets off. It had the sand of the western shore, the fabric which covered his hand as he held mine. His fingers felt as if they were interlocked with mine, but the feeling had begun to fade.

I was left in the cold.

My shoulders heaved and I closed my eyes to drain the tears. Uvarov stared at me when I opened them, a sliver of hope was carved into his stern expression. He leaned close and pulled a piece of music from the coat.

Ivan flipped it over. "It's addressed to-"

"Tolya Yeremenko."

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Until next time.
- Elle ♡