From Russia With Loathing

Part 6

I spent the rest of the night in a state of shock.

I already knew it would be impossible to look at Rob when I would get home so I told him to go out with his friends. One of the best parts about our relationship is that I don't have to explain things to him, he just understands. So he didn't ask any questions when I said dinner didn't go over well and I wanted a night in with just Audrey.

I relived the entire traumatic experience all over again when I told Audrey everything that had happened.

All the ups and downs.

Everything. Word for word.

I left nothing out.

"Anna, please tell me you told him to fuck off! Six months? That mother fucker wants you to be married off to some psychopath in six months!?" She screams at me.

She had been dead quiet and listening to everything world I said until now. I think she had expected me to speak up before it had gotten this far. That, or she was just as paralyzed as I was, expecting it all to be some sick joke.

We were both laying on her bed, passing a bottle of flavored vodka back and forth. It's our last bottle of alcohol left. We hadn't been restocking lately because of the move.

And if there was a time for copious amounts of alcohol, this was that time.

Suddenly, drunk and sitting on Audrey's bed, my head started to relax and things started to look clearer. Not until I reprocessed the whole scenario while telling her, did I realize the state of shock I had been in. I hadn't even fully realized half of what had happened.

The only time Viktor had even spoken to me was when he asked me what I was laughing at. I cringed at myself. I had acted like a child. I didn't even let the guy talk.

I suddenly remembered Audrey had said something. "I didn't even get to finish my sentence before he said he would kill him. Or I should say 'I will have him killed'. He knew. He has a whole plan in place. No, plans, cause there are multiple. 'If you don't I will have him killed. You tell him anything you shouldn't, I will have him tortured and killed slowly. If you speak to him again or if he stays in New York? I will have him tortured and killed slowly, and you will watch. ... If you decide to run? I will have him tortured and killed slowly while you watch.' So no I didn't exactly tell him to off."

I didn't dare tell her that he threatened her life as well. She could never know her life was threatened.

We both sit in silence, starring at the ceiling.

"Do you think he is okay with this? Like, do you think he is just going to go along with everything and do whatever his father says?" She asks after a while.

"Viktor? He seemed just as pissed off as I was, maybe even a little more, but he didn't say anything. He just sat there a glared at me. It was like he was picturing ripping my throat out, or strangling me to death."

"Did you ask him? Did you even give him the chance to talk?"

"Not really." I cringe at myself again. "I kind of just went off on him. Which is great, cause now he probably thinks I'm a child. He started to say something, but my father opened the door. He just stormed out. He can't seriously be okay with all of this. I know they are all brainwashed, but this is a whole other level of wrong!"

I blindly reach for the bottle of vodka. When The bottle doesn't budge from Audrey's hands, I look up at her. We just stare at each other for a few seconds in silence. Her face gets sadder and sadder.

"So what are you going to tell him?" She whispers.

She doesn't have to say his name. I know who she is referring to.