The Romanov Diary

Chapter thirty one

July 16, 1918

Milo and Theo walk down the corridor on the second floor towards the grand duchesses' room. They're both nervous, yet relieved to finally tell them the truth. But they also feel guilty for keeping it a secret for so long. Milo's palms are sweaty and his heart pounds, almost so loud that he's afraid the whole house can hear him. The sun heats up the house, shining through the white paint. The last few days have been unnaturally warm, as if the end of a bomb is heating up and getting closer to explode. The cars outside honk, horses neigh and children outside of the fence fills the air of laughter.

They stop right outside of the door. The floor squeaks under their boots. The family has just eaten dinner and have returned to their bedrooms. The afternoon weather is still as lovely as it was by noon, and the sun will not set until another few hours. Birds are still singing above them, but the walls inside of the Ipatiev House are thick enough to make the two young soldiers feel pressured and trapped.

Milo takes a deep breath and Theo stands ready to guard the room. They agreed that Milo should be the one to tell them while Theo stands outside, since he, afterall, knows way more about the Romanovs then Theo does. But he didn't accept the job with ease, he's been trying to avoid seeing the family by making excuses to postpone this very moment. But as he stands outside of the OTMA room, just a few meters away from his beloved friends with a death sentence, he surprisingly feels a sort of calm between his fast breaths and pounding heart.

"So, what are you going to say?" Theo quietly asks.

Another guard comes out from the guards' room, and watches Milo and Theo as he walks down the wooden staircase with suspicious eyes. They wait until he's out of sight again.

"I'll just be honest. Tell them we've known this whole time, why we kept it a secret and how we're going to save them." Milo whispers, wiping the sweat from his palms on his uniform.

"Good luck, buddy."

Theo gives his friends a quick hug and looks into his eyes before he stands upright beside the door with a gun in his belt. Milo gently knocks on the door before stepping inside at the sound of Maria's voice saying "come in!". The girls are sitting on pillows on the floor under the window, sewing more jewelers into their corsets. They try to catch as much of the daylight as they can and prefer to sit underneath the windows instead of sitting by a lamp or a candle. Alexei is there too, but he's sitting on Tatiana's bed. He's drawing with his crayons, putting his thoughts and imaginations onto his paper. Soldiers, ships and dogs show up underneath his fingers.

"Hi Milo." Olga smiles as he walks up to them.

Milo sits down between Anastasia and Tatiana on the floor with his back towards the door. He's pale and shaky from nervosity. He looks at the golden window in order to avoid meeting their eyes.

How do you tell someone that they're about to die? Is there even a correct way of doing so?

Milo looks down at his friends, trying to really process and remember this moment. Alexei crawls over to the end of the bed to hear the conversation. Milo pulls his knees up to his chin and plays with the ring on his finger to distract his thoughts. His breaths are rapid and uncontrolled, his hair is messy and he can't look the children in their eyes.

"Are you okay?" Maria leans forward between Olga and Anastasia.

"This is it." Milo thinks for himself. "There is no guide to follow for how you tell someone that they're getting murdered so just get to it."

"No, I'm not okay." He says with a broken voice and looks down to the floor.

The girls stop sewing and bring their attention to him. Tatiana gets worried at the sound of her friend's shaky and raspy voice. It sounds as if he's about to burst into tears any second.