The woman then turned to me and ran the edge of the whip down my face. Her dark eyes were bright, and she leaned in, using the end of the whip under my chin to force my head up. “You’re going to be an interesting one, I can tell.” Her voice was as sharp as a knife, and my skin broke out in shivers at the way she watched me.
She stared at me in silence, but my eyes drifted over her shoulder to check on Inessa. Inessa’s blue eyes were watching me, her bottom lip trembling. My stomach roiled at seeing her so upset. I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.
The woman followed my gaze; then as she snapped her head back to me she cracked her whip across my cheek. I staggered back as blistering pain sliced across my face. My hand lifted over my cheek, and when I pulled it back blood was on my palm.
I looked up at the woman, rage building in my veins. When my rage-filled eyes met hers, her eyes flared and her thin lips spread into a wide smile. Without turning to the male Wraith, she ordered, “Put them in the same cage! One last ride will not make a difference.” My shoulders sagged in relief as the male walked to a cage and put my sister inside. My heart squeezed as I looked at Inessa so small in the metal cage. Her dark hair fell down her back and her blue eyes were so big they almost appeared unreal.
The guard snapped his fingers and I rushed forward, but not before the woman gripped my arm bringing me to a halt. Her long fingers dug into my biceps as her mouth leaned down until it met my ear. I shivered again, something in my soul warning me to pull away.
“I see the fury in your eyes, little boy,” the woman said coolly. I saw her mouth break into a smile, and she added, “Good. Keep it. Fuel it. It will become essential for what I have planned…”—she looked over her shoulder to my sister, then turned back to finish—“for you and your little angel there.”
I wanted to argue, I wanted to hit her in the face, but my body was frozen to the spot. The female didn’t release my arm for several seconds, until she pushed me toward the cage. I stumbled but rushed into the cage with Inessa. As soon as I was in the cage, Inessa crawled onto my lap. She threaded her arms around my neck and whispered, “I am scared, Valentin. That woman scares me.”
“Shh,” I soothed, and held her close. “She won’t hurt you.”
Inessa exhaled and whispered, “Big Brother Promise?”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I nodded my head. “Big Brother Promise.”
“Then I’ll be safe,” she said softly.
As I glanced up, I heard the other children being loaded into the other cages. But as I did, I met the dark gaze of the woman, now standing before our cage. My body stilled when I saw the look on her face. My stomach turned in dread when I knew she’d heard everything I’d just promised Inessa.
A promise I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep, but one I would die trying to honor.
Days and days seemed to pass, the truck stinking of piss and shit. The Wraiths threw us bread and water but never stopped to give us fresh air or clean clothes. And they never once stopped to let us use a toilet. Instead we soiled ourselves. We had to sit and sleep in shit.
I’d stopped smelling the stench after a day or so.
Suddenly the truck pulled to a stop. Low voices sounded outside, but the sound of crying and fear clogged up the back of the truck.
The locks on the rolling door of the truck bed rattled, and in seconds the door rolled open, blinding light replacing darkness. I flinched as the light burned my eyes. I wrapped Inessa in my arms to shield her from the pain.
Male Wraiths dressed all in black flooded into the back of the truck, the metal batons in their hands slamming against the steel cages. The noise was deafening after days and days of painful silence.
A shadow reached our cage and snapped the lock. Tucking my nose into Inessa’s hair, I ordered, “Keep hold of me, dorogaya moya! I’ll keep you safe.”
I felt her little head nod and I crawled from the cage just as the male Wraith hit the cage again and ordered, “Get out!”
My legs were weak when I stood. I fought to keep hold of my sister. I gripped on tight, my heart increasing in speed the closer I got to the outside. My breath misted into white puffs as we hit a wall of cold. It was freezing outside; snow covered the ground.
I climbed down the steps, only for the Wraith to point me toward the end of a line. The place was silent as I walked down the line. I stared at the children’s faces, recognizing some from my dorm or from the canteen.
My eyebrows pulled down when I saw that all the children in the line were boys. A flicker of movement caught my eye on the other side. When I turned my head, a line exactly like the one I was in stood opposite. Except they were all girls.
A whoosh of breath left my chest when I saw the Wraiths were splitting us up. My body tensed and I felt sick at the thought of my little Inessa being taken from me. I held her tight, and I fought back tears at the thought of her being on her own, of her not having me to protect her.
The warmth of her breath drifted down my neck. I took my place at the end of the line. I stared before me at the long row of young girls, all crying or deathly still, all still dressed in their nightgowns, just like my Inessa.
Then I heard it. I heard the sound of heels on the ground, and I knew it was her. I focused on the ground, never lifting my eyes, when I saw her feet come into view. Inessa must have felt my body freeze, as she whimpered into my neck. She could sense my fear.
The familiar end of a whip landed under my chin, lifting my head. My eyes met the cruel eyes of the female Wraith. She stared and she stared, until her whip moved to run down Inessa’s back. My sister jumped at the feel, but her grip tightened around my neck.
Next, everything seemed to run in slow motion. The woman snapped her fingers and a Wraith began to approach. When he arrived at where we stood, he reached out and wrapped his hands around Inessa’s waist. Inessa screamed, but I held on tight. I fought and fought to keep hold, but as the woman’s whip came cracking down on my back Inessa slipped from my arms. Her pretty face was red and streaming with tears as the Wraith took her away. I pushed forward to run after her, but I was kicked to the ground and whipped across my body until I couldn’t feel my arms and legs.
My head rolled, pain pounding through my skull. My eyes stung with the cold, but I forced them open to search for Inessa. I screamed a silent scream as I saw the line of girls being led away through a wide arch. I tried to push myself to run after her, but another blow came down, pinning me on the snow-covered ground. I watched through blurred eyes as the girls faded from view. But at the last minute, the girl at the end turned, her dark hair in the bright rising dawn looking like a halo on her head. My breath was lost as I realized it was Inessa. I cleared my eyes, reaching out my hand. Just as she disappeared through the arch, she lifted her hand in a small wave.
She was saying good-bye.
Pain overwhelmed me, burning me from the inside. A sense of failure wrapped me in its embrace and I curled in on the floor. The sound of feet moving, crunching on the snow, hit my ears, but I didn’t move.
A pair of black boots came into view, and I heard the woman, order, “Get him up!”
Someone grabbed my arm and wrenched me to my feet. My head hung, defeated; then that fucking whip lifted my chin. The woman shook her head, then flicked her chin to a Wraith behind that pushed me into line along with the other boys.
We walked through the same arch, until a huge field came into view. Metal towers and fences topped with razor wire stretched as far as the eye could see. But there were no buildings. I wondered if it was a military base, until we came to a sudden stop. The line started to move again, but I couldn’t see where the boys in front were walking. Night Wraith guards surrounded us on either side, and when it was my time to walk my eyes widened at a set of stairs in a field, leading down.
The place we were being taken was underground.
My feet were heavy as I descended the stairs. We walked through a maze of corridors
, until we came to a large room. “Sit down!” the Wraith guards ordered in Russian, so we would understand. The guard behind me pushed me into a chair. A man appeared behind me. There was a buzzing sound; then a razor was taken to my head, my messy black hair falling onto the floor around me.
In minutes my head was shaved. The Wraith guarding me pulled me to my feet. He pushed me into step behind the other boys. The line slowed down. When I got to the front there was a man behind a desk handing out black sweatpants.
The line stopped as I was handed my pair, and the Wraith walked before us. “Strip, leave your old clothes on the floor, and put on your new pants.”
We did as commanded, and once we were all in the black sweatpants, heads shaved, the line started to move again. Feeling a trickle down my chest, I looked down only to see lashes and blood from the whipping I’d taken outside. I didn’t care. They’d taken my Inessa. I wasn’t going to feel anything.
We walked and walked deeper into the darkened corridors, until the sound of buzzing and screaming drifted down the halls. The boys in front of me began swaying on their feet, sweat dripping down their backs. And one by one we approached the room of screams.
When it was my turn to enter, a man standing at the door handed me a piece of paper. When I looked up, there were rows and rows of flat beds. The boys were being forced down and a man took a buzzing needle to their chests. As I walked through the mass of beds to the free one at the end, I saw that numbers were being tattooed on their chests. I frowned, until I remembered the paper in my hand. Glancing down, I saw the number “194” staring up at me. I was pushed from behind, and a man next to the free bed took my number and pointed to the bed.
I lay down, and in seconds the man pushed the buzzing needle into my skin. My mouth clenched at the pain and my body tensed. But I didn’t cry out like the other boys. I refused to let these Georgians see me break.
It was excruciating. Almost unbearable. But I never moved. I didn’t move until the man with the needle stepped back and wiped at my chest with a wet rag. The wet rag felt like a hundred bees stinging my flesh.
Yet I still didn’t flinch.
The Wraith guard pulled me from the bed and walked me down a hall. Dull thuds, screams, and shouts came from the room at the end of the hallway. I took a deep breath, bracing for what I would see next, but, honestly, nothing could have prepared me.
A room, bigger than I’d ever seen in my life, was filled with boys of all ages. And they were fighting. Some with weapons, some without. My eyes roved over the huge room, watching the boys hitting and drawing blood. I swallowed. I knew I was looking at my future.
The Wraith guards ahead pushed some of the boys into a pit and stood around them with folded arms. A guard lifted up his hand and ordered, “Fight!”
The boys stood, all fearfully staring at the Wraith guards. A guard lunged out and hit one across the face. The boys backed away as the guard repeated, “Fight!”
Fists and arms suddenly went flying, and the boys fought. They fought until blood was spilled.
The guard beside me pushed me into a pit to my left. I stumbled onto the sandy surface; then other boys were pushed in with me, too. A guard moved toward us when from the corner of my eye I saw the woman watching me. A man was beside her and she pointed into the pit.
The Wraith guard lifted his hand. As he did, rage swept through me, my blood boiling from the anger swirling inside. “Fight!” the guard shouted, and my legs moved toward the nearest boy. My fists flew; my legs kicked at anyone in my path. I bit, I clawed, and I kept going until the guard pulled me back.
“Stop,” he hissed into my ear. When I looked around, the boys I’d beaten were lying on the ground. But the anger still built as I stared at the female.
The boys who could still walk were led out of the room. The ones on the ground were dragged out by the guards. The guard holding me put me on the ground, when the woman called out something in Georgian.
Suddenly the guard began leading me down another hallway. This one was quieter than before. When I came out at the end, it was a smaller room with cages along the back wall, a pit in the center, and on the opposite side a door that obviously led somewhere else.
The door at the back of the room opened. The woman and the man she had been standing with walked through. A guard followed behind, pushing two boys into the room. I stared at the boys. They were twins. They were darker in skin, with long black hair that ran down their backs. They were identical, but one had green eyes and the other had brown. The one with green eyes stared straight ahead, as if he was looking at nothing, but the one with brown eyes looked straight across at me.
The twins were pushed across the room, and as they passed me I read the numbers on their chests: 362 and 221. They were locked up in separate cages, but they were next to each other.
The one with brown eyes, 362, sat close to the bars and tried to talk to the one with green eyes, 221. But 221 stared straight ahead, like he couldn’t even hear his brother talk.
I swallowed, and this time real fear ran through my veins. The guard pushed me into a cage beside 362. The woman and the man with her left the room, left the three of us alone.
Hours and hours passed in silence, until 362 moved closer and asked me something in Georgian. I didn’t know what he said. Then his eyes traveled down my body and he said in perfect Russian, “You’re new?”
I nodded my head.
362 sighed and asked, “Do you remember your name?”
I frowned and said, “My name? Of course I do.”
362’s head hit the back wall and he closed his eyes. “Good; remind yourself of it every single day. Burn it into your fucking brain. Never let it fade.”
I was even more confused. I had opened my mouth to speak when he said, “I’m 362. I have no name, or at least I don’t now. I have no memory of it.” His eyes opened and he rolled his head toward his brother—he was still facing forward, focused on nothing. “Nor does he.”
“Why?” I asked, seeing the pain in 362’s eyes as he looked at his twin. “How have you forgotten?”
362 faced me again, his forehead lined with confusion. “Drugs. If you’re in this room, you’re going to be given drugs. That’s why we’re kept separate.” He sighed and, clenching his fists, said, “And they’ll make you forget. The drugs will make you forget your name. Your family. Where you are from. Everything. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to resist the drugs for some of the time; if not…” He trailed off and he looked back to his brother. I got the message. If not, you’d be like 221.
The room was abruptly plunged into darkness. I lay on the floor and closed my eyes. My sister’s last wave filled my mind. My stomach tightened at the thought of her words to me in the cage. “Big Brother Promise?” Our thing. When our junkie mother died and we were sent into that hell of a group home, she made me promise to never let anything bad happen to Inessa.
And I had. Because if this was what was happening to me, what the hell was happening to her?
Tears dripped on the floor, and as I curled my body in I heard 362, say, “That.” I tensed, and he continued, “Whatever has you upset, focus on them or that. Hold on to that person in your head. Maybe the drugs won’t break through if you have something to live for.”
Wiping my eyes, I replied, “It didn’t work with you. It hasn’t worked with him.”
“True,” 362 admitted in a rough voice. “But we were the first. We didn’t know what these drugs would do.” I nodded into the darkness when he said, “He may not remember me, but he’s my brother, my blood, and I’ll keep him in my head for as long as I can. Then one day, when I get out of this place, and off these fucking drugs, I’ll find him again. I’ll find him again and kill all the people in this blood pit. I’ll kill anyone that tried to rip my best friend from my heart.”
Nothing else was said. When I awoke, I was in a room with the woman. The man from the pits was by her side. He had a syringe in his hand. I tried to move, but my hands and feet were st
rapped down to the bed.
I pulled and pulled as the man approached. Then the woman stood beside me with something in her hand. “Stop!” she ordered, and held out a small screen. My heartbeat that seemed to have been absent from my chest since I’d arrived began to beat again.
“Inessa,” I whispered. My newly beating heart now tore into shreds. My baby sister was huddled in the corner of a cell, just like mine. Her blue eyes were huge as she watched the other girls in the room. But my chest warmed with pride when I saw she wasn’t crying.
The woman pulled the screen away. “No!” I called out. She shook her head, her ugly face blazing with happiness. “Let me see her again!” I barked.
Her eyes narrowed, and her finger stroked across my forehead. “If you want to see her again, 194, you’ll have to earn it.”
My muscles tensed. “My name is Valentin,” I bit back.
The woman then said, “No, here in the Blood Pit it’s 194. You have no name, boy.” She leaned in closer, her strong perfume stinging my nose.
“Here you will call me Mistress. Do you understand, 194?”
The man beside me pushed the needle in my arm. A searing heat immediately chased through my veins, my back bowing with pain as my mind filled with a thick fog.
I didn’t remember much after that, but I fought to keep my memories. I fought to remember that I was Valentin Belrov from Russia. My sister was called Inessa, and the first chance I got I would slit the throat of the Georgian bitch I’d been forced to call Mistress.…
13
VALENTIN
A wet rag dragged across my chest. My mind filled with the man who had given me the number tattoo. Reaching out, I grabbed his wrist, using brute strength to throw him on his back. I wrapped my free hand around his throat, squeezing the thin neck.
I frowned as the sweet smell of sugar drifted up my nose, and when a high-pitched whimper hit my ears I blinked my eyes open, the picture slowly coming into view.