They found themselves far from home in Vladivostok, the year was 2006, and the air was thick with a sense of stagnation. Life had become less exciting, a dull routine of evasion and uncertainty. Felix often reflected on their predicament, the invisible enemy that seemed to lurk just beyond the horizon. Why weren't they after him? The silence was unsettling—too quiet for too long. His mind spiraled into darker contemplations. Where was Vivien now? Was this timeline merely a copy of the one he had originally inhabited? Did he have the power to change anything? As these thoughts consumed him, Anastasia would let him wander through his mind, allowing him the space to ponder, even for hours if necessary. But he could sense that her own passion was fading; the spark that had once ignited their nights together flickered dimly in the shadows of their shared existence. He refrained from probing her emotions, respecting her enough to not invade her private thoughts. In the silence of their hotel room, he noticed the little things—the way her laughter had grown less frequent and her smiles less bright. He didn’t question her late-night outings, the places she went or the people she might meet. He sensed a longing in her, a desire for a different life that he could not provide.
“What will we do?” That morning felt right for this kind of question.
“Why?” she asked while brushing her long brown hair.
“Do you wish for a home?” he asked in a shy voice.
She looked at him and smiled. “You’re not that type.”
“And what type am I?”
“The wild one.”
“Do you love me?”
Silence filled the hotel room as her eyes suddenly saddened. He looked her in the eyes, begging for an answer. She was thinking for too long.
“What other choice do I have?” she said finally, stabbing him in the chest. “No” was what she meant, and he knew that. Once she liked him and found him exciting, but she never saw him as a life partner. But now they were stuck living this nomadic life. Was that where she was spending her nights? Looking for someone to save her from him as he had saved her from Luka?
“To leave?”
“Ah…” she said.
They moved on as if that conversation had never happened. She would sleep next to him, kiss him if he asked, and follow his plans, but he was running out of plans—a boy with no history or home. He felt helpless.
“Felix! Felix! Wake up!” She was jumping on him, trying to wake him up that night. He opened his eyes, trying to calm her down.
“What is it?”
“He is here!”
“Who?”
“Emil!”
She was fully dressed, with makeup on her face, indicating she had been out that night after he had fallen asleep. “He saw me in a bar, following me; he is down there!” Tears ran down her face. He hugged her; she was shaking.
“Calm down, please!”
“Felix! I’m so scared.”
In that moment, he felt her love, her need to be protected. He felt needed, and that gave him comfort.
He decided to go alone and face Emil. Two years had passed. The young man was wearing a mask to hide his ruined face.
“Finally,” his former friend said.
“What?” Felix asked.
“We’ve been looking for you for a long time, but you’re able to mind control an awfully large number of people.”
That was true; Felix’s powers had grown while he was on the move. He could do the same to Emil; in fact, that’s what he was planning.
“We were friends once, Felix—brothers, actually. Nikolai and Luka were too busy with Jozef and his experiments, but now they need you again. The search will get much more intense.”
“Fair enough.” He gave him a letter.
“Take it—passports for you and Anastasia. Gleb sent it; he wants you to be safe, to run away. You must leave the country if you want to get away.”
“Why would you want to help me?”
“Because you are my brother.”
Emil took off his mask, revealing his face; the scars were not small as Felix remembered; his whole face was ruined. Felix’s eyes filled with tears.
“What happened?”
“Nikolai is not the man you used to know; he has progressively become more cruel. I want at least one of us to have a happy life—the one who got us fancy houses and nice cars.”
Both boys laughed.
“I’m so sorry, Emil.”
“It’s not your fault that someone chooses the path of a bully. Take this; run free.”
They hugged. Felix didn’t care to read into Emil’s mind. His hug was strong; he was holding Felix tightly while tears ran down his cheeks.
“I love you, brother; please don’t forget it!”
Once at the airport, waiting for their flight to Dortmund, both Felix and Anastasia were pulled to the side. First, they were taken to a small office, where they waited for hours. She wouldn’t stop crying. He tried using his powers, but his mind, his weapon, felt numb. He kept silent, not wanting to scare her. From there, they were moved to jail, separately. No one questioned him; they just came to inform him that bail had been paid and he was free to go.
“Why was I even here?” he asked, wondering if it was for fake documents. Who paid anything for them?
“Your lawyer awaits you,” he was told. He was taken away to a car, recognizing the black Volvo. It was a newer model, but Nikolai’s car of choice for business trips. The boy tried to run, but he was pinned down by four men who grabbed him and put him in the car.
He wasn’t sure when he lost consciousness, but he woke up in a dungeon.
“Your whore betrayed you,” he heard a once very familiar voice. Finally, he saw Nikolai.
“Emil did.”
“They did it together. He gave you faulty passports; she gave you poison to block your powers. Jozef invented it while you were gone.”
Felix made sure not to show any emotions. “Good for them.”
“We have no choice. If we want DeFranco to keep investing, he asked for your head.”
“Kill me,” Felix said calmly.
“We will. If it makes you any happier, Anastasia won’t get what she asked for—a house and one million to live carelessly in Moscow. Instead, she will be sold to a brothel.”
Felix showed no emotions. He wasn’t sure what Nikolai wanted from him; he was still standing there.
“Why did you do this, stupid child?”
The boy finally sobbed. “I don’t know.” Nikolai looked like he pitied him, but he couldn’t tell. Emil looked honest too, as did Anastasia. Every hug he believed in, and where had it taken him?
That same evening, the man he once called father took him to the backyard with a blindfold over his eyes. He was showing him the way to the place where they would shoot him; it was a show made to entertain Luka, the man still bitter that a boy once took his whore and money. The boy he feared was now a man who only wanted to be feared.
“Careful,” Gleb said, making sure Felix didn’t fall on the rocky road. Finally, he put a hand on his shoulder and told him to bend. Felix was calm. His body was weak, and his mind too empty to do anything. They would shoot him; he knew there was no way to change it.
“Do you forgive me?” Gleb asked in a cold voice.
“I do.”
He took a rug over his face, and Felix turned his head up to see him one last time. Gleb’s face was red, and his eyes were filled with tears. How confusing, Felix thought to himself. In front of him, he saw Emil, Leonid, and a few boys he didn’t know holding guns, preparing to shoot him. His friends were sobbing; a little further away were Nikolai and Luka, with their dead serious faces. Gleb went to join the others.
Will they all shoot? Felix asked himself. Then another thought went through his mind—how he hadn’t even said goodbye to Anastasia. How meaningless… how meaningless life was. He was thinking while closing his eyes to meet his destiny. He heard the guns fire, and then it all went black; funny how he didn’t feel any pain.
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