Moments From Death

Mikael

Cameras. Cameras everywhere. All we have to do is smile and wave as we walk down the pavement towards the grand ballroom. The paparazzi swarm outside the gates, hoping to get even the slightest glimpse of the high-ranking officials that usually stay away from the public's eye. I suppose we were considered the same now.

Alexi, Dmitri, Alek and I are pressed in our best tuxedos as we attended the gala. Top ranking officers and aristocrats flanked us on either side of the doorway. From where we were outside the ballroom, the swanky music –by our standards anyway because all we listen to is the sounds of weapons clashing all day, or bullet casings being dropped at a rapid rate- filled the cool night, promising so much more, yet we all know by now to expect a whole lot less.

By each of our sides, Anna, Sophia, Virska and Erika are dressed to the nines. Their normally short cropped hair, curled into wavy peaks that lie perfect and still on their petite shoulders. It really amazes me that although they trained the same number of hours as us, they don’t seem to have put on that much muscle. Compared to the rest of the boys and I, we really bulked during the trainings, each of us gaining abs and pecs, and gaining so much muscle mass within at least 2 weeks of the training. I also really couldn’t help but keep noticing how the black fabric of Virska’s satin dress gave off a slight shimmer as she walks. It didn’t help that she has so much confidence so that when she walks, her short hair bobs along to the rhythm of her step. Or maybe it’s just me. Or maybe it’s just Virska.

I don’t realise I’m gawking with my mouth open like an i***t until Virska turns around and catches my eye. She quickly turns away, but I can see the colour rising to her cheeks as Erika almost immediately gives me a hard look probably talking in their heads.

‘Hey Al.’

‘Hm?’ was the reply.

‘What do you think the girls are thinking of right now?’

‘Didn’t think you were into Virska, Mi.’ came the coy reply, still halfway into the conversation with Dmitri, his arm snugly tucked around Sophia as she blushes and giggles at something he whispers into her ear. I sigh outwardly albeit the smile playing on my lips. Trust Alexi to be the smooth talker. Not to mention the multitasker. I’ve never seen either of the twins give as much attention in talking in their heads and speaking in an actual audible conversation. No doubt he will find some way to sneak into her room later tonight once they are both drunk on laughter and expensive wines and champagne.

‘Yeah well, it’s obvious what you have with Anna.’, was my slightly delayed and lame retort. Alexi snorts mid-sentence as he speaks to Dmitri but he simply shrugs it off with a laugh and an even more lame excuse about how he was more likely for him to choke on air than to miss a shot with the rifle. The others fall for it anyway, laughing at his lame joke and earning some cursory glances from the rest of the people around us.

I roll my eyes and purse my lips at his crude jokes and somehow find my arm linked in Virska’s own slender one, and wow. Those arms are not concealing any muscle at all. I beg and plead to every single saint I know to help calm the blood rushing to my face and somewhere else-

‘Oh, you dirty, dirty dog you.’ I catch Alexi giving me a sly wink and a smile, I curse at him in my head and all he does is laugh, but I mean, he isn’t wrong. Just as I draw the mental shutters on Alexi and think to myself about what to say to Virska, she beats me to it.

"So," She whispers, pointedly looking at me as she lets go of my arm and trots up ahead to pause in front of me, lagging us both behind as the rest of them walk up ahead. “Like what you see?” She cheekily says as she does a mock spin in a circle, her dress twirling around her. My mouth falls open as I watch her spin and I guess that was the desired response because she laughs and grabs my arm again, leading me up the grand staircase. Damn, I know everyone says that I’m the one with more balls when it comes to the training room, but Alexi is the one who’s always had this charm about him that makes all the women swoon as soon as he walks by. He makes it look so easy but really, it isn’t, By the time we reach the top, the others are stealing glances at us and laughing amongst themselves. Alexi especially. I made a note to break the lock on his door so he can’t get out tonight.

"What?" Virska innocently tuts at her sister who is doubled over laughing with Alexi as he whispers something into her ear and she does a mocking twirl of the one Virska just did. I couldn’t help but laugh as well as Erika chokes and Alexi has to pat her back while stifling his own laughter. Anna wanders over to me at the loss of her companion and pointedly huffs at him and links her arm through mine in my free arm. "Shall we?" I say, grinning at the two girls on my arm, I lead them into the ballroom where the rest had already started walking into.

The party had already gotten started and there wasn’t much to do except for mingle and sip on flutes of champagne, the elegant chandeliers twinkling up above us, casting the room in a bright yet warm glow. The hall had been decorated elegantly and had I not known the true purpose, and which I'm still vaguely confused about, I would be amazed to see so much finery in one place. Its not even half way through the night when all of a sudden, a mass of applause interrupts me mid-conversation with this first ranking officer that I had recognized from the red army as a loud cheer erupts from the crowd as Alexi Pykov, our current head of state steps up onto a podium and address all of us.

"Everyone, thank you so much for attending tonight. I have gathered you all here today because it’s the turn of the century and finally, I think it’s time to end this pointless feud with the Finnish. It’s about time we took what was rightfully ours!" He says as the crowd erupts in rowdy cheers. Suddenly, I feel a hand grab my sleeve and I see one of the errand boys motion for me to head over to the stage. I sigh. What was Pykov doing now?

"For months now, our newest recruits under the special division have been undergoing... special training." He says, pausing to allow his words to sink into the crowd, and once ensuring that all of us were ready behind him, he throws out his arms. "And finally, it’s time to end this futile argument. We will take over Finland, we march at dawn and take back the land that our forefathers shed blood and tears for! We shall strike them in the dead of the winter when food is scarce, morale is low and their streets are empty!" He says so enthusiastically, spittle flies from his mouth. The whole crowd screams their praise for his words and yet, I find that I never really liked Pykov, and he just strikes me as someone who can’t be trusted with power and yet here he is addressing about a hundred people in the room, and yet possibly another hundred thousand watching us behind screens.

"Behold! Our saviours!" He screams as he gestures us forward, and the room pauses for not even a second before erupting in screams as we step forward and people begin to cry as our praises are sung from the ends of the room right up to the front of the stage. I even see an old woman who grasps at the rosary hanging around her neck and make the gesture of the cross as though we were a Godsend. All of us smile and wave at the cameras, and yet I feel this immense pressure and nervousness, and suddenly I seem to forget how to breathe. It’s like the oxygen in the air keeps escaping me. Flowers are now being thrown at us and I’m vaguely aware of the cameras filming us which is probably being televised across the nation at this moment. Families, torn apart by war are watching with this and all I can see are millions of eyes looking at us with such hope as though we could save them. Happiness comes at such a steep price and what was the price? What did they think we could do? How did they think that we could save them? We weren't the superheroes that they think we are. We were just ordinary kids for heavens sake! Did they think that we could control the elements? Or control the minds of the enemy soldiers so we could command the peace? I wish we could, but that was just a fools wish.

I swallow the lump in my throat and I fight the overwhelming urge to run far, far away and take Alexi with me yet, when I look over, I see him laughing and waving as he catches a rose and handing it to Anna who blushes but takes it anyway. The rest of the speech is a blur with only a few words drifting over my consciousness. Army… Raised 40-fold… War will end soon. All lies I bet. Except for the army one. There is hardly enough space in the barracks for all of them yet there are always more on the way.

The night went on as per the script, the national anthem blared through the sound system throughout the night with the occasional propaganda film being projected on stage, other than that the rest of the night just seemed like a regular formal event. It wasn't long till Pykov made his way through the crowd to meet with us. "Ah, here are my knights in shining armour!" as he patted each of us on our heads much to the disgust of ... well, all of us. All of us knew there was not a speck of goodwill behind his exuberant persona towards us. "Nice to m..meet you sir" Anna stutters, bowing a full 90 degrees. The rest of us following suit and shook hands with the Devil. “I hope you don't disappoint Mother Russia and her people. We all know of the consequences that will follow if you do, don’t we?” he says with a sly grin and walks away to greet the rest of his guests. No words had to be said, all of us knew we were in for one hell of a ride.

It wasn’t until the end of the night when finally, all the officers were leaving, high on laughter and expensive wines that we were even allowed to leave. Pykov kept insisting that we had to make an appearance, but I didnt think that meant that we too would have to drink with all of the riff raff that are our commanding officers in control. I heaved a sigh of relief as I stepped out into the cool night breeze. I loosened my tie and unbuttoned the first button on my blazer and enjoyed as the wind embraced me. It was so comforting as I breathed in the frigid air, closing my eyes as I did so. It was bound to be winter soon and yet, I felt as though I could stay here forever. Then I felt Virska take my hand and I cracked opened my eyes and grinned impishly before enveloping her in a tackle hug. She squealed as I lifted her off her feet and swung her in a circle, which ended with my lips somehow on hers. I guess we both had a bit too much to drink tonight because all of a sudden, I couldn’t wait to get back into my warm bed, and maybe even take her with me.

Her eyes shone with such an intensity and I felt her hand slip into mine. I grinned as I caught sight of Alexi and Anna around the corner and I catcalled them and both Virska and I laughed as we watched them try to straighten their appearance out. I nearly doubled over in laughter when I saw Anna’s bright red lipstick stains smudged all over his lips and neck.

‘Your zip is open.’ I smirked at my brother as I watched him fumble with it in embarrassment, Virska giving Anna the sly eye and Anna pretending that she didn’t know her zip was halfway down as well.

“s**t!” Alexi yelled out into the night.

What good times those were.

Tick tock.... Tick tock....

Staring at the clock while lying on my bed and thinking about when I was last able to step foot outside was becoming a norm these days. A sewer rat probably saw more sunlight than I had in the past fortnight. I heaved a loud sigh and rolled over to face the door as I heard it open a crack. I scowled and returned back to my position facing the wall. I didn't want to have to go through the hellish training all over again but I knew that somehow or rather, they would force me to go.

"Follow me"

I turn my head to the officer at the door. "Pretty sure lunch was an hour ago sir"

"Get up before I make you get up kid" he grumbles as he starts to walk down the hallway. I roll my eyes as I put on my rugged pair of shoes and follow him outside and into a large open air courtyard. Emerging from the door, I spot Alexi standing in front of a rack of rifles. Ammunition of all kinds were scattered on a large wooden table and dummy targets were set up a couple hundred feet away. "What are we doing here?" I question my escorting officer. "The war has finally been declared on the Finnish, which means your training begins as well." he gestures towards the firearms. "Your brother will assist you in getting started and General Petrov will guide you through the rest of the regime once he deems that you’re ready." he finishes with a sadistic gleam in his eyes and turns to leave the courtyard. "Good luck boy. To deal with Petrov you'll need it." The officer laughs. I sigh and face my brother, whom I hadnt been able to see in such a long time. No doubt he was feeling as hopeless as I was. No matter. At least we were together again at last.

I take a second to take in my surroundings. We were in an open space with only the afternoon sky above us. It was a cloudless day and I was amazed that our training facility even had this area. Had we been in different circumstances, perhaps I would have been in awe, however at this stage of our training, I was just starting to hate this place even more with each passing day. I take in the towers that surround this training area. No doubt General Petrov was in one of those rooms, and no doubt about it either he would be taking notes about us and sooner or later, inject us with more of the serum. That was such a norm too now these days.

'Took you a while.' I pause as I hear Alexi’s voice echoing through my mind. I roll my eyes and head towards my brother who was leaning against a wooden table in the center of the room.

"Just show me what we need to do" I hiss out and pick a rosewood rifle from the rack. The craftmanship on all the rifles were visibly top class, hand crafted rifles were usually reserved for the rich or the powerful so I couldn't help but feel a rush of adrenaline through my veins as I stepped forward and took aim on one of the dozens of straw dummies laid out in a circle for us.

"Just breathe and aim a little higher than the actual target, also stop squinting your eyes. You already look as though you don't have eyes to begin with." Alexi laughs as I gave him a swift kick to his side as though I didn’t know this already. Our of the corner of my eye, I see the officer who is in charge of keeping an eye our for us narrow his eyes and send a glare at the both of us. He clears his throat as though to say 'Come on. Just get it over with already.'.

“I suppose you forgot that I was the better marksman when Father used to teach us.” I mutter under my breath as I proceed to take aim on a dummy. I vaguely hear Alexi scoff but I pay it no mind as I pull back the safety clip on the gun, I barely have time to steady myself as my trigger finger goes off.

click......bang!

I had hit the target square on the head but the knockback was like nothing I had ever known before. I yelped as I nearly dropped the gun and ended up clocking myself on the head with the barrel as I watched Alexi chuckle. It was so-

“Different. I know.” Alexi finishes for me as he grabs a gun of his own and takes aim. He too hits the target yet his aim is nowhere as close as good as mine and he hits it square in the chest. He curses and sighs as he leans the barrel of the gun on the table. He runs a worn hand through his hair and for a second I'm taken aback by how much older he looks now. It has barely been 6 months since our general training first started and I remember him being more enthusiastic about coming to training back then. I wonder what happened.

“I know you’ve always been the better marksman, Mi. Don’t think I’ll ever forget it. But don’t forget that we’re a team. Always have been, always will be. You may be able to shoot all the enemies but what good is being able to aim if you can’t see where they are?” Alexi smiles. I too can’t help my grin.

"Talk later." I say out loud as I quickly reload my rifle. It was show time. As Alexi shouted out orders to turn in 45 degrees or sometimes even 180 degrees, we hit each target and took each down one by one until none were left standing and I was panting with the exertion of the hunt. We had taken down probably 16 targets in total in quick succession and Alexi was simply showcasing our skills to the higher-ups who were no doubt watching us perform. 16 had always been my limit to quick succession shots and Alexi knows this. Through the exhaustion, I cant help but smile.

The past two weeks have been hell for the both of us and occasionally Alexi would come into my room angry and beaten up because he wouldn’t be able to get a technique right or he wasn’t able to beat his opponent in hand to hand combat. Even more than that, he would come in almost always bruised, him more or less taking one hell of a beating from his sparring partner, his combat teacher, or sometimes even both. For a long while, we both thought that the both of us wouldn’t be in the same division because they had us training separately, but now we know the truth. We were both getting agitated with each passing day because lets face the facts, it wasn't easy on the both of us to be seperated so often and for such long periods of time. I heard from Virska that all the twins were getting the same treatment. But it was about time for them put two and two together.

“You going to be my spotter Al?” I grin as he nods, and I can barely contain my excitement as we clasp hands and shake on it. I guess the officials realized that as twins, we work better in a team and especially when that team consisted of each other. We didn't need any of the others.

“Don’t let me down Al.” I say as we bump chests and he throws his head back and laughs.

“I should be the one saying that, and you know I always have your back no matter what Mi.” He says as we both let go of each other’s hands, our smiles mirroring each other and the livelihood of having my brother back was coursing through my veins.

Clapping interrupts our bonding moment and we turn towards a door and our comes the Devil himself. "You better not let me down boys. This was just a test run. I could see and feel your potential as you took that shot.” A voice interrupts us as Admiral Pykov walks into the room grinning and flanked by General Petrov and a few more of his lackeys. The smiles on our faces immediately disappear. I was expecting General Petrov yes, but to have Admiral Pykov and his high-class goons with him was out of my expectation, and in my minds eyes I feel Alexi scowl internally and growl as though he was a caged animal, and in truth we were. For all our big talk of this place being not so bad, in reality, we missed Father, our house, the simpler times. But most of all, we missed Mother as much as we missed her mouthwatering cookies and her warm smile that she would always give us. We know it broke Father to know that she left us and it hurt us too, but if she was spending her days sharing those smiles with those around her, even though it wasn’t with us anymore, we didn’t mind.

But we were permanent residences of this Hell on Earth and we were at war. I steeled my reserve and with as much conviction as I could muster, I saluted Pykov and the generals and watched as Alexi follow suit.

“Yes, as could I. I have no doubts that you are both very talented boys.” General Petrov chimes in. “But be aware that this was merely a test run. It was for the both of you to get used to the weapons and to ready yourselves. The actual training starts now. Do you think you are capable?” he says, his eyes following our every movement like a hawk. There’s no surprise that he was classified as one of the deadliest snipers of the generation.

‘No matter.’ I smirk tell Alexi. I could feel his thoughts and he was worried that we wouldn’t be able to keep up with such a prodigy. Such a legend. ‘That will be our title very soon. He is but one person. If we are both up to his standard, then just think what the both of us could do. Together.’ At that, Alexi smiles too, a wicked grin that mirrors mine. No doubt that we were going to be unstoppable under this Masters training and guidance.

“We won’t let you down. Failure just isn’t an option for us.”

"I truly hope so my comrade" he turns and walks back to his station, and with his back turned, he stops and makes a half turn to face us. "For your own sake, and the sake of your friends."