Chapter Five: Fleeing Russia..
1089 Words
He had been more monster than man.
Lucifer Petrova - an orphan boy of eight, who had spent most of his childhood on street of Russia, fighting for survival. He did everything to survive - from pick pocket to shop lifting.
Nobody was willing to help him. Not even once, not until the supreme found him and crafted him into his most deadly human weapon. A predator in human skin. He felt nothing, feared nothing, and obeyed without question.
His body bore scars not of weakness, but of rigorous and ruthless training. His eyes, once wide with innocence, had long since learned to reflect only ice, steel and instilled terror.
He carried out his first assassin mission by fifteen years old. Killing a famous drug lord, who had wrong the Supreme. And since then, killing as always been only world he knew. The only one he excelled in.
Until Betty happened.
She'd come from a different world. An orphan like him, yes, but untouched by the violence that sculpted him. She survived by working long hours at a run-down convenience store on the corner of Novaya and Tereshkova, a place Lucifer passed on his rare moments of reprieve. She was ordinary - too ordinary. Hair always tied up in a messy bun, sleeves rolled past her elbows, a smudge of flour always on her cheek. But when she smiled at him genuinely, without fear or agenda, something inside him faltered for the first time.
He hadn't known how to respond. And yet...she has asked him out first.
A coffee date turned into movie night, and another and another. Slowly, silently, dangerously, he changed. The monster began to feel again. Laugh again. Love again.
And the Supreme - his creator, his master - noticed.
The change terrified the Supreme more than any weapon. Betty was not just a woman; she was a threat. She was vulnerability wrapped in soft skin, kindness, warm eyes. The Supreme didn't need a man - he needed a beast. A blood thirsty one. A godless weapon that followed orders and killed at his command without hesitation.
But as time went by, Lucifer made his decision. He chose love. He defied his master and married Betty, the one who reached into the darkness and pulled him out, the one who made him more than a weapon.
She gave two daughters - Elyse and Elsa.
And now... one was gone.
*******************
The engine room hummed low beneath the deck of the ship as a storm gathered over the dark Russian sea. Betty’s voice cracked through the stillness.
"How could you lose our daughter? Why?!"
Her scream was hoarse, soaked in pain. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she clutched the edge of the table for balance.
Richmond, ever observant, stepped back. “I’ll give you both some space,” he said quietly, retreating from the cabin.
Lucifer remained still, shadows casting hard lines across his face. His jaw clenched.
“You mean… my little baby is dead?” Betty sobbed, falling to her knees.
“No.” His voice was gravelly. “Not dead. Just missing.”
“What’s the damn difference, Lucifer?!” she cried out. “She’s gone!”
He moved toward her, reaching out, but she slapped his hand away violently.
“Betty, look at me,” he said, firm, low. “We’re leaving Russia tonight.”
“I’m not leaving without my baby!” she spat, eyes blazing.
“Do you want to lose Elsa too?” he snapped, frustration bleeding into his voice. “Do you want to end up dead and leave our other daughter motherless?”
“I don’t care about my life, Lucifer!”
“And Elysa’s life? You don’t care about hers either?”
His voice rose, a firestorm of guilt and grief. “Do you really think for a damn second that I’m not broken over losing Elyse too?! That I don’t feel like a complete failure of a father for not being able to protect her?! She was my daughter too, God damnit!”
He slammed a fist against the cabin wall, the sound echoing like thunder.
Silence.
Betty stared at him, lips trembling, eyes wide.
Lucifer exhaled hard and stepped back. Then slowly, deliberately, he knelt before her. His hands reached for hers—cold, trembling, reluctant—but he held them gently.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just—” his voice cracked. “I’m just trying to keep what’s left of this family alive.”
Betty looked away, but the fury in her gaze had dulled. She nodded slowly, a broken sound escaping her lips—a sob masked in a sigh.
“We sail tonight,” she whispered.
Lucifer drew her into his arms, pressing her against his chest as if trying to shield her from the world.
“I promise you,” he murmured into her hair. “Once we’re out of Russian waters, I’ll pull every damn string left in my arsenal. I’ll find Elyse. I’ll bring her home.”
A thick, painful lump lodged in his throat. It was the first time he’d ever made her cry like this—and it killed something inside him.
He swallowed it down.
“I’ll go check with Richmond. He should have the engines ready.”
Betty nodded, wiping her tears as she moved to check on Elysa, who lay curled on the small cot nearby, unaware of the storm surrounding her parents.
**************
The control room buzzed with low activity as Richmond adjusted a few coordinates.
“Lucifer, I was just about to come get you.”
“I’m here, mate.”
Richmond glanced over. “You good?”
Lucifer gave a tight nod. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“It’ll all get better in the end, mate,” Richmond said, patting his shoulder. “Trust the process.”
Lucifer exhaled and nodded again.
“Aye… so where to?” Richmond asked, gesturing to the map.
Lucifer stepped forward, eyes narrowing on the blue expanse stretching west.
“Italy.”
Richmond raised an eyebrow. “Italy?"
Lucifer nodded.
Richmond signed. "Then Italy it is.”
The engines roared to life. Beneath a moonless sky, the ship cut through Russian waters, leaving behind the blood-soaked soil that had claimed so much.
Lucifer stood at the deck as the wind whipped through his coat. Somewhere out there, his daughter was alive. And no one—no one—was going to stop him from finding her.
- Writer
