𝙎𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙉 ✮ 𝘯. 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘧𝘧

{𝟎𝟐} - 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

Red Room Academy

Russia

February 2001

SEMNA was woken by the familiar clinking of metal on metal only hours later. She had done as Natalia said and tried to sleep, though it was plagued by constant nightmares and racing thoughts. It was likely that nobody slept well; they all had gathered enough trauma to last them a lifetime, so the nights were often restless. The rustling of bedsheets and pillows being thrown to the floor in their terrors, the occasional sleep talker who just couldn't shake the voices of her late parents. However this night seemed more wary, as this day was the first of many where they would be facing death head on, looking it straight in the eye as if they weren't scared of what it would do to them.

She stared up at the ceiling until her own handcuffs were finally unlocked, unable to bring herself to look at Natalia in the bed next to her, fearing that if she did, her emotions would get the best of her and compromise the stoicism she masked around the other girls. The few minutes on the windowsill had been enough for her. Little words were spoken, and yet it was enough that Semna didn't worry about looking at her until the final moments were really upon them.

She followed the line of girls out the door and down to the wash rooms, falling into step behind an older, much more muscular girl. Semna's eye level only fell at her mid back and the girl walked with much more confidence than she had ever felt in such an intimidating place. She anticipated that her fight would be with somebody like this, someone who Madame B thought she couldn't beat. Luckily for Semna, this girl wasn't in her age group, but there were several skilled girls who were the same age as her and who could take her down in a few hits. And normally, she would let them. She didn't want to hurt those girls nearly as much as they wanted to hurt her. If it were her decision, nobody would be dying today by their friend's hands, Madame B would be sent to prison for her wrongdoings, and she could finally run away with Natalia. But she knew this would never happen, and if these were really the final few hours of her short life, she was going to go down fighting as hard as she could. That much she had decided on.

After changing, she was escorted to the training room by a couple of guards, each with a grip on her uniform that made her wince with every tug. The commands that were usually barked at her ceased to exist from them today, and as much as she would have enjoyed that any other time, it just made the dread worse; did they know something she didn't? Why were the halls so silent?

The training room was just as quiet, the group of girls already standing in a circle around the center of the room, each eyeing their potential opponents threateningly; all except for one. As Semna entered the room, Natalia's face changed the slightest bit, the reality of the situation finally crashing down on the young girl's shoulders. Until she heard the fateful words, she intended to take in every ounce of her features, and Semna seemed to be doing the same thing from across the circle.

"Semnadtsat'."

Semna's breathing faltered, moving her eyes to the rigid figure at the front of the room. Madame B looked down to her with an intense glare and posture so perfect that she subconsciously tried to mirror it, ready to submit to her commands no matter how hard she wanted to run the opposite direction and never look back. It was much to her disdain that the number still made her rigid after all these years. Everybody else had a name, a real one that was given to them by their parents with love and a thought, a name that they could potentially use one day to find their way back home, should they ever escape this one. They had that sense of belonging somewhere and to someone, even if they would never meet them; Semna didn't belong to anybody. There wasn't a last name to trace, a face to search for. She was simply a subject to them, foolish enough to believe the words that came out of everyone's mouth.