Submitting

Wind

A lone tear dripped down my cheek while the unwavering smirk still remained, coronated on my face. The jab that I received was hurtful indeed, but I was not going to let it kick me down. I could do this all day and night. Scream profanities at them, break them inside with jabs of my own and oh even if they didn't show it outside, I knew that they were getting hurt all the same. Them being better at suppressing their emotions is the only field in which I would accept defeat. These men made up of dead and unemphatic matter are hard to come by, but just my luck that I was forced to live and be around two of them.

"Oh, but poor Ivan, aren't you the same? Aren't you lonely as well? You think these two people sitting here, talking with you, like you? You think that they are spending time with you because you are his brother and I don't even know what is happening between you two, but nonetheless, do you think that they prefer being around you? Think. Again. The moment you turn your back, you will get stabbed. And of course, don't worry. I'd rather stab you in the face and enjoy it while I do so." The last part I whispered softly and slowly as I leaned forward as much as I can and was allowed by the zip ties biting against my hands, tied to the handles of the wheelchair.

Ivan enjoyed that a lot.

He sat up and started laughing while clapping his hands loudly with utmost joy while masking his true emotions once again. Things were picking up pace quite quickly and not in a good way as Dimitri and Liza just sat there quietly like two alabaster statutes, listening and not partaking at all. It would have been more fun if they did.

"Awh, I think that's enough outbursts for today, baby Rosie. You should really stop skipping your meals and naps. A hungry, sleepless Rosie makes a bad, bad, naughty baby." He tried to talk through his uncontrollable laughter as he folded his arms on his chest and looked at me with teary eyes. Were they from laughing too hard?

"Okay I think that's enough." Dimitri finally woke up from his non-participating state and stood up to pull me out of the room before the situation escalated into something more than a heated argument.

One last glance at them didn't disappoint as I was being removed, though.

The smirk had dropped from Ivan's face, replaced by a scowl as he poured a good amount of whisky in his glass and chugged it down all in one go while Liza looked down at her fingers, hiding her face from everyone else, so that no one could see the crack on the polished shell that she had donned for so long here.

****

"Why do you do this to yourself?" Dimitri whispered softly under his breath as he pushed the wheelchair towards my room. The irony of it all was truly laughable. I was made to use the wheelchair because I refused to move at all, the heaviness didn't let me, but now it was used instead to cage me in so that I remained immobile according to their wishes. I fell right into the unplanned trap, designed by no one but the universe itself.

"You are seriously asking that?' Perhaps Dimitri's question was not meant to be heard by me. It was addressed more to himself than to me, but I was still on an adrenaline rush, and I was not going to drop any chance to express my opinions. This kind of fuelled energy came to me after a long time in the form of fiery rage and needless to say, it was a lot easier to carry than the awful heaviness.

"Roza, you need to be careful. You don't know a lot of the things. And if you did, you won't behave like the way you are right now." The squeak of the wooden floorboards beneath the wheelchair ended as we reached my room, and he placed me near the window. It was chilly outside. The wind thrashed against the glass pane as the bare tree branches swayed a little in the delicate moon light. The mostly grey clouds in the sky tried to make the night darker, but the full moon shined with all its might.

"Then tell me. Tell me everything that there is to know. You refuse to tell me what is going on behind everything that all of you are doing, and expect me to be understanding. That doesn't justify your plead to me to become quiet and calm about all the heinous things that you guys are doing. I don't know what has happened to Liza or what else you guys have done to her, but that is not the person that I know. That is not Liza." This time around, I was calm. I spoke to him in a normal way and tried to make my words go through his thick skull, but alas, it didn't work.

"It is... Complicated. Not easy to make you understand, and just words won't suffice." He came beside me and stood there for a moment, after which he sighed defeatedly before turning around to walk away.

"Dimitri, wait." It was not the time to act on my whims and uncontrollable anger. I had to be sly and clever. "I... would like to go to bed." With as much manipulative sadness that I could muster up out of me, I spoke in a dazed and tired state. "Please, can you untie me?."

He waited, stopped for what seemed like the longest amount of time, making me believe that he just won't fall for my act but then when he turned around and knelt in front of me to cut the zip ties with a knife out of his pocket, I had to try my hardest to keep the winning smile out of my face.

Unknowing to him, I did feel a cold draft of wind, and I had every intention of finding out where it came from.