The Toksovo Ten

Chapter Six

"RODYA!" Darya shrieked, and started to run for the platform, but Nikolai quickly grabbed her and pushed her down to duck with the rest of the crowd, who all fell to the ground like a powerful wave was rolling over them. Darya could see that Rodion was already dead anyway, lying on the platform with dark blood quickly pooling beneath his head. The crowd began to scatter, and Nikolai pulled her away, and then she began to run with he and Vassily too. Of course, if the killer was after anyone more in the crowd it would be one of them.

They pushed through the chaos of the crowd, trying to get out of the narrow street to Nevsky Prospekt. The police, who had been observing the speech in case of a murder, were shouting and rushing into the building the bullet had appeared to come from.

Vassily, Darya, and Nikolai made it to Nevsky Prospekt and kept running down the street past alarmed passerby, not stopping until they reached their apartment and made it inside past the guards stationed there.

Once they were inside Darya stumbled and then just collapsed on the living room floor as Vassily frantically explained to the guards what had just happened. Nikolai sat down on the floor beside her, leaning back against the couch, and pulled her into his arms. She slumped against him, sobbing.

"Excellent, not a single error!" Vassily exclaimed, and Masha beamed. They and the other students were all seated at the various desks in the room they had purchased for the Darya Chebarova Institute for Girls' Literacy. It was a cold December day, but the fire was crackling cheerfully in the grate and keeping the schoolroom warm, and the sky outside was a bright clear blue, only marred by a few puffy white clouds.

Masha had been making a good deal of progress, especially considering that she had been completely illiterate when Dolly had opened the school last summer. In fact all the girls had been doing quite well.

Vassily was very proud of the Institute, and was excited to show it to Rodion Petrovich, who would be coming to check on it in an hour. He would have to make some sort of excuse for Dolly, who hadn't been interested in making it out to the school today. In fact she hadn't set foot in it since last summer, and often talked about closing it.

Vassily hoped she wouldn't. He had actually come to like working at the school quite a bit, feeling that he was doing a good thing and enjoying seeing the progress the girls were making. He had originally only started helping out at the school out of guilt at the way his wife seemed to be content with letting it fall apart. But the more time he spent with the school the more he came to think of it as his own, and take a great deal of pride in it. It also helped to have a distraction from his home life, which was becoming rather unpleasant, as Dolly's coolness toward him had been increasing lately... Well, he wouldn't think about that right now.

In the servants' quarters of Rodion Petrovich's apartment, Nastasya Arkadyevna was frantically throwing her few possessions into the open suitcase on her bed, her pale hands shaking violently. Rain was falling heavily outside now, thundering on the roof and splattering against her window. Alarmed voices could be heard in the hallway outside her door, as the news of Rodion Petrovich's death had just reached the apartment, and the servants were both scared of the murderer and about the state of their jobs.

Nastasya shut the suitcase, fumbling with the latches with her trembling fingers. Once she got it closed she glanced over the room to check that she hadn't left anything behind, and then went to the door. She opened it and then pushed her way through the crowded hallway.

"Hey, where are you going?" Agasha asked, seeing her suitcase, butNastya just gave a quick shake of her head and kept moving past her. "Hey!"Agasha exclaimed, and grabbed her arm.