The Saint Petersburg Incident

A young girl of around age 12 was chasing after his mother and father.

She shouted, "Mother! Father! W-Where are going...wait...d-dont leave me behind."

As she shouted those words, a complete darkness engulfs her.

Beep!...Beep!...

The same girl slowly opened her eyes. She was lying on a hospital bed, with bandages and stitches all over her body. She could neither move her body nor talk clearly.

A man was sleeping on a chair besides her.

She tries to call out to him,

"H-h-he-lp!"

The man slowly opens his eyes and as soon as he sees her conscious, he calls the doctor quickly.

A doctor came and started to examine her.

She couldn't hear clearly about what he was saying, but she felt relieved now that she was safe...

***

After a week...

Some of the bandages were removed and she was able to talk clearly now. Though she was still unable to wake out of the bed and move most of her body.

The man who was sitting near her was, Ivan Vasiliev, a lieutenant in the Russian army.

She was still very weak and had a lot to recover.

Ivan had to leave quickly since he had his duty and couldn't stay with her for long.

After 3 weeks,

She pretty much recovered. Her bandages were taken off and she was also taken outside in the hospital garden for some fresh air on a wheelchair.

The nurse who was in-charge of her said,

"You are doing great! It's only a matter of time before you completely recover and run and laugh endlessly again like those children."

She thought a bit and answered, "Yes, but what about those two."

The nurse said with a smile, "You don't need to worry about them. They both are recovering quickly and soon you all are going to be discharged from the hospital..."

The nurse looked at her and said,

"Listen, Sasha, the world is full of adventures and new things and so is our, human lives. Infact we are actually pretty fragile, we might die anytime soon without knowing when it will happen. But there is something that makes us want to live, making our life meaningful everyday. Something which makes you feel that you should live and not abandon the world. Since that person will surely feel sad about it. Being able to live without any worries with someone who you trust, respect and love is infact a blessing. So live your everyday life like it's your last day, enjoy it to your fullest. You never know what might happen in the future, so try to change that meaningless future and past into a meaningful present."

Sasha looked at the sky and tears started to pour out of her eyes. She slowly said,

"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry!"

...

After some weeks, Sasha's and Ian's relatives came to take them, but it was only for them to get the company shares.

***

8 years have passed since that day.

All three them had decided to stay at Ivan's home. They didn't want to go back. They all tried but couldn't do anything. So Ivan's family had to take them in, since they had no other choice. One thing was that his family liked them a lot and even wanted to adopt them, but Ivan told them not to. Since there might be a time when they would want to go back to their own families.

Inside a modern mansion in Moscow.

A women in her thirties was doing some dishes.

She had blonde hair and black eyes. She was wearing a white apron and a green dress.

She said loudly,

"Be careful out there, okay!"

"Yes! I'm going, bye Yulia."

A girl with beautiful white hair and shining light violet eyes told Yulia, who was Ivan's wife.

A handsome man in his thirties with black hair and brown eyes was waiting for her outside in an Audi R8. He was wearing a black long-coat, black high-neck and a black chinos with formal black shoes.

"Sorry Alex, it took some time."

"Hahah! No need to worry I also just arrived." He said with a small laughter.

Vroomm!...

"Sigh!"

"What happened? Feeling tired?" Alex asked her.

"No, I'm just being somewhat paranoid lately..." She replied.

"Don't need to overthink, just do what your heart says. I'm sure he's also going to be happy seeing you again."

"That's where you might be wrong. After all Ian is still just a crybaby. And I don't even know why they left us and are living in some forest."

"They left after discussing everything, right?"

"Yes, but you should know Ivan more since you both were once in the same platoon."

"Hahah! You are right!...but he even respected his juniors and taught them the ways, in the military. He was loved and respected by everyone.

There's this incident that once happened. It was in the Christmas day. Everyone were celebrating and dancing. He came forward and proposed a vodka challenge. Since we were his juniors, we were somewhat nervous to drink with the caption. But then we realised that he was a pretty open minded and funny guy. While he was strict, he was friendly. And that was the time when we realised that we were happy to be in his platoon and serve the country without worrying about anything else. If he was still in the military he would have easily rose to the rank of colonel by now."

She looked at Alexander and thought,

"They all still miss you lieutenant Ivan."

***

Soon after, they reached Leningradsky railway station.

As she was about to enter the train, she looked back at Alexander and said,

"I'll be going then, meet you soon, lieutenant Alexander."

The door of the train closed. And it left..

Alexander slowly looked at the blue sky and smiled.

***

After some hours Sasha reached St. Petersburg.

She came out of the train and in front of her waiting was a young man, of the same age around her. Long blonde hair with a side–part hairstyle, and hazel eyes. He was wearing a formal grey suit.

Handsome wasn't the appropriate word for him, beautiful was actually the appropriate word. He had a different type of charisma.

Sasha approached him and told with a smile, "Long time no see, Ian."

"Same with you, Sasha."

"We should go to a better place, don't you think." She told him calmly.

Both of them left the station and went out to a fancy restaurant in a large building. From the restaurant one can see the entire view of St. Petersburg.

***

They sat down.

Ian said, "I guess we should get something to eat, don't you think."

She takes the menu and orders beef wellington, caviar and a glass of red wine.

She asks Ian, "You don't want to order anything for yourself?"

"Waiter, just bring me the same."

He said.

"It looks like our little princess has grown up." He told Sasha calmly.

"Well yeah, but still I bet you are a crybaby even now."

"Hahah! Is that so." He replied.

A silence occurred between those two. As Sasha was about to speak, Ian said,

"It's about them, right. Don't worry about, they are all right. I guess it should be more than all right."

"You, why are you hiding something from me?" She asked with a serious voice.

"My, my..." He looked at her and slowly continued, "...Mrs Rostova. You remember the first time we met. It's like a very dreadful dream, from which I can never wake up. Even now it feels like I'm there watching it happen over and over again. The fear that I felt that day...it still lingers in my mind." He looked at his hands which were shaking.

The food arrived.

"I will tell everything as we eat the dinner. It even might be my last supper." He said as he grabbed the fork and spoon.

...

As they Sasha was about to take a sip of the red wine. Ian interrupted,

"A man who will sacrifice anything to achieve his goal, which cannot be considered a goal. Folks say that he's the devil in the shell of the god. But you know what, it's just some nonsense made by them. Infact it's such a nice dream. Do you know what nihilism is?

Simply put, it is a philosophy that means to reject everything and believe that life is just meaningless, like an empty shell. While existentialism is the polar opposite of nihilism."

He slowly takes a sip of the wine and tells Sasha to also take a sip of it. He then continues,

"You are someone who believes in existentialism, while I believe in nihilism. When we were admitted in the hospital, you were taught some stupid nonsense by a bitch and...you believed that...not that my worry, but still. Do you not feel any regret from that day. Did you really forgot everything that happened in front of our eyes. What can I say...at the end a woman like you cannot understand my pain. But he definitely did...and I'm grateful for it that I don't even feel any regrets. It's like my whole dream has been full-filled. Human emotions are one of the most complex things. It does something good or even bad and later regrets it for no reason. It's just that no matter what you do you'll only feel regret at last. It's like it says that whatever bad things is happening with you is only related to that one regret.

Ah! We should eat quickly otherwise the food might get cold."

***

After eating the food, they ordered a bottle of red wine and some dessert.

Sasha finished half of the bottle of wine herself. Ian slowly said,

"Didn't knew our lady was a heavy drinker."

"Are you jealous that you can't drink without getting fainted." She said with a smile.

"Haha! I surely am not worried about it. I'm not your crybaby now."

"Hmm! But I still know that crybaby." She replied.

The bottle of red wine became empty and Sasha was took the last sip from her glass.

Ian asked, "Feeling tired?"

"No, I'm not so weak like you."

She replied.

"October 7th, 1998. Your birthdate and today is September 12th, 2018, i.e today's date. I wonder for how much time it will last and I will last. Since this is going to be our last meeting shouldn't we have something grand."

As he said that,

A person shouted, "Ahhh! S-Someone i-is dead!"

As she heard that she looked towards Ian.

An emotionless face but with a smile, it looked straight in her soul.

She asked in a angry and frustrated tone, "Why did you kill him?"

He said with a slight laughter, " No, no, you are wrong. I didn't kill him. All he did was suicide. He did it with his own decision, there's nothing I did to him. I only have him an advice since he asked me for."

He slowly takes out a small piece of paper from the pocket of his coat and gave it to her.

He continued, "Here, check this message for yourself."

She took it and was about to see what's on it. But after seeing the first sentence on the paper, it shook her and she was in a complete daze.

It made her think if it really is him? What is the meaning of these words?