Vendetta

Vendetta

The phone dropped to the floor as Ruxandra let out a deafening shriek of disbelief before collapsing in a heap on the ground. Her older brother Vladimir ran to her side and put his arms around her. They sat on the cold tiles of the kitchen for what seemed like an eternity.
"I've got a meeting at eight so you'll have to get a takeaway because there's no food in the fridge."
The siblings hadn't even noticed their father walk into the room and when they looked up, he was already half way back to the front door. All of a sudden Vladimir sprang to his feet and sprinted to catch up with his father. As he ran, his overgrown black hair  bounced around his pale face.
"WAIT! YOU CAN'T JUST GO!!"
"What on earth are you talking about? You're in my way. Move."
"Its Mum! Rux got a phonecall. She was shot. They did all they could. But....." he trailed off and slumped against the front door, failing to hold back his tears. He looked up at the man that he once idolised but saw only a grim, emotionless face peering snidely back at him.
"I know. The hospital phoned me at work. Now please will you move? I am going to be late!"
Vladimir shuffled away from the door and made his way back to the kitchen where his little sister was sobbing quietly in a corner. When she saw her brother she slowly stood up and walked over to him, brushing the long dark hair out of her watery eyes.
"He knew. He knew what had happened and he only cares about his work. I'm going to go out. I need to get away from here for an hour or two. Do you want me to get one of your friends round here to keep you company while I'm out? I wont be long but I think It'd be good if there was someone with you."
Ruxandra thought to herself for a moment. She didn't want anybody with her unless it was Vladimir, but maybe he was right. She probably should have some company if only for distraction.
"Alright. Could you get Finnuola round here? She is in the address book under Johnson."
After Vladimir left, the minutes passed as if they were hours but finally there was a loud knock on the door. Ruxandra moved slowly towards the enterance hall, wondering how much longer Vladimir would be gone for. As soon as she pulled back the heavy ebony door she was embraced by a sweet smelling girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, quite a lot shorter than herself.
"Rux, I am so sorry! I got here as soon as I could but there aren't any busses at this time of night and my parents were asleep. I just left them a note explaining where I was and I said I would call them tomorrow but it was an emergancy so I had to go right away. I know they'll understand. You're so cold! Come on, lets go and light the fire. You know you really should get heating in this place. It does wonders and it's just so much more effective than an open fire!"
The time passed and soon both girls were asleep on the persian rug infront of a blazing fire, only to be awakened by a booming voice.
" RUXANDRA! "
There was no doubt about it. Her father, Ivailo Von Scheffel-Stein was angry about something or other. The fire wavered as Ivailo entered the room as if he was an evil spirit.
"Where is your brother? I can't find him anywhere!"
For a moment, Ruxandra did not know where Vladimir was, but then the harsh reality struck her.
"I dont know. He said he wouldn't be long but he needed air. Space to think. He said something like that. You know Vlad, he probably lost track of time or something."
"How could you let him go out in the state he was in!? What if he has done something stupid!?"
As fast as lightening, Finnuola was standing beside Rux.
"How can you say that!?! How can you possibly blame this on your daughter? You are being totally rediculous and you really need to calm down!"
Although his body remained still, Rux could see the fury build up inside her father's eyes. She was watching them and as Finnuloa continued to talk, his body began to twitch. He went to grab Finnuiola's throat but Ruxandra was faster than him, and grabbed the golden candlestick holder that had been sitting on the mantle piece for as long as she could remember. Before her father could do Finnuola any harm, Rux had swung the ornate gold decoration at his wrist which made a sickening cracking noise. Ivailo rapidly retreated clutching his arm before grabbing both girls and dragging them across to the front door and then throwing them out of it. As the font door slammed in their faces, they could hear muffeled shouts of pain ccoming from inside.
"Rux! Come here!" Vladimir's voice sounded loud but his sister couldn't work out where it was coming from. She frantically looked around and as she turned her head to look behind her, a hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.
"I heard dad chuck you out. Tell Finnuola to go home and then I will show you something."
Although reluctant, Ruxandra finally perswaded Finnuola to return to her family. Vladimir lead Rux through lots of winding streets and ally ways until at last they reached what appeared to be their destination. They were standing in the middle of an extremely narrow dirt path, that seemed to be in dense woodland, facing what looked like a run down wooden cabin.
"This is chere VVSS. Vlad Von Scheffel-Stein. I found it here when I was about ten but it was in a complete state. I know it looks awful from the outside but I have been working on the inside for years and It's really not half bad. There are three rooms upstairs ; a bedroom (complete with blankets, pillows, sheets and sleeping bags), a kitchen (there isn't much in there because if you leave food there, it attracts the rats) and a "chilling out room" as i like to call it. Its basically full of pillows and blankets and a radio. THEN we have the important rooms. In the corner of the bedroom there is a trapdoor. If you go down it you will find two more rooms. They'e really dark because they're underground so you'll need to take a torch down there with you. After you've gon down the ladder, if you go left you will find the Nadia VSS room. Its a reminder of mum. There are lots of photos of her, her favourite CDs, her wedding dress and all those books she wrote that dad tried to throw away. Thats how I got them - I looked through the bins every so often and there was always something of mums in there that dad had tried to throw away because it was pointless or stupid. If you go right at the bottom of the ladder, you will find a sort of study that I made. It's everything I ever found out about dad that is even slightly suspicious. There are a few cupboards in there and everything in them is filed in date order. For example, the first thing in them is a letter to an Indian Cannabis supplyer about supplying money for a smuggling project in 1988."
Ruxandra simply stared at her brother as if she had just discovered he was Albert Einstein in disguise. She could not believe what she was hearing. For more than ten years her brother had had an elaborate secret hideaway where he had been compiling evidence against their father.
"How did you get all the information about dad without him notecing? Surely he must suspect something!"
"Well, I don't think he does actually. I don't have any origional documents. They're all copies and I always copied them when he was out. Before you were born I remember dad telling me a number and one day i thought I would nose around his office and when I came to a filing cabinate with a code, I tried the number that he had told me so long ago..... and it worked!
Rux you look frozen! Come on, lets go in and I'll give you a proper tour!"
As they reached the door of the old wooden hut, Vlad pulled a small scrap of paper out of the pocket of his scruffy black jeans and handed it to his sister.
"These are the codes you need to get around the house. The first four are the ones for the front door going from top to bottom, the fith is the one for all the windows, the sixth is the one for the bedroom and the seventh is the one for the trapdoor. Try to learn them as soon as you can so you donn't need to carry that paper round with you."
Sure enough, there were four combination padlocks on the front door and as Vlad began to fiddle with them, Rux gazed dreamily around at her surroundings. She thought how tranquil this place was and how it would be a great place for peace and quiet. The door swung open to reveal a very surprising interior compared to the exterior. This, judging by the surroundings, seemed to be the kitchen. The walls were ornately decorated with Vlad's beautiful artwork. It reminded Ruxandra of ancient Italian frescos. Gold and black spirals and swirls spidered up the painted white wood and on the back of the front door, there was a detailed painting of an angel. Vlad walked over to the corner of the room to where a homemade table stood. He picked up a dusty looking mug from it and then from a box in the opposite corner, produced a large bottle of ginger beer which he proceeded to fill the mug with. Handing this to his sister, he lead through to the next room, sure enough it was filled with pillows and another table which supported a rusty looking radio. This room was decorated just as ornately as the last. Through another room they went and then the whereabouts of the trapdoor was made known.
"OK, well, now you know where everything is. I won't come down there with you now. I should probably get home. Dad will be wondering where I am." Vlad started to head back out into the open agian.
"Why did you show me this? I'm glad you did. It's amasing, but why?"
"Oh, well.... I presumed you wouldnt want to go home after dad tried to attack your friend and threw you out of the house...... so I thought maybe you would like to stay here? Of course I understand if you don't."
"Really? You mean I can live here for a bit??? I was wondering what I was going to do about going home! What will you say to dad though? He will ask where I am."
"And I will say I don't know. I know this sounds harsh, but you know as well as me that he won't care. He only cares about me, and thats only because he thinks I'm clever! If only he got to know you and gave you a chance! You would be his favourite."
"Maybe.... Will you come and see me every day? Please do!"
"Yes of course I will! You didn't think I would abandon my little sister did you? Here, take this torch. I put fresh batteries in it erlier so it should last. If it runs out, there are candels and matches in the box in the kitchen but remember to be careful considering this hut is made of wood!"
As soon as Vladimir left, Ruxandra locked up the door and went into the bedroom only to collapse onto a pile of pillows swiftly fall asleep.
"RUX! RUX WAKE UP!" Vlad was violently shaking Ruxandra by the shoulders. She opened her eyes to see her brother, paler than normal, staring frantically into her face. It must have been late morning because Rux could already see the sun high in the sky through the small window halfway up the wall.
"What's happened? Why are you so panicked?"
"Dad's in prison! The police came round this morning and took him away. He didn't want to go without a fuss though! He was yelling about how he would "get" whoever had his put in prison, and I'm pretty sure he thinks it was you!"
Ruxandra was now sitting up straight, eyes wide, and alert.
"WHAT? But I Diddnt! What were the charges?"
Vlad sank to the floor as a blanc expression took over his face.
"He was charged with the indirect murder of Nadia Von Schieffel-Stein."
There was silence. They both thought it wise to leave the silence unless they could improve it, which they couldn't.
Vlad stayed at the hut with Rux for most of the day, although he went out for about an hour to get some food to restock the kitchen. They hardly spoke but sat in a huddle listening to the radio while each thinking their own thoughts.
"Have you been downstairs yet?" Vlad said after a long period of watching a bird feed her chicks out of the window.
"No. I'll go now."
"Shall i come with you?"
"Yes please."
Vladimir and Ruxandra walked side by side into the corner of the bedroom where Vlad crouched to undo yet another coded padlock. There was a quiet click, and rather than swinging outwards, as Ruxandra had expacted, the trap-door swung inwards to reveal a dark, narrow staircase built out of what appeared to be wood. Vlad reached inside the pocket of his shabby black jeans and brought out a small silver tortch which he then proceeded to shine down at the stairs which he then began to descend at a steady pace, with his sister close behind him.
Ruxandra counted nine steep stairs before they reached the bottom where a dusty corridoor awaited them. They snailed on through the surprisingly long passage until they reached a point where there was a door on both the left and right. The doors could not be more desimilar! The one to the left was another of Vlad's artworks whereas the one on the right seemed to have had something that resembled blood, carelessly splattered across it.
"Which are we going in first then?" Rux whispered.
"To the right I think."
Vlad opened the lock and the siblings entered the room.
"Hang on, there should be a battery lamp hanging from the ceiling somewhere.... Ah! Got it. Its a bit flickery but it does what it's meant to do."
Dim light filled the wood lined room to reveal four quite large cupboards, standing in a row at the back of the room, and a makeshift desk in the far corner with an old armchair sitting infront of it.
"Like I said, everything in those cupboards is all in date order, so the records of the oldest things are in the cupboard on the left, and the most recent on the right."
"Wow. There's certainly a lot of it! Would you mind if I had a look at it all at some point?"
"No, I don't mind at all..... but I will warn you that some of it is upsetting."
"OK thanks for the warning, but I discovered that anything to do with dad is upsetting, a long time ago. Lets go into the other room now."
Vlad turned on another battery lamp, but this one was much brighter that the previous, and illuminated the room so all its splendour could be seen.
As soon as Rux set foot in the other room, she nearly fainted with grief. There was an overpowering odour of her mother's favourite perfume and flowers. This room was quite a bit bigger than all of the others yet it was still extremely crowded. Hand-bound books were lying on tables which were covered with ornate cloths of many designs, Framed paintings hung between Vlad's magnificant frescos, photographs were pinned to the wall, lying on desks and tables and littered the persien rug that lay smartly on the floor. A beautiful violin sat on top of a small harpsicord near the door, a wedding dress was draped carefully over a chair, but the best thing of all was the huge portrait of Nadia Von Sheiffel-Stein on the ceiling.
Vlad noticed his sister gaze up.
"That took me nearly a year. I did it like Michaelangelo did the Sistine Chapel, with scaffolding. Appart from I had to make my own scaffolding which kept falling down every other minute. I havn't got that many of mum's books here. I think dad actually burned most of them because he caught me reading one and didnt want me to get my hands on any more because apparently I would get rediculous ideas into my head. Its as if he didn't want me to have an imagination."
"I can't believe you have done all this yourself! I could stay here forever. That portrait. On the ceiling. It makes it feel like she is watching over us. That sounds so stupid." She added in a hushed tone, "Sorry."
Tears started to trickle down Rux's pale cheeks as she continued to look up at the painting. Vlad took his sister's hand and lead her over to a squashy looking red and black sofa.
"Do you want to read one of these? They're very good and some are quite short."
Ruxandra nodded and Vlad wandered round the tables, roughly examining the books as he went. He stopped and picked up a small green one.
"This is my favourite. Its about a brother and sister. I think it was based on us."
"Well, we'll never know will we?"
"Dont think like that! Here, read this. It wont take you long, maybe a day or even less."
Vlad left that evening in higher spirits than he had arrived at the hut, after seeing how much Rux had liked the room he had dedicated to his dead mother. He wished, as he walked back to the house that was inhabited by both him and his father, that he could think of an excuse good enough to excuse him from living in the house, if only for a few days, so he could stay with his sister, who was ovbiously in much great need of company.