A short story by Steven Scott

It is cold, and will only get colder. I can just make out the outline of Moscow Tower as the sun sets behind it, taking with it the warmth it had provided. The temperature will soon drop even further, though it is already below freezing. I trudge on, my worn boots doing little to keep out the snow. I have to find him before he either freezes to death, or bleeds out. His trail is easy to follow, for the stark white snow contrasts with the scarlet liquid on its surface. 

“Where are you Maksim?” I ask quietly to myself in the vain hope that he will somehow answer. What I wouldn’t give to go back to yesterday.

~

I left my home in Kirov five years ago, when I was ten years old. If there was one thing my mother gave me, it was a reason not to smile. I never knew my father, but I did know that he was the one who wanted me, not her. He died fighting in the second Chechen War three years before it ended in our favor. A few days later, I was born. My mother has resented me ever since. She wasn’t a loveless woman though. She loved Vodka more than Putin loves power. 

I left on a day that she was feeling particularly loving. I managed to dodge the bottle, which shattered on the wall behind me.

“Pansy!” She screamed. “You’re not my son!” 

“No, I’m not! And I never have been!” I couldn’t contain myself. “You’ve always made sure I knew that. Well I’m not going to be your burden anymore. Goodluck getting more alcohol once I’m not here to fetch it for you!” I grabbed my coat from the peg and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind me. My mother was too drunk to understand what I had done. She would never see me again, and I was glad. 

The streets were covered in a combination of snow and mud. By the time I reached a busy street my boots were covered in it. Standing on the side of the road, I held my thumb in the air, my arm pointing west. It only took a few minutes for a truck to slow to a stop. 

“Going somewhere kid?” The driver asked through his open window. He was about the age my father would have been, I guessed. 

“West, to Moscow.”

“That’s a long way from here, best I can do is Kotelnich.”

“Anything helps, thank you.” At least it was in the right direction. He motioned me around the car and I got in the passenger seat. 

The truck smelled of dirt and lavender, the latter coming from an air freshener in the shape of a Russian Flag hanging from the rear view. 

“Aren’t you a little young to be traveling alone? Where your parents?”

“Dead. I’m moving west to live with family in Moscow.” 

“Sorry to hear that.” He didn’t question me further, though I suspected it was from a lack of interest rather than concern. Neither of us spoke much for the rest of the trip, but I thanked him when we finally arrived in Kotelnich. 

A few more road-side pickups and I was bound for Moscow. The last leg of the trip was driven by a woman on her way to the capital to visit a sick aunt, or something like that. I didn’t listen much to her constant chattering. When we arrived in Moscow I asked her to pull over near a subway station. 

“Are you sure? Where does your family live? I wouldn’t mind making sure you got home safely-” I was already out of the van and descending the steps into the station. I couldn’t afford to have her ask any more questions. 

I walked as far into the station as possible, and found its darkest corner in which to sit. It was warmer down here than on the surface, and in the morning I could look for food and a more permanent place to stay.

~

The sun is set, and I am no closer to finding Maksim.  The trail of blood now takes me off the lit streets and into an alleyway. I hover at the shadowy entrance and try to make out what lies beyond. I am not the brave one. Maksim usually delved into places like this first, but he isn’t here and that is why I need to swallow my fear and follow the trail into the dark.

“For Maksim,” I whisper, clutching my arms to my chest to fight off the cold. 

~

The trash cans at the subway station had borne no fruit, so I made my way to the surface in search of the McDonald’s I had seen on the way there. I crossed a park filled with white capped statues and chatting passersby. None of them noticed me, not that it mattered. I was invisible to them, something they’d rather not notice.

I eventually made it to the McDonald’s and went around the back to the dumpster. Hopefully there would be something edible in all the trash. Though I hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours so I couldn’t afford to be picky. 

I was only there for a few minutes before I heard voices behind me. I prepared to make a run for it, expecting it to be employees coming to chase me off, but I was surprised at what I saw. Although they seemed more surprised to see me. The girl at the head of the pack looked me over as if sizing me up. The group looked like they had been living on the streets much longer than I had. Their clothes were brown with dirt, and their shoes had more holes than shoe. 

“Who are you?” She barked.

“I-I’m Kostya.” I felt uncomfortable. Did I do something wrong?

“Well, Kostya,” she spat out my name, “this is our territory, and that dumpster belongs to us.” She held her hands out, gesturing to her cronies. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-” 

“Didn’t what? Didn’t think? That’s for sure. Now get lost!” She shoved me with all her might back into the dumpster’s side. A loud metallic crash rang across the parking lot and I fell to the snow. 

“Katerina don’t!” One of the boys behind her rushed past and knelt beside me. His hand went to the back of my head and came away red. “You hurt him!”

“So? Why do you care? He was stealing our food and we would all have to eat less. We don’t eat enough as it is.” 

“He’s like us. We can’t turn our backs on him, he’s got no place to go. What if he can pull his weight?”

“We’ve got enough mouths to feed as it is.” 

“He can be my responsibility. If he doesn’t measure up, we’ll both leave.”

What? Who was this boy and why did he care enough about me to leave what little he had? He could only have been about two years older than me, though his time on the streets made him look much older. His bony arms helped me to my feet and he supported me by putting my arm around his shoulder. 

“Whatever.” Katerina waved a hand through the air. “Now get out of my way, I’m starving. Literally.” 

We moved away from the group. Still dazed, I tried to speak, “Why…what…who are you?”

He sat me down on the curb and squatted in front of me. Startlingly blue eyes stared back from beneath straw colored hair.  He stretched out his hand and said, “I’m Maksim, nice to meet you.” 

~

The alleyway is too dark for me to see the trail, so I feel my way along the wall until I reach the dead end. How did he come this way? There is no trail leading back out, so where is he? As I begin to run my hand along the other wall, I feel a door. Turning the handle I realize it is not locked. He must have gone in here. Had he not been able to lose Katerina’s cronies in the street?

~

My initiation into the group involved snagging the tip jar off the counter at a coffee shop a few blocks from where Katerina and her gang had their hideout. After that she seemed to trust me more and allowed me to reap the full benefits of being under her protection. That was until she grew jealous of me and the fact that Maksim seemed to prefer my company to hers. I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten over the course of my first year in the group until I came back to our abandoned warehouse to hear them screaming at each other.

“After everything I’ve done for you Maksim! You would have died without me, and so would he! I thought you liked me, and I mean really liked me. But for some reason you ignore me for him!” 

“You’re delusional if you think I ever liked you. You were my protector and I am grateful for that, but if you’re not willing to accept my friendship with Kostya then we don’t need your protection any more!” 

“Fine! Get out, I don’t ever want to see either of you in this part of the city again or I swear you will have more to fear than the cold!”

He stormed away from her and saw me on his way out. Grabbing my wrist he said, “We’re leaving. Katerina doesn’t want us here any more.” 

“What, Maksim wai-,” I was being pulled out of the warehouse and into the evening wind. 

We walked for at least half an hour before descending into a subway station. It wasn’t until later that I realized it was the same one I had slept in on my first night in the capital. 

“I’m sorry for getting you into this mess.” He turned to me at the bottom of the stairs. “But I just can’t stand Katerina. She has always had a crush on me, but to explode over a friendship with someone other than her? She’s insane. We’ll be better off on our own. I know my way around, I can keep us alive. Do you trust me?”

I didn’t know what to think. I never liked Katerina, especially after she almost gave me a concussion, but she did provide stability. Despite that, I did trust Maksim and his ability to survive. “Yes, I do.”

“Good that’s all I needed to hear. I know a place we can go to stay warm and sleep. It’s not the cleanest or best smelling place, but it will keep us alive.”

“Where?”

“The sewers.”

The sewers? He had to be joking. 

I learned quickly that he was not joking and we made a life together beneath the city. We studied the tunnels and found the best ways to get around.  We found the tunnels that smelled the least rancid and made our den in them. It was a good life, all things considered, and for once, I was actually happy. Though it only lasted for four years.

On the day of my fifteenth birthday, Maksim decided he wanted to celebrate in style. 

“You need a birthday cake,” he said. We sat on a blanket deep within the sewers.

“No I don’t.”

“You do, and I know just where to get one. There’s a bakery over on Mira Street.”

“Isn’t that Katerina’s territory?” 

“Technically, though I don’t see why she would come so close to the city center.” 

I was skeptical at best. At worst, terrified. “How will you pay for it?”

“I’ve got savings.”

“Where?” 

“That’s the tricky part. I’ve got some here, but the rest I’ll get from a trade-off near the bakery.”

“A trade off of what?”

“You know what,” he looked away, unable to meet my eyes.

Drugs. I hated that we had to resort to this. “It’s not worth it, please, not today.”

“However much you might deny it, you are worth all the trouble in the world.” 

“I do deny it! And I don’t know why you think that.”

“Come on, we have a long walk ahead of us.”

The sewers connected the entire city together. It was easy to get around unnoticed down there, but never easy to get the smell out. As we climbed up the ladder and into the daylight, I realized where we were: the McDonalds where I first met Maksim. 

“Oh no. This is a terrible idea. We need to leave now, they could come back at any minute.” I was in a panic, I had heard that Katerina and her gang had gotten increasingly violent in their dealings with the locals and each other. I had no wish for either of us to be her next victim. 

“Stay here.” He said quietly.

“You can’t leave me out here, what if-”

“It’ll be fine, trust me.” He placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder before entering the restaurant. I looked around nervously, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.

Maksim came back out, shoving a wad of cash into his pocket. “See, it told you. Everything is fine.” 

We started our walk to the bakery when we heard a voice that made me shiver all the way down my spine. 

“What the fuck?! Maksim?”

We spun around to see Katerina with at least six others in tow. 

“I warned you.” She said.

“Katerina wait, please,” Maksim put his hands out and stepped in front of me. 

“I have waited. I’ve waited four years for this.” She turned to her followers and said, “Get them.” 

Maksim immediately spun around and pulled me into a sprint. Frantically he said, “Split up, they’ll leave you alone, meet back at our spot in the park.” He ran in the other direction before I even had a chance to respond. 

My mind was completely blank. I couldn’t think about the what-ifs without collapsing in a sobbing fit on the ground. I just had to keep running and pray Maksim made it to our spot. 

The giant sundial in the park was a favorite spot of ours. We spent many summer afternoons sitting at the base watching the shadows move across it. Now, however, the sun was setting and the shadows were cast menacingly across its surface. Maksim was nowhere in sight. I thought he might not have made it back yet until I saw the puddle of blood and the trail leading away from it. 

~

The door swings open with a loud creek. Looking around I can’t see very much except for the streaks of moonlight coming in through the cracks in the roof. 

“Maksim?” I whisper, not daring to speak louder. 

I hear a shuffle in the middle of the room and make my way toward it. 

“Maksim?” I whisper again. Still no answer.

I make it to the source of the noise and what I see terrifies me more than I ever thought possible.

Maksim is shivering on the floor, leaning against a pole with his hands pressing against what must be a stab wound.

“Maksim! We have to get you to a hospital!”

“It’s too late. Kostya, I’m so sorry, I should have listened to you. You told me not to go there, but I did it anyway. Now you’ll be alone.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Everything is going to be alright.” I shift him so that his head rests in my lap. “Just relax.” Tears begin to streak down my cheeks

He looks up at me and tries to speak, “They say… that … when you die you see a li-light…b-but all I see is … you. Kostya I- I” His body goes limp and his eyes go dark. 

At least I know that he no longer has to struggle. His soul lives on in peace and I will always remember him even if no one else will. Everyone else’s lives will go on untouched because we are and always will be invisible.

“I love you too, Maksim.”