'Did they say where they are taking us?' asked Mama.
'No, only that we are not to take anything with us. Our things will be sent on later once we have arrived and are settled.'
Olga saw Mama exchange a sharp look with Anna, who promptly left the room, quickly returning with two large white pillows clasped tightly to her chest. Because she had helped Mama and Anna with the task, Olga knew that sewn deeply within the pillows lay their concealed jewel boxes.
'Well, I'm not going anywhere without Jimmy.' Anastasia said, and Olga saw that she had Tatiana's small Pekinese dog tucked securely under her arm, the belligerent expression on her face defying anyone to challenge her.
After what seemed like a long wait, the leader of their guards appeared at the door. She listened to him as he repeated precisely what Dr. Botkin had said about them being moved and then as he and Papa had a conversation about what would happen to their things, before telling them again that they had to move and then leading them across the upper floor of the house and down the main staircase.
Papa went first, carrying Alexey in his arms, ever so carefully so as not to bump his bandaged leg, then Mama, leaning on Olga for support. She worried at how light Mama felt, like a small bird, then Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia last. Dr. Botkin came after, with Mr. Trupp and Mr. Kharitonov following.
Olga glanced at her wristwatch and saw that it was just after two now, and as they walked, they passed the stuffed mother bear who, along with her two cubs on the landing. The group took a moment to pause and cross themselves to bless and show respect for a mother and her children, also prisoners in that dreary house. Olga felt empathy for the imprisoned mother and her cubs and grieved for their loss of life.
They didn't speak on their way down, the house was still quiet, and nobody seemed to be around. The groups of guards who usually stood at their posts along the way seemed to be absent this night.
They were all intent on their private thoughts. Olga had no fears; although this early morning awakening and orders to move from their rooms were completely out of the ordinary, everything else appeared to be calm and in order. She was reluctant to let herself hope that this might indeed be the moment they had all been hoping and praying for; either a rescue attempt as they had been waiting for or that they were indeed leaving, and that they might finally quit this horrible house and prison. If that was the case, she did not want to think ahead to where they might go; would they still be prisoners and only being taken to another prison just like this, or were they being set free? Could they go home?
She was dismayed to realise that she didn't even know where home was anymore.
At the bottom of the stairs, Papa turned to them, a broad smile on his face, and said. 'Well, we're finally going to get out of this place.' She felt happy then and almost lightheaded because Papa seemed so sure, so confident, and she trusted him with her entire being. Could it possibly be true?
She reached behind her and clasped Tatiana's hand tightly, knowing without looking at her face that Tatya would feel the same as her at the thought that there may be a chance for them to leave this house and perhaps go somewhere where they could live and have an ordinary life.
The leader took them through the set of double doors, opposite the staircase into a courtyard by the side of the house. They then went through another set of double doors, into what appeared to be a basement, down a very short flight of steps, and through a series of hallways in a direction that seemed to Olga to be leading towards the opposite end of the house.
They passed a group of guards, most of whom they knew, and the guards acknowledged them briefly. Anastasia and Maria, as was their usual practice, smiled and giggled at them as they walked by.
'Maria!' Mama barked, rebuking her.
Olga thought that it would take a long time before Mama completely forgave Maria's earlier indiscretion with the guards, and felt sorry for Maria, as she considered how horrible it must feel to have lost Mama’s approval like that.
They then entered what appeared to be a cellar room, which she thought lay directly under their bedroom, and she understood then just how large the house actually was; up until now, she had only seen the floor upstairs and of course, the outside yard.
She looked about her, and decided that it was an attractive looking room; the painted wooden floor a happy yellow with the walls covered in a cream and beige striped wallpaper topped with a burgundy frieze. There was a high, arched window and pillars in each corner supporting the ceiling. A single electric light bulb hung from the ceiling. A set of closed double doors adorned the far wall, and she wondered if they were the doors that they would eventually leave by.
'Wait here.' The leader said. 'The truck will be here soon then we can go,'
'I suppose that it would be too much to ask for a chair?' Mama asked. 'Or are we not permitted to sit?
She looked grey and tired, and Olga knew that her back must be paining her after walking this far. The leader motioned to one of the guards who quickly left the room, returning with two chairs. Mama carefully and painfully lowered herself onto the one that the guard had placed near the arched window, and Papa gently placed Alexey on the other one in the middle of the room.
'I should have brought Joy.' Alexey complained. 'She will be left behind.'
'Perhaps we can have Joy and Ortipo brought to us along with our other things at the truck.' Papa said in an attempt to calm Alexey, not wanting him to get distressed or to cause a fuss.
No-one spoke, the room was silent and dim, the single light ineffective. Everyone was tired after having been roused so suddenly from sleep yet were content to wait for as long as was required for the leader's return with their next instructions, especially if it meant finally leaving their prison.
Olga hoped it would not be for too long, as Alexey looked sickly and waxen, and she knew that he would be in a lot of pain sitting in the chair for any length of time. He needed to be lying on a couch or a bed to help ease his pain.
The leader entered the room, followed by nine or ten other men, most of whom she had not seen before. Now their space, which with eleven of them already there had not been very big to begin with, suddenly seemed small and cramped with the new arrivals. The men crowded alongside and behind their leader, forming two rows.
'Well.' Papa said cheerfully. ‘I hear the truck outside, and here we all are. What are you going to do now?'
Olga listened, and noticed for the first time, the sound of a truck, its engine noisy in the stillness of the early morning. She felt gladness and relief that they wouldn't be in this room or this house for much longer.
The leader took a step forward and stood directly in front of Papa and demanded that Mama and Alexey also stand.
'Alexey is not able to stand, as you well know, so he will remain seated until it is time for us to go.' Papa said sternly.
Olga could sense that Mama was angry at being ordered so by this man whom she only had utter contempt for and heard her muttering but helped by Anna, she eventually also dragged herself to her feet and stood, leaning against the back of the chair for support
The leader, his voice raised, started reading from a piece of paper he held in his hand. Olga noticed that the sheet shook slightly as if his hand was trembling, and she wondered if he was nervous.
She did not take much notice of the words that he was reading; a great weariness had suddenly come over her, and she had an overwhelming desire to lie down and sleep. She hoped that this would not take too long and that they would soon be on the truck on their way to safety, whatever that meant.
His words spoken loudly and clearly in the silent room suddenly broke through her reverie as she heard, 'You have been found guilty of countless bloody crimes against the Russian people and should be shot.'
She didn't believe what she had heard; surely, this must be a joke? Despite her horror at the spoken words and the terrible look on the leader's face, she had an overwhelming desire to laugh; it was just so
ridiculous.
Papa cried out, 'God! What is this? What?' and turned to look at them, his face white, horrified, then he spun back around to face the leader again.
'Oh my God, No!' someone shouted. Olga, her desperate gaze transfixed on Papa, didn't know who had called out, and in the jangling silence of the room, she heard Dr. Botkin say, loudly and bitterly 'So you're not taking us anywhere.'
Olga was stunned; she still could not understand the words.
'I don't understand, read it again.' Papa demanded.
Impatiently, the leader read from the sheet of paper, and again, the words 'should be shot" rang out and were left hanging in the air.
Olga made the sign of the cross, silently imploring. 'No, God, please.' Surely they weren't going to kill Papa here in front of them all? She couldn't bear the thought.
Papa stood there, frozen, repeating, 'What? What?'
The leader took another step towards Papa and produced a revolver he had concealed behind his back. There was a flash of smoke and a deafening noise as he shot Papa directly in the chest.
Papa reeled, and an explosion of blood instantly formed across his khaki tunic. As if released, the other men in the room also began shooting their weapons, firing directly at Papa, hitting him in his chest again and again. He stood, quivering for moments, then pitched forward, toppling to the floor.
The room filled with screams, screams the like of which Olga had never heard before, not even from the wounded men in the hospital at Tsarskoe Selo. Bullets were flying everywhere, hitting the walls and floor, the room quickly filled with smoke and dust.
Tatiana ran to her, and they fell to the floor, wrapped in each other's arms, her mouth an open scream, but Olga could not hear her above the noise of gunfire. They huddled on the floor, trying to shield themselves. She saw Dr. Botkin, who had been standing closest to Papa, fall to the floor, blood streaming from his stomach and legs. He reached towards Papa, and then lay still. Mr. Trupp and Mr. Kharitonov were also down on the floor, and she thought they were dead; they were unmoving, their eyes wide open, blood pooling around their bodies.
There was so much smoke in the room that she didn't think the men could see them, as they had begun to crouch down low and were firing at them from underneath the smoke.
Olga could hear Marie and Anastasia close by, sobbing and screaming for help. Mama was still standing by the chair; she had not moved; her horrified gaze focused on Papa's lifeless body.
Olga screamed. 'Mama, Mama!' and she finally moved but only to cross herself, raising her eyes with a look of utter contempt at the man firing his gun at her head. She fell instantly to the floor in a spray of blood.
Olga closed her eyes against the horror, still screaming. 'Mama, Mama,' over and over again.
She still could not believe this was happening; it was a nightmare from which she prayed she would quickly wake from, and find herself once again laying sleepless in her bed. But the smell, the stench of smoke and blood, and the unearthly noise convinced her that this was only too real.
Maria threw herself at the closed double doors, screaming, hammering on them with her fists, her whole-body thudding into the wood, wrenching at the doorknobs, but they would not budge, obviously locked, there would be no escape for them there. Suddenly struck by a stray bullet, she fell heavily to the floor, clutching at her thigh as she went down.
'Mashka!' Olga called to her, she did not respond, but Olga could hear her screams reverberating around the room.
Olga could hear Anna screaming too, but all she could see through the thickness of the dust and smoke, was the eerie whiteness of the pillows Anna was still holding, until she too, collapsed to the floor in front of Maria and Anastasia by the locked double doors, shot in the thigh, she lay there, her eyes beseeching, pleading for help.
'Stop shooting! Stop! Clear the room!' The shouted order came unseen from out of the haze, and Olga heard hurried footsteps as the men retreated from the room and into the corridor outside.
'Thank God, thank God,' she sobbed, daring to hope that it was over. She could hear the moaning and sobbing of the hurt and wounded Maria and Anna. She dared not move, and could only see the others dimly from beneath the smoke and dust as she lay hugging the floor.
'Alexey!' she called. 'Are you there? Are you hurt?' He did not reply, but she could hear his terrified sobs. 'Wait where you are, Baby, and I will come to you,' she said, turning to Tatiana and whispering, 'Tatya, are you hurt?'
'No. Have the men gone?'
Olga feared not, as she could hear the men still as they stood in the corridor, coughing and choking against the smoke, and they didn't sound as though they were very far away.
'I don't know,' she whispered. She could feel Tatiana's whole body shaking uncontrollably in terror as she held her.
Without looking. she knew that her Mama and Papa, Mr. Trupp, and Mr. Kharitonov were all dead, and she was horrified at the realisation and felt the tears, warm and salty rolling down her cheeks.
She let go of Tatiana and started to crawl towards Alexey, but then heard the men come back into the room. She saw one of them walk directly up to Dr. Botkin, who was attempting to stand and shoot him in the head.
The smoke cleared momentarily, and Olga saw Alexey, still sitting rooted to his chair, unable to move, his face ashen, and terrified, covered in Papa's blood. She screamed out to him, and he turned toward her voice, at the same time as shots rang out, bullets thudding into his chest. He slowly slipped to the floor, his gaze never leaving hers, still alive, still breathing. One of the men walked up to him and withdrew his bayonet from his belt and began stabbing Alexey repeatedly, cursing as his blows bounced off, and Alexey remained alive, laying on the floor, gazing up at him in terror.
She understood then that the jewel filled shirt and undergarments that Alexey was wearing were forming a protective shield. A second man approached, and roughly pushing the man with the bayonet aside, shot Alexey twice.
Olga reeled back at the sheer horror of watching her brother die in such a manner. Her terror and pain were indescribable.
As a result of the renewed gunfire, the room had quickly filled with smoke again, but from her position on the floor, she could see the carnage, bodies, and blood everywhere, even up the walls, both chairs overturned, their purses and Anna's pillows scattered, discarded.
She had somehow survived those first volleys of gunfire and along with Tatiana, and Anastasia was unhurt, but their screams at Alexey’s death had drawn the attention of the men, who started firing at them through the smoke.
She clasped Tatiana tightly again, continuing to crouch on the floor next to the locked double door, then through the hazy smoke, saw a man coming slowly towards them. Screaming, she tried to stand up, to flee, even though she knew that there was nowhere to go.
The man shot Tatiana in the back of her head, her blood showering all over Olga, covering her like a warm blanket. In an instant, Tatiana was gone, and two were now one.
She had managed to half stand, but the man kicked her hard, and she fell back down onto the floor, landing across Tatiana's lifeless, still warm body, and then the man pointed his gun at her head.
Suddenly Olga was calm; she knew that this was the end. She knew it had to be, and that even if some miracle happened right at that moment and she survived, she could not live the rest of her life with the memories of the horror of what had become of her beloved family in that room.
She closed her eyes and waited for freedom.
Seven
Chekhov Hotel
Ekaterinburg
1991
May awoke from a nightmare filled sleep to find herself stretched out, fully dressed on a bed in a strange room. She could not get her bearings for a long time, gazing at the flower pattern of the wallpaper on the opposite wall, and wondering where the hell she was. Her mouth felt as though she had eaten ashes, and she had a pounding headache. Carefully moving her head to the
right, she saw a man sitting, dozing in a chair next to the door. For a moment, she panicked, then relaxed on seeing that it was Agni and that she must be in her room at the hotel.
She squeezed her eyes shut again, trying to remember what had happened; the last thing she recalled was walking with Agni through the streets of Ekaterinburg to the site of where the Ipatiev House had once stood.
'Are you awake, May?' she heard him ask softly from his chair. 'Are you feeling any better?'
'What happened, and can I have some water please?' She heard him leave the room, then the sound of running water from what must have been the bathroom next door. She took the water from him and drank it thirstily. It tasted stale and nasty, but it was cold and went a long way to clearing the horrible taste in her mouth.
'You took a funny turn when we were looking at the old Ipatiev House site.' Agni explained. 'You called out, something about seeing them, then went into a kind of a trance and almost fell over. I grabbed you before you hit the ground and did yourself any damage, but I couldn't rouse you for ages, so I called a taxi and got us back here. I checked you in, I'm sorry, I had to open your handbag to get your identification to show the woman at reception, then I brought you up here. You've been sleeping ever since.'
'Oh God,' she said, sitting up gingerly, nursing her aching head in her hands. 'I am so sorry, Agni. I don't know what is wrong with me at the moment.'
'Don't worry about it,' he said understandingly. 'It's been a long day for you, and I expect that you're tired from your trip and the time difference here, not to mention the couple of shocks you have had visiting the gravesite in the forest as well as the Ipatiev House today.' He chewed his lip, looking worriedly at her still. 'It was probably too much for me to ask you to go there too, I should have just brought you back here after your funny turn in the forest so that you could have rested.'
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