Chapter three

"I am the one who gave you that name."

I was very confused , who was this man? Why was he here? I doubt that he came all the way here without a reason. While I was pondering this questions Anna had more questions for the man.

"Really? Then why did you name her Peter? Don't you know that is a boy's name?"

"I was very tired and confused when I named her."

"But mister, how tired do you have to be to make a mistake like that?"

The man smiled and said," very very tired. May I know who I have had the pleasure of speaking to, I know Peter here and my name is Andrei, what is your name?"

"My name is Anastasia but everybody calls me Anna."

"Well it's good to meet you Anna."

I finally scrounged up enough courage to talk and said," Why are you here Mr Andrei?"

He turned back to me gave me a bright smile, "I am here because of you Peter. I wanted to check on you and see if you were all right."

This wasn't the first time I have seen adults in the orphanage, once in a while people, usually one man and one woman, would come to the orphanage and visit the children , usually the children from the nursery. A few days later a child is taken away by the adults. Veronica had explained what was happening to me, apparently the children who were leaving the orphanage were being 'adopted' , basically they were getting a new mommy and daddy. At first I was jealous when I wasn't selected to be adopted by the people coming to the orphanage but after a while I didn't care anymore. I loved it at the orphanage, I loved my friends , I loved Alexandria and Veronica, I even loved grouchy old Ms Blatova. Now I had a clue what was happening when he said he was here to see me and my suspicions were confirmed when the woman in the fancy blue green dress said,

"Are you sure about this honey? There are plenty of younger children here that we haven't even seen yet, shouldn't we at least look around?"

"I am sure zayka, I delivered this girl myself when I was just an intern under impossible circumstances. She was the main reason I entered pediatric medicine, the first time I held her up and she smiled at me that was the moment that I wanted to help as many babies like her as possible and now that I'm getting married I want her to be my daughter."

I was really confused , on one hand I didn't want to leave the orphanage where I have been happy for all my life, on the other hand if I was adopted I would get a new mom and dad. Plus Andrei seemed to have real affection for me , I could hear it in his voice when he was talking. Somewhere deep down I have always wanted a father and mother who would love me like that. While I was day dreaming about what could happen, Andrei gave me a hug and got up to walk away.

"Good bye Peter, if everything works out I will be seeing you very soon. Oh and before I forget I want you to meet my fiancé Marina, she is the pretty lady over there, if everything works out I hope the two of you will be very good friends."

Ms Blatova finally pulled him away saying that he needed to fill out some forms.

As the three were leaving I took a closer look at the woman in the fancy dress. She had red hair that was styled in waves , her face was very pretty with a small mouth and a pert nose that made her look dainty. Her green eyes were similar to mine and she wore a lot of jewelry not least of which was a large diamond ring on her ring finger. I was about to look away when my sight began to blur for the second time in my life, but this time I didn't see many images transposed on top of one another. I saw one image that made me piss myself a little.

The image of the dainty looking woman disappeared and was suddenly replaced by a terrifying monster. She was still the same woman but on her head was a crown of thorns that were pitch black, the thorns which were as big as daggers were not only sticking up but also into her head. Where the thorns had stuck into her scalp blood slowly flowed down her face and down the back of her neck dying her green dress red. Her green irises had transformed into black ones and her sclera was now the color of blood. She was crying tears of blood from the corner of her eyes that joined the streams coming down from her head. Her mouth was no longer small, in fact her mouth opened from one ear to the other and was filled with big pointy teeth. Her hands were now tipped with poisonous looking green claws.

I saw this image for only a second then my vision blurred again and the normal woman was back . Thankfully all three adults were walking away and didn't look back or they would have noticed the blood draining from my face. The only person who did notice was Anna who kept asking me what was wrong, but I couldn't answer her I was frozen in sheer terror like a rabbit who saw the shadow of an eagle pass by. By the time I was able to move again I noticed a piece of paper lying where the woman in the green dress had stood. I picked it up and saw what was written on it.

There was a large logo printed in fancy lettering at the top, there was a bold F in blue at the front and immediately behind it was a cursive T in red. To my eyes the way they were arranged made it look like the F was growing red horns and a tail. It was the first time I saw the logo of one of the greatest enemies I would ever face . Underneath the logo written in simple text was

MARINA GRIBKOVA

FAIRWEATHER TEC RUSSIAN DIVISION