I hadn't killed her, but she wouldn't wake up. There was so much wet, but it couldn't have been blood. I hadn't hit her that hard.

The city would wake up soon and then it would all be over. Her wretched mother would be the first to notice. Close as a pair of clucking hens, the two of them. Kata would wonder why her dainty daughter hadn't called, and she would worry, she would fret, and then she would call the polici.

They would come knocking because I had hit her that once, so there were records. Because of that one mistake the polici would know. They would bash down the door with their hammers. They would rip out the screws. They would see the blood because that's what it was and why was there so much?!

I shook her again, but she was so cold and she wouldn't wake up. She stared up at me, her mouth hanging open as if in surprise. She didn't understand. She couldn't believe that I would stand up for myself. Had she thought that she could just leave? That she could just rob me of everything?

But as I knelt beside her dead body, our cramped apartment dim and dour, I knew that everything was over.

She had always been small, and when there had been a love between us, I would often carry her like a princess, and that was what I would call her. I had thought myself her treasure, and she mine.

Her body was no lighter for the blood that dampened the hallway, but I hefted her into the air without strain.

I stood there, Yeva cold in my arms, my shirt slowly soaking in her ebbing tide of red. If I was stronger, I would have ran my head into the wall and cracked open my skull. I would end it all and be done with this tired horror. But I wasn't strong.

She fit into two black garbage bags, and I waited beside the front door peephole for what felt like an eternity. The entire building was asleep, but my eye bulged in relentless search. Great beads of sweat rolled down my face and mingled with Yeva's own wet.

I don't remember when I finally opened the door. I don't remember how I balanced her weight as we descended the stairwell. I don't even remember how we reached the car or how I fit her inside.

But when I blinked, and a shuddering breath rattled my lungs, I felt the familiar purr of the VAR-002 Zoya underneath me. There were no other cars on the interstate as I blared past signpost after signpost. I drove further and further until I worried I would just end up in another city. I had no idea where I was.

The sun still hid behind the night's shawl as I pulled over on the interstate. My Zoya rumbled its displeasure as its wheels traded road for uneven grass. I would not be able to drive far, and I scarcely dared. If the car got stuck, it would all be over.

I stepped out into the night's cool embrace, the Zoya's headlights the only illumination to be had. The distant trees looked like living things as they swayed back and forth in the wind. They beckoned me closer. They promised salvation.

If I could only push deep enough. If I could only dig deep enough. I could bury all of my mistakes and move on. I could live. I could live.

But as I opened the trunk, a desperate horror lay its cold hands around my throat and squeezed. My lungs constricted as though wrapped in razorwire. Every breath was an agony. I could feel the world slipping out from underneath my feet.

Because Yeva was not there.

I could not remember where I had put her. I could not even remember if I had put her in the car. And that's what must have happened.

I had left her back at the apartment. But not in the apartment because I could remember her weight as I descended the stairwell. I had left her outside. I had left her beside the garage. In my excitement, I had driven off without the body I had intended to bury.

And that had been almost an hour ago.

When the world settled and I found I could breathe, I rushed back to the driver seat. I would make all haste back to the apartment.

But as I threw open the car door, there she was. In my delirium, I had left her bagged body in the passenger side seat. She had driven right beside me the entire way, and I had not even noticed.

I laughed until it hurt and then I cried until there were no more tears in my heart.

I threw Yeva over my shoulder and stumbled into the woods.

The soil was half frozen, and I wanted to die.

I did not have a shovel, but I had found a small bladed item in the garage. It could have been a saw, but it had been too dark too tell.

It was still too dark to tell.

The woods swallowed all the world's light. There had been stars on the cusp of their haunt, but as soon as I had dragged her under the thick canopy of tree, complete darkness had overcome.

I had stumbled and tripped. The garbage bags had caught on something and she had spilled out.

Deeper and deeper I had stomped. I was wet with sweat, with her blood, and my own from the raking of branch and thorny bush. I would never find my way back to the car, but that didn't matter until I could quit her body.

But the earth was too hard. Its mouth remained clamped shut no matter how I tried to coax it open, and so I wept.

"WHY?!" I was on my hands and knees. I stared up into the black abyss that covered me. It seemed even the heavens had closed their eyes to the horror below. "WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!?"

I wanted to reach up into the pearly vaults of heaven and tear God from His throne. Such a crimson hate filled my gut that I could scarcely breathe. My body shook with the terrible indignity of a life doomed and hopeless.

And amidst those tears and gnashing teeth, the darkness parted to reveal a single star. It burned red and as brilliant as a small sun.

It revealed the violent horror that had become of Yeva in my blind stumblings.

I ran a hand over the small bump of her belly, our daughter, our Manya. The name had been one of the only things we had agreed upon in those last days. And now she too was dead.

"Just let me die..."

All the strength went out of me, and I simply sat beneath the brilliance of that red star. As I stared, it grew brighter and brighter, larger and larger, until it seemed to burn away the night.

I could feel fire on my face. My skin bubbled and dripped away. I opened my mouth to scream, but the star scorched my throat.

And from within that brilliance appeared a snake dripping in black ichor. It seemed to slither and slide down from the heavens, and when it wrapped its wet sludge around my face, I knew relief.

[ aCcePt mY cOLoR ]

My mouth filled with a thick sludge. It cloyed to my throat, and I could not breathe. The snake wrapped itself around my neck, and I felt its blackness fill my gut.

[ yOu ArE lOyAl ]

[ YoU aRe LoVinG ]

[ yOu WiLl oBeY ]

I pulled and teared at the black ichor that stuck to my face, and it peeled away like wet plaster.

And then all that remained was the red star. It illuminated Yeva's body, covered in blood and bits of... But no... It was not Yeva's body anymore.

"Manya?"

I stumbled forward and scarcely dared to touch the sleeping child. She looked so much like her mother. She looked exactly as I had hoped she would one day.

And she was alive!

"My treasure! My angel! My guiding star!"

Lyov Predav pulled his daughter close and delighted in her warmth.