Hello dear all, as promised here comes the prologue of this story. It takes place two weeks after Anatoly left the gang and then a month and half later. You'll see it yourself.

I won't add anything else, just hope you'll enjoy it and like this first interaction. Let me know with your comments, as I love to read them! Actually, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all the comments and messages you left me for this story: you are all amazing!

Dedicated to all of you and in particular to Klovis darl as a huge thank you for the wonderful banners you make for me! Love you darl! xox

On the right an extremely cool banner Maria231000 made for me and I think it perfectly fits this story, thanks M. <3

And now, enjoy.

“There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.” Mark Twain

There are things in life that will leave a mark on us, which can be visible or not to other people. Don’t let yourself fool in thinking one is worse than the other, because you never know until you feel and live it on your own skin.

It can be a bad experience or trauma from the past and the consequences and marks can be hidden inside of you; but it can be a stupid and immature choice you made trying to escape something scaring you to the point of having nightmares at night and waking up almost shouting out of your reason and sweating still feeling your body being prey of horrible invisible hands and ice-cold shuddering.

Then the mark can be visible to anyone out there and can bring you further consequences you had never thought of when taking the impulsive and wrong choice. Yes, we have right and wrong choices and we should be aware of what action and reaction means; once you cross a line, you might need to work your ass really hard to get back on your own feet, but do not worry, you will do it without any doubt.

Some marks will not be erased and will remain visible on your skin. Be strong and keep your head and chin up. You’re a fighter and fighters always get back on their feet.

But what happens when those marks will attract something from the past you thought you had already forgotten and left behind your shoulders? Who will help you now? Will someone help you once more?

Yes, do not fear. Someone will always be there for you.

He will help you again, no matter what.

He will always be there for you, even thought loving you is something forbidden, even though he knows he cannot develop those feelings for you, even though he has lines he cannot cross. But even though all of this, he will be guarding and watching over you, making sure you are safe.

ANATOLY POV

After coming back from school I went straight to my room and cursed the whole damn world for how things were getting annoying and complicated. My arm was hurting like hell and some bruises were still there, with a ridiculous yellow-green shade that sure made me look like a pathetic loser; argh, so damn annoying. I tossed the bag on the floor and ran a hand in my hair, but there wasn’t much to run on since it had been shaved off completely, just as a way to change hair-cut. But I didn’t like this and I liked my old one and damn it, I was going to grow it back like before and dad will have to suck it up.

My hand rested then on my neck and I sighed. Sure, hair could be shaved and could grow back, but a tattoo was another deal and this one year spoke loud enough. It had the first letters of the gang’s name and because it wasn’t moronic enough, I had to have a tattoo on my arm with the symbol of the gang. I still remember how my parents freaked out when I came back with the tattoos and how after a couple of weeks they took me to the hospital and had me tested, worried I might had caught something.

Now that I think about it…I had been a colossal moron and they had been right. I risked so much and I put my entire family in danger and it was probably good for them to have that scary bastard working here, but hell, not going to admit it. Never. I’d rather eat crap than go and admit such thing. That impassive and annoying beast of a man always looked down on me and regarded me just as “duty” and for some reason it pissed me off so much that blood rushed into my head and had my arm hurt more than normal.

Argh..like now, damn it.

I sprawled on my bed and stared at the ceiling, then someone knocked at the door of my room and my voice grunted a “come in”, already knowing it was that dofus of my brother with his midget of a boyfriend, that Jasper chipmunk. Didn’t he have to study for his finals? Oh right, I had an idea of his study methods.

“Hey dofus, you look like crap today.” He greeted stepping in the room with his hand tangled with Jasper’s.

“And you look like a moron today. Oh no, sorry, you look like a moron every day.” I retorted back rolling my eyes. He snorted something in our original language and then his pet talked.

“Uhm, we have a new DVD, want to join us?” It was clear he was making a huge effort to talk to me and that was because he clearly liked that idiot over there.

I sighed and shook my head, as for sure I wasn’t in the right mood today to stand at least a couple of hours of their cheesiness and cuddling, as they were always like that and I sure had enough of crap today, because I knew the year was lost and had to repeat, and coming out as gay had not been the most brilliant idea. Plus, it wasn’t still easy to be around them and especially to my brother while being his moronic self with his boyfriend; I mean, he was the guy I used to like and love and don’t know, those feelings had been bottled down for so long that now they were confused. Were they still the same or not? My eyes scanned their tangled hands and I just sighed out aloud.

It wasn’t jealousy what I felt, but I still wasn’t so comfortable around them and therefore I declined the offer.

“No, not in a mood for cheesy romance and movies.” I smirked and then mentally cursed as I felt a healing cut on my lip slightly stung. Jasper said nothing, as he simply rolled his eyes, while my twin brother shot me a hard stare. “What?” I asked.

“How about a thank you?”

“For what?”

“You know for what.”

“Listen Dima, I’m not in the right mood and my arm hurts like a bitch, so just leave me alone and enjoy your movie.” At those words, when I mentioned my arm, my brother’s face grew darker and he shook his head.

“Sorry about your arm. Did you take the painkiller or not yet?” He asked and he truly was concerned, but after years of practice the only words that left my mouth were oozing sarcasm.

“Yes mummy, this morning.” You didn’t have to tell me, as I knew I was being an idiot, but it was stronger than me and impossible to avoid. He just shrugged, as nothing really touched him and went to leave the room, but I stopped him. “Dima, it’s just not a good day, that’s all.”

He looked back at me and nodded.

“Sure, no problem. I know I’m not the right person, but if you need to talk about it…” He told me in Russian and I appreciated that, because it was just between him and me. “Well, we are in the game room if you need us.”

“I just want to be alone for a while, that’s all.”

I missed my brother more than anything else in these past years, but after spending many years behaving like a delinquent and treating everyone worse than shit, hating the whole word for something I could not control, for something that happened probably five or six years ago, well…it wasn’t easy to just behave normally. I wasn’t used to it and I had no idea what to say or to do, even though the desire to turn back to the time was so strong that sometimes it felt suffocating.

I so badly wanted to have things completely different, but of course it wasn’t going to change with just saying a couple of idiotic abracadabra. The mighty Sasha and that sadistic bastard were right and darn it, why he had to always be right? That was so irritating. Speaking of which, haven’t seen Oleg around for a couple of days and that was strange, but probably he was away with dad.

“Dima, where the hell is that scary beast? Haven’t seen him around for a couple of days.” I was still curious to know and so stopped my twin a second time.

He scratched his hair and smirked amused.

“What? You miss him?” He joked and I wished to punch him so much, but he then shrugged and shook his head. “He’s probably with dad; you know he’s like his shadow. They’ll be back tonight and going to tell him how much you missed him.”

“You are an asshole.” I deadpanned and he chuckled.

“You too.”

“Well no shit, we are twins.” We both chuckled at that and for a brief moment I completely relaxed and felt really free from everything.

But was I really free from everything? The leader of the gang was a psychotic lunatic that sniffed so much that his brain was probably gone and wrecked. It was hard to believe I could leave the gang with just that beating. My only fear was that he might decide to hunt me down, find out about my family and threaten it, but no, I was not going to permit such thing.

Pathetic. Utterly pathetic, Anatoly Denisov. Man up and if shit gets real, just face it and take your responsibilities.

“Well, you should go watch the movie and I’ll be here rotting in boredom.”

“You should watch the movie with us.” The chipmunk insisted, but I simply shook my head and he understood. He might be an annoying midget blushing for every stupid little thing, but he was sharp and honestly cared and loved my brother.

I envied them for the bond they shared; it was evident they were in love. I would never find anything of the sort, I just damn knew it.

When they finally left my room, I went back to stare at the ceiling and then peeked at the nightstand beside my bed, eyeing my i-pod; I stuck the earplugs in my ears and jammed the music really loud, almost hurting them, but it was a good way to shut everything down and forget about shit. Somehow I fell asleep and when I woke up, a glass of water, two pills and a small note were on the nightstand.

“Take this before dinner. Love you, mom.”

I rolled my eyes, because she honestly needed to realize I wasn’t a kid, but then stared at the note a moment, taking the pills and chucking down some water, my mind a mess of thoughts, memories and emotions and it all had my blood pulse faster and my injures throb in more pain. My hand ran on my shaved head and my body completely froze remembering something.

Fuck.

I was sure everything had been forgotten about that day and that person, but in fact not. For a moment his eyes and sick face appeared in front on me and his voice hissed in my ears, telling me how disgusting I was and how the only thing I deserved was punishment and being used as abomination. His voice…his disgusting hisses had such strong accent, yeah, because he was from Argentina and fuck, that was true. He taught Spanish and I had always thought he was a cool and laid back teacher, because of his attitudes, but I had been such a weak brat.

My legs pushed me up and reached for the door; I needed a break from all this thinking and so I went downstairs and walked around, finding my brother asleep on the couch with a book in his hands and my mother in the kitchen, making dinner.

“Tolya, you woke up. How is your arm? Did you see the pills? I didn’t want to wake you up.” She placed down whatever she was busy with and came to hug me and everything in me stiffened. I wasn’t used to this, but she didn’t care and simply smiled. “Oh stop being such a stubborn baby and let your mum take care of you.”

“Mum, I’m not a kid.” I snorted annoyed, but she simply giggled. “Is dad back from his trip?”

“Yes, he is in his office now, do you need something?” She asked concerned and I shook my head, realizing from this little particular how much my behavior had affected my parents. Fuck, I really had put them through hell, haven’t I?

“No, everything is cool, just asking.” I went to leave, but I stopped and turned around, forcing my voice not to sound as raspy and harsh as usual. “I found the pills and water.”

Mum just smiled and told me dinner would be ready in thirty minutes. I nodded and for some weird reason my feet took me to the basement, where Oleg had his room; if dad was back, it meant also the creepy shadow was back. I stopped right in front of his door and heard a metallic clang coming from inside and then another one; he was probably lifting weights and so my hand turned the handle and without saying a word, I stepped inside his room.

Fuck. It was annoying to admit it, but I was gay and he sure was a damn view, wearing tattered sweat pants, a tight military green wife beater drenched in sweat, the muscles of his arms and chest flexing while lifting the barbell, the tattoos stretching following them. How heavy was that? No idea, but for sure very heavy, judging by the size of the bumper plates. No wonder his arms were that huge and strong and his chest so…snap out of it, Anatoly. We are talking about Oleg, scary and sadistic and impassive Oleg. And the dude was old, something like fourteen or so years older than me. Right, he was an old geezer, but for an old geezer he had a damn hot body.

He saw me staring at him and I cursed in my mind, avoiding his gaze, but it wasn’t easy task given the way he had almost murdered me with his dark and severe glare. That’s why I muttered a couple of words, because you never knew what he was capable of.

“You don’t mind it, right?” I said going to sit on his bed.

“No, I do not.” He just said and went on with his exercises and that really irritated me, but I let it go. Oleg never really made conversations with any of us, dad aside and anyway they were work related.

His room was always very quiet and so simple that somehow had the right atmosphere to shut everything out, to let my mind rest and forget about everything for at least a few minutes. Plus, he gave me permission to come over, but I’ll never admit to him the fact I liked resting on his bed and staring at the ceiling without actually thinking about anything. After a while however I felt the need to let it out and don’t ask me why I decided to share that memory with this scary dude here, but it was how I felt.

“Oleg?” I called still staring at the ceiling and listening to his regular breathing while lifting the barbell. He stopped and answered me.

“What is it?” The metallic clang told me he had placed the bar down and when I sat up, he was staring at me with unreadable expression. “Anatoly, what is it?”

“I remembered something.” Of course he understood at first and so just pierced me with his hard eyes and waited for me to talk.

I don’t know why I chose to tell him so.

Maybe I wanted to let it out, maybe I wanted payback for what he put me through and how treated me, maybe I wanted to forget about everything once and for all. Maybe…too many maybes. I don’t know why I told him that, it just felt right, that’s all.

“Spanish. That’s what he taught.” I looked away from him, but he stood up and stopped right in front of me.

“Are you entirely sure, Anatoly?” He asked while planting his stare on me and studying my face. I hated to admit it, but this man here was intimidating and fuck, I had to tear my eyes away from him.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

He said nothing, but sat beside me and the scent of his cologne mixed with fresh sweat hit my nose and I cursed in my head when my body reacted to that. This gotta be a bad joke. A really bad joke. Not him; not this scary and sadistic bastard.

“How is your arm?” Oleg asked.

“Still broken.” I smartly replied and he promptly shot me a severe glare, making me roll my eyes. “Can’t you take a joke, dude? You can see it yourself how my arm is.”

He stood up and looked down at me.

“Do you have other business?” His voice had the usual emotionless and cold tone that had the power to make my blood boil in annoyance. “I take it as a no, so leave for now.” Fuck. I knew it. He went to walk away, but I sprang on my feet and clutched his arm. Damn, was this man made of iron? “What is it, Anatoly?”

I took a deep breath and swallowed it down.

“Sorry, it’s just not easy to … to… you know what I mean.” He said nothing for a few seconds and then nodded.

“I understand, but you need to work on some attitudes of yours and you know it.” I rolled my eyes, but then sighed, feeling suddenly very tired.

“I know.” I muttered.

“Sit there. I will shower and then we go collect your bike, as my friend sent a message this morning saying it was ready and done.”

My heart suddenly went to beat faster. My bike was fixed?

“For real?”

“Yes. Now, sit there and wait.”

I did as he said and my fist clenched when he removed his wife beater and sweat pants. I had to look away from his tattooed and freaking bulky figure and swallow down hard; swallowing everything down very hard.

Not him.

Not this scary and damn annoying bastard.

OLEG POV: -ONE MONTH LATER-

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” Edgar Allan Poe

“I got what you were looking for and got quite the interesting stuff.” He anticipated me a couple of details and I clenched my fist. Right what I needed.

“Good. Will you be around the office tonight?” I asked my friend working as private detective.

“Sure, come over whenever you’re free Oleg. Do you need anything else?”

“No, thank you.”

“Then see you later.”

I turned the conversion off and for a moment just stared at the phone thinking about what I had just learnt. It was what I had been looking for and waiting for a long time; in truth, it was not exactly that long, as only a month and a half had passed since that Sunday, but for me every single second passed too slowly and every second reminded me of what I had planned and how I was going to deal with this matter first, as the rest will have to wait.

You cannot simply go to war without a proper and efficient strategy that will guarantee you complete victory and years of practice sure taught me quite a lot in the department and forged the right mentality and temper of the man I was now. But it did not prepare me to this feeling I had inside making me more restless than a tiger locked in a cage and growling demanding to be freed. I had to get my hands on that person and make him pay with interest for what he had dared to utter and do to Anatoly.

I wished he knew the name that same Sunday, but in a way I am glad he did not, because it gave me time to plan everything with cold and lucid mind and take the right steps. The idea of such person being a teacher and maybe a family man gave me a sick feeling, thinking about at what he had almost done, thinking about at what he might have done to other innocent kids. It was good he did not remember the name, because that time the anger I felt was at levels never experienced before. I would have barged to that lowlife’s place and killed him with my own hands; but to what end? That would be wrong and lead to further consequences.

I was working for Mr. Denisov and his family and it meant to keep a clear and perfect profile in order to serve them with everything; Mr. Denisov literally gave me a second chance and a new life, even though I was a complete stranger to him.

Yes, Anatoly didn’t remember the name, but after a while he recalled the subject that rat taught and I clearly remember the way he came to me to talk about it.

It was a Friday evening, two weeks after that accident of leaving the gang, and I was doing some exercises in my room after spending two days outside New York with Mr. Denisov for a business meeting; I gave Anatoly permission to come to my quarter whenever he felt like, because it was obvious he needed a place to escape sometimes, given the confession he made was still fresh and he had no idea on how to act and behave with his twin brother and parents.

That Friday evening he opened the door with the uninjured hand and as usual he just stepped inside without saying a word or without asking permission; Anatoly was still an immature brat under many aspects and sure his arrogant and sarcastic attitudes did not help in the process of maturing. On my part, I said no word, just eyed him with a hard and severe stare and he rolled his eyes and finally greeted. He sat on my bed and rested on his back, staring at the ceiling for several silent minutes; I kept doing my exercises giving him the right time and space, until he sat back and called me.

His words stopped my working out and my blood first rushed in what was that sudden and simmering anger, then cooled down until becoming complete ice. I had what I needed.

Anatoly said he had had a couple of nightmares and felt pathetic, but having nightmares just made us humans, not pathetic. Then he went silent again and after taking a deep breath, he told me what I needed to know. The subject that vermin taught.

It was enough, as from such detail it was possible to trace the name of the person, given his former school was not as big as an university and it had only a few teaching Spanish and actually only one was a man and it all matched.

I had what I needed.

I was not sure why Anatoly suddenly decided to tell me that, but I believe it was a way for him to let go of something, probably of that specific memory; for sure his intention was not for me to hunt that lowlife down and make him pay for everything. No, Anatoly did not think about that; he simply wanted to share something with me that did not just concern riding a bike. It was good he trusted me and that gave me the chance to learn that precious piece of information.

I placed the phone in my pocket and stood up, walking to the door of my office and going to Mr. Denisov’s studio; I knocked on the door and once I closed it behind me, I simply said a couple of words, as he was aware of everything.

“Sir, I had just received a phone call from that friend of mine and got some info.” His face went immediately serious and his eyes studied mine with great intensity; then he nodded and waited for me to talk. “I will retrieve everything tonight and after that, how should I proceed?” I wanted to make sure I had free rein.

“Proceed as you judge best. I trust you, Oleg, but just two requests. He must be judged in court and my son must stay out of everything.”

“Yiest.”

I felt my lips curving in a sinister smirk, as I thought of how I was going to enjoy myself in making the vermin talk. No need to spill blood, as you could have plenty of ways to make someone talk without getting dirty and that was my plan. Pull a confession out of him and then anonymously call the police, making sure they would find all the proofs. The friend working has detective told me enough on the phone and that was only a small part; good thing the rat had no family, but having a family or not was not going to stop me.

Vermin like him deserved no mercy. 

Vermin like him had to pay and end of the discussion.

Mr. Denisov was right: he had to be judged according to the law and pay, leaving Anatoly out of everything and after my visit the piece of trash would not dare utter a breath about anything, believe me.

However, once everything was out, there was nothing that would guarantee his safety in prison, as convicts like him were never welcomed and inside jail they had strict rules. 

Yes, once in jail, his destiny was entirely in his own filthy hands and whatever was going to happen to him was entirely out of my control.

Author's chit-chat:

What do you think of the prologue, were you expecting this? So, we have the first matter taken care of by Oleg. But what about the gang?

The story will then jump a few months ahead, at the beginning of Anatoly's last year of highschool, as we see he lost one year.

As I already said, I fictionally changed the system of school. Students have 5 years and during their last year they are around 18-19 yrs old.

What will happen in chapter 1? Anatoly POV? Oleg POV? Both? New characters introduced? Who knows. Going to update soon!

Until next time.