Chapter Text
1987 – Aged 3
Red Room Academy
Record Of Enrolment
Name: Natalia Alianovna Romanova
Year of birth: 1984
Year of enrolment: 1987
Nationality: Soviet
Ethnicity: Russian
Race: White
Hair colour: Red
Eye colour: Green
Status: Orphan
In Natasha's first memory, she was three years old.
She woke up, lying on her back, a strange series of images and sounds flashing through her mind: a flash of brown, the clatter of hooves on tarmac, screeching tyres and a sudden, tremendous crunching noise. She shivered as the dream – yes, that's what it must be – continued playing in her mind. She was sat in the back seat of the car, craning her neck to see her parents who were sat in the front two seats, slumped forwards, red liquid covering their faces and arms as if they had got carried away whilst painting.
They weren't moving.
Her eyes snapped open and she sat up in the hospital bed, her head throbbing and her mind groggy as she clutched the hem of her dress in fright.
She was sat in the middle of a busy hospital ward – the accident and emergency department – her parents nowhere to be seen.
Rushing around her were men and women in white and blue uniforms, talking in loud, stressed voices; smears of red on their tight blue gloves.
Natasha put her hands over her ears to muffle the noise. They were being too loud, it was too hectic; she wished they would be quiet.
When she put her hands to her ears, she discovered her head was swaddled with bandages. It made her head feel too heavy, putting an uncomfortable pressure on her neck. She didn't like it.
"Mama!"
A young nurse with kind blue eyes and long blonde hair turned towards her plaintive cry, quickly hurrying over and shining a light in her moist green eyes.
"How are you feeling, little one?" she asked gently, poking at Natasha's bandages which elicited a sharp scream from the toddler. "Can you see me OK? Can you hear me OK?"
Natasha ignored her questions, peering around the room in search of her parents and trying to shuffle out of the bed. The nurse picked her up and placed her gently but firmly back in the middle of the bed. "I want Mama," said Natasha, her lip wobbling as pressure built up in her throat. "I want Daddy. Where are they?"
The young nurse sat down on Natasha's bed, putting her thin arms around her and pulling her into a gentle hug as she stroked Natasha's curly red locks.
"They're in a special room. You can't see them right now," she said softly.
Natasha whined with frustration, digging her feet into the bed. She wanted her parents. The hospital was noisy, busy and frightening. She didn't understand why she was there – had she been naughty? Was she being punished? Whatever the reason, she had had enough of the strange, unwelcoming environment. She wanted her parents to come and take her home.
"Do you remember what happened to you?" the nurse asked gently.
Natasha looked up at the nurse, scrunching up her forehead in confusion. There was the strange dream she had had before waking up in the hospital bed – the one with the sound of hooves and the red paint on her sleeping parents – but before that everything was a strange blank.
She clutched at the nurse's skirt as she shook her head.
"She was in a car crash with her parents," said a man's voice from the doorway. A tall male doctor wearing a white coat strode into the room. "The driver in the car behind them saw the whole thing. He said that he heard a shot and saw a deer run into the road. The car swerved to avoid it and wrapped itself around a tree. The parents never stood a chance."
Natasha shook her head violently. The parents never stood a chance – what did that mean? A car crash – weren't those the things where cars would go out of control and hurt the occupants? Suddenly, the thought of her sleeping parents covered in red paint made her feel frightened and sick.
"No," she muttered to herself, putting her hands over her ears once again and moaning softly. "Mama. Daddy."
The doctor squatted down next to the bed and removed her hands so she could hear.
"You name is Natalia Romanova, correct?" he said, his tone of voice seeming unfriendly and indifferent to her answer.
The doctor scared her, he had big bushy eyebrows that were pulled down over his eyes in a permanent frown, the corners of his lips drooping in a way that made him look angry and fierce. She huddled closer to the young nurse, wrapping her arms around her middle and trying to hide behind her.
The doctor sighed impatiently and grabbed her arm, forcing her to look at him. "Answer the question," he snapped. "Is your name Natalia Romanova?"
Natasha tried to pull away from the doctor, turning her face away and feeling a cry bubbling up inside of her. Of course that was her name, her parents never struggled with her name, why was this doctor having so much difficulty with it? Perhaps he was stupid, she decided, maybe that was why he looked so cross, because he wished he was as clever as her parents. "Yes," she whispered, hoping that would make the doctor go away.
It did.
"Good," he said, standing up and turning away. "Just checking. She has no other family," he said offhandedly to the young nurse. "I've already contacted the government office so they'll be here shortly to take her to an institution. Make sure she's presentable for them and do the paperwork."
Turning on his heel, the doctor stormed out of the room without another word. Both Natasha and the nurse visibly exhaled as the door swung shut behind him.
"Arrogant man," the nurse said quietly before putting on a kind smile and turning to Natasha, who was still clinging to her.
"We're going to go to somewhere quieter, does that sound good?" she smiled.
Natasha nodded gratefully and sat still in the middle of the bed as the nurse wheeled it out of the bustling accident and emergency room and into one of the side rooms. The door swung shut behind them, blocking out most of the noise, much to Natasha's relief. The nurse gave her a kind smile and stroked her cheek.
"Let's get you looking nice, Natalia," she said softly, unwinding the bandages from Natasha's head and taking a peek at what was there. "You have a little cut on your head," she explained, "But it's already healing up nicely."
Natasha shook her head from side to side as the nurse pulled off the bandages, her curls bouncing wildly. Her head felt much better now that it didn't have the bandages squeezing it so tightly. She smiled at the nurse in gratitude.
"I want my Mama and Daddy, please," she asked politely, remembering that her parents had always told her that good manners were important. "I want to go home now."
A look of pain and pity flashed through the nurse's eyes as she looked down at Natasha. For a moment, Natasha could have sworn that she saw tears glistening in the young woman's eyes, but the nurse turned her face away and took a few deep breaths, and when she turned back, the phantom tears were gone.
"I'm sorry, little one," she said, her voice sounding tight for some reason. "You can't see them anymore."
Natasha's mouth dropped open in shock as she tried to understand what the nurse was saying. She had to be mistaken, it was impossible for her not to see her parents again; they were the only people she knew, they were her entire world.
"There are some nice people coming here now to take you to a new home, though," the nurse was saying, the smile on her face suddenly looking false and too big for her face. "One where you'll live with other children who you can play with and be looked after. Doesn't that sound fun?"
Natasha's eyes filled with tears and she choked as she gripped the hem of her dress tighter. She didn't want to live with other children. She didn't want to be looked after by strange adults. What she wanted was for her parents to come and collect her and take her home, so that things could carry on the way they always had done.
"No!" she shouted, her voice cracking as she let out a wail. "I want to go home! I want my Mama and Daddy!"
The nurse tried to pull Natasha into a hug but Natasha kicked out at her and threw herself face down into the thin hospital mattress, her tears quickly soaking the material there. She rolled onto her back and started shouting. It was imperative that her parents came before strange governmental people came and took her away.
"Mama! Mama! Daddy!"
Five minutes passed, then ten, and still her parents did not emerge from their special room. She continued shouting, the nurse bowing her head and watching her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Eventually, Natasha's throat became sore and it became too painful to shout. Her parents were nowhere to be seen.
She grabbed onto the nurse, frightened. Her parents had never ignored her when she'd called for them before. The doctor's comment about her parents never standing a chance tugged at the corner of her mind. She was starting to get an inkling of what he might have meant.
"Where's my Mama and Daddy?" she asked quietly, her voice shaking slightly, still hoarse from shouting.
The nurse let out a sigh and stroked her hair and was about to answer when they were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door.
"Come in," called the nurse, grabbing a towel and using it to quickly wipe the snot and tears off Natasha's face.
A thin, middle-aged man with long, windswept grey hair walked into the room. He was exceptionally tall and was wearing a dirty beige trench coat. His dark blue eyes were framed by a protruding brow and stood out in his pale, unsmiling face. These eyes zeroed in on Natasha immediately, scrutinising her with an intense gaze.
Natasha gasped and shrank away from the man in fear, which only made him come closer, peering at her as if she were an exhibit in a museum.
"I heard there was an orphaned girl?" he asked, staring at Natasha who was attempting to hide behind the nurse. His voice was cold and confident, and something about him radiated authority, causing the nurse to stand up, much to Natasha's displeasure.
"Are you from the government?" the nurse asked nervously, eyeing the man's dirty coat and bedraggled shoulder-length hair.
"Yes," he snapped, turning his attention to the nurse and frowning at her, causing her to take an involuntary step back. He rummaged around in his coat and produced some official-looking papers, thrusting them under the nurse's nose as he continued to survey Natasha.
Natasha thought, with his prominent brow, long nose and small mouth, that he looked rather like a vulture.
"My name is Vladimir. I'm from the Red Room Academy. We're a special residential school for orphaned girls." He suddenly turned to the nurse, fixing her with his piercing gaze and looking at her down his long, crooked nose. "Is she healthy? No diseases or congenital conditions?"
The nurse seemed rather taken aback by the question, opening and closing her mouth a few times before hurriedly picking up the file at the foot of Natasha’s bed and flicking through it.
"No diseases or conditions," the nurse replied after a small pause, as she skim read Natasha's medical records. "It says she's a normal, healthy little girl." She closed the file and looked at Vladimir nervously. "May I ask why that's important?"
Vladimir was silent for a moment, his eyes never leaving Natasha as she sat shivering on the bed, before smirking and waving his hand dismissively. "It's just a condition of enrolment at the school. The Academy only wants healthy girls."
He finally stopped staring at Natasha and straightened up. "There are papers that need to be signed?" he said imperiously.
"Oh, yes, of course," the young nurse blustered, dithering on the spot for a moment as she considered whether to ask the strange, somehow imposing man to move out of her way, before deciding against it and awkwardly squeezing past him instead, cringing as she brushed against his filthy trench coat. With an anxious glance to Natasha, who was sat rigid and wide-eyed in the middle of the bed, she hurried out of the room to fetch the required documents.
As soon as the door swung shut behind the nurse, Vladimir crept closer to the bed, peering at Natasha who trembled harder as he approached.
"Hello, little girl," he said softly, kneeling down and touching Natasha's cheek.
He smelt sour, like tobacco and sweat and something else that Natasha couldn't quite identify but, for some reason, reminded her of the dream with the red paint. Natasha drew away from his hand with a small whimper, sticking her thumb anxiously into her mouth.
He seemed amused by this and laughed. "Oh yes," he said, his eyes shining in a way that Natasha would later label as predatory. "I think Madame B is going to be very pleased to have you."
He reached out and touched Natasha's hair, tracing his fingers along one of the red curls as if deep in thought.
At that moment, light footsteps approached the door and the young nurse re-entered the room, causing Vladimir to straighten up hastily.
She was clutching a batch of forms, the black Cyrillic typeface standing out boldly on the white paper.
She paused as she entered the room, taking in Natasha's frightened expression and Vladimir's new position stood next to the bed.
"You just need to fill in some details and sign here," she said, handing him the papers before placing herself between Vladimir and Natasha.
She picked up Natasha's shoes from a rack at the foot of the bed and gently held her feet whilst pulling on the little shoes and tying the laces carefully.
Pulling a well-chewed pen from his trench coat pocket, Vladimir sat down on the other end of the bed and rested the forms on his knee, quickly filling them out with small, neat lettering. Natasha watched silently as he scrawled his signature at the bottom of the final form.
A feeling of dread started gnawing at her stomach. Were those forms signing her over to this strange, tall man, Vladimir? She wanted to ask the nurse, but something about Vladimir made her feel uneasy and afraid to speak.
"The Academy will require a copy of her birth certificate, for our own records," he said to the nurse, handing her the filled-out forms.
The nurse took the forms and flicked through them, making sure everything was filled out correctly before nodding.
"Of course, sir," she said. "Just one moment."
She hurried from the room once more.
This time, Natasha kept her head down, hoping that if she avoided eye contact, Vladimir would refrain from talking to her or staring at her. It seemed to work and she breathed a small sigh of relief. She didn't like the way he smelled, or the intense way he stared at her, as if he were x-raying her with his eyes alone.
She thought about what he had said earlier, about coming from a special residential school for girls. She wondered what the girls would be like. She wondered if her parents would be allowed to take her home once they came out of their special room at the hospital. The nurse had said that she couldn't see them anymore, but that seemed mightily unfair.
Quick footsteps marked the return of the nurse, who was now holding a copy of Natasha's birth certificate. She handed it to Vladimir, who took it in his left hand.
"Will that be all?" the nurse asked.
Vladimir nodded, pulling a black cap down onto his head and straightening his long trench coat.
"Yes," he said, giving her a yellow-toothed grin that made the nurse shiver slightly. "We'll be leaving now."
He buttoned up his coat and held his right hand out to Natasha, looking at her expectantly.
She stared at it uncomprehendingly. "But Mama and Daddy," she said slowly, not moving from her position on the bed. "Aren't they coming too?"
Vladimir sighed and picked her up off the bed when she made no move to take his hand. "No, Natalia," he said, squinting at the birth certificate. "There are no parents where we're going."
Without a word, he opened the door and started walking through the hospital, following the signs for the exit.
Natasha watched the nurse over Vladimir's shoulder as they two of them moved away. The young woman gave her a wave and a small smile.
Natasha waved uncertainly back, the feeling of unease in her stomach increasing with every step away from the friendly young nurse.
She made a pained noise as the exit came into view. She started wriggling and reaching out, trying to catch hold of something, anything that would slow Vladimir's steady pace towards those big transparent doors. She couldn't leave the hospital. The nurse had said her parents were here in a special room. She couldn't leave them.
A sharp slap to her bottom made her cry out. "No wriggling," Vladimir snapped. "Madame B doesn't like naughty girls."
Natasha bit back a whimper as she allowed herself to go limp in his arms. Her parents hadn't come when she'd called for them. Did that mean they didn't love her anymore? Was that why she was being taken away by this strange man?
A small cry escaped her throat as tears trickled down her cheeks.
They exited through the large doors, the cold Russian wind hitting them immediately and causing Natasha to huddle, instinctively, closer to the sour-smelling man carrying her. He didn't react, continuing his steady pace along the pavement until eventually he came to a stop outside a battered-looking black van parked on the curb.
Vladimir fished out a set of keys from his pocket and balanced Natasha on his hip with one hand whilst the other quickly unlocked the van and opened the door. He placed her in the back seat and strapped her into the seat, making sure the clip was fastened securely before closing the door and walking round to the other side to climb into the driver's seat.
Buckling himself in, he put the key in the ignition and started the engine, checking the road in his mirrors before pulling away and joining the traffic heading out of the city.
Natasha felt a surge of panic as the van passed the hospital and started to slowly increase its speed away from the building. She pressed her face against the van window, banging her tiny fists against the glass almost hysterically.
"Mama! Daddy!"
Vladimir ignored her, watching his rear view mirror intently as he spotted a government-marked car slowing to a stop outside the hospital.
He smiled, rounding the corner and pulling out of sight just as the government officials stepped out of their car.
When the officials arrived at the hospital reception about collecting the orphaned girl, they were confused to hear she had already been taken.
When the young nurse tearfully told them that a man called Vladimir claiming to be from the Red Room Academy had taken her just a few minutes before, the police were alerted.
When the police heard the name of the school the alleged kidnapper had come from, they dropped the case.
All police forces in the Soviet Union had heard rumours about the Red Room Academy. It was said that any police officer who had tried to investigate the mysterious school before had ended up missing, dead or abruptly resigning from the police force. There were some rumours that the school didn't exist, and other rumours that it was cursed.
The only thing they knew for sure was that they should stay away from anything to do with the Red Room Academy.
Nothing good ever came out of there.
Natasha arrived at the Red Room Academy about 3 hours after being snatched from the hospital.
The drive had been long and bumpy, the van rattling through the Russian countryside over ill-maintained roads. Vladimir had not said a word throughout the drive, something that Natasha found both intimidating and a relief.
She had watched despondently as the cityscape had given way to fields and forest, the tarmac gradually turning into mud.
When they finally pulled up to the Red Room Academy, she had fallen asleep, only waking when Vladimir opened the van door and started unbuckling her from the seat. She rubbed a hand across her eyes before wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to stave off the bite of the frigid air.
Vladimir lifted her out of the van before silently taking her hand and leading her up the drive that led to the school.
Natasha clung onto Vladimir's hand, staring wide-eyed at the building. It was two storeys high, made of dark stone and with high, imposing windows. A short flight of stairs led to the thick wooden front door, which was flanked by frowning stone gargoyles.
It was not a school that exuded a sense of warmth or welcoming.
Natasha pulled back, not wanting to go any closer to the intimidating-looking building, eliciting a grunt and a sharp tug from Vladimir who continued half leading, half dragging Natasha up the steps to the front door.
He reached out and grasped the heavy iron handle, twisting it to the side and pushing it open, shoving Natasha inside when she made no move to cross the threshold.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness, but when they did, she saw that she was standing in a grand-looking entrance hall, with a black and white chequered marble floor, a dark mahogany staircase sweeping upwards, and two long corridors on either side of the staircase leading to other rooms on the ground floor. The corridors were illuminated with dim lamps that offered meagre light and only the illusion of warmth.
Natasha heard a quiet rustling, scuttling sound and, as she finally zeroed in on the source of the noise, took a small step backwards in shock. Around 10 girls in identical uniforms were silently staring at her from the top of the staircase, their heads angled down at her in such a way that it cast eerie shadows across their faces.
She whimpered and gripped Vladimir's hand tighter, feeling spooked by the girls' silent, unwavering gazes and blank expressions.
Vladimir pushed the heavy door shut behind them and led Natasha up the grand wooden staircase. Natasha watched in terror as they approached the silent, staring girls, feeling her legs shaking underneath her, but as Vladimir approached, they parted, slinking back into the shadows and scuttling away as the two of them approached the top of the staircase.
Natasha let out a shaky breath, which caused Vladimir to chuckle for some reason.
"There's much scarier in here," he said with a smirk, ignoring the way Natasha stiffened at his words.
He continued to lead her down the wooden-floored corridor. Some of the doors were open, allowing Natasha to see inside the rooms. About half the rooms appeared to be classrooms, but the other half lacked any furniture whatsoever and had thin mats on the floor instead. Natasha tried to look closer into one of these strange rooms, but Vladimir pulled her forwards, only stopping at the end of the corridor outside a heavy wooden door with ornate carvings similar to those on the staircase.
He raised his hand and knocked.
A feeling of nervous anticipation built up inside Natasha, making her feel dizzy.
"Enter," came a woman's voice from inside the room.
Vladimir opened the door and pushed Natasha inside, handing her the papers from the hospital. She took them and waited for him to join her but he did not, closing the door instead. Natasha froze. As much as she had found his unfriendly demeanour and sour smell somewhat intimidating, he was all the company that she had had over the last 3 hours; he had taken care of her, held her hand and even scared away the creepy, silent girls who had been standing ominously at the top of the staircase when they had first arrived.
She felt her heart rate increase with stress as she realised she was now alone in the presence of a new, unknown person.
"Give me the papers and sit down," the woman's voice commanded softly.
Natasha slowly turned around and surveyed the woman. She was sat behind a large desk and looked to be in her late 30s or early 40s, with blonde hair streaked with grey and steely blue eyes. She was a very beautiful woman, with a delicate, feminine facial structure and an aura of cool, calm concentration. She was wearing a fitted navy blue blazer over a plain black dress, looking as elegant, formal and mysterious as the building.
The woman was looking thoughtfully at Natasha, who still hadn't moved.
"I said give me the papers and sit down, please," she said. "I won't ask again."
Natasha hurriedly stumbled over to the woman and handed her the papers before returning to the other side of the desk and clambering onto the chair, sitting down as elegantly as she could, pressing her hands to her knees. She could sense that the woman before her commanded respect.
"Very good," the woman smiled, revealing perfect white teeth, a colour accentuated by the dark red of her lipstick. "My name is Madame B. I am the headmistress here at the Red Room Academy. I'm also your head of year, so I will be teaching you throughout your time here. We're a special school; we teach girls a very specific skill set. Not many people graduate from here, but those who do are the best."
Natasha stayed silent. Madame B spoke perfectly enunciated Russian, but she didn't know what graduate meant, nor what this special skill set was that Madame B was referring to. She wished she would stop speaking in riddles.
Madame B fell silent as she carefully read through the hospital notes Natasha had handed to her.
"Your name is Natalia?" asked Madame B.
Natasha nodded.
"Is that the name your parents called you in day-to-day life?"
Natasha nodded again, wondering why she was asking such odd questions.
Madame B tapped a finger to her chin, clearly thinking carefully. "From now on, your name will be Natasha," she declared after a short pause. "It is a diminutive form of Natalia and much nicer, don't you think?"
Natasha sat still, confused. Her parents had always called her Natalia. Natasha was indeed the informal version of her name, but her parents had always much preferred the full name.
"But my parents like to call me Natalia," she whispered, not wanting to be rude but feeling that it was important for some reason.
Madame B gave a small laugh, a musical, tinkling sound. "My dear child," she smiled, seeming genuinely amused by Natasha's comment. "Your parents are dead. Do you not understand what that means? It means they're not coming back. Their likes and dislikes are meaningless now. They're gone."
Natasha felt a strange pressure building up inside her. Somewhere nearby, someone had started screaming, a high continuous note that occasionally broke off with huge gasping breaths. A burning sensation was hurting her throat, and when Natasha brought up her hand to touch it, she was shocked to find that the screaming sound was in fact coming from her. She clamped her mouth shut and the terrible screaming sound stopped immediately, the room suddenly silent save for her deep, ragged breaths.
She felt dizzy and sick. A painful sensation had settled in her chest, making it hard to breathe. When she touched her face, she found it was wet with tears.
Madame B watched her pensively for a long moment, before smiling gently.
"You should forget about your parents," she said.
Natasha shook her head hard, gripping the hem of her dress so hard that her hands hurt. She closed her eyes, trying to block out Madame B and the Red Room Academy and the stifling, oppressive atmosphere.
She would never forget her parents, she vowed. She would never forget their faces. She would never forget the kindness and love that they had treated her with.
Madame B stood up, walking around the ornate wooden desk to rest a hand on Natasha's shoulder, smirking when she felt the little girl flinch at her touch. She bent down so that her head was level with Natasha's, trailing a perfectly manicured finger through Natasha's curly red hair.
She watched with interest at the way Natasha trembled at her presence. New students were always so amusing, she thought.
She put her finger underneath Natasha's chin, forcing her to open her eyes and look directly at Madame B. She purposefully made and held eye contact with the youngster, making sure that Natasha knew she was being 100% truthful with what she said next.
"We are your family now," she said, smiling her perfect smile.
Natasha shivered.
Shortly afterwards, Natasha was taken to her dormitory.
She picked self-consciously at her new clothes. Madame B had stripped her of her own clothes in her office, dressing her instead in the same uniform she had seen the girls at the top of the staircase wearing when she had first arrived. The pale blue blouse and navy blue pinafore dress were stiff and made her skin itch.
She trailed after Madame B miserably as she was led through the maze of corridors, passing imposing wooden door after imposing wooden door so quickly that Natasha was sure she'd never be able to remember the way around later.
Eventually, they came to a stop in front of one of the doors. It had a large number 3 stuck on the front of it, something that Natasha could read and which she proudly pointed to.
"Three," she said, smiling and pointing at the number. Her mother had taught her how to count to ten a few weeks previously.
"Correct," said Madame B. "This is the dormitory for our 3 year old students. There are around 20 girls in your year."
She pushed open the door to reveal a large room containing 20 evenly spaced beds, an assortment of rickety-looking chests of drawers and a few large wooden wardrobes.
What struck Natasha was the lack of colour in the dormitory. The stone floor was a dull grey and the walls and ceilings were a faded shade of beige. Even the sunshine that was streaming in through the large, tall windows seemed strangely colourless, not bright and yellow as Natasha remembered it.
There were around 20 girls of her own age scattered in groups around the room. They immediately stopped talking and got to their feet when Madame B and Natasha entered the room.
"Good afternoon, girls," said Madame B sharply.
"Good afternoon, Madame B," the girls chorused back.
Madame B pushed Natasha forward with a firm prod to the back, causing her to squeak slightly as she stepped forward. The girls' eyes slammed onto her immediately, looking at her intently with expressions ranging from curiosity to hostility to that strange blankness. Natasha looked down, flushing red and shuffling her feet uncomfortably under their intense gaze.
"This is Natasha," said Madame B. "She is joining your year."
This was apparently a sufficient introduction, because after saying this, Madame B simply turned and left the room, closing the door behind her with a sharp snap.
The room remained silent, the other girls continuing to stare at her wordlessly, although some of those closest to her had started to approach Natasha cautiously. Their slow approach unsettled Natasha, but she tried not to let it show. She sensed that this was a place where any fear or weakness would be preyed upon.
One of the girls had come much closer than the others. She was now within a few feet of Natasha, stepping slowly and purposefully towards her, her head cocked in an expression of curiosity. She had dark brown hair, big brown eyes, a round face and a button nose. Those brown eyes were now comically large as she leaned forwards on her tiptoes a foot away from Natasha, her eyes roving over her as if trying to examine the newcomer.
"My name is Natasha," she blurted out, finally breaking the increasingly intense silence. "What's your name?"
Her words seemed to break the spell, as suddenly the atmosphere became much more relaxed. Most of the girls turned away from Natasha and continued talking and playing as they had been doing before Madame B and Natasha had entered the room. Only the three girls closest to Natasha continued watching her.
The dark haired girl who had crept closest to Natasha broke into a wide smile which lit up her whole face.
"My name is Elena," she announced. She had a warm, friendly voice which instantly put Natasha at ease. She found herself relaxing and smiling back, relieved to be finally meeting someone who was seemingly friendly and normal. Elena was looking at her excitedly, apparently intrigued and interested by the new girl, a stark contrast to the creepy unsmiling girls Natasha had seen earlier.
"Hello Elena," she said softly, giving her a shy smile and a small wave.
Elena almost vibrated with excitement as she grinned back.
Natasha's eyes flicked to the other two girls who were standing with Elena, staring at her silently.
One of the girls had platinum blonde hair, dark blue eyes and sharp, slightly pointy features. She was a very beautiful girl, but her features lacked any of the warmth that radiated from Elena. The girl was eyeing Natasha suspiciously, narrowing her eyes and glaring at her.
Elena saw Natasha looking at the blonde and pointed at her, seemingly oblivious to the nasty looks she was shooting Natasha.
"This is Katerina," she said. "And this is Tatiana," she continued, pointing to the other girl, who was looking at Natasha with a blank expression on her face.
Tatiana looked strangely colourless; her hair was such a mousy shade of brown that it almost looked grey, and her blue eyes were so pale they barely had any pigment in them at all. She had thin, delicate-looking features that were schooled into an unreadable expression. She wasn't glaring at Natasha in the overtly hostile way Katerina was, but she wasn't smiling like Elena either.
"Hello," Natasha said weakly, trying to smile at the strange pair.
Neither of the girls responded, which set Natasha's nerves on edge. Trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, she turned back to Elena.
"When did you arrive here?" she asked, trying to strike up conversation with the girl. For all of Elena's eager smiles and warm demeanour, she didn't seem particularly good at initiating a normal conversation. Natasha wondered if perhaps she had never had the opportunity before. "Where are your parents?"
Elena cocked her head to the side as she thought about it, sucking on her thumb. "I think they're dead," she said amiably. "I don't know what happened to them. I came here as a baby. We all did. You're the first new person I can remember joining our year."
She finished off her sentence with a huge smile, taking a step closer to Natasha so they were less than a foot apart, clearly fascinated and excited by the new girl.
"My parents are dead too," Natasha said softly. To her horror, her eyes filled with tears as she said it. She took a deep breath and held it, not wanting to cry in front of the others. "I... I miss them."
For the first time, Katerina's expression changed into a smile. It was not a compassionate, warm smile, however, but one laced with gleeful spite.
"Your parents are cold and ugly now," she crowed, grinning at Natasha nastily as she let out a small wail and tears spilled over her cheeks. "They'll be buried in the ground and eaten by worms and bugs."
Natasha's eyes widened in horror and she shook her head violently, her hair whipping across her face messily.
"They'll be worm food and you'll never see them again!" Katerina laughed heartily, her eyes bright with excitement as she watched Natasha's face crumple. Natasha put her hands over her ears, trying in vain to block out Katerina's spiteful words.
"Stop it!" Elena shouted, stamping forwards towards Katerina, her face red with anger and her tiny hands balled into fists. "Stop being mean!"
Katerina's smile dimmed just a notch, her laugh petering out as Elena glowered at her. Sighing, she turned away sullenly, crossing her arms and refusing to acknowledge either Natasha or Elena.
Elena turned away from Katerina, shaking her head angrily before returning to Natasha and taking her hand, pulling her towards one of the cupboards.
"Come on," said Elena. "I'll show you a secret room."
Natasha followed Elena obediently, squeezing Elena's hand with one hand and wiping her face dry on the sleeve of her dress with the other.
Elena stopped in front of the wardrobe and pulled it open. Inside were an odd assortment of clothes, rolled up gym mats like the ones Natasha had seen in some of the classrooms earlier and sweeping brooms. Elena pointed inside, clearly wanting Natasha to enter.
Natasha stepped into the wardrobe carefully, feeling slightly foolish standing amongst all the coats and dresses hanging from the clothes rail. Elena followed her in and pulled the door closed after her. The door didn't quite fit the frame, meaning that a sliver of light was allowed to enter the wardrobe so they weren't in complete darkness.
Elena sat down on a gym mat, pulling Natasha's hand in a gesture for her to do the same. Natasha sat down, looking at Elena once her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness. Elena was looking at her with a big smile on her face.
"This is the secret room!" she whispered excitedly.
"No it's not, it's a wardrobe," replied Natasha, without thinking. She regretted her words as soon as they came out of her mouth, as she saw Elena's bottom lip stick out into a pout, clearly disappointed that Natasha did not think more highly of her hiding place.
"No, it's a secret room!" Elena insisted, gesturing around the wardrobe as if to reiterate how mysterious and secret it was.
Natasha nodded. She supposed that in the open plan dormitory, the girls rarely had any private spaces. This wardrobe was as probably as secret a room as it was possible to get in this place.
"Yes, sorry, it is," she agreed, feeling relieved when Elena stopped pouting and started smiling again.
The two girls lapsed into silence, but it wasn't the awkward or intimidating silence that Natasha had experienced with the other girls, this one felt much more relaxed.
"I think your parents are angels now," said Elena out of the blue. She chewed on her thumb thoughtfully. "Or maybe they're ghosts."
Natasha shivered, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them. "I'm scared of ghosts," she said. She adamantly hoped her parents hadn't turned into ghosts.
Elena made a small noise of protest. "I'm sure they're friendly ones," she said softly. Natasha could see her smiling gently in the darkness. "They’ll look after you."
Natasha thought about this for a while. If there were scary ghosts, like the ones she was frightened of, then it made sense that there would be friendly ones too. And her parents had always been friendly and caring whilst they had been alive, why would their ghost selves be any different? This gave her a small feeling of comfort. Perhaps not all ghosts were scary, after all.
She reached out and held Elena's hand. Elena looked momentarily surprised but then instantly relaxed, squeezing Natasha's hand in the darkness, a joyful smile spreading over her face.
"You're nice," said Natasha, after a pause. "I like you."
Elena moved so that she was sitting on the same mat as Natasha, resting her head on Natasha's shoulder, her dark brown hair mixing with Natasha's red locks. "I like you too," she replied, her hand still holding Natasha's. "Ignore Katerina, she's just mean."
Natasha nodded, it seemed the wisest course of action.
"Why didn't Tatiana say anything to me?" she asked curiously. She hadn't sensed any hostility from the girl, which made it all the more puzzling why she hadn't spoken when they had been introduced.
She felt Elena shrug her shoulders.
"Tatiana doesn't say very much," explained Elena. "But she's OK. She's not mean. And she's very clever. I like her more than Katerina."
Natasha nodded once more, dropping her head to rest on top of Elena's, inhaling the sweet, clean scent of her hair. She felt Elena snuggle closer and closed her eyes contentedly. It felt good to have a friend in this odd school.
After a while, Natasha's legs started to get stiff. She stretched them out and accidentally kicked the door, jerking Elena, who had fallen asleep on her shoulder, out of her doze.
Elena yawned and stretched, standing up so that her head was amongst the coats and dresses hanging down.
"It's time to leave the secret room," she declared, her voice muffled by the clothes. "If we stay too long then some of the magic escapes. It's a magic room," she added, as an afterthought.
Natasha clambered to her feet and followed her friend out of the wardrobe, blinking slightly as she emerged into the sunlit room.
Her first meal time at the Red Room Academy was later that evening.
At around 7pm, Madame B returned to the dormitory. The girls immediately stopped playing and stood in respectful silence. Natasha followed suit. It seemed like the best thing to do was to copy the other girls while she learnt the rules of this peculiar school.
Madame B nodded, seeming pleased, and called for the girls to follow her down to the dining hall.
They organised themselves into a line and followed her through the labyrinth of corridors. Natasha held Elena's hand tightly, trying hard to remember the route. After walking for several minutes, they finally arrived at the dining hall. There was almost no sound coming from the room, which meant that Natasha paused in shock when she entered the room to see around 250 girls of various ages already sat down at long tables in the hall.
The girls ranged in age from babies to 18 year olds, all wearing the same uniform of dark blue dresses over pale blue blouses, with weirdly blank expressions on their faces. What unsettled Natasha most of all, however, was the silence. It seemed impossible for her that so many girls could all be in a room so silently, and yet here they were, hundreds of girls sat perfectly still, not a word passing their collective lips.
Madame B led the girls the remaining empty table, it seemed they were the last to arrive. As Natasha took her seat, she looked around the hall. The girls were all seated at separate tables for their separate year groups, with the teachers sat at a long table at the end of the hall on a slightly raised platform. Natasha recognised Madame B and Vladimir.
Madame B took her seat in the middle of the staff table and rang a small bell, which apparently meant the girls could begin their meals, as the girls all picked up their spoons and started to eat their food.
Natasha picked up her spoon and started to slurp up the thick, warm soup that was in front of her.
"What kind of food do you normally eat here?" she asked Tatiana, who was sat opposite her.
Tatiana's eyes widened but she didn't reply, instead giving Natasha's shin a sharp kick under the table.
Natasha dropped her spoon, in surprise more than in pain, and turned to Elena indignantly.
"Tatiana kicked me," she whined, sticking out her bottom lip in a moody pout, half to make conversation and half in the hope that Elena would spring to her defence as she had done earlier with Katerina.
Instead, Elena shook her head minutely, pressing her index finger surreptitiously to her lips in a silent command to be quiet. Natasha scrunched up her forehead in confusion. Elena picked up a piece of bread and used it to hide her mouth from the others, whispering just loud enough for Natasha to hear her next, urgent words: "Don't talk," she muttered. "The teachers don't like chatty girls."
Natasha looked around and realised that a lot of eyes were on her. She ducked her head, keeping her mouth shut and trying to make herself look as small as possible, hoping the other girls would lose interest in her if she blended in with everyone else.
It seemed to work. After a few minutes of silence, Natasha dared to glance up again to see that most of the girls had turned their attention back to their meals.
She ate the rest of her soup in miserable silence, stealing glances at the other girls at her table who were all quietly eating their food, heads down. Even Elena didn't speak, although she did occasionally shoot her small smiles from behind her bread.
Natasha bit down on her lip, blinking away tears that threatened to spill over onto her cheeks. She wanted to go home.
She was jerked out of her thoughts by the scrape of chairs on the wooden floor as the girls started to stand up. Natasha hurriedly followed suit, glancing around nervously, not sure what was going to happen next.
Elena noticed her discomfort and brushed her hand against Natasha's. "Bed time now," she whispered.
Madame B returned to their table and Elena fell silent, looking at the floor. Madame B glanced at her for slightly longer than was normal but didn't comment, before leading the girls back through the winding corridors back to their dormitory.
Natasha trailed behind Elena, feeling tiredness pulling at her eyelids, her feet dragging on the floor as she realised just how exhausted she was. It was hard to believe that just this morning she had been pulled from her parents' car and rushed to the hospital.
They finally arrived back at their dormitory and the girls walked to their beds. Natasha hovered by the door, unsure of what to do. Madame B appeared next to her, pointing at the bed closest to the door.
"This one is your bed," she said simply.
Natasha nodded mutely and climbed onto it. It was next to Elena's bed, which Natasha was pleased about. Elena gave her an encouraging smile from where she sat on her own bed.
Madame B made her way around the beds, quickly and efficiently stripping each girl and putting her into a beige nightdress. By the time she reached Natasha and quickly changed her clothes, Natasha was almost falling asleep. She mumbled quietly as she flopped back onto her pillow, wriggling under the thin duvet.
From out of nowhere, Madame B grabbed her by the wrist. Natasha felt something cold and metal close around it and opened her eyes in shock. She stared at her wrist, which was now handcuffed and attached to the bedframe. Twisting around, she looked over and saw that Elena and all the other girls were also cuffed to their beds. They, however, didn't seem to think that anything was amiss about their wrists being handcuffed, if their calm, sleepy expressions were anything to go by.
Madame B surveyed the youngsters and left the room silently, closing the door behind her so that no light from the corridor could spill in.
Natasha laid rigidly in the darkness, shivering at the foreign feeling of the metal encircling her wrist, the stiff white nightdress feeling itchy on her skin. She could hear the steady breathing of the girls falling asleep in their beds. The noise seemed loud and grating to her ears; she had always slept alone before.
Her thoughts drifted back to her parents, the painful ache in her chest that she had been trying to ignore flaring up again as she did so. It hurt, physically hurt, to think that she would not see them again. She remembered Katerina's comments about them being cold and ugly, destined to become worm food, and shivered violently.
She clutched at her sides as a sob bubbled up in her throat, her eyes burning and her throat becoming tight and painful as she finally let out a cry that had been slowly building all day. It felt like a dam bursting, the tears flowing thick and fast as she sobbed, trembling, into her pillow.
"Shut up!" Katerina hissed from her bed, rattling her handcuff against the bed frame threateningly.
Natasha gasped and clung to her pillow, hiccupping and trying to stifle her cries, forcing herself to be quiet. She turned onto her side to mouth an apology to the other girls.
Moonlight was streaming in through the tall windows, casting the girls in a pale light, making them look like ghosts. Natasha's eyes picked out the individual girls, illuminated by the shafts of light. Katerina glared at her fiercely before turning over so that her back was to Natasha. Tatiana simply stared at her silently, her face perfectly emotionless, neither angry nor sympathetic. Natasha sniffed miserably, finally looking over at Elena who was watching her with a sad smile on her lips.
Natasha closed her eyes, wishing with all her might that all of this was just a terrible dream, that she would wake up in the morning at her house, with her parents, not at the intimidating Red Room Academy with its creepy girls.
"Natasha," Elena whispered, jangling her handcuffs gently, in a completely different way to how Katerina had shaken hers moments before. Somehow, when Elena did it, it sounded almost like music, soft and gentle. Natasha felt a lump form in her throat.
Natasha hummed quietly in response, letting her know that she was listening.
Elena started singing softly, the sound somehow automatically soothing Natasha. After the first few bars, Natasha recognised the song as a lullaby. She sighed and closed her eyes, Elena's soft singing slowly coaxing her to sleep, rocking her mind gently until it finally stopped racing.
Her hands, tightly clenched, finally went slack.
In the years that followed, Natasha would often think back to that first day.
She would try to imagine how her life would have been different if, perhaps, the hunter hadn't seen that particular deer, or if he hadn't decided to take the shot at that exact time, or if the deer hadn't bolted, or if her parents hadn't been on that particular stretch of road, or if they hadn't swerved.
Things may have been different. She may have grown up to be someone perfectly ordinary, someone who wasn't well-known in all the wrong circles; she may have simply grown up as Natalia.
As it happened, the hunter did see the deer at that exact time, he did decide to shoot it, the deer had bolted right in front of them, her parents had been driving along that stretch of road, her father had swerved to avoid it, and the car did wrap around the tree at the side of the road.
Natalia, to all intents and purposes, died with her parents that day.
In her place were the beginnings of someone entirely different: Natasha.