Can't Turn Back

There was a difference between being told you had to do something and actually doing it. What he'd felt getting the letter was nothing, nothing compared to actually being here, in the mafia mansion.

Afonka was long past scared. Past terrified. He was a mess of nerves and freaked out beyond belief. He just wanted to leave.

But he knew, deep down that he could never do that. Cursing his grandparents, he pressed himself farther back into the couch, brown eyes fearfully scanning the lounge. He just wanted to disappear.

Ashleen sniffed with distain as she walked around the mansion. She didn't want to be here, but then again.... what else was knew.

Daddy, this time, decided he wasn't leaving her in the house alone. Her argument that the Safehouse was hardly ever empty, thus she was hardly ever actually alone didn't seem to amuse him in the least.

At least she had been kicked out of his meeting so she was allowed some freedom to just wander the house.

Unfortunatly, the house was completely Dull. Shouldn't they at least have some blunt instrument she could bludgen herself with? That might save her from this completely and utter boredum.

Sighing she wandered into another room, only mildly surprised to see another person occupying this one. This was after all similar to a safe house, this boy wasn't the first person she'd walked across.

She inclined her head and was about to move on, go find another corner she could hide herself in - maybe her dad would pitch a fit if she made him play hide and seek to get her out of the house again. THat might amuse her - when she froze slightly.

She kenw that....

"Brown eyes?"

Her usual blank gaze, furrowed slightly with curiosity, as her dark hair frizzed around her.

Closing his eyes, Afonka let out a little sigh, trying to pretend he was anywhere other than here. He'd rather be - he'd rather be in the catacombs than be here. Letting out the tiniest of whimpers as Ophelia's dead body flashed behind his eyelids, his eyes flew open.

Shaking his head, he sat up, rubbing at his eyes. Why did this have to be real? Why couldn't it just be a dream?

But a familiar voice jerked him out of his thoughts. Frowning, he looked up. Sure, she wasn't blonde, but it was still her.

"A - Ashleen? W - what are you doing here?"

Ashleen titled her head and blinked slightly at the boys question. It seemed rather ridiculous to her.

What was she doing here... how about what was he doing here?! And how come he looked worse than she did? She didn't think it was entirely possibly to look worse than she did.

"My dad doesn't trust me alone anymore... thinks I'm going to... do something... to myself... or something," she rolled her eyes as if it was a completely ridiculous idea. "Fran was busy, Ted's... teddy, soo... I get to come with Daddy dear to work."

She rolled her eyes, and invited herself to sit down.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Blinking up at her, the Hrabrost tried - and failed - to comprehend just why she was here. It just - she was so nice. It didn't make any sense.

"Why would he think that?" Afonka asked softly, looking at her as she sat down.

Glancing away, he bit his lip. She'd asked, and it was a valid question. "My grandparents," he whispered, unable to look at her, "apparently have ties to the mafia, and they wanted me to join it." Hugging himself, he muttered, "Payback for my parents running away to be together."

She shrugged, avoiding looking at the boy, gazing blankly at the wall.

"Oh, I don't know... cause he's parniod, and over protective," she shrugged, and then bit her lip, glancing back at the boy, her blue gaze locking on him for a moment before looking away, "I suppose, it could also have something to do with me trashing my room, then refusing to leave it for... two weeks?"

She shrugged again, her voice flat as she spoke, as if this was a perfectly normal thing to say .... to do.

"Oh, my grandparents had ties too, and their parents, and their parents, and their parents... and probably their parents too," she huffed slightly, rolling her eyes, "We're just one happy little mob family."

She stopped and tilted her head.

"You're parents actually got away?"

Raising an eyebrow, Afonka blinked at her, "Wow," he finally said, "that's a little -" shaking his head, he cut himself off, "Why? What happened?"

Hugging himself tighter, the Hrabrost glanced around the room, grimacing, "Yeah, definitely happy." The mafia killed people. There was nothing happy about that.

Laughing bitterly, he shook his head, "Apparently not. They - my grandparents - have been keeping an eye on them this whole time. If you're going to punish someone for something, why not use their own child for it?"

"Insane? Overdramatic? Teenage Meltdown?" Ashleen raised an eyebrow and gave a snort, admitting that it was all those things without actually saying it outloud. "I've always had issues... my mother use to call me "high strung"."

"A lot of things happened. A lot of things happened..."

She snorted, and unconsciously, mirrored the boy besider her. She pulled her knees into her chest and hugged them.

"Lets just say... I have a few less men in my life than when we last talked... not entirely sure if I'm okay with it," she managed to flash him a half smirk, "Don't worry - you can tell you're girlfriend she's still safe."

"I'm never having children." The declaration slipped out of her mouth before she even knew it was in her head. She had never so much thought about this fact as...

but now that she said it, she knew it was true. There was just no point in having kids. All she would do was ruin their lives like her father managed to ruin hers.

"A little bit, yeah." Afonka said softly, twiddling his thumbs. "But I guess we can all be a little overdramatic at times." he shrugged.

Weakly smiling back, he sighed softly, "She'd better be." If - if something happened to Tessa or - or to anyone he knew because of his grandparents, he - he didn't know what he'd do.

If only his grandparents hadn't made his life their business.

Tilting his head at her, he nodded, "I can't blame you. I'd never want this to happen to anyone else."

Ashleen shrugged, "I wasn't really myself... I'm still... not really myself. I'm just..."

She shook her head, and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath through her nose and shoved all those thoughts back to where they belongs. When she openned her eyes again, her gaze was as level, emotionless as it had been for the past weeks.

"This is all I've known... there can be good in this I suppose."

She shrugged her shoulders.

Looking at her in silence, he bit his lip before reaching out and softly patting her arm. "I'm sorry," he said softly, "That you're not feeling like yourself."

Glancing down at his feet, Afonka stayed quiet for a few moments before blurting out, "But - but the mafia goes around killing people. How can there be any good in that?"

What the hell had she done. Pandora knew she was lingering to the dark side but still, she didn't want this to happen. She was finally here at the Mafia's mansion. She looked around and ended in the Lounge. She gasped at the sight of her friend.

"Afonka?" She said suddenly. Her eyes widened and she took a deep breath.

"Don't be," Ash muttered, shaking her head. She didn't want peoples sympathy. People's sympathy would only make things worse. She was tired of sympathetic or concerned eyes following her where ever she went. Her every movement was being watched everytimes she dared to step beyond the door of her room.

Even then she knew they were all watching her room like hawks.

It was as if everyone expected her to explode.

"Its not... what they do that can be good so much as..." she frown and shrugged. She couldn't really explain it properly. "Who they are... my whole life has been the mob... the people they're... they're my family."

Ashleen heard the footsteps long before the girl entered the room, having been listening for approaches the whole time. Her face coloured with surprise for a moment at seeing a young girl, who infact mirrored her own reaction to seeing the boy beside her.

Then her face darkened and closed off completely at the recognition that this was a completely stranger.

Her words came out in her new usual blank, uncaring tone - making them appear ruder than what may or may not have been intended.

"Who are you?"

Pandora covered her shock quickly, looking at the girl. She raised a eyebrow at her.

"My name indeed is Pandora Reikhman, upcoming 5th year in Slushatel house at Durmstrang. The questiion is, who are you?" Pandora asked with a smirk.

Ksenia hummed a tune to herself as she walked down the corridor. Her steps were light and relaxed, her back straight and relaxed as she moved further from the library where she had spent her morning. Perhaps it was becoming pointless by thi time to search for the prophecy, after all she had spent the entire summer of last year doing that and as this summer came around she was doing the exact same thing. There were plenty of more important things that she should be focusing her attention on right now, like finding a husband.

On that day the Slushatel couldn't help but feel amused for some reason. Perhaps it was because the stress of the OWLs was gone. Whatever it was, it put Ksenia in a good mood for a change. Currently the girl was heading towards the young voices that were coming from the Lounge. She was quite surprised to hear so many young people gathered in the Mafia Mansion.

"Well hello there," she said as she strolled into the room, noticing that it was occupied by fellow Durmstrang students. "Ashleen," she nodded slightly to the Hitrost. The girl looked better than she had when they last met. The Slushatel sat herself down on one of the couches and crossed her legs, the dark fabric of her dress flowing smoothly over her skin. "Decided that you finally want to change something in your boring life, Alkaev?" she raised an eyebrow at the boy.

Pandora zipped her leather jacket down to show her tank top, she was getting a bit warm. She put her hands in her leather pockets of her pants. She turned around at the new comer in the room, she smirked and crossed her arms. She straightened her self up.

"Hello Ksenia, It's lovely to meet again." Pandora said with a bow of her head.

Glancing up towards the familiar voice, Afonka paled. How many people did he know in the mafia? "Pandora," he choked out, shaking his head. "Fancy meeting you here."

This - this was too much. Two people that he knew in the mafia? His ears buzzing, he bit his lip, hearing but not really listening to Ashleen's next words. He could only stare, dumbfounded, at the girl in front of them.

Head turning at the sound of another person approaching, Afonka's eyes widened. But - but she was a prefect. Sure, she might not be the nicest person, but she was still a - a figure of authority. Being in the mafia, that didn't - Highmaster Rusnak trusted her enough to make her a prefect. And here she was, doing - well, whatever she did in the mafia.

"Not really," he said once he'd found his voice, "I didn't have much of a choice." If it was up to me, I'd go right back to my boring life.

"You can say that again Afonka." Pandora muttered as she thought about how her parents were so happy about her joining the mafia, well one could say forced. She shook her head at her thoughts, her life was a death sentance abd they had control of her. She sighed andwent over to the sofa ans sat next to Afonka.

"How are you Afonka?" Pandora asked, with a bit of emotion.

Ashleen rolled her eyes at the girl's pompous introduction, "Good for you, do you want a gold star for that? Cause let me tell you, all that is going to do you squat around here."

"Me?" she raised her eyebrow, "I'm someone who knowing might actually get you somewhere... if I wished to let my name help."

She leaned back in her chair, her slightly tense posture relaxing into one of haughty disinterest. She wasn't in the mood to deal with these sort of things.

These people and their whining. She felt for Afonka, she really did, he was a good kid, but honestly?

They'd just got here, they'd done nothing and yet here they were acting as if they knew... knew...

"You can call me Ash, I suppose."

She raised her eyebrows at more footsteps, "Sokol, looks as if you aren't the newbie anymore."

What did this place do? Oooze faces she'd rather not see when to be honest all she wanted to do was be back in her room and wallow over things she can't have?

The girl - Reikman's comment - irked her more than she could explain.

"Oh will you all stop your whinning? None of us but Sokol here had much of a chose to be here. Deal with it and move on. Trust me, your traped now, hell you were always trapped you just didn't know it. Be big children and deal with it."

She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder.

"The mob, mafia, whater is like devil's snare - the more you fight the worse it gets. Just grin and bare it and they might let you go back to pretending you were never here."

"Pandora," Ksenia nodded her head to the girl slightly. "How has Hogwarts been for you?" she asked her house mate casually. "Was it as boring as they say?"

"None of us have much choice when it comes to the Mafia," she said to Afonka as she drummed her fingers lightly on thee couch beside her. The Slushatel was getting restless, shut up inside all the time. But going out of this Mansion meant having at least one person following her wherever she went.

She cocked her head slightly as she looked at Ashleen, her eyes turning cold yet the rest of her expression remaining neutral. "Perhaps," was all she said to the girl. There was no use defending herself in any way or proving herself right. It was her principle not to do so in most situations, that was one of the things that kept her well hidden for so many years.

"She is right," Ksenia said as she turned to face the two younger students. "People like us are just pawns under the control of the men who run this organisation. They will make your lives a living hell if you go against them in any way. You obey and you be polite if you don't want to end up as one of their adversaries," she stated simply.

Watching the girl as she sat down beside him, he shrugged, "I've been better. Tired." Giving Pandora a small smile, Afonka glanced back at Ashleen.

His smile fading at her words, he bit at his lip, hugging himself closer. If she'd been in the mafia for years, wouldn't she know? He - he could be quiet. He'd just not talk. We'll, he'd talk, but not to really important people. Not if they didn't talk to him personally.

Giving himself a little nod, he glanced over at Ksenia, tapping his fingers against his leg nervously. Finding his voice, he asked softly, "What - what happens to their adversaries?"

Afonka wasn't even sure why he'd asked. He didn't want to know.

"Oh, I have always been Traped." Pandora said to Ashleen with a sake of her head. She turned her head to face Ksenia, telling her about Hogwarts.

"Hogwarts has nothing on Durmstrang, Trust me. I have missed Durmstrang and I am happy to return for my 5th year. It was quite boring, the lessons are not quite up to standered." Pandora said to Ksenia with a smirk. She looked around the room and bit her lip. She crossed her legs and raised her eye brows at Afonka. What does happen?

Ashleen shrugged her shoulders, disinterested in the conversation. She had been for the last few minutes.

"What do you think happenes?" she snorted, "That they just slap you on the wrist and tell you to go? This is the Mafia darlings."

She wiggled her eyebrows at them, before letting her gaze look blankly at the room, "I suppose ending up dead in a ditch would be you getting lucky."

Ksenia smirked at Pandora's words, nodding her head slightly, a part of her slightly entertained. Though the tales of the British school did not hold her attention for very long.

"Stop your whining, will you Alkaev?" she frowned, her voice turning cold as she turned her head to face the boy. "Out of all of us in this room you are the person who will get the most amount of freedom. None of us want to listen to you complaining about your childish problems." It was slightly entertaining to listen to the clueless newcomers at the beginning though by this point it was turning more annoying then fun.

Listening to the conversations around him rather passively, Afonka ducked his head, not out of shyness, but out of sheer lack of sleep. In the last few months since he'd known about this, he'd been plagued with nightmares, much like he had the months after Ophelia had died.

Wincing slightly at Ashleen's words, he rocked slightly, snapping his gaze up to Ksenia, a frown marring his face. "I'm not whining." he snapped, a rare surge of anger powering his words, "I asked a question. I don't know what dictionary you use, but that's now whining."