The car being driven wasn’t designed for roads like these, and yet, it chugged forward all the same, cresting over hills and descending through dips, all while pressing through the faint powdered snow and the hidden ice of the ill maintained road. Traditional paving stopped a little over twenty miles ago, and what was left here was sparsely maintained at best. This vehicle, a nice car fit for men from Moscow, was likely going to need repairs by the time the man driving it took it home. If he did at all. Jan wasn’t quite sure of the exact implications of a few spoken words they had shared.
He had touched down at the airfield this morning, apparently it had been the closest that the military was officially allowed to utilize. He got airsick easily, but had managed to avoid puking, getting on and off the plane. His own personal victory.
The man beside him hadn’t spoken very many words to Jan, not on the plane, nor the drive over. He hadn’t even properly introduced himself. Those around him didn’t really refer to him. So the man with the thin black beard and the scar across his nose remained a mystery to him, as he stared at the distant landscape, and the boundless horizon that meant the sea was near.
He didn’t seem to mind as the car once again buckled against the design of the road, simply keeping a slow and steady grip.
Jan turned his head out the window, just as his home came into view.
Ostoja wasn’t very big, but it was eye catching. At least, compared to the bland landscape that pocked the surrounding area. It had buildings new and old scattered across it’s expanse, and was built in a fairly circular area, with sections of it lowered below segments of seaside cliffs that lowered a ways to frosty beaches below. In the center of town, a large clock tower, the pride and joy, loomed, but Jan noticed, even at a distance, that the hands weren’t moving. That made him frown. A few other differences stuck out to them. A few new buildings there, a few demolished ones there. But otherwise…
It was just as he’d left it.
A strange medley of emotion passed over his heart, as he looked upon this familiar, yet unfamiliar place. He sighed, but otherwise said nothing, as the vehicle pulled closer and closer, each bump in the road damaging the vehicle further and further…
Eventually, the buildings began to pass them on all sides, and Jan was able to observe ever slightly closer, subtly differences. That building used to be blue. There used to be a store there. The school didn’t have a bell anymore. All little things. He didn’t see very many people out on the street, and those he did, he didn’t recognize. That wasn’t terribly surprising, considering how long he’d be gone. Yet, there was still something subtly disconcerting about the prospect. He spent the remainder of the drive, as they rode through quiet and snow draped streets, trying to come up with a good map of what the town might look like now. To some success, maybe. Eventually, the man driving seemed to find what he was looking for. It was closer to the outskirts, but still within the city limits. And on the other side of the direction they entered from. At the very least, his driver seemed to know where he was going, as he pulled into the small lot of a local hostel…or what he presumed was local. It hadn’t been there when he left. The man got out of the car. Jan followed him out, and wasn’t stopped, so he presumed that that was what he had been intended to do.
The man walked into the hostel, and began speaking with the person at the front in Russian. He was speaking quickly, but Jan caught most of it.
“I’m expected. Artem Lysenko. Week reservation.”
The woman gave a simple nod. Despite that being a bit of an odd duration for a place like this. He was gestured towards the back, and Jan was beckoned to follow.
The actual hostel room was mostly empty. Jan was surprised a place like this was even in business. People didn’t really pass through Ostoja on their way to anything, unless they were going to someplace else. Those visiting family or friends would stay with them. Jan only saw two people here, and only around four sets of belongings in a room which should fit eight.
One of them, a man, was sitting up when the pair entered, tying the knots on a pair of bulky looking hiking shoes. He looked up at the two individuals who had entered, giving them a quick nod, before quickening the pace at which he did up the knots. He was thin, with unevenly tanned skin and shifty looking eyes. Though Jan supposed the look of his companion would put almost anyone on edge. It wasn’t long before he slid off the bed and left.
The other was asleep. A woman, seemingly older, given the slight desaturation which ran through her hair. A bulky bag hung at the end of the bed, bulging with who knows what. She had golden brown skin, with a few signs of age moving across it, or what little Jan could see. She was asleep beneath the blankets, after all, her breaths shallow and soft. Jan lightened his steps as he walked around her.
The man, or Artem as he’d introduced himself, set his bag down at one of the final beds in the room. He stood there in silence a moment, which is when Jan decided to break it.
“Am I able to go now?” He said, in Russian he sure hoped was correct.
Artem turned his stern gaze his way. Jan bristled.
“…Sir” he added, hastily.
A slight pause, before the man spoke, his voice low and gravely.
“I’m only staying here a week. For that week, you’re to report once per day, and answer any questions I may have. Once I leave, I’ll only be a few towns over. You’re going to be monitored for a little while, to make sure you don’t have any…wrong ideas.”
Jan didn’t like that, but pretended to.
“Sunrise. Tomorrow. Here. Am I clear?” Artem continued, sternly.
“…Yes, sir. I’ll be here.”
“You may go. The trunk is unlocked, retrieve your belongings. Do you need to be driven?”
Jan gave a pair of fierce nods, then shook his head to the offer of driving. He slipped out of the room, feeling Artem’s eyes in the back of his head as he went.
He quickly moved back outside, popping open the trunk of the car, which smelled faintly of damaged metal. There, he threw his duffel bag, filled with the few belongings he’d had and kept, over his shoulder. Slamming the trunk shut, he began his walk through familiar unfamiliar streets.
———————————————————————————–
He’d made a point of getting the streets re internalized, but that had swiftly become a tiring prospect for his first day back. So he began walking home. His childhood home wasn’t far, at least in the grand scheme of things. Twenty minutes on foot, easy. But he’d started meandering, and soon enough his watch was telling him it had been an hour. He was wandering towards the center of town, giving nods, smiles, and waves to people he passed. Some he recognized, some he didn’t. But no one recognized him. Not yet anyways.
He tried not to let that bother him. At least not that much anyways. He hadn’t passed anyone he’d really known yet, anyways.
That was, until he passed through a particular street in the ‘downtown’ areas, and he saw a peculiar sign. “Alesky Convenience and Grocery”. A few memories flashing through his head, as he stared up at the seemingly pristine sign for a moment. If he was right…
He stepped inside. A faint bell chiming, ringing out over the store a moment, before fading. The heat was on, so at the very least, he felt a bit warmer. Looking around, he saw the shelves had been rearranged and the products were newer, but it was still the same building. His dad had taken him shopping here, when he’d been young. A faint smile at nothing, before he looked around, spotting only one cashier, bored and reading some magazine. He recognized her, almost instantly. Julia Sasin, an old classmate. He recognized her from her hair, and the same set of clips she wore in it. Or at least, he hoped he did. Otherwise, this conversation would get awkward.
He approached, a faint trace of a smile lingering on his face, as he rounded the corner of the register into her peripheral vision. She looked up, and gave him an odd look, the recognition not flooding to her face like he had hoped it would. All the same, he spoke, resisting the quick urge to speak Russian.
“…Julia?”
“…Yes…?” She said in return, with a bit of curiosity.
“My name is Jan, Jan Mendyk. We went to school together…?”
Her eyes widened, and a smile spread across her face.
“Oh! Jan! It’s been too long…I thought you weren’t coming back after going to the academy. Most find Warsaw too much to their liking.”
“It helped that I was pretty far from Warsaw.” He said, his own smile spreading a bit thin as he spoke.
She laughed, and so did he.
“…You’re the first person I’ve talked with, actually. I just got back. Seems I’m on permanent leave.” He said, fiddling with his bag slightly, as Julia frowned.
“…Nothing bad I hope? You aren’t hiding a limp or anything?”
Jan shook his head.
“No. Division I was apart of disbanded. Ended my little tour early, that’s all. Lucky me, I suppose.” He said with a little bit of a shrug. She followed it up with one of her own a second later.
“Well, it’s good to have you back. I suppose you haven’t seen Marcel yet?”
That took the wind out his sails. Briefly, his brain was sent scrambling between different memories, before righting itself back to the present conversation. He really hoped Julia hadn’t seen the conflict, but her expression hadn’t changed. Good. He shook his head.
“No, not yet. I’m sure we’ll see each other sooner or later…he’s still in town, I take it?”
She nodded.
“Not many of us, I’ll tell you that. Plenty of jobs, just not many in the middle of this dreary fragment of nowhere. But there’s enough that you’ll see some familiar faces, if they haven’t moved away.”
That was the last statement in the air for a moment. That feeling of familiar unfamiliarity had struck him again and again and he was struggling to fully shake it. There was something terrible about it. Eventually, he spoke again. He wasn’t sure how long he’d lapsed.
“Right. You’re stuck here, I’d imagine?” He took an educated guess. Julia sighed, but nodded.
“My dad’s set to inherit the store from the old man. So he’s using me to get there. One more year, he keeps promising, and it’s been three. So we’ll see just how long it all takes. Hopefully after that, I’ll be off to school.”
“I hope so too. Wouldn’t do to be stuck here forever.” Jan said, a little wistfully.
“Yeah, you would say that, soldier boy.” She said with a bit of a smirk, but shook her head. The door chimed. Another man stepping inside, looking to get his shopping done. Figured.
“Duty calls. See you around?” She asked, with a bit of a head tilt.
“…Yeah. See you around.”
He smiled at her, genuinely, adjusting his bag, before slipping out the door again, back out into the cold. That had been enough stalling, he reasoned. It was time to go home. Real home.
———————————————————————————–
The pair of knocks he delivered on the front door rung in and out, as he shifted from foot to foot, back moving inch by inch over his shoulder. The emptiness in the air that followed chilled him to the bone more then any corpse or bloodsucker had in his entire career. But he held firm all the same, as he practiced his smile back and forth to himself, seeing his reflection in the shined metal plate embedded in the door.
And suddenly the plate pulled away, as the door swung open. Standing in the doorway…a tall man, with a set of calloused hands, short cut hair, and a look of confounded confusion which gave way momentarily to sudden, shocking recognition. What gave Jan away, he wasn’t sure, but his older brother swiftly pulled him in close for a tight hug, which Jan returned in short order. The door shut behind them, he was quickly ushered inside by Sebastian. Jan was stopping himself from taking in any difference from the family house, at least not yet, as he was led into the central living room.
“…What’re you doing home?” Were the first words out of Sebastian’s mouth. Unsurprising, all considered. Jan sat down, then looked to his brother.
“…My tour got terminated. Internal mismanagement means they don’t have a place to put me.” A far cry from the truth. But his briefing had been pretty clear on how many details he could give: Very very few.
A pause.
“I see…well, I’m glad you’re home. Do you still get a stipend?”
That question caught Jan off guard. And annoyed him slightly.
“…Yes. I do. I had to sign a contract and everything, but it should hold for a little while, assuming I abide.” All technically true. The remainder of his…division’s funds were going towards those payments. After they finished liquidating the Control weapons and everything else that would be useful for killing American proxies and dissidents.
“Well, good, because…”
Sebastian looked around. His eyes drawn to clutter which dotted the entire room.
“…Lord knows we could use it. You’re alright? No injuries? I see a few scars, are they….?” He gestured at Jan’s face.
“Nothing that’ll stick. They’re from live combat. Managed to skirt by without getting shot, though.”
Sebastian gave an approving looking nod.
“It’ll be nice to have you home. Zaneta will be home soon, and-“
As if on cue, the door flew open. A happy little coincidence in Jan’s favor, it seemed, as his younger sister strode into the room without a care in the world.
Each of the siblings were nine years apart. Their parents had apparently joked when Zaneta was young that it was a good portent that they had, according to old legends. Jan was twenty now, he’d been fourteen when he left. Sebastian was twenty nine now, and had been twenty three when Jan had left. Zaneta was eleven now, and had been five when Jan had left.
So that was probably why Jan was the most surprised by her. She was taller now, almost up to his chest, her hair was longer then it should be, draping to her lower back, with a couple different types of braids and clips running through it. She wore a pink puffy jacket, and a couple other accessories for the cold weather in a similar color.
She stopped once she got her boots off, standing in the hall, squinting towards both Sebastian and Jan with a bit of accusation and confusion.
“Whose this?”
She said, pointing towards Jan. Jan couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
“You can’t really blame her.” Said Sebastian, as he looked between the two. “Last time she saw you, you were built like a twig, and we could barely see your eyes through your hair.” He said, shaking his head with a bit of a grin. Jan shot him a mock glare, but it was cut off, as he swiftly had an excited eleven year old tackling him to the couch in a hug.
“Jan!” She shouted excitedly, her expression alight, a moment, before it soured. He was confused for a second, before a very tiny fist slammed into the side of his face. It didn’t hurt, but it did take him off guard. He shot her a bit of a glare.
“…What was that fo-“
“Where did you go! Sebastian is too mean by himself.”
It was the older brother’s turn to glare, and Jan’s to laugh.
“…Sorry, Zan-” He said, using an old nickname. “Sebastian was too annoying for the army, they’d have kicked him out.”
That made Zaneta giggle, as she receded back from him, her smile back on her face.
“How could I pass up the urge to have you go, and go from scrawny teenager to-” He gestured to Jan’s improved musculature. “Hero of the Soviet Union.”
Jan threw a pillow at him, which his brother caught.
There was something comforting, in all this. At the very least, felt like home.
Suddenly, Zaneta’s eyes lit up, in that way when you had forgotten something. She bounced on her feet once, before bolting up the stairs, shouting a quick “Berightback!” before slipping away and to the second floor, where her room was.
Sebastian gave a shrug, at that, looking back to Jan.
“It is good to have you back.” He said, as if reaffirming to himself just as much as to Jan.
“…I’m glad you’re still here. I was worried…”
“That we found a better place to live? Not a chance. This place isn’t heaven by any means, but it’s still home. Besides, not like I could sell this house for much anyways. Nobody wants to live here, not really anyways. They find out about anything history wise, an-“
Jan cut him off. He’d heard this tirade before. “They leave. Yeah. Nobody wants to live anywhere where they might go missing at night.”
There was a collective silence hanging over the pair of them as Jan said that. Neither of them needed to look at the pictures on the mantle, the dressers with dust covered cloths upstairs, or read the neat government documents in the folders on the shelf. It all came to mind instantly, anyways.
Jan grimaced, and Sebastian did too. It wasn’t a comforting thought, thinking about them.
“Has anyone else…” Jan started.
“Yeah.” Said Sebastian. “Someone in Zaneta’s class. They did a curfew about it. Only lifted it a couple weeks ago. It was…pretty bad. Nobody goes out after sundown, though it’s not like they did before. No trace, no nothing.”
Jan shivered. It was one of his least favorite parts about home. The stories when he was young, amongst the other kids at school-that the streets and the sea and the grass were wrought with monsters and other terrible things that would steal anyone a way. His parents arguing about trying to move, but ultimately not being able to. That was one of his naive hopes when he joined the military academy, that he’d make enough money for Sebastian and Zaneta to move. He wasn’t sure if that would pan out, even now.
The thought that occurred to him most, sitting on his couch, across from his brother, was that the stories the kids at school had told, that those crazy tales that he had picked up from one place or another…they might be true. And he couldn’t say a word about it.
The thought had crossed his mind before, of course. Back when he first got his briefing about the blood sucking monsters in Siberia, and other wild things of the night and day. They tried to break it down like a science…
But getting home made it feel like the furthest thing from reason.
He realized he’d let the silence hang, and just shook his head sadly.
“I’ve got some…friends, who might be able to help, now. I could always…”
“Report it? They’ve tried that. The big city investigators always find an excuse. They fell off the cliffs, and the sea swept them away, or the snowdrift got too big. Or they just wandered off. It never goes anywhere. Maybe we’re just unlucky.” Sebastian sounded a little hostile, and Jan couldn’t blame him. It had been big city investigators like he talked about that had broken the news to him, late one night.
“…Yeah. Maybe. But still. I’ll do what I can…are things ok?”
“With the money you’ve sent back, we’re just fine…assuming it keeps coming, you’re welcome to just hang around for awhile…but if you feel up to it, my boss could always use another hand.”
Sebastian helped fix some of the boats down at what passed for a harbor in this town. That, and a few other odd jobs in that general area. Jan shook his head, though.
“I’ve got a few other places I’d try first. No offense.”
Sebastian shrugged. He didn’t seem offended. His job was hard, and it had given him an injury or five, even before Jan had left.
“We’re alright. Thanks to you. I…” Sebastian stopped, as if not sure exactly what to say. Jan let him compose his thoughts.
“I really appreciate what you did. Even if it didn’t pay off for awhile. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“It wasn’t.” Jan said quickly, before realizing how that sounded. “-But I turned out alright. Nothing too bad.”
A lie. But Sebastian didn’t need to know the truth. Not the long nights, nor abusive days. Not hiding away in his bunk, away from the loud individuals down the way who he didn’t want the attention of. Not the creatures he saw tear men in half, not the state of scenes they left behind. Not…
Walking out of that room, not realizing Anna wouldn’t be as lucky as him.
The regret could probably be used as a blunt instrument.
But whatever.
“…Right. Even so. I wish I could have gone. You didn’t deserve to do that, at your age. But…”
“…You owned the house, and were our guardians. It wouldn’t have worked. This was the best option. Trust me. Besides, I should be fine. WE should be fine, from here on. Everything worked out. I’ll find something to do with my life that isn’t serving the glory of the Republic and Union.”
Both of them chuckled. The only traces of glory in a place like this were the tattered Worker’s Party posters buried under other notices in town hall, and a few news stories about how prosperity would come in due time. Poland’s situation was much more complicated then those posters and articles made it seem. But things could be worse.
Jan had seen worse now. And it wasn’t when he was facing down vampires in the tundra.
“Well good.” Sebastian said, walking over and clapping Jan on the shoulder. “I want the best for you and Zaneta. I’m hoping to send her off to school when the time comes. If you got a job somewhere, I could probably help you get somewhere too…if you wanted.”
The thought was slightly enticing. But Jan didn’t let his interest show. He shrugged instead, a small smile crossing his face.
“We’ll see. We’ll see.”
The two sat in silence for a moment.
A soft knock at the door pulled both of their attentions away. Sebastian looked confused, as Jan rose from his seat, and drifted towards the door. Jan could hear Zaneta moving towards the stairs, rushing down, her small ears hearing the small noise just as well.
As Jan reached for the doorknob, he heard Sebastian confusedly wondering about who it might be, crossing off a small list of names. And as he turned the door, and moved to open it, he heard Zaneta’s voice as well, excited and manic.
“He didn’t know you were home!”
It didn’t register what she might have met by that until he swung the door open, and saw someone he really, truly didn’t expect. His heart sank to his stomach as he saw Marcel there, with a stupid grin on his face, and a beaming smile clinging to his face.
Kindling And Miscellany 