I’ve been living for 20 years in a country where money can buy everything. It has the key to a door that leads you to sorrows, broken bones and fake love. I learned that if there is something that can keep you safe is silence, but some find an answer even in that and you can’t be sure you’ll see another tomorrow. The day I learned a valuable lesson about silence was the one I witnessed a murder committed by Nicoai Ivanov, the famous Russian mafia leader. The gruesome scene haunts me even now and gives me shivers down my spine. It was at the end of my schedule at the restaurant “Babushka” where I was working for approximately 2 years. I was tired and sad because my mother died one month ago and I stayed without eating anything days in a row, thinking about how lonely and hopeless I truly was. I was walking to the garbage disposal to throw the waste when suddenly I heard noises, someone was being beaten to death. I went further down the alley and pecked from the corner of a building only to see two men pinpointing another one to the ground and kicking him ruthlessly. The helpless man was middle-aged, but I couldn’t distinguish his features properly except for the gray hair.
” Where is he?” one of them asked menacingly. He was in his mid 30’s, tall with black hair and dark eyes. The other one was not as tall as this one and had blonde hair and blue eyes, a strong jaw and big ears.
” Boss” he shouted to the man with the black hair, "I think we need to cut him piece by piece until he starts talking”.
” Patience Yuri” he demanded with a smirk on his face, "we have all night to do that. I still want him conscious”.
He made a sign to his so called “employee” to stop hitting the man on the ground, meanwhile I felt frozen, I could not speak, I could not move, I just stood there in shock and did not know what to do or how to react. Out of the blue, an idea came to my mind. Without thinking twice, I picked up my phone and started recording the entire scene as I would have probably needed proof for the police in case things would have escalated. When they stopped hitting him, I was finally able to breathe and, preparing to run back to the restaurant I stumbled and fell. I could not see clearly anymore because of the panic attack that was taking over my body. My survival instinct helped me as I fought with myself to stand up and finally, I started running and, before I could take the corner of the street to the main road, thinking nobody noticed me, I saw him. He was looking straight at me with a vicious glare that made my body produce even more adrenaline.
I rushed into the restaurant and killed all the lights, quickly grabbed my purse and my jacket but, as I was trying to close the restaurant door and leave, I felt someone behind watching me. Turning around, there was a black car parked in front of the restaurant. I did not see who was inside because the car had smoky windows and it was during night time. I started my car and set out on the road home, driving for a couple of minutes when I spotted the black car at 500 feet behind me into the rearview mirror. I went slightly faster, hoping I will lose it eventually, but the car maintained the same speed as I was, which made my heart skip a beat. After 15 minutes I pushed the pedal to the metal as I was too scared to stop and the only thought running through my mind was getting home as soon as possible. When I finally got to my place, I went running directly into the house locking the door behind me. I peeked through the window to see if the black car was near my house but the darkness covered not only the evil but the devil himself.
