[Forest near border of Germany, July 1944]
The man named Dmitry Petronov, now swallowed his blood-tinged saliva again. His green eyes struggled to focus on what had struck his mouth in the sudden. His hands gripping his belt to brace himself against the pain. The only clear thing to see was a strange, widened sly grin. That grin let out a laugh, signaling his victory over his opponent.
"Hello, Dima. So you're still alive. I thought you will easily died over a random bullet," the man with hazel eyes mocked after a moment of silence.
"Lyosha? What the hell?! How you could be this cruel?" Dmitry cursed.
"Hahahaha, you even still call me Lyosha!!" Alexei barked before spitting on the ground, "You're so naive. Innocent. Annoying. Your qualities somehow attracted me to you, just like Lyosha felt. Made me develop primal instinct to protect you. Made me hesitated to poison you three years ago. Thankfully, I won't hesitate anymore, start by removing Vasya who kept pestering me around."
"Wha-what..." Dmitry's throat tightened as he heard Alexei's emphasized words. "You bastard! Why did you kill Vasya?!" Dmitry's anger boiled over, and ran toward Alexei to punch him. However, Alexei had already tilted his neck before Dmitri's fist could reach the cheek. Dmitri himself was also surprised when a hand suddenly struck him right in the ribs. Then he knocked down to the soil.
"There's a price to crossing over my lines. Especially for you, who take Dasha from me."
Shock shown evidently on Dmitry's face. Dmitri's inner questions were immediately answered when Vitaly shouted the truth.
"I knew Dasha first!"
One slap to Dmitry's head.
"I was in the same orphanage as her!"
One kick to the shoulder.
"I gave her the will to live!"
Another slap to the temple.
"And I loved her first!"
Meanwhile, the man with green eyes did nothing but submit to the slaps. Or more precisely, still in shock from Alexei's statement. More blood began to leak from his mouth again. The green eyes dimmed, almost giving in to Alexei's assault. Then the final kick landed to the chest, sending Dmitry tumbling back to the ground.
"You ever said, you only thought of her as friend! Why suddenly you said all of this?" Dmitry declared, still facedown on the ground.
Alexei rolled his eyes, "Yes, Lyosha said the truth that Dasha is just a friend. He mentioned it in the diary. He also supports you, right?"
"You... Have you been insane, Lyosha?!" Dmitry rose from the ground and stood facing Alexei, who had already prepared to attack. The words spoken by his friend getting stranger.
"No. I am Alexei's protector, Vitaly Bodenko. I live inside him too."
Dmitry felt a thunder exploded his ears. And for the first time he can see the difference. The cold gaze. The non-existent curved lips. The slightly lowered pitch when speaking. Something he has seen often, when hanging out with this man with hazel eyes. The forest around them began to colder, even if it's summer.
"You're... not Lyosha... But... how? Tell me, Vitaly..."
That man with hazel eyes flinched. Then without answering the question, Vitaly attempted to land another punch on Dmitry. But Dmitry suddenly slid past Vitaly's legs, and push that man off the ground. Then Dmitry fled in panic, forced himself to enter the battlefield prone to a hail of bullets and bombs. He hid behind a completely destroyed Panzer, then peered from a distance in case Vitaly pursued him.
"Are we playing hide-and-seek now? You're the pest afraid of the death, while I'm the fierce hunter!" Vitaly taunted.
The green-eyed youth's heart pounded even harder as he heard Vitaly's voice louden. He could have just use his gun. Still loaded with seventy bullets inside. But he instead looked around, searching for another place to hide.
"It's no use to running, Dima. The enemy is in front of you, and I'm right behind you!" Vitaly sang.
Dmitry immediately crawled under the destroyed tank, watching to see where Vitaly was going through the gap. When that strange man reached the rear of the tanker, Dmitry peeked out once more. Vitaly had walked straight away from the tanker, where Dmitry had been hiding in.
Without further ado, the man with green eyes then quickly ran from his hiding. Then he wrap his arms around Vitaly's neck, intending to strangle him.
"Give back my Lyosha, Vitaly!" Dmitry shouted. Meanwhile, Vitaly, shocked by Dmitry's presence behind him, struggled to break free from his grip.
"NO!" Vitaly snapped, then bent down with all his strength to throw Dmitry off. His opponent fell onto his back, where Vitaly stomped hard on the opponent's stomach. "I won't let him control me anymore! Am I not allowed to have one wish fulfilled? Am I not allowed to, Dima?!"
Vitaly started to drawing the soldier knife from his belt, "I was born from a murder."
Then he knelt while still stomping Dmitry's stomach. "I grew up from an orphanage. I worked in the torture of propaganda."
"I lived with the torture of love. And all this time, nothing I did ever produced what I wanted. Was my suffering not enough?!" hollered Vitaly at the end, as he twirl his knife.
The bullets and bombs are filling the silence for a while. Dmitry's tense face now felt funny. He let out weird laugh despite he was so afraid, "...Then why didn't you tell me since the beginning?! We could have work it out together! But now everything is too late. Lyosha has Nina, and Dasha is mine."
"SHUT UP!" The soldier knife was now flying downwards. Dmitry's hands quickly gripped Vitaly's hand. The blade was now only two centimeters from his neck. Vitaly glared at that young man with green eyes, completely lost his patience.
Dmitri swallowed, feeling fear overcome him after trying to hold it back. The secret fear of his death caused by his own friend, seemed to be coming true. He closed his eyes, hoping a stray bullet would hit his head so his death wouldn't be as painful. Memories of tragedy flooded through his mind, from seeing his father killed as partisan, to seeing a friend who turned into enemy. He could feel the tip of the knife slowly touching his Adam's apple, and the pain began to set in.
"Lyosha... help me...!!!" Dmitry's voice strangled in pain. But strangely, the tip of the knife suddenly felt move away from his neck. Dmitry opened his eyes, only to see Vitaly's terrified gaze.
That man dropped the knife, backed away from Dmitry and whimpered, "Oh no! Oh no no no! I'm so... I'm so sorry, Dima!"
"Lyosha! You're back!" Dmitri cried. He got up from the ground and approached the man with hazel eyes. Those two men now hugging tightly.
"I remembered everything now... So all of this time... I was never a good man at all..." trembled Alexei.
"No. You are good man, Lyosha. You always being a good friend to me..." soothed Dmitry, even if he is also afraid if suddenly he will be stabbed from behind.
Unfortunately, the hug was short. Dmitri's arms was struck by Alexei, whose his hazel eyes were seemed determined.
"If so... then I will protect you better this time. Goodbye, Dima!" Alexei screamed before running backward from Dmitry.
"Lyosha! What are you doing?!"
Without hesitation, Dmitry chase back Alexei. He could still see Alexei running toward more wreckages of Panzer and Soviet tanks. Or in exact, they have entering a dangerous zone where more bombs and missiles were falling. Many Wermacht soldiers were still hiding behind mounds of mud and rocks. That's where Aleksei finally stopped, then turned toward Dmitry, who was still trying to reach him.
For some seconds, Dmitry swore to see Alexei pulled a wide... but also a sad smile. Then at the same time, a large red hole appeared on Alexei's forehead, which soon gushed fresh blood. His hazel eyes slowly closed, and his body collapsed forward. Dmitry tried to reach for the lifeless Alexei. But suddenly a soldier grabbed his gymnastyorka collar and yelled, "Are you crazy, comrade? There are still too many enemies! Retreat! Retreat now!!"
"No! Lyosha!! Lyosha!!!" Dmitry tried to struggle. But the sound of bullets and bombs caused his flight won over. Finally, he followed his comrade's orders to retreat from the danger zone. For some reason, Dmitry couldn't shed tears during the bombings. All he could do was let out an emotional glare from his green eyes, as he shot every enemy from behind a mound.
====
Six hours past. Most of the Wermacht soldiers has retreated too to the capital city. The border of Germany now coast clear. Once again, groups of Soviet soldiers can proceeded to take a look on the damage result and bury the fallen comrades in an open field nearby.
Dmitry managed to find Alexei's body among the tens of fallen comrades. Slowly, he approach the body that almost hardened, with his hand caress Alexei's cold cheek. Only with that gesture... flows of tears finally coming out. He sobbed onto Alexei's chest for a long time, until he has to stand up when other soldiers nudged him. Alexei's turn to be buried has come.
Was the friendship ever real to begin with? From where it gone wrong until cost everything?
He would never understand about Alexei. Or Vitaly.