"Ouch... Where am I...?" Vasily wondered as he woke up in a cool barrack, lying on his back. He looked at the completely dark sky from the window, then at Oleg, who still asleep in the barrack. "Oh yeah... I fainted from the heat. Rehearsals must be almost over at the hall, so I don't need to go after everyone..." Then Vasily got out of bed and quietly walked around the bunkbed so as not to wake Oleg. Accidentally, his foot kicked Alexei's backpack, and a book fell out of it. Vasily picked it up and read what was written on the front:
Alexei. Yu. Mikhailov.
1938
"Oh, Lyosha's diary... I wonder what's in it. Maybe I use it as a joke, hehehehe..." Vasily muttered, with a mischievous smile on his face. He flipped through the pages, which mostly contained rehearsals of the Alexandrov Ensemble, Alexei's stories from his apartment, concerts around the Soviet Union, and so on. Vasily laughed occasionally as he read how Alexei described Vasily as a chatterbox, never filtering his words so that he sounded like a know-it-all, and a drunkard. “Watch out, you fucker. I’ll make you suffer even more with my chatter,” Vasily said between laughs. But the more he opened the page... the more he was suspicious because this writing are too different.
23 February 1938
In two months, I will return to Leningrad. I planned to buy the Crimean wine for Anna. I'm sure she will like it. I'm also curious how Anna's fiancé looked like. What a lucky guy. Or not so lucky, I guess...
The rest was the usual training, humor thrown out by his friends, and a small party for Vasily's birthday. The tone was back cheerful as usual. It was very strange, Vasily suspected.
3 April 1938
Preparations for Leningrad are complete! But too bad the concert to Crimea may took a week or two... Ah, it's okay! Anka is my sis who patiently waits for her brother to come home! I can just buy the ticket later after finished with the tour.
After that, Vasily opened the page behind the March and April entries, and he was quite shocked by its contents. And a large splatter of blood almost completely covered the page, which described events in 24 April.
24 April 1938
The reunion went great at first. The chat between us at first seems nice. But I was so upset when Anna admitted she still expect me to dote on her even after marriage. I can't stay in her apartment because she start to seek argument, so I choose to just stay in hotel to calming down. Though... I was so upset until I forgot to give this wine to her, and chugging it in hotel in spite. Oh well, I will buy it again after attending the marriage. For now I think I shall just rest my body at bed. Been long time not rest properly after grueling concert during Spring, haha...
26 April 1938
Waiting for an ambulance to clean up Anka's body. For some reason, when I arrived at the communal unit, everyone gathered. And Anka's fiancé informed me that my sister had died horribly. At first I didn't believe it, but it turned out to be true. Everything on her body was slashed, and blood was everywhere. Her hand held a small piece of paper, which unfortunately was unreadable because the bloodstains had covered the writing. I didn't know what my sister had done to deserve Yezhov's purge... Although I later learned that she worked at the law institute as an archivist. Her fiancé said that he only know she has brother by now... Why did she have to lie to me again?
But... I still loved her, as the only family member who had fought with me to escape from Kiev...
My dear Anka... Farewell...
29 April 1938
Just after I finished processing Anka's death certificate at the hospital. I start to know more; Anka's fiancé had been in relationship in 1934. Right after I joined Alexandrov Ensemble. She has been happily hanging out with him, although slightly being possessive if the fiancé was not paying her attention enough. This makes me somewhat sad... Because she kept telling me through mail, about her boredom to be alone all along. Why did she do that?
Ah, and it feels like a mocking that the paper where I wrote about Anka had bloodstain. I accidentally drop my diary near the crime scene when writing my feelings three days ago...
3 May 1938
First day to touring Far East in Soviet Union! The train ride is quite bumpy, but at least I am not too easily motion sickness. Poor Vadik and Dima, though. They spent mostly by sleeping and not reading anything long such as scores, probably prefer to train their skill with memory than with piece. I hope the train safely brought us around three days later.
5 May 1938
Dima, Vasya and Vadik as usual console me again, which is nice.... Although now it's become annoying that fat redhead now talking to me, as if I am the murderer of Anna. Why would I do that to her? It's already enough that she is dead.
The writing samples become more far apart, which made Vasily even more suspicious. One writing her name as Anka, another writing hers as Anna. And Alexei usually the one who will scold hard Vasily if he teased Semyon as "fatty" (even though Semyon never offended by that).
It's true that a diary doesn't have to be written every day, but what puzzled him was, why it feels too different? Or was he writing too emotional and then tearing it up, changing to be more neutral? It couldn't be. There weren't even the slightest tears. Vasily continued flipping through the pages, now in August 1938, and found a page describing Dmitry's birthday in 16 August. It was also Alexei's last entry, as the next page was blank. It's odd that Alexei hasn't write anything today (18 August 1938).
16 August 1938
My calmest friend had a birthday! But like every year before, he didn't celebrate with anything. He is too humble and modest... Moreover we are still in Far East. So we celebrate by making sure he never touch floor at all during the break time. Vadik hoisted him and brought him anywhere he wants. Although of course Dima still being put down when he need to pee, hahaha!!
Suddenly, a voice rang out from outside, making Vasily panic, afraid of being caught reading someone's secret. Vasily put Alexei's diary back in his backpack, then climbed into bunkbed, and pretended to still be asleep. Sure enough, it was Dmitry, Vadim, and Alexei, tired from rehearsal.
"Vasya? Olya? How are you?" Dmitry asked. Oleg and Vasily woke up, opening their eyes lazily and yawning (Vasily, of course, pretending to have just woken up).
"Better than before," Vasily lied.
He would monitor Alexei more closely, he promised. Though he didn't know where to start.