Author's note: This is my entry for Postuhenin's Santa's Not-so-Little Helpers Contest. I chose Agios Nikolaos from Greek veneration of saints as my subject.
Patara, Lycia
75th century AM (equivalent to 21st century AD)
18 December
Costa was studying when Dimitri knocked on his door. He knew it was Dimitri because nobody else came to see him.
"The weather's been nice," Costa said.
Dimitri scowled. "There's a storm coming. The weather's going to get terrible." Costa could tell something was off about him. He was only pensive when he'd done something wrong, and he wasn't the kind to ever think he was wrong.
A pit formed in Costa's stomach. "Is this about Georgina?"
The corner of Dimitri's mouth quirked. Costa realized that was actually worse before Dimitri even dropped the bombshell. "Me and Gina had a... disagreement of sorts. You don't have to understand. I just need to use the truck."
People always said Costa was Dimitri's best friend, but he was never on Dimitri's good side. Ever since they were seven, Dimitri had gotten him to do his dirty work. It was just petty crime at first, and then it was destruction of property, and then Dimitri was leaving people bloody in the street and using him as an alibi. Dimitri had enough money, vitality, and verbal trickery to win over most people, and the people who didn't like Dimitri liked Costa even less. When he asked Dimitri how he figured out who to "help", Dimitri just scoffed, "Costa, can't you think?"
Costa couldn't think like Dimitri, but he could think well enough. "Please tell me she's alright."
Dimitri scowled again. "What's so hard about lending me your truck?"
They both knew it wasn't about the truck. Dimitri was too possessive to let his wife of ten years leave without a fight - and what about their daughter?
"I just have to know. Lie to me if you have to - "
Dimitri laughed once, like a dog's warning bark. "What am I supposed to say now? If I say she's fine, are you just going to call me a liar?"
"If you tell me she's fine, then you'd want to find her, right?"
Dimitri leaned forward and glared at him. "Maybe I've decided she's no longer worth my time."
"But what about Elena? Did she take Elena - "
"Yes. Trudy and Lena are in the same place." Dimitri suddenly chortled, which didn't ease Costa's worries.
"I'd like to bid them farewell at least. Couldn't I go - "
"Aren't you still living off your parents? Is this really a good time for you to up and leave?"
Costa started, but as he watched Dimitri slowly smile, he no longer had the strength to refuse. They both knew his parents liked Dimitri more than their failure of a son, so Dimitri could probably get them to disown him. Hell, Dimitri could easily turn the whole town against him.
"So let's get into the nitty-gritty of it all. I'm going to load it up with two barrels. You have to dump the contents of those barrels into the sea. It's organic matter, so it's probably best to go far out. I have a boat set up, so you just have to load the barrels onto that."
"Dimitri, what are you even asking me to do?"
Dimitri shrugged. "Is it really so hard to understand?"
"No, I mean, why do I have to do any of that?"
"Because I asked." That shut Costa up. "Anyways, you should probably come an hour after the storm starts. I'll see you then." Dimitri left, slapping Costa's back hard enough to bruise. Even Costa barely cared about that anymore.
The silence dragged on, periodically broken by his father's snoring. Costa put his hand to his temples, trying to keep from crying. He couldn't stop himself from realizing what was in those barrels.
He'd been there when the couple had met. Dimitri, Costa, and a dozen other "friends" of theirs were traveling across Lycia and its neighbors in Costa's truck. Some of it was normal, above-board fun. Some of it was the kind of destructive looting that only Dimitri and the worst of his posse found fun.
Wooing Georgina seemed to be the former at first. Georgina had been a skilled archer when they met, the kind of person who kept praising her family and her town in the Tauros mountains as she split an arrow with another arrow. Costa didn't understand why she cared about Dimitri or vice versa, but he'd even doubled back to see her, which was a risk given he'd already stolen from that town.
Costa knew it was all going downhill as they exited that town for the second time. By the end of the night, Dimitri had outlined the plan which would consume the rest of their trip. Over the course of a month, he managed to convince Georgina to come back to Patara with him. Of course, once they were there, they started arguing as the honeymoon phase wore off. That was when Dimitri called him with a small request.
He still had her passport in a drawer in his room. He'd stopped even fantasizing about returning it to her. What would he even tell her? What would he do afterwards?
As for Costa, his future was clear as the sky was dark. At best, he'd take this secret to his grave, and at worst, he'd be stewing in a cell again. No matter how much he felt like betraying Dimitri now, that passport proved his feelings never mattered.
Then he heard someone knocking. He shot up and opened the door, stuttering out "I'm so sorry!" before he realized the figure wasn't Dimitri. He didn't recognize the bearded man in a brown robe, so he repeated himself. "I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else. Who are you?"
"Nicholas. We've never met, but I've heard good things about you."
"I doubt that. Perhaps you were thinking of Dimitri? He just left."
"Perhaps I am mistaken. Was it Dimitri who studied abroad?"
Costa sighed, remembering that wonderful time when he thought he could leave Dimitri behind. Of course, when his parents began to call saying Dimitri was far more helpful than he'd ever been, Costa had panicked. He'd sworn to spend just a few months back home. "That was nearly a decade ago. I've never put those skills to use." He opened the door wider. "You should come inside. There's a storm brewing. You can leave tomorrow."
Nicholas shook his head. "I believe the ones he's trapped in the barrel shall perish without your aid."
That piqued Costa's interest. "How do you know they're alive?"
"I heard them moving in the barrels. I believe you can right this wrong better than I can."
Costa thought about it, but he declined the offer. "You should ask someone else. I can't get through to him."
"You are like the earth under his feet. If you were to abandon him in his time of need, he would drown."
Costa had never thought about their relationship that way. He couldn't fathom how anyone could. "Dimitri is never really in need."
"Quite the contrary. He's always in need, but he frightens you into fearing the consequences of defying him. I guarantee that no one will feel the need to drive you away from this town if you follow my instructions."
Costa narrowed his eyes. "Why should I trust you?"
"You haven't even heard my request." Nicholas clasped his hands to his chest. "I am but an old man. I want you to drive me to Dimitri's house. I will knock on the door, I will speak to him. You don't need to do anything after that. You only have to go to the back room where Dimitri's barrels lie. There is a gap that Dimitri didn't notice between the top of the wall and the roof, so if you want to give them something, go ahead."
"How do you know this?"
"If you don't trust me, then don't give them anything. Just sit in your truck and wait. Once I walk back into the truck, you are free to drive away if you want. Where is the catch?"
"Are you going to tell them I knew?"
Nicholas laughed at that, a howling sound like a gale-force wind. "What did you know? That Dimitri had barrels?"
Costa put his hand to his temple again. There was always some kind of hidden cost, in his experience, but he could never see it coming. Finally, he gave up for the second time. "Fine. I'll do what you asked."
He got everything he needed and started the truck as the thunder rumbled.
Dimitri loved walking. Someone always needed help, especially when a storm was brewing. Just walking from Costa's house to his own, he'd been able to help ten people prepare - reminding them that he'd done it, of course, with a bright and boring smile on his face. If any of them were to ask about the truck, he'd just shrug and they'd let it go. "Surely he was helping someone else," they'd say to themselves.
His current plan was far from perfect, but it had been a long time coming. He'd purchased the meat grinder and the barrels long ago, out of a general desire to grind meat if and when he pleased. Elena had loved it so much she almost broke it a few times. Once he ground up the bodies back into the barrels, he and Costa would load them into the truck, then into his boat in the harbor. Perhaps they would dump the bodies in the raging storm, perhaps once the sea became calm again. He wasn't a superstitious man, but it was fortunate that he had to do this so close to Saint Nicholas Day. He needed all the help he could get.
He planned to say he was making sure nothing was damaged out at sea. If they didn't buy it and everything went wrong, he could just blame Costa, whose guilt for stealing her passport could easily be framed as distress at his friend's good fortune, warped into a criminal desire to kill. In any case, the cops were on his side, and nobody else. The new mandated de-escalation officials were the only real problem. They were well-educated in psychology and one of them, Irina, was wise to his tricks. Even after two years of being on the force, she still looked at him with cool suspicion.
He finally arrived at the house, heralded by the first rumbles of thunder. He made his way to the large back room where he and his wife kept all their tools. His wife's crossbow hung above the workbench - thank goodness she hadn't thought to bring it with her last night. The barrels were still in front of the meat grinder. He looked inside, even though he knew what he'd see.
He didn't feel bad about killing Gina at this point. She was a beautiful and capable woman, who could fight the battles necessary to raise a child even if he happened to die. He wasn't sure how she'd ended up by his side - his riches, his reach, his words. But it had been difficult to keep her there, even when he hid her passport and made it impossible for her to get a new one. They'd been arguing over this less. He thought she'd finally been convinced, but it seemed she'd just gone behind his back. He'd already destroyed the temporary passport she'd hidden, but he couldn't undo the damage he'd caused. I beat her too hard this time. It would've happened one day.
Lena was the death that really brought tears to his eyes. Since her birth, he had tried to teach her to follow his commands, and she had excelled. Just last week, she'd told her own mother to have more faith in him. He'd rewarded her more than needed, and he didn't regret it. If she hadn't alerted him when her mother tried to sneak out of the house with her, they both may have escaped him. But Lena had betrayed him too, screaming and beating him in her mother's last moments, threatening to expose him. She had shown that at her core, she would rather follow her own heart than her father's. He chuckled at that, almost reflexively. Perhaps all children disappoint their parents by being too much like them.
He prepared the meat grinder only to hear someone frantically knocking at the door. He rushed to it, remembering to smile. His smile faded as he saw an old bearded man shivering outside through the peephole.
"I'm so sorry to ask, but may I shelter here from the storm?"
"No."
The man waited, then prodded, "Surely you could give me some kind of reason."
"I'm sorry, but I don't really know who you are or know why you're here. I can't help but assume you're trying to fool me."
"Perhaps I should apologize. I heard that you were a benevolent person, one who helped so many others prepare for this storm, so I figured you might shelter me from it."
The man's face looked familiar, but not familiar enough. "Are you from this town? How far did you go? Who else have you asked?"
"Does it matter?"
"Of course." It occurred to Dimitri that he was wasting time, so he started walking away from the door.
"Dimitri, I know you only help others so they're indebted to you. You want their allegiance."
"Who told you that?" Dimitri called over his shoulder.
"Costa, of course! He told me everything he knew about the situation."
Dimitri stopped dead in his tracks. It made sense that Costa would betray me at some point, but why now?
He stomped back to the door and realized Costa's truck was parked outside his house. "I don't know what Costa told you."
"To be honest, you mustn't blame Costa for my assertion. It was what he didn't say, what he assumed you'd do, that brought me to that conclusion. I may have been influenced by all the things I've seen you do, but I brought up Costa because his name is the one you fear the most."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"No one else knows as much about you."
Dimitri was bothered by how accurate the man was. "What's your name?"
"Nicholas."
"Like the saint? Nice try. You can't seriously tell me a man named Nicholas shows up on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day just to lie to me about my innermost thoughts."
"That wasn't why I came."
Dimitri waited for him to continue, but Nicholas didn't elaborate even after half a minute of silence. Dimitri broke first. "Why don't you tell me your real name?"
"You're used to lying, so you don't believe me."
"What if you steal something?"
"If I steal something, you can get it back tenfold. The power you have in this town keeps rotting you from the inside."
"That's what I want, sir. It doesn't hurt one bit to have power over people."
"Dimitri, I don't think you'd save yourself from hell if it meant losing your power over people. I hope I'm wrong."
"Sir, please leave. You don't know me at all." Dimitri didn't want to keep getting chills.
"So be it. I can find shelter elsewhere." The man made the sign of the cross, then walked into Costa's truck. Dimitri hadn't been paying attention to the storm, so focused had he been on the conversation. Once he realized the storm had ceased, he banged his fist against the door, then stood there for a minute, trying to calm down.
Georgina had always wanted to see more of the world, and when she managed to catch the eye of a man from out of town, she was ecstatic. In her husband's hometown of Patara, she was treated extremely well. People respected and adored both of them, and it was fun to see how easily people were impressed by her archery. In the end, she yearned to see even more of the world, and only then did the facade begin to crack. It took her an embarrassingly long time to realize that she hadn't actually lost her passport, and her husband just wanted to control and restrict her movements. He had this trick, awful in hindsight, of beating some of his male friends as badly as her in order to normalize it. By the point she realized something was terribly wrong, their daughter adored him and they both made her feel like a paranoid idiot whenever she tried to gain freedom of movement.
When she came to her senses in the barrel, she remembered this time was different. She'd finally managed to get a passport, even if he'd beaten her so hard she'd blacked out. She knew how to get out and he didn't know how she knew. All she had to do was convince Elena to come along.
Her joints ached as she got out of the barrel and stood on the wet floor. Elena was in the barrel next to her, unconscious and naked, and she realized she didn't have any clothes on either. "What was he trying to do?" she wondered, disgusted. She grabbed her crossbow and steeled herself to threaten Dimitri if necessary. She was done dealing with him in any other way.
Elena stirred beside her. When she realized where she was, she started hyperventilating.
"Mom, what's going on?" Her voice was quivering. "I had a dream that dad - "
"Not now, honey." Looking at her daughter's harrowed face, Georgina decided to forget that Elena had completely sabotaged her escape plan. "We have to leave. Follow behind me until we find your father, then go to your room and put on some clothes."
"Okay." Just as Elena finished saying that, her father barged into the room. He stopped in the doorway with such a terrified expression that Georgina actually felt sorry for him for a second. He fell backwards as Georgina aimed at his head.
"Get out of the doorway."
"I... I thought you were dead." He scrambled out of the doorway as Georgina stayed between him and Elena. "How did you - How are you even alive?"
"I don't know what to tell you. Why did you think we were dead?"
"You didn't have a pulse. Neither of you did." She could already tell he was concocting some kind of excuse. It had been impressive when they were younger, but after that long, it just seemed pathetic.
"I know you're lying." To her dismay, his expression told her she'd fallen for something.
"So be it." He shrugged and started walking out of the house.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Costa's house. I think he has something of yours that he's been keeping long enough."
"You - he has my passport, doesn't he?" As far as she actually knew, Costa was a surly man who had troubles with violence and theft in the past. Dimitri seemed to only keep him around to make himself look better, and he barely ever spoke, let alone to her. "When did you give it to him?" It seemed rather obvious, with her deeper-than-average contact with both of them, that Dimitri kept using him as a fall guy.
"He stole it long ago. Look, our marriage has been failing recently - for a long time. I'm really willing to let you go at this point. Take Lena if you want. Just leave."
"What's going to happen if we stay?"
"Oh, that's fine too! Is that what you want?" Dimitri's smile was like a shark's fin in the water. "I'm feeling a bit callous today - very unappreciative of my wonderful wife and daughter. I might not feel the same way tomorrow."
Georgina gave up. "I don't have to play your mind games." She backed away to her room, crossbow still in hand.
The suitcase she had packed for her escape plan was tucked in the closet, but the clothes they had been wearing had been hastily shoved inside. Elena came into the room as Georgina was putting on her own clothes and hugged her.
"I'm sorry for telling Dad." Her voice was muffled.
"It's fine." Georgina pulled her shirt down over Elena's head, and Elena ducked her head out of it and stepped back. She was full-on sobbing.
"No, mom, it's not fine! I should have, because, I didn't listen, I didn't know he was going to kill you, and, and - aren't you angry?"
"Honestly, Elena, I am angry, but not at you and not right now. I want to leave this town as soon as possible. I've already packed all your clothes - "
"Huh? That fast?"
"No - I mean - they were already packed. I had a whole plan." She had Elena's actual passport. Now all she needed to do was find her temporary passport and hope everything worked out. She heard sirens from outside and tensed for a moment, worried that it was the cops. After listening to the siren for another moment, she relaxed. It's the de-escalation team.
"What's going to happen to us?" Elena asked.
"I don't know. Your father said he didn't care if we left."
She heard a commotion outside, and she looked out the window to see Dimitri standing in front of Costa's car. That was a problem. She'd been planning to drive to the train station, and she was afraid of walking because it was too conspicuous. She looked up at the sky and realized it was nighttime already. I guess I could just walk if I wanted.
She looked at Elena. "Do you want to walk to the train station?" Even though she was still crying, Elena shot her such a stink-eye that she started laughing, and then they were both laughing. "Fine. Maybe we should call a cab."
"What if we talk to the de-escalation officers or something?"
Georgina almost told her it was a bad idea, but then she stopped. She'd never spoken to the de-escalation officers about Dimitri's behavior because the actual police had made it very clear that they wouldn't help her in any way. She'd been worried about what Dimitri would do as well. Now that they were going to leave, she had no obligation to mince words.
"Also, Mom, look at this." Elena handed her a wet bag, and Georgina shrieked when she realized why it was wet. "Elena, why did you - why is the bag bloody?"
"It was on the floor near the workbench." The duh was implied.
"What?"
"Mom, what 'what'? The entire floor over there was covered in blood. Our feet are covered in blood." She pointed at the bloody footprints Georgina had apparently tracked all over the house.
Georgina stared at them in a daze. She had vaguely registered the floor was wet, but not what was on it. "I guess we could show this to the de-escalation officers as evidence of... something. I hope Dimitri really doesn't have inroads with them."
"I don't think so. I mean, I'm pretty sure Dad never - "
"Elena." Georgina softened her tone when Elena flinched. "Even though you're confident, I'm not completely sure whether they'll take this seriously."
"Alright." Elena was quiet now. Georgina walked outside. She heard her husband screaming and started running, only to find a distressing scene. The de-escalation officers had been joined by cops who were threatening Costa while Dimitri jabbered and pointed at him. It seemed Costa had become the fall guy again.
When Dimitri saw the bag in her hand, he looked completely puzzled. She turned away and looked for Irina. Once she found her, she went up to her and handed her the bag.
"Can you run some kind of test on the blood?"
"Blood?"
"Yes. The floor in the back is covered in blood."
Irina looked inside the bag, then looked at Elena. "Who gave you this bag?"
"... my daughter. Why?"
As she said that, Elena came rushing after her, pushing the suitcase in front of her. "Mom, I wanted you to look inside the bag. Your passport's in there."
"What?" Dimitri was suddenly at her side. She shrieked and pointed the crossbow at him, and they both backed away from one another. "Gina, I'm not going to kill you."
"Don't call me that!"
Irina stepped in front of Dimitri. "It's interesting, Dimitri, that you said that. Have you killed any women or girls lately?"
"No."
"So, you didn't happen to cut them up and put them in barrels, such that the floor was covered in blood."
Dimitri clasped his hands together and sighed. "I didn't."
"So these images of corpses in barrels, in what is obviously your back room, are, I assume, some kind of elaborate hoax." She pulled some pictures out of the bag.
Now Dimitri relaxed. "I am pretty sure they are. As you can see, Gina and Lena are fine. Basically fine."
Irina handed the picture to Georgina, and her breath hitched in her throat. She recognized her and Elena's bodies. Her chopped-off head was staring straight at the camera with haunting, lifeless eyes. Her hand reached for her real throat, which didn't even have a scar. She explained, "I'm pretty sure that, real or not, he did intend to kill me."
Irina turned to Dimitri. "Like she said. We're probably going to test the blood all over your house."
Dimitri was tense again. "Alright."
"Do you have any excuse for this?"
"I would rather speak to the cops - "
"Stop."
Dimitri glared at Irina before sighing again. "Sorry."
"Before this point, the 'forces of justice' in this town kept letting you off with barely any investigation. That is going to end. We'll really make sure you see your reckoning."
"Why - wait." Dimitri looked like he had just eaten a nettle. "When you say we... are you the chief of police now or something?"
Irina actually laughed. "No, no, it's not like that."
Dimitri started slowly laughing too. "That's great."
"The idea is to set it up in a federal court, so you'll be judged by people who don't know anything about you except your crimes. That's the 'we'."
Dimitri's smile dropped from his face. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?" He was clenching his fists, obviously trying not to scream.
"No one on the de-escalation front actually wants anything to do with you, and the actual cops don't really check up on what we're doing." Irina could barely keep a straight face.
"So what's the verdict?"
"'What's the verdict?' Oh my god..." Irina clasped her face in her hands, shaking with laughter. "Look, do you understand what you did? The best thing I can do is say you only know the verdict at the end."
This entire time, Georgina was watching him with a half-smile on his face. Standing here, with a crossbow aimed at him and a trustworthy professional between them, watching him twitch like a guilty schoolboy, it was hard to be afraid of him. That moment was interrupted when an actual policeman interfered.
"Why are you pointing a crossbow at him?" He stood behind Dimitri and pointed a gun at Georgina.
"Actually, that's a good point." Irina turned towards Georgina. "Just put the crossbow down and leave. Here, you can take the entire bag. It's evidence, but considering it's Dimitri, none of it's actually going to get sorted correctly in this town."
"Officer, don't - " The policeman stopped, then whispered, "Don't say that out loud."
"What? I'm probably just as corrupt, you know? Just say it. 'Why did you let that woman threaten Dimitri with a crossbow?' I'm fine with it."
Elena tugged at Georgina's sleeve. "Can we please go?"
"Wait." The policeman walked up to Georgina and handed her a set of keys.
"Whose keys are these?"
"The guy's. Costa's. He wanted you to have his truck."
Dimitri squawked, and everybody looked at him. He regained his composure a little too late. "I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me that Costa would give away his truck."
"Well, he said he wanted to give it to your wife. He said Georgina, he said Dimitri's wife, he specified not Dimitri but his wife... I don't know. Anyways, Georgina, do you want the truck?"
Georgina shrugged. "Honestly, it would probably be a good way to get to a suitable train station. I'll probably park it somewhere he can find it." She took the keys and heaved the suitcase into the back of the truck while Elena hopped into the passenger's seat.
"So where are we going?" Elena asked when her mother climbed into the driver's seat.
"Did you look at the photographs?"
Elena nodded. "I've seen worse. They can't be real."
"Yeah..."
"There's money in the bag too. Did you see that?"
"We should really wash this bag at some point."
"We could pay for it with the money."
At that point, the rain started falling again, much harder. Georgina emptied the bag and stuck it out the window. Both of them laughed as she got slightly wet.
"Free wash." Georgina smiled and started the car. "Where do you want to go? I was thinking of going to my hometown."
"I've never seen that, but I'd rather go somewhere famous," Elena responded as they drove away. They would process the situation in their own time, on and off the road. It would take them weeks to learn what happened after they left.
"Costa, I told you not to accost him." Nicholas stared at Costa, now handcuffed and sitting cross-legged on the ground.
Costa was thankful the de-escalation team had forced the police to let him sit up. "It was just a slap."
"Once, in my younger days, I slapped someone and was defrocked. You can never underestimate the consequences of violence."
"But Dimitri can get away with so much, you know?"
Nicholas shook his head. "You should strive for self-improvement, not self-corruption. It's a lesson that Dimitri has failed to learn over decades. His optimism obscures his failure."
They sat in silence until Irina came up to them. "I hope you're both doing well, because you need to explain something to me. There was a bag in the house which contained, well, what looked like a bunch of fabricated photos. Why?"
Costa fidgeted. Nicholas had told him to tell the truth, no matter how strange it seemed. "Nicholas distracted Dimitri at the door while I threw the bag onto the floor through a gap in the wall. The plan was to get her to see what had happened to her, so she would then trust the passport and money were legitimate."
"Interesting. Why did you have her passport?"
"I... stole it." Costa bit back the words "long ago". "I stole it. It was my fault."
"I see. And the photos?"
"They were photos of what I saw. I'm sorry. I understand they look fabricated - "
Nicholas interrupted, "This is my doing. I am, in fact, the saint who controls the wind. I will create a torrential downpour now."
He snapped his fingers, and the wind picked up. In seconds, it was like a river flowing downwards. Over the commotion, Nicholas said, "I can make it less strong." The rain lessened, and both Costa and Irina stared at Nicholas in confusion.
Irina broke the silence first. "Why here? Why now?"
"It bothered me. A man in my birth city, killing a woman and child in a barrel, so near to Saint Nicholas Day. It was like a personal affront to me. I wanted to make this right in person at the very least."
"What about... other times? Surely there are situations where such an obvious shift in the wind would be more helpful to more people."
"I can stall or stop the wind sometimes, but I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient. By God's will, I have this power, as many other people have different amounts."
"But not everyone has the power to do something like this!" Irina gestured at the rain around them.
"As I said, I am not controlling the wind through my own power." Nicholas flashed a pained smile. "Besides, I don't even know the weather that people want. If everyone could be taught how to control the weather, that would satisfy their needs far better. Why would people learn how to do that if the weather was always supernaturally good?"
"I guess that makes sense."
"If you do too many miracles, some people ignore the power in their own hands, while other people undermine you by claiming the power is in their hands."
"I'm starting to wonder if you're just saying what I want to hear."
Nicholas laughed yet again. "People want to hear different parts of the truth."
Irina laughed too. "I wonder what you said to Costa."
Costa took this as his chance to talk. "I've done a lot wrong in the past, but I'm willing to make up for it."
Irina answered him. "You have a criminal record, and the rumor is that Dimitri is partially responsible for that. Do you think you can testify against him?"
Costa sighed. "I want to believe he can change. If he gets locked up, it's not necessarily going to be better."
"What do you mean?"
"I think that, no matter why Dimitri helps people, he's better at it than I am. I still think he enjoys helping people, and they know he isn't a bad person. He just has bad impulses. Meanwhile, I live with my parents and can't get a good job. Even though I haven't done as many crimes as him, I've failed to do all the good he's accomplished. If it were up to me, fewer people would have been helped. There would have been less bad in the world, but also less good."
"You care about him as a person and want him to help people, doing what he does best. I care about him as a criminal and want him to be locked up, not hurting people on a whim."
"Him being locked up, who does that help?"
"Me. I'll feel better." Irina smirked. "But you're really underestimating the people around you. Do you really think that only Dimitri would have been able to help people?"
Costa paused, then reluctantly admitted, "Yes, actually. I think only Dimitri would have been able to help that many people."
"I think Nicholas had it right - wait, where did he go?"
Irina looked around, but couldn't find Nicholas. As she peered over the faces around her, she realized someone else was missing too. She ran to a nearby police officer and asked, "Do you know where Dimitri is?"
The officer shrugged. "Oh, I think we let him go. He was the one who got slapped, right?"
"What about the blood in his house?"
"There was blood in his house? Well, I don't think having blood in your house is actually a crime, so..."
Irina huffed. "I'm glad you're so committed to upholding the law. How are we supposed to find him?"
"We? I don't care. It's not my problem."
Costa answered her. "I'm pretty sure he went to the sea. He has the habit of staring at the sea when he's sad."
Irina shrugged. "It's not like I can get a better opinion."
Dimitri stared at the churning sea. He loved watching boats sail across the harbor, but no one was going to sail out like this in a storm. The conversation he'd had with Costa was running through his brain.
Dimitri had started it, in hindsight. The dead had risen and were tracking blood through his house, so he gave up and ran outside. He got in front of Costa's truck and slammed his hands on the hood, glaring at Nicholas and Costa inside. "What did you tell that guy?"
Costa stared at him. "I told him everything I knew."
"And what did you know?"
"I know what you told me."
Dimitri glowered. "Stop trying to answer questions like me. I can always assume you have no idea what I said."
"It doesn't matter. This guy said he'd help me." Costa pointed at Nicholas as sirens could be heard in the distance.
"Did you call the cops?"
"I called the de-escalation officials. I told them I was concerned about the situation."
Dimitri cursed. He didn't want Irina looking through his house at the best of times, let alone at a time like this. "You didn't have to do any of this!"
"Dimitri, why did you even want me to drop them in the sea?"
Dimitri needed him to stop asking questions. "I didn't do anything like that."
Now Costa's eyes widened. "Please don't do this."
"I didn't want you to drop anything in the sea."
"You're lying! Stop lying!"
Costa opened the door, but Nicholas grabbed his arm. "Don't do that, Costa. I promised you would be safe."
Costa shot him a wild-eyed expression and yanked his arm out of his grasp. Nicholas sighed as Costa knelt in front of Dimitri. "I'm sorry. As long as everything is fine, I won't tell anyone about the barrels."
"What barrels? Is there something untoward in the barrels in my house?"
Costa realized that he'd been the first to mention the barrels in this conversation. "I told you - I'm going back in the car."
As Costa started walking back, Dimitri shouted, "Well, I'm going to call the cops. I'm concerned." He watched in hidden glee as Costa turned around and walked back towards him. Costa's slap stunned him at first, and he just stared slack-jawed as Costa shouted.
"Dimitri, what is your problem? You keep doing these things even when you don't have to! Don't you realize - Can't you be satisfied with everyone's adoration? Do you have to keep controlling people?"
Then the de-escalation officers came. That part was easy. Costa looked too suspicious - a known criminal who had just slapped the well-liked benefactor of the force. The cops just made it more confusing, waving their guns around and trying to keep Dimitri safe. After Irina had told him about the federal court, his feet had carried him to this spot. All that commotion had stopped Dimitri from answering the question, but now he gave it some thought.
In the end, Dimitri decided his most honest answer would have been: "Yes, Costa. I do have to make people feel like that. I've just accepted that, and it's funny that you have so much faith in me. If I stop doing that, I won't have any reason to help people. I'll be like you, or a lot of the other people in this town. What's the point of that?"
His thoughts kept spiraling. "If I leave this town, then maybe everyone will learn to live without me. Maybe they'll finally be able to think about who I am to them, and they won't accept me back. That's the issue." He took a deep, shuddering breath and closed his eyes. "I've built my life around this town and these people. I need them."Tears rolled down his face as he thought about how he'd turned the town against Costa and so many others. What was going to stop someone else from doing the exact same thing to him if he was sent away?
After a minute of warped introspection, Dimitri felt better. It occurred to him that no one had guaranteed he'd be behind bars. It would be difficult to convince a federal court to let him off easy, but that was just part of the challenge. He could try to point out any holes in the case, or show just how much he contributed to the town. It wasn't over yet. He opened his eyes and got up, then stared at the man standing right at the edge of the sea.
It was Nicholas, the old man. His brown robe was a brilliant red now, and Dimitri realized he was the actual saint. He groaned and slapped the side of his head as he thought through all of his decisions.
He had a few options. The sensible decision would have been to cut his losses and ignore the old man. But Dimitri couldn't think that way. He was sure he could gain some kind of advantage from a higher power.
"Saint Nicholas!" He ran towards Nicholas and bowed in the sand. "I'm sure that I must have offended you with my actions, but surely I could make it up to you somehow."
"You should help people with kindness in your heart, not the thought of material gain. It will cleanse you."
This wasn't the answer Dimitri wanted. "Isn't there some way I can help you?"
"No, Dimitri. There really isn't. You can help yourself, and if you do so wholeheartedly, you will be redeemed." Nicholas walked into the water, and Dimitri followed him. Nicholas was walking on top of the water, so Dimitri eventually found himself swimming.
Nicholas turned around with a grave expression. "Dimitri, go back - "
"I won't stop swimming until..." Dimitri couldn't think of something that didn't sound selfish, and before he knew it, he was being swept into the sea. Nicholas ran after him, but it took him a minute before they both stopped in the middle of the ocean. Dimitri frantically swam around, but he couldn't see the shore through the fog and the angry sea.
"Look!" Dimitri spat out salt water and glared at Nicholas. Nicholas stopped a few meters away. "I know you sabotaged me back at the--"
"Dimitri." He didn't expect the saint to look so sad. "Did it really not occur to you that I was trying to help you? Do you really think your plan to dump bodies in the sea would have worked? Do you really think it would have been better if they had died?"
Somehow, this was the first time it had occurred to him. "I thought that was a mistake. I mean, I... I don't know why..."
"I know why. It's because you wanted to fix it yourself. You crave power, and I took it from you. You couldn't see how I had helped you. You fabricated the idea that I wanted you to suffer, that I was sabotaging you. You swam this far because you thought I hated you, but Dimitri, I do not even have hate in my heart for someone of your temperament."
"Are you insulting me?"
"To some extent, I am. You warp the morals of those around you until even your own morals are warped. You're lucky you weren't in this position sooner. I would want someone like you to repent before I pass judgement, but I can't change who you are. Perhaps a near-brush with death will do the trick."
"So you admit you did this to punish me!"
"No. You swam into a rip current, like many a fool. I didn't realize until it was too late, as I'm not affected by that."
"Don't you control the sea?"
"The sea controls itself, mostly, and people learn to avoid things. I can try to stop disasters, but if you had just swam to either side, you wouldn't need my help at all." Nicholas shrugged. "To be fair, this was a long rip current, but you were the one wading and swimming into it."
"Please help me instead of lecturing me."
"Once again, I don't have to do anything. Your savior is right there." Dimitri looked where Nicholas was pointing. His spirits soared as he saw a boat on the horizon.
Nicholas knelt to his head and whispered in his ear, "You have one more chance, Dimitri. One more miracle." Nicholas slowly disappeared as the boat neared Dimitri, and he could barely make out two figures on it. Dimitri clung to a metal ladder hanging from the side, and one of the figures loomed over him.
"Dimitri, what were you going to throw into the ocean?" Costa's tone was even, and Dimitri was confused.
"I don't want to - "
"Give it to me straight." In one swift move, Costa stomped on Dimitri's fingers. As he screamed, Costa slammed some kind of pole into his chest and Dimitri let go of the ladder.
"Why are you being so aggressive?"
"Your floor is covered with blood! You won't tell me where Georgina and Elena are!"
"I mean, they're fine now - " Dimitri tried to grab onto the ladder again.
"No!" Costa smacked him with the pole. "You had killed them, hadn't you? You were going to grind them up and drop them in the sea, right?"
"No! Where did you come up with this?" Dimitri was panicking.
"Then what were you going to throw into the sea?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"What were you going to throw?"
"I'm going to die!"
"Then tell me before you die! Is the secret really so important that you'll take it to your grave?"
"I was going to throw the contents of her suitcase away!" For a moment, he thought the lie had worked. Costa seemed pensive, and Dimitri couldn't think of any real proof - except the blood!
But Costa didn't bring that up. He brought up something even worse. "Dimitri, I saw their bodies."
"... What?"
"Before Nicholas resurrected them. I saw their bodies through the window. I took pictures of their bodies. Irina has the pictures - "
Dimitri was already cold, but now he felt like the cold was pinching him in half down his chest. "You betrayed me."
"Dimitri, are you insane? How is that your answer to this?"
"Are you going to destroy the pictures?"
"No."
"Then you did betray me."
Costa shook his head. "I can get you to safety. Just explain to me that you killed her!"
Another voice rang out. "No, Costa! That could be seen as coercion!"
Dimitri stiffened. "Is Irina on the boat?"
Costa slumped. "Yes, okay? Irina is steering the boat."
Irina started talking again. "Just to be clear, it wasn't my idea to punch you. That was his stupid idea. I also probably would have let you onto the boat by now."
"Is she recording this?"
"Yes, okay?"
"Costa, just push her off!"
"What? Do you want to kill her too?"
"Costa, can't you think? She won't die! The pictures and the recording device will get destroyed!"
"Dimitri, you're the one who can't think. If I push her off the boat, that doesn't set you free. The pictures aren't on her person, and she can still talk. She can still say everything! You have to kill her too, right? You have to kill everyone else who saw the photos. You have to kill your wife and daughter again - man, it never ends, Dimitri!"
"Costa, don't put words in my mouth, especially ones that don't make sense."
Costa stomped back and forth. "I'm just so angry! How come you almost always know what to do and then everything goes to hell? How come you beat people up at night and then get me to pretend you're at my house or we're both at yours?"
"Costa, stop!"
"How come you ask me to steal things like passports and jewelry and old people's glasses, Dimitri? Really?"
"Costa, stop!"
"How come you warn people about me committing crimes, then commit those crimes?"
"Costa, why are you doing this?"
"I actually went to a federal prison, Dimitri. I know how bad it is. When we come out, maybe we'll be the same."
"No, because I'll take full responsibility for my crimes!"
Costa stopped, completely bewildered. It took a second, but when Costa got it, there was a shift in the air. Dimitri didn't even try to get back on the ladder until Costa started talking again. "I get it. The joke is that, because everyone thinks I did all of those things, you're saying that I'm lying and I did all those things."
"You said you did all those things, not me. I mean, you said you think - You said they think you did..." Dimitri was a strong swimmer, but he was getting tired. He could barely keep his head above water.
Costa noticed. "Just get on the boat." He turned to Irina. "We can't leave him here, right?"
"That's illegal, yes."
Dimitri grabbed onto the ladder, but he couldn't quite make it. Costa hoisted him up and onto the boat, where he flopped down like a drunk or a stuffed bear. He took a few breaths before he confessed.
"I think that if I leave this town, people will end up despising me."
He said it with tears in his eyes. He was expecting either of them to deny it, but he didn't hear anything.
He took some more breaths and said, "Maybe they won't let me back in. Maybe they'll abandon me."
Irina just chuckled, "That would be nice." Costa didn't say anything.
"So both of you agree? That's what going to happen?"
They didn't say anything.
"Do you think I can get out of it somehow? What if I pointed out holes in the case, or brought up all the good I've done?"
Irina chimed in. "I've already checked for those things. Do you think I was twiddling my thumbs for two years?"
"What if I'm kept in prison for life? What if it's the death penalty?"
"It can't be the death penalty."
"But what if it was?"
"Good riddance." Irina shrugged. Costa still didn't say anything.
Dimitri sighed. "Good riddance indeed."
He gathered up all his strength, clambered to the side of the ship, and jumped headfirst into the water. He barely heard Costa scream and jump in after him.
I repent! he feverishly thought. He clasped his hands in prayer. I repent for it! I will be redeemed! He swam deeper and deeper until he almost regretted his decision, but then he thought about what was waiting for him up there.
He looked up, almost by instinct, as he sank. Costa and Irina were looking down at him.
He sank as more boats danced on the water's surface.
He sank as his body was lifted out of the water.
He sank as people cried and he sank as they stopped.
He sank as his wife and daughter looked at his tombstone.
No matter how deep he sank, their faces mocked him. All the people he'd stolen from, all the people he'd hurt, all the people he'd helped. His eyes stung and his lungs burned and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Written by Squidmanescape
Content is available under CC BY-SA