“Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice" -Ayn Rand- *** Phoebe's P.O.V From what I have heard from Anna, the men are supposed to go to Japan tomorrow morning, and I don't know what gets into my head, but for some reason, I have a strong urge to try and use this opportunity to escape. And this time, I will do it the drastic and crazy way. I will try to sneak into one of their private planes without them finding out about it, I know it's going to be really hard especially the flight hours from Moscow to Japan will take around ten hours, meaning that I have to hide for ten hours in a plane, something I have never done, or even think about in my whole life. Gosh, I think I am going insane, the longer I stay here. I take a small suitcase on the room, it was already there when I arrived here so may as well use it for my advantage. I fill it with a few clothing, and underwear, I currently do not have my passport or phone with me but things can be settled later on. Even though my mind knows how risky and foolish this action is, I still have no other choice, especially after all of the crazy events that have been happening these past few days. As I finish packaging everything, I hear a commotion from outside. Let's just say, the room where they put me in is very close to the living room, only a few rooms away from it, and it's located on the hallway area, so whenever there is something loud going on in there, I will pretty much hear about it. Curiosity creeps inside of me, and I peek outside and try to get a little bit closer, but not much to the point where they will be able to notice my presence. "I know, but my relationship is none of your business, and I am not straying from my original plan, there is nothing to be worried about" What exactly are they talking about? "You have changed, Edgar, you are no longer the great Russian Mafia boss, you are just a weakling guy in love!" With those words, Edgar say something I never thought he would ever say. "Then, you are free to leave." Ivan looks at him as if he doesn't believe what he just heard. His face begins to redden with both anger and shame toward the others. "Right! You are kicking me out then! Fine! You know what, you are going to regret this, Edgar!" I can hear the slam of the door after the loud thumping footsteps. I close my mouth with my hands to prevent any noise from coming out and I slowly lowers my back and finding myself almost kneeling on the ground. At this point, without knowing why exactly, I feel like I am about to burst into tears and I find myself unable to listen to their conversation anymore, and it honestly breaks my heart for no apparent reason to witness what just happened. Since when did I turn into such a crybaby? *** As I am about to relax myself on the bed I hear a soft knock on the door, and then after getting my approval, the door opens showing Anna's beaming face as she smiles while wearing a night gown instead of her daily uniform. She has a tray of tea on her hands and she slowly enter my room. "How are you feeling? I heard a sobbing when I walked pass your door and I thought a cup of warm herbal tea would calm you down tonight" she says as she puts down the tray on the table inside the room. She looks around to see the suitcase on my bed. Crap! I forgot to hid it earlier, what if she reports it to Edgar or any of the men? I am so doomed. I am expecting some kind of anger from her judging from her relationship with Edgar but instead she only smiles and approach me softly. She sits down on the bed beside me and look at me with gentle eyes, they are almost motherly like. "You do not like it being here, do you?" She asks me in a tender voice, it's almost making me feel bad. "I guess I should have guessed it, I mean, I was kind of expecting something a little bit different, but I guess you are right to miss your freedom." "Aren't you going to tell Edgar or any of them about this, Anna?" I look at her with a worried look. "Oh, no, no, of course not, I wouldn't do anything like that, I do work for them but I have no right to interfere in things outside my duty." She sighs and grabs my hand to wrap hers around it. "If this is your decision, then I have no right to hold you back, but just know that I see you like my daughter and if this will help you, then, I will gladly help you escape." My senses cannot believe what I just heard. "Are you serious, Anna, you, you are going to help me? But why?" Right now, confusion enters me as I speak, but she just stands up from the bed and give me a warm smile. "I will help you sneak into the plane tomorrow, and believe me when I say none of them will find out about it for a while, just follow my plan and also, I will give you some money to get your needs wherever you may be at, it's not much, but it's enough to help you survive for a while." Tears escape from my eyes because I never expected her to say anything like that. "But, what will happen if they found out about it? Wouldn't you lose your job or anything? Or even worse, they may do something to you!" She lets out of a soft chuckle. "Oh, trust me dear, none of them can get rid of me, not even Edgar himself, you can say I am bound to this place for the rest of my life, so you don't need to worry about that." I wipe away my tears to give her a big hug. I never thought I would get emotional like this. "Thank you so much Anna!" Those are the only words I could say, because I am feeling so grateful to her right now. "I'm sorry that's the only thing I can do for you, because the rest is completely up to you." I shake my head. "No, it's already more than enough, I promise you I will pay you back later Anna, I don't know how, but I will." "It's okay, just take it easy for now." "I'll miss you." "I'll miss you too." She smiles at me and slowly stands up from the bed. "Drink the tea and get some sleep, I will wake you up really early tomorrow so we can go ahead of them." I nod my head and thanks her again, she finally leaves the room and I look at the suitcase on my bed. Please let this plan work. *** The next day, I wake up really early and together with Anna, we go to the plane area, and because they are using a private jet, it's not that hard to get inside with Anna's help, sometimes I wonder if Anna is an ex secret agent or something. The private jet is pretty big and convenient, Edgar actually owns two private jets, one is this one which is exclusive for him and his close men, and another one is a rather simple one for the rest of the men, and at this moment I truly realize how wealthy he is, it's almost scary. she puts me in a room at the plane where it's rarely being used, a room on the back, near the toilet, it's more like an additional storage room to be honest which I don't really mind, and somehow, she can be so sure that no one is coming in there. "Goodbye, Anna, thank you." I say before she closes the room, and she smiles back at me. "I have a feeling we will meet again, so goodbye for now." And with that, she closes the door. I immediately go to lock the room and all I can do is wait. After a while, and by that, I mean two hours later, I hear the sounds of men entering the place and I can see Edgar and his men, excluding Ivan now, enters the plane as they sit down on the comfortable sofa. Gosh, they don't look like mafias on their way to meet another mafia at all right now, they look like some sort of high class well-mannered people with proper life, which leaves me wondering, sometimes I wonder why looks just have to be so deceiving? After around fifteen to twenty more minutes, I can feel the sound of the plane moving, and it shakes me up a little bit but after the plane gets in the air, things just simply calm down. I take a deep breath as I hold on tight to my suitcase. God, please let me live.