Until Tomorrow

Untitled

Warnings: implications of sex, mild language, and heavy angst.

Part Three

Moscow, Russia

February 2006

Chapter 1

Danya was in bed with Bryan when his cell phone rang. Half glad and half annoyed to be roused from his bout of sex with Bryan, he rose from bed and groped for the phone on his nightstand.

“Hello?” he answered in Russian.

“Danya, it’s Kai,” Danya could barely recognize the voice he heard as his friend’s.

“Kai?” Danya asked in disbelief.

“Did I interrupt you?” Kai asked.

Danya glanced furtively at Bryan before answering. “Sort of…”

“What? Are you and Bryan at it again?”
“That’s not important right now,” Danya said impatiently. “Why are you calling so late? And why are you speaking English?”
“It’s traditional to speak English in America. I thought you knew that.”
“What do you want?”
“You need to come to America at once.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Danya asked, sensing at once that something was wrong.

“It’s too complicated to tell you. I have to show you.”
“ I don’t understand.”
“Just…get here as soon as you can, all right? Please.”

“All right,” Danya sighed, finally giving in. Kai did not even say goodbye before hanging up. Frowning, Danya hung up and put the phone back on the nightstand. He trembled slightly as he picked up his fallen clothes from the floor and got dressed.

“Where the hell are you going?” Bryan asked, watching him dress.

“I have to go to America,” Danya answered.

“Why?”

Danya hesitated. “I…don’t know. Kai called and he said that I had to come to America as soon as possible. He didn’t explain why…”

“And you trust him?”
“Yes. Kai is our friend. I would trust him with my life.”

“I’m coming too.”
“Bryan…”
“I won’t let you out of my sight again.”
“Fine. I’m leaving in an hour.”
“Do not think that you can always control me so easily. You belong to me.”
“I am not your property.” Bryan hissed softly in anger, but Danya was already out the door before Bryan could inflict any more bodily harm on him.

An hour and a half later, they were in the air, flying in one of Danya’s private jets. Bryan refused to be anywhere near Danya and that suited him just fine. He spent the entire trip deep in thought, trying to think of why Kai would have called him back to America so urgently. He came up with nothing.

They landed at Detroit Metro Airport late the following morning. Bryan had slept for the majority of the flight and was in a much better mood when they landed. Kai greeted them at the airport. He was barely recognizable; his golden colored lay limp and matted with large tangles on his neck and his violet eyes were clouded with strange emotions that Danya could not even begin to describe either in English or Russian or any other language. There were dark circles under his eyes, indicating a lack of sleep and his face was drawn and weary.

“What the hell happened to you?” Bryan demanded as they climbed into Kai’s limo.

“Bryan!” Danya protested.

“It’s all right. I must look like hell. I haven’t been able to sleep well for quite a while now,” Kai smiled wearily.

“But why?” Danya asked.

“You’ll see in a little while. I promise that everything will be clear soon enough.” They lapsed into silence and Kai sank back in his seat, his eyes half closed. Danya stared out the window, but did not recognize where they were going at all.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Ypsilanti. It’s about an hour’s drive from Chelsea,” Kai answered with his eye still half closed.

“But what are we doing here?”
“You’ll see soon enough.” Suddenly, a huge building complex loomed into view.

“Kai, what is this place?”

Kai opened his eyes and carelessly glanced out the window. “This is St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.”

“A hospital?”
“Yes.” Kai refused to say anything else. They drove around to the back side of the hospital and the limo stopped outside a small entrance. Without saying a word, the three occupants of the limo got out and, with Kai in the lead, went into the hospital. After a long walk that included a ride up in an elevator, they came to a small sitting area with toys and several children of varying ages sitting with their parents or playing with the toys.

“Where the hell are we?” Bryan growled, disgusted.

“It’s the pediatric oncology floor,” Kai answered.

“Can you translate that?”

“Children with cancer. Now stay here. I’ll only be a minute.” He left Danya and Bryan standing stupidly in the middle of the hallway and went to talk to a nurse sitting behind a desk. A couple minutes later, he returned, looking satisfied. “Let’s go.” Confused, Danya and Bryan followed their blonde-haired friend down the hallways, past several doors. They were rooms with sick children. Danya felt sickened at the pathetic state of some of them. Kai finally stopped outside one of the closed doors and knocked softly before opening the door and entering. It was a rather small, dreary room with powder blue walls and only one small window squeezed haphazardly into the corner. There were several chairs scattered around the room, mostly vacant, but three were in use; one by a cinnamon brown haired man, one by a sandy blonde haired man, and the final by a teenager with tawny brown hair. There was a fourth person in the room, propped up in the bed against several pillows. He was deathly pale and bald, but his blue eyes shone as brightly as they had when Danya had first seen them. There were wires and tubing running into his body, but not nearly as many as some of the other children. His face was older than Danya remembered, thinner and hollowed. Danya glanced around the room. Two of the other people there he recognized, one he did not. The teenager caught his glance at once. The resemblance between the two of them; the boy in the bed and the boy in the chair was unmistakable. Their faces were almost exactly the same, though sickness had taken away the angelic features of one. Danya could imagine that at one time, they had been exactly the same. Their hair was different. Though the boy in the bed was bald, Danya could remember his hair color, almost picture it in his mind. Golden like Kai’s, but much brighter and curly. Luxurious long curls. He did not understand how the two of them could have been related. It seemed impossible unless…

Danya dismissed the thought from his mind at once. The people in the room were finally aware that they had visitors and looked up.

“Oh Kai. We didn’t hear you come in,” the sandy blonde haired man said in a tired voice.

“I did knock,” Kai responded. “I brought some friends to visit.” Kai stepped back out of the way so that the occupants could see the guests. The two men were pleasantly surprised, but apparently glad to see them. The tawny brown haired boy was quizzical; he recognized neither of them. The boy in the bed was both surprised and alarmed; he had recognized Danya instantly, but looked completely blown away to see Danya standing there in his doorway. Each breathed the other’s name, hardly daring to believe what they were seeing.

“No,” Danya shook his head. “No way…”

There’s no way it’s happening. It can’t be. Not Nick. He thought wildly. Before he knew what he was doing, he turned and ran for his life, away from it all.

To be continued…