“I’d seen more death by the time I was eight than most people see in a life time. They didn’t send me on jobs, nah, a scrawny little kid like that wouldn’t have succeeded in anything more than basic espionage. No, when you grow up in a place in the Varennikov mansion, death just becomes a daily sort of thing.” She leaned forward on the couch, her fingertips pressed together and elbows resting on her knees, a basic gesture of consideration. It was difficult to be fully honest. In fact, Salem didn’t think she’d ever been so open even to her sister.
“They called me Four, you see, because there were three before me and two more after me. The Varennikov only ever kept six of us at once, but our numbers were always being reused - most of the kids didn’t survive the first year in training,” her voice was steady, a habit from years of trying to be the strongest in even the harsher situations, “Six was the first to die in my time. She was just a kid, and she only lasted three months. The training was too much and she was too week, so they kept punishing her again and again - trying to make her strong you see. It didn’t work and she died on the training grounds. Her body just gave up. Or maybe she did.”
She was a bit jittery on the couch - not so much because she was nervous but because she was so used to having something to do with her hands that River didn’t even know how to sit properly. Eventually, she settled for crossing her legs, her boots kicked off to reveal nyan cat printed socks. “I was sort of an experiment for the Varennikov, but if they didn’t choose to train me as a hacker, I think they might have killed me themselves. I was - well, am - pretty pathetic when it comes to combat, or shooting anything. I can hold my own ground, sure, but just because you can throw a decent punch doesn’t mean that you can survive in that world. I’m not like Salem.”
There was a bit of a spark in her eyes when she mentioned Salem and River, since she was being honest here, couldn’t help but gush. “I’d always really looked up to her. She was always the strongest out of all of us and even though she doesn’t show it, I can tell that she really cares for the rest of us kids,” she nodded, “She always came to check on me when I was first removed from standard training. Well, Salem - Four, back then - never said anything to me but I could tell. She walked past my room a lot and just looked, as if making sure that they didn’t get rid of me yet.”
“Salem is more of a family to me than I’ve ever had in my life.”
