Chapter 4: The Failed Escape

By the eighth day of her imprisonment, Evelyn understood one thing with absolute certainty. No prison was impossible to escape, it only required enough patience. She had spent every waking hour watching, listening, and remembering.

The Mikhailov fortress operated like a machine. Every soldier knew exactly where he belonged, guards changed shifts at the same time every day; meals arrived within minutes of the same hour while patrols crossed the prison corridor in identical patterns.

There was comfort in that kind of order. But there was also weakness…People who relied on routine eventually stopped expecting surprises. Evelyn sat quietly on the edge of her bed, pretending to eat breakfast while listening to footsteps outside her cell.

One pair passed, Twenty-five seconds later, another pair followed. Then silence. Twenty-five seconds later...The first pair returned. She had counted the pattern so many times that she no longer needed to think about it.

She closed her eyes.

One...Two...Three...Twenty-five Boots. Another twenty-five, more boots, perfect.. The fortress breathed with calculated accuracy.

She also noticed something else..

Every evening, shortly before the final guard rotation, two maintenance workers entered the prison level through a corridor opposite her cell. They disappeared behind a heavy iron door marked with faded yellow paint. They always emerged nearly an hour later. The guards barely looked at them.Three nights ago, one of the workers had forgotten to pull the iron door completely shut.

From where Evelyn stood inside her cell, she had seen stone steps descending beneath the fortress underground. Yesterday, while dinner trays were being collected, she had deliberately dropped her metal cup.

The younger guard had bent to retrieve it. For two brief seconds, the older guard had stepped away from the door to help. Through the narrow opening, Evelyn had seen the maintenance corridor again.

She had also noticed something even more valuable. A cold breeze drifting upward, fresh air. If fresh air entered from below, then there had to be another opening somewhere outside the fortress. An exit. Maybe not large, maybe heavily guarded, but it existed. And that was enough.

That evening, she waited. She wasn't reckless enough to move before she was ready. Escape wasn't about running, it was about timing. The final meal arrived exactly as expected. The older guard slid the tray inside.

"You've barely touched yesterday's food," he observed.

It was the first time he had spoken to her voluntarily. Evelyn looked up. "I haven't been hungry."

The guard studied her for a second before pushing the tray closer. "You should eat." He said,

She gave him a small nod…"I'll try." Evelyn responded.

He closed the hatch and the locks clicked into place. She listened carefully. Boots moved away, another patrol approached. Then there was silence.

Minutes crawled past, and Finally…The familiar scrape of the maintenance door echoed down the corridor. There were voices; soft laughter and metal tools clinked together.

Evelyn stood. Her pulse quickened, but her hands remained steady. She had spent days preparing for this, She wasn't leaving because she believed freedom waited outside. She was leaving because remaining a prisoner guaranteed she would never control her own life again.

She had lived under Viktor's control for three years; now, refused to trade one prison for another. Luck arrived in the form of human error, one of the younger guards hurried toward the corridor carrying a message..

"Captain wants everyone upstairs," he called.

The older guard frowned. "What happened?"

"I don't know." The guard replied, "Training accident, maybe."

The older guard sighed. "Watch this section."

"I've been told to report immediately." The messenger said evenly.

The two men exchanged uncertain looks..Finally, the older guard muttered under his breath. "Damn it."

He glanced toward Evelyn's cell before jogging after the messenger. For the first time since her arrival… No one stood directly outside her door, Evelyn moved immediately.

Days earlier, she had noticed that the screws holding the ventilation grate near the floor had rusted badly. Using the edge of her food tray over several nights, she had slowly loosened one of them. Now she pulled the grate free. Behind it lay a narrow maintenance crawlspace, barely wide enough for her shoulders. She took one slow breath, then crawled inside.

The stone scraped against her elbows. Dust coated her hands, but she ignored both. The passage stretched farther than she expected before opening into the underground maintenance corridor.

She dropped quietly onto the floor. No voices, no guards, only flickering lights and rows of old pipes disappearing into darkness. She looked both ways, then chose the direction where the cold air felt strongest.

The underground tunnels twisted beneath the fortress like veins beneath skin. Water dripped steadily from the ceiling, and old electrical cables lined the walls.Every few meters, another corridor branched away.

Evelyn memorized each turn. Left, right, straight then another right. She refused to panic, panic made people careless. The farther she walked, the stronger the breeze became.

Hope stirred cautiously inside her. Maybe… just maybe this could actually work; she reached another iron door. Unlike the others, this one stood slightly open. Beyond it lay a narrow stone tunnel leading upward. Fresh air rushed through the opening, she smiled for the first time in days. The exit.

She climbed the uneven steps carefully, only a few more meters away, she could already smell pine trees; Freedom… she thought.

Then; a voice echoed through the tunnel.."You're surprisingly patient." Evelyn froze.

She knew that voice, it was Aleksandr.

He stood at the top of the staircase, hands resting calmly inside the pockets of his coat. Two armed soldiers waited several steps behind him, but none of them had raised their weapons.

Aleksandr simply watched her. As though he had been expecting her all along. For several seconds, neither of them moved. Finally, Evelyn sighed. "That was so close."

Aleksandr nodded once.. "Closer than most."

She slowly climbed the remaining steps until she stood a few feet away from him.

"You knew." Evelyn said flatly.

"I suspected." Aleksandr responded.

"How?"

Aleksandr answered calmly. "You spend too much time watching." His expression remained unreadable.. “I decided to see how long it would take."

"So you let me try?" Evelyn asked,

"I allowed you enough freedom to reveal your intentions."

Evelyn looked past him toward the open tunnel entrance. Moonlight spilled through the opening beyond. Freedom stood only a few yards away, close enough to see, yet impossible to reach.

She laughed softly. Not because anything was funny, because she had been outplayed.

Aleksandr gestured toward the soldiers. "Stay where you are." Neither soldier moved, then he looked back at Evelyn.."You disappointed me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Wait, did you expect me to stay?" Evelyn asked, raising her voice.

"I expected you to be smarter."

"I am." She replied

"No." His voice remained even, "You chose the only exit every prisoner eventually notices."

"You left it visible on purpose." Evelyn said,

"I did." Aleksandr replied.

She looked at him carefully. "So it was never an escape route."

"It was." Aleksandr continued. "It simply wasn't unguarded."

Silence settled between them. Finally, he asked the question that truly interested him. "Why did you run?"

Evelyn looked at him as though the answer should have been obvious. "Because I'm your prisoner."

“I haven't harmed you, not yet. I’ve fed you—

"You've locked me inside a cell!" Evely barked, cutting Aleksandr off.

"But you are the wife of my enemy." Aleksandr continued..

"And I didn't choose to come here." Evelyn responded.

Aleksandr held her gaze, "You still haven't answered the question."

Then she inhaled slowly…When she spoke again, her voice was quieter. "I will not spend the rest of my life inside another cage."

Aleksandr remained silent. Evelyn continued before she could lose her courage.

"For three years, every decision I made belonged to Viktor." She laughed bitterly.

"I asked permission to leave the house." She swallowed. "I asked permission to visit people, I asked permission before speaking during meetings."

She looked directly into Aleksandr's eyes.."I won't ask another man for permission to breathe!”

The tunnel became completely still. Neither soldier said a word. Aleksandr studied her face, he had questioned hundreds of prisoners, traitors, spies, mercenaries, liars. He knew how fear usually looked.

Most people feared pain, execution, interrogation but Evelyn's fear was different. She wasn't afraid of dying, she was afraid of belonging to someone again.

It was subtle, but unmistakably genuine. That realization unsettled him more than he cared to admit. Not because he trusted her, He didn't. Because genuine fear couldn't be rehearsed that perfectly. Still… People lied and exceptional people lied convincingly; He couldn't afford mistakes.

His voice remained calm. "If I intended to make you my prisoner forever, you wouldn't have reached this tunnel."

She frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It means I wanted to see whether you would try."

"And now?" Evelyn asked,

"Now I know you value freedom more than comfort." Aleksandr admitted.

She gave a humorless smile. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?"

"It was an observation." Aleksandr said,

She folded her arms. "So what happens now?" She asked.

Aleksandr considered her for a moment. One soldier stepped forward… "Boss, should we move her to solitary?"

The other added; "She attempted to escape."

Aleksandr looked at neither of them. "No."

Both soldiers blinked. "No?"

Aleksandr answered without looking away from Evelyn, "If she wanted to damage the fortress, she had opportunities, if she wanted to attack anyone, she had opportunities, She did neither."

The first soldier frowned. "But she escaped."

"She attempted to leave, those are different things." Aleksandr corrected.

The soldiers exchanged confused glances. Aleksandr finally spoke to Evelyn. "You'll return to your room."

"You mean my prison." Evenly said flatly.

"Your room." Aleksandr repeated.

She almost argued. Instead, she sighed. "There isn't much difference." She said

Aleksandr didn't respond. He simply turned toward the fortress. The soldiers gestured for Evelyn to follow. She took one last look at the moonlit forest beyond the tunnel entrance.

It had been close enough to touch. Yet farther away than ever, she followed the soldiers back through the underground passage without resistance.

Later that night, Aleksandr stood alone in his office. A report lay open across his desk. It detailed Evelyn's failed escape.

Every movement, every turn through the tunnels, every minute she had spent underground. He read it twice before setting it aside.

His intelligence chief entered quietly.

"I heard she tried to escape."

Aleksandr nodded.

"I expected it."

"Were you surprised?"

Aleksandr walked toward the window overlooking the dark courtyard.

"Yes."

The older man waited.

"I expected desperation."

Aleksandr said at last.

"I found determination."

His chief frowned.

"You believe her story?"

Aleksandr answered after a long silence.

"No."

He looked toward the prison wing where Evelyn had been returned.

"But..."

The word lingered in the quiet room.

"...I no longer believe she's lying about everything."

It was a small shift. Barely noticeable, but for a man who trusted evidence above instinct, it was enough to create doubt. And doubt, Aleksandr knew better than anyone, was often the beginning of the truth.