The train schedule showed no movement at such a late point in the night, but Henry followed the tracks regardless. They snaked through the woods where no one could see. He took the turns where the passenger trains of the day never seemed to trek, due to ‘work’ or perhaps a line that was ‘no longer in service.’ It was eerie to go down those paths alone; it was like going through a graveyard at night. But the trip gave him time to think about how he could break them out of the camp—however crazy that was. He knew he could get in trouble for what he was doing, but the reason he’d joined the force in the first place was to help people, so that was what he was going to do.
Henry was aware that there was a slight chance he was going the wrong way, or that they weren’t at the camp and he was putting himself on the line for nothing, but his gut told him otherwise. They had to be there. He knew about Effie, and he knew to Walter that was the perfect reason to bring in the whole family.
He tried his best to imagine what he was going to do when he got there, but he wasn’t sure what to expect. He reminded himself that he was an officer after all and hoped someone would recognize him and give him easy access. He had to do whatever he could though, to get them out of there.
After a while, he came to a stop when he saw buildings. He pulled off to the side of the road before anyone noticed him and moved quickly through the woods until he reached the clearing.
Henry saw masses of people making their way into the buildings. He snuck around the side and into one of the brick buildings, ducking and scanning for familiar faces until he found two—David and Effie sat against the wall of the building.
There were people everywhere, practically climbing up the stone walls that kept them in like cattle. The floors were dirty and marked with a few small droplets of water. Henry recognized them, they were tears.
Henry approached one of the SS officers. He noticed about a dozen in the building, some faces he recognized from town or meetings, others he didn’t, but then again, he wasn’t a part of that area of work. “Where are these ones going?”
The man analyzed him before answering, recognition dawning on his face. “Henry. I didn’t know you joined up. They’re going to the gas chambers.”
Quicker than he knew he was capable of, Henry punched the officer in the face, causing him to fall to the floor, knocking into a few of the surrounding people. Henry knew the officer would be okay, but the people he cared about would not if he didn’t do something. He continued into the building, scanning for the faces he had seen, avoiding the other officers scattered throughout. Thankfully, they were preoccupied settling their herd before slaughter.
A gas chamber? Henry had heard of such things, but didn’t think that was part of the camps. It had taken his own concern, over Gwen, to bring him there. That bothered him.
He moved among the people, some sleeping, some crying. No laughter.
David caught his eye from the far wall and Henry made his way over. It was challenging to maneuver through the crowd and he disturbed quite a few people along the way.
“Get her out. She’s not feeling well again,” David whispered. “There is nothing you can do for me, but you have to save her.”
Henry nodded solemnly and picked up the sleeping Effie in his arms. He wanted more than anything to get David out and motioned for him to follow, but he merely shook his head.
It was hard to make it to the door with Effie in his arms, but he finally reached the door and slipped out. A few people who noticed followed him out, and it made him feel a bit better to know he managed to help a few others, too.
He couldn’t help but wonder where they would go…
The night was dark and only the stars watched the odd group as they walked. Henry sensed someone following behind him, but when he looked, he was relieved to see it was David.
Henry carried Effie back to his car. But he wasn’t done, not by a long shot.
I will find them.
Chapter 34
Anna
Anna could feel the cold air biting at her skin ... every inch of it. Her clothes, like the others, were tossed in a pile on the floor in front of her. All the girls, sets of twins, stood in two lines against their assigned makeshift bunk beds, waiting for their new clothes.
It was strange, all the girls standing without clothes, trying to cover themselves the best they could with their arms. They had all just been poked and prodded by some female ‘nurses,’ inspecting each set of twins at each different bed. And they didn’t even know where they were, they were put on a bus and placed in a new facility.
Anna and Gwen had never been old enough when naked to notice the markings on their bodies that differed. Sure, there was Anna’s mole on the right side of her chin, or beauty mark as her father would call them, and Gwen had one near her eyebrow. They knew they weren’t identical, that was evident in their faces, their beauty marks, their likeness to their parents, and the usual differences between siblings. They were two different eggs in the womb, but Anna had never realized that Gwen had a birthmark on her back where her bra strap usually sat. Likewise, Gwen probably never knew about Anna’s.
A woman walked in from the far side of the room with a pile of clothes and threw them at the girls’ feet. They hastily reached down to get them and pull them onto their bodies. Any respite from the cold and embarrassment was welcome, even if it wasn’t enough.
The nurses left the girls alone in the room, and they all turned quietly to their beds. The break didn’t last long, however, as Anna heard new footsteps approaching. She heard the woman’s heels click against the concrete floor before she saw her.
The woman closed the door silently behind her and scanned the room, tapping her pen on her clipboard as the girls turned around curiously. She wasn’t a nurse, and she wasn’t in rags like the twins. Instead, she wore a gray pencil skirt and white blouse. Anna thought she looked familiar.
“Welcome, ladies,” she said with a wide grin, though Anna sensed a hint of something more sinister beneath the friendly gesture. “My name is Margot. Think of me as your ... babysitter. I am here to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”
She began to take roll call, but instead of calling out names, she called out the numbers that had been tattooed on the girls’ arms. Once she finished, she called the girls out of the room in pairs, until finally it was their turn. Margot called their numbers: 1347 and 1348, and led them to a separate building and into a room.
The room consisted of four cement walls, with just a metal table in the middle and a desk off to the side. There was one small window, but it was covered so that they could not see outside.
Anna and Gwen followed Margot until she instructed them to sit on the table and wait. Moments later, though it felt much longer, a tall man with a clean, angular face and glasses walked in. He didn’t even glance up at them, but looked down at his clipboard, which appeared to be the same one Margot had been carrying.
“What’s your background?” The doctor sat down in the chair by the desk, still ignoring them, but his words were clearly directed at them.
“We aren’t Jewish, if that’s what you mean,” Gwen spat.
Anna sat uncomfortably on the table, it was just a bit too small for the two of them. The room was cold, and their thin clothes didn’t do much to keep them warm. In fact, the pants didn’t even cover their ankles.
The doctor finally looked up to face them. “Ich kenne. I know. I can see it in your biology.” He wagged his finger at them and shrugged. “You’re not identical,” he observed.
“No.” Gwen crossed her legs angrily. “Can we go?”
“Not quite. You are here after all, you will be useful. You must’ve done something to disgrace yourselves. Since you are of pure blood, the studies will be more valuable anyway.”
“How so?” Anna asked.
“Your blood is better than that of the Jews.” The doctor shrugged.
Gwen stood up off the table so that she stood above the sitting doctor and glared at him.
“No. Jews are not different. You are the one who is different—the one who is impure and lesser. What is wrong with you? Your heart is tainted by hate and your mind weak to impression. All of you, you are weak men preying on others to make yourselves feel stronger, but you are nothing! Nichts! You are the filth of the Earth, not the future of Germany. You are the evil that plagues the world! Somewhere along the line you will lose.”
The doctor stared at her incredulously and began to chuckle. “Child, you have much to learn. Sit down.”
Gwen shifted her feet and stood her ground. Anna grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to sit. There was nowhere they could go or anything they could do at that moment.
“What are you going to do to us?”
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and the doctor got up to let them in. To Anna’s dismay, it was Margot. She squirmed in her seat.
“So, what have you lovely ladies been up to before this?” the woman asked, but they did not respond. “Come on. Talk and I’ll give you a snack, how does that sound?” Anna’s stomach growled at the mention of food.
Gwen looked to her before speaking. “I was living at home with my family, happily,” she paused. “What are we doing here?”
“That I can’t tell you,” Margot replied. “What about you, dear? Were you home as well?”
“Yes. Working for my family.”
“Oh, lovely! A working girl. Doing what?”
Anna paused for a moment before answering. “Cleaning a castle for a vampire.” She decided the truth sounded obscene and ran with it.
“Why do you bother, Margot?” The doctor sighed. He was writing notes down on his clipboard as they talked.
“I like to talk. It’s a girl thing, Heinrich.” Margot smacked his arm playfully.
“Sounds to me like you’re fishing. You’ve asked everyone the same questions.”
Margot gave him a stern look that time and quickly turned her attention back to Anna. “You’re employer?”
“He’s a quiet man, but very nice once you get know him.”
“Oh! I think I may know of him. Not too many castles around here, hmm?”
That was surprising. She didn’t seem put off by Anna’s seemingly fictitious story. She wondered for a moment if Margot could have been one of his victims, and also managed to find a loophole in the memory magic. She pushed the thought away.
“You don’t really believe her Margot, do you?” The doctor looked up at her. “I’m leaving. Be sure to take their measurements and everything. You know the drill.” He stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door loudly behind him.
“And why do you even care?” Anna turned back to the woman.
“Can’t a girl just make some conversation here? Between you and me, I don’t know why you are here, but it’s nice to have some women to talk to. You could tell me you dined with flying monkeys last night for all I care.”
“I guess.” Anna shrugged, it was hard to believe anything Margot said, and she saw her feelings mirrored in her sister’s eyes.
“Fine,” Margot said. “You will cooperate eventually. Be happy I need you breathing for this little experiment. You can stay here a few days until you’re ready.”
After two months of knowing her condition, Anna was noticing how her blood sugar changed. When it was high, she was immensely thirsty. When it was low, dizzy and hot. The heat was starting, her heart rate quickening and arms weighing her down.
Anna never knew when it was coming but considering that they hadn’t eaten much in the past few days, it was only a matter of time. It sounded like a good idea to close her eyes, so she did. It would be so easy to just drift off, the threat of not waking was there, but at the moment it didn’t scare her.
The door creaked open slowly—the first time in three days. The lights flickered as Margot entered but the girls hardly registered it. Anna and Gwen were in the corner gazing off, using each other as support to stay upright.
“Just as I thought. And here I thought you may prove me wrong, that you did have quite the fighting spirit in you. I heard your little speech when Heinrich was here. I thought it was going to be more fun. But look at you now,” Margot said and cocked her head to the side, feigning concern. She walked over to the center of the room to the metal table, her heels clicking against the floor.
Anna coughed. She had half a mind to ask if Margot brought food but rethought it.
“You may think I am completely ruthless, but I am hardly the animal here,” Margot looked at Anna, “You look like death.” She unpacked her small bag on the table. To the delight of the girls, she pulled out some bread and cheese. “I need you willing and healthy enough to make it through this dump.”
Anna and Gwen moved instinctively, like animals. They hadn’t eaten much the past few days, so anything was appetizing. They grabbed the bread, splitting everything between the two of them and ate as they had when sitting at Leon’s table on Anna’s first evening—though the meal was much less decadent.
“Thank you,” Anna said with a mouthful of bread.
Gwen spoke between bites. “I am not going to thank you. I still hate you.”
Margot laughed and leaned against the table. “Oh, my dear, that’s fine. But this world is much more horrifying than hell itself, I believe. It’s not me but you can hate me all you want. It’s society and the power of persuasion. Under the right conditions, people become so impressionable. How do you think Hitler came to power? Yes, he is just a man, but he capitalized on an idea, and like sheep, people blindly followed to the slaughterhouses.”
The girls ate in silence, which seemed to aggravate Margot. “All right, if you don’t want to talk then we will get to business. Who’s first?”
“For what?” Anna asked.
“Your treatment. The doctor will be in momentarily and I am prepping you. Just some experiments. You are helping with some groundbreaking racial health science, we haven’t had any German twins for reeducation to utilize as a control group. You have provided a marvelous opportunity! We can’t quite have Dr. Mengele use himself as a guinea pig, can we?” Margot smiled. The girls only stared. “Be happy it’s me and not someone else, girls. Believe it or not, I am the nice one... No one else was going to bring you food, so eat up and one of you sit on the table.”
Anna shoved the remainder of her food in her mouth and drank some water before pulling herself up on the table. The metal was cold against her legs, but it was nothing new. There wasn’t much warmth in the room, just cold cement.
“Good girl,” Margot said with a wink. “I’ll see you in a bit.” She turned from them and made her way out of the room; the sound of her heels getting quieter by the second.
Anna turned to Gwen. “What do you think is happening?”
“I don’t know,” Gwen said softly.
“We will be fine. I’ve heard some things, though I never thought they were true.” She tucked her legs underneath her on the table. “The worst of it ... is not in here,” she added guiltily, thinking of their father and Effie. Where are they?
“Well, how were we supposed to know or believe any of it when we are told that everything is getting better? Don’t blame yourself, Anna, for not getting the worst of it. You didn’t do anything to anyone and you don’t deserve some terrible punishment.”
“But now that I know it’s true, I can’t help it. The rumors always seemed surreal ... but after leaving that train car the other day… It’s all true. We did this.”
“There was nothing we could have done, Anna. You are a seventeen year old girl. Don’t forget about Effie; we all put ourselves on the line for her… And I made it even worse for you.”
“We both know I probably would have done that anyway.” Anna smiled sadly. “And I thought my other situation was bad…”
“What situation?”
They heard a creak behind the door and the doctor entered. He looked like such a normal man, but Anna knew he was a demon with the face of a man. He was not a bystander, no that w
asn’t his crime. He saw pleasure in his work, there was something there, behind his eyes. The real monster, the demon capable of taking control.
“This will be quick,” he said as he pulled a needle from the table. Anna flinched.
The mere seconds it took for him to fill the syringe and empty the contents into her arm felt like hours. By the time he finished with both girls, it felt like days. Not another word was said, and the doctor packed his things.
What did he put inside of us? Was it a vaccine? A disease?
Margot had hinted at ‘racial health,’ and Anna’s imagination went running wild. But she knew she wouldn’t get an answer, even if she did ask.
Chapter 35
Leon
Back at the castle, Leon sat in his chair by the fire and opened the paper, something he didn’t normally do, but he had snuck into town the other morning to catch a glimpse of Anna and grabbed a paper as he left to return to the castle. He couldn’t tell Anna, of course, that he’d watched her from afar. His curse allowed him to watch her from the privacy of a tree in her yard, despite the distance and the dark. They were having dinner together, and Anna was laughing. It both pained him and gave him joy to see it.
He wasn’t able to bring himself to leave until the following morning. He had been doing that a lot lately—watching her. He was worried about her. There was a sick feeling in his gut that he just couldn’t place, something about Joe’s accusations. They must’ve been founded on something. Come morning, before the town woke, he strolled through it, as if he were a normal man in a normal town. But he was not a normal man, and it was not a normal town.
He’d felt inclined to buy a paper as he left, something he hadn’t done in years. He noticed a small rack of papers from the day before outside one of the main shops, and a small jar next to it to place the money. He rummaged through his pocket before finding a coin and dropping it in the jar. He smiled to himself as he reflected on the humanness of his actions as he gathered his paper a left.
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