The fist smmed down into Kus’ face, knog him back down. Lying crumpled on the crete floor of the abandoned factory, his vision swimming from the pain. The darkness around him bore down from all sides, broken only by the few beams of light sneaking in through the cracks of the ceiling.
Albrecht stood over him with a menag leer on his face. “You thought you could hide from me, Kus? Thought I wouldn’t find you?” Albrecht’s voice was a low growl, ced with mockery. “There is no possible way that this ends in anything else than your death.”
“Please,” Kus gasped, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Please, stop.”
Albrecht chuckled, a chilling sound that echoed through the empty factory. “Stop? Oh no, Kus, the fun is only just beginning. You should not have put a password on the files you sent. Until you unlock those files, this beating will tinue.”
Albrecht’s fists desded again, and no matter how Kus moved they tio strike his body sending fresh jolts of agony through his battered body. Time seemed to blur, the blows merging into a single, unending torment. But even as he struggled to protect himself, Kus couldn’t help but feel something was not quite right.
Finally, Albrecht paused, wiping sweat from his brow. “You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you, mein dummkopf?” He reached into his coat and pulled out a sword, its bde catg the weak light from above.
If Kus had been terrified before, it was nothing pared to what he felt now. Frantically thrusting his arms up to block Albrecht’s swing downwards. The bde barely slowed as it cut through the ropes binding his arms together. Scrambling backward, Kus’ eyes darted, searg the darkness for anything that he could use as a on. Finally, he found a rusted metal spar, and he gasped for it.
Kus’ relief at finally being armed turo fusion as he saw a familiar figure step from the darkness behind Albrecht.
“Here, let me see that,” Franz said, his voice calm and steady.
Albrecht hahe sword over without hesitation, a triumphant sneer on his lips. As soon as the hilt left his hands, Franz moved with lightning speed, turning the bde ba the German gahe sneer froze on Albrecht’s face, transf into a mask of shod pain as the sword plunged down into his chest.
Franz twisted the bde, then pulled it free, Albrecht’s body crumpling to the floor. Blood pooled around the fallen man, and Franz wiped the bde with a rag he seemed to pull from nowhere. His expression not ging, Franz turo Kus, who was still half-sprawled across the floor, too stuo move.
“Don’t worry, Kus. You have a long, long journey ahead of you yet.” Franz’s voice was almost gentle. “And with a little training, you’ll be killing with the best of them in no time.” He hahe sword to Kus, gesturing for him to drop the makeshift on he had to take the hilt.
“Go on,” Franze urged. “Give it a try.”
Kus stared down at Albrecht’s lifeless body, his mind a blur. The sword strained in his grip. When he could resist the pull no further, he plu down into Albrecht’s chest. The flesh parted with siing ease, and Kus felt a grim satisfa as he raised the sword and drove it down again. Each blow let the e faster, smoother, and without the hesitation of the one befradually Albrecht’s corpse became only so much meat.
Kus stepped back, breathing heavily, his eyes seeking Franz. The older man nodded approvingly. “Good. Very good. Now you uand.”
As if being granted permission, Kus dropped the sword. The etal against crete echoed through the empty factory. Reality came rushing ba, as first the sword, then Franz, and finally, the factory itself dissolved into so much red smoke. He had already lived this. While he hadn’t killed Albrecht himself, it had been Franz’s seeking to protect him that had led to the death of Albrecht and the others. Red smoke swirled away in a breeze that he could not feel, leaving only darkness and the realization that Kus would not be able to go back to the life he had been living the night before st. Though he did not yet know what was in store , Kus had a feeling that, deep down, his life now would be one of far more violend no guarantee of survival.
And he would do whatever it took to endure.
Kus woke up in a sweat, bs somehow having bee tangled around him in the middle of the night. Still in the clothes of st night, his sheets and pillows were smeared with dirt and dried blood. Wiping his forehead caused some of it to fke away from his face. Rolling onto his side, Kus felt a hard lump jabbing into his hip. Shifting the other way, he groggily reached down into his pocket.
The grenade from st night.
Instantly awake, Kus gently pulled the explosive out from uhe sheets to set it on the side table o his bed. Breathing out, he sat up and again rubbed his face while his heart gradually stopped trying to escape his chest. What the hell was he going to do with a grenade?
It was at that point that the smell hit him. Surging upright out of the bed, he rushed to the bathroom. Flinging the toilet-seat open, Kus thrust his head down towards the bowl as vomit came bursting out of his mouth. He heaved several times over the few minutes.
Finally when it seemed like his stomach was truly empty, Kus slumped back down on the floor to lean against his bathroom sink. So many people had died st night. Even most people he knew would agree that they had been some of the worst of what humanity had to offer in this city, they were still men. Men who were now dead. And Kus had been a part of that.
Pushing morbid memories aside for the moment, he began turning over the strangeness of st night. The whirlwind of his capture, torture, and almost death. The stranger Franz; how he moved and killed so easily, and with a sword at that. Most of all, the apparently real healing potions. He only had to g the small mirror that hung alongside the doorway to see how starkly his new scars stood out against his still-pale fad arms. The events of st night could not possibly have been real, yet they had happened all the same.
Eventually, Kus made his way out of the bathroom and bato his bedroom. He stripped his bed, tossing the sheets into a pile on his floor. Frowning at seeing the red and brown stained pillows, he resolved to throw them out a new ones.
Once he was doh his bed, Kus pulled his own shredded clothes off, adding them to the pile on the floor. Naked for the first time sihe violence of st night, Kus was dismayed to see the scars that now were on his fad arms traced themselves in jagged lines over his entire body. While not a vain man by any stretch, the fact was that he now looked like he had lost a fight with a drunken wood-chipper wielding steak knives.
Much like the memories from st night, he pushed the thoughts about his body away as best he could. Striding over to his shower, he set it as hot as he could. Cheg with his hand several times, it finally reached the unfortable scalding that he felt would be o wash the blood and dirt from his body.
While he would much rather take his time getting , Kus khat he could not. Franz had said that he would be ing by in the m and, based on the sun beginning to appear beyond his window, he could be arriving at any time.
Scrubbing as hard as he could, Kus removed every bit of blood and dirt that he could see on his body. Wheepped from the shower, his skin glowed pink from the heat, making the white scars stand out that much more.
After getting dressed in some of his more fortable clothes, Kus made his way to the kit. The table was still cluttered with his pyer character notes and dirty ptes, but the thing that immediately seized his attention was the dagger lying off to the side. He picked it up, turning it over in his hands. While he remembered the brutal simplicity of the bde, the steel itself seemed a bit different from the cooking implements he had used in the past. Perhaps it was simply that this was desigo be a on first and foremost.
A heavy knock came on his door.
Before he knew what he was doing, Kus was gripping the dagger close and moving a quietly as he could to look through the eyehole of his door into the hallway. Franz looked much as he had st night, though he was standing bad with both hands open ay in clear view.
Disengaging the lock he did not remember setting st night, Kus opehe door to let Franz inside.
“Good m,” Franz said iing, eyes staring into Kus’ face before log onto the dagger still gripped firmly in his fist. He nodded in approval. “Those instincts will serve you well. You never know when someone might be a threat. Luckly for you,” he grinned, “I am quite the opposite. You miing that down so we talk?”
“Right. Sure.” Kus loosened his grip aured Franz over to his kit table. Pushing things aside to make room, he set the dagger down and motioned for Franz to sit. As he sat down himself, Kus rubbed his eyes again.
“The dreams will be the worst over the few days,” said Franz before Kus could ask any of the many questions on his mind. “Then they will gradually get better.”
“Will they ever go away altogether?”
Franz shook his head sadly. “No, they likely won’t. But if they ever do, you will have another problem.”
The strange ma silent. Eyes looking around Kus’ apartment, he seemed to be taking in as much as he could, yet was also seeming to be avoiding talking about what had happehe previous night. Unfortunately for Franz, Kus had long ago growo silehe quiet hours and days in the hospital bed had helped instill in him a patience for versation that he had yet to see equaled by anyone else.
Finally Franz himself could take the sileno longer.
“Your patience reminds me a bit of him.” Before Kus could interject to ask who, Franz was already shaking his head. “Later. We have a few things to address first, then we will have a good breakfast and talk the rest of it out. Well, I will talk. You will listen.” He paused, eyes going down to the dirty ptes. “I’m assuming you havee, boy?”
“No,” Kus shook his head at the dirty ptes, “I just haven’t ed up from yesterday yet.”
“That is fine. I know a delightful pearby, we will go there in a minute. But first, I wao put your mind at ease. The women that we saved st night? They are safe and sound at the pce I have been staying. I also,” he tinued before Kus could ask a question, “checked in on your family before I came here. They are safe and unharmed. Whatever you did st night seemed to have dohe trick to keep them from ing to the attention of the Blood Eagles. Now, that brings us to the question you have to answer before we go any further. Do you want the ao all your questions, or do you want to go back to your life from before st night?”
“Is that really an option?”
“Yes,” Franz nodded, “though you will keep the memories of what happened, we will go our separate ways and I will not bother you again.”
After Franz’s response, Kus took a long mio sider. What did he want? A not-so-insignifit part of him yearo return to his life of yesterday. A life were he worked a job that he enjoyed, with a man he respected, and was making strides toward being a doctor that would be able to help the people that most. A life where he spent weekends with his friends pying games and pretending to be heroes, but never having to deal with the darker sides of Volksturm.
But that really wasn’t possible anymore.
Dr. Halter was dead, and his future as a doctor had likely died with him. And though he still had his friends, Kus did not think he could return to those weekends of fun and games after what he had experie night. At the very least it would take him a long time to do so. Before he gave his answer, he had o thing to ask.
“A question, before I give my answer?” With Franz’s nod to tinue, Kus asked, “What would you do if you were in my situation?”
“Knowing what I know now?” Franz asked.
“Sure.”
“Boy,” Franz said with a rge grin on his face, “I would have already said yes and been out the door and on my way to that breakfast I told you about.”
“Alright,” Kus said, making up his mind. “Where is this breakfast pce you keep mentioning?”
If it ossible, Franz’s grin got even wider.
“Boy, yoing to love it.”
