The Forbidden Six

June 9th, 1944

TW: Suicidal thoughts

The phone was ringing and it wouldn't stop. It incessantly rang out in the inky black night and showed no sign of stopping. The shrill briiiiing grated on the silence and ruined the beauty of the night.

Augustine wasn't the first one to hear it, but he was the first one to answer it. He groggily pulled himself from his comfortable bed and shuffled to the black rotary phone sitting on the table in the den. He picked it up and tentatively put it against his ear.

"Hallo?" he greeted them, in the middle of a yawn.

"Werner's dying," a gruff voice said.

It didn't surprise him. What did surprise him was who was talking. "Is this Hermann Busch?" Augustine's eyes narrowed.

"Ja. I'm not going to be there when he dies, but I thought that his girlfriend might want to be there."

Augustine sighed, annoyed. Why was it that people always seemed to die during the night? "I'll go wake up Liese. She'll be there in a bit."

Augustine hung up and trekked up to his sister's room. He opened the door with a bang and Liese gasped.

"A bombing? Why didn't I hear the sirens? Did they forget to turn the sirens on? Let's go. Why aren't you in the basement? I told you that if there was a bombing, don't stop to help me. If one of us should survive it's going to be you."

She quickly got out of her bed and wrapped a robe around her. She started towards the door. Her brother held out a hand to stop her.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked. "Let's go!"

"There's no bombing," Augustine said, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

He paused for a moment, pursing his lips while thinking. "Hermann just called me."

Her face fell. "Oh. Why should I care?"

"Because it's about Werner," he said, like it was obvious.

"You think I don't know that!" she snapped.

He rolled her eyes and she sent him out of her room. He stood in front of the doorway all the while saying "I'm not in your room! I'm not in your room!" like he was a child. There was something in him that just wanted to annoy her.

"Drive it in the hanger," she groaned.

She hopped on one foot while tugging her shoe on. She bid adieu to her brother and drove to Mena's at a faster speed than she normally would. She rang Mena's doorbell three times. Impatiently, she rang it once more. Otto answered, exasperated. It hadn't become a strange occurrence for Otto to stay overnight with Mena. He spent most of his days— and nights, for that matter— with her.

"Otto. Oh, mein Gott. Otto," she said. She placed a hand over her racing heart and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"What's happened? Is it Werner?"

She nodded. His eyes darkened and a hint of fear surfaced. She pushed past him and entered the house. She quickly went up to Mena's room. Mena was lingering in the doorway of her bedroom, curiously looking out.

"Elise?" she said. "What's going on?"

"What's going on is that we're going to see Werner."

Mena's face turned stricken. She urgently nodded and went to get dressed. Liese took a seat on a green loveseat and impatiently waited for her to get ready. Otto came into the room and gave Liese a fleeting smile. She returned it for a second before reverting her attention to a thread on the corner of the loveseat.