The Impossible ||| l.h

★彡Kapital 13

Sie/her
December 24,1943
Frankfurt, Germany

" I can explain," says Ashton, dropping the apple to the floor.

"Birgitta, run and get some soldiers. I'll keep him here." Luke says, grinding his teeth. I still stand there, too in shock to move.

"Birgitta, go now!" Luke yell whispers. I look back and forth from Luke and Ashton. Ashton hasn't moved.

"Alright, steady there, young chap." Ashton says, putting his hands up as if he was easing a bull into a ring. But, unfortunately, in this case, the bull was flaming and the matador was painted in red. Luke suddenly lunges toward Ashton. Luke strikes him in the face, and then goes for his gut.

"Stop!" I finally say, and run towards them. They are fighting vigorously , Ashton is fighting just enough so Luke won't hurt him.

I run to pull Luke off of Ashton, but he nudges me away fairly hard and I fall to the floor. I stand up again and see if I can get into the middle of the fight.

"Luke, stop!" I yell as I begin to push him away from Ashton. He pushes me again and lunges at Ashton once more, who steps aside and somehow pins Luke to the ground.

I look around, trying to think of what I can do to stop the fight. As I look I see a potwith a single dead flower in it. I take out the flower and I make my strike hitting Luke square on the head. He falls to the floor unconscious Ashton looks at me slightly relieved that he is a man off of him.

He nods towards me, as if to say thank you, I nod back. "Quick," I say "let's grab him, we have to tie him down otherwise when he wakes up he will knock you out all the way back to the land you come from!" I look around to see if there's something I can tie him or something. My eyes catch on a pair of old sheets and some thick thread.

"Ashton, grab his feet and I will grab his hands and then we will carry him into the bedroom upstairs."

Picking him up, I struggle to hold him and we make our way up the wooden stairs. When we are finally to the top, I turn and I taken him into my Opa's old room and I lay him down on the bed. His room is the only one with wood headboards and footboard that I can tie him down.

"Hold him here while I go get something," I say to Ashton and I run downstairs. I look and grab the old sheets, the thread, and a pair of scissors and I make my way upstairs. "Here, ' I say, handing Ashton the thread, "tie his legs. I will gag his mouth with this old with this fabric old sheet."

Ashton ties one leg to the one post and then quickly the other. I try gag Luke's mouth without hurting him. When Ashton's done, he makes his way to tie Luke's hands to the post above him.

"I don't know if that is strong enough to hold him," Ashton say. "I think maybe you have something thicker that we could do with, at least the rope?"

I tried to think if I have something stronger to hold Luke down with. Unfortunately, after my family died, I had to so many things just to have a few dollars to spare and in case of an emergency and for food.

"I don't, Ashton" I say, "but what if, when he would comes to, you hold down his legs a hold on his hands. That way he is not startled, hopefully he won't want to hit me." I gave a half chuckle.

Ashton just give me a nod and we waited.

After what seemed like forever, Luke began to stir. I give Ashton a glance, motioning to be ready to hold him down. I lean over Luke and I stroke his face, the way his mother used to do that to calm him down. Hopefully, it will work. His eyes slowly open and I smile as he looks at me and stares around the room. He tries to say something, but then he chokes on the gag. Then he realizes that his hands are above him and his feet are being held down. He then rapidly tries to move around to break free. I hold him down with all my might and as does Ashton

"Luke, Luke it's okay. I'm here, calm down, just relax." I say trying to relax keep him still, but he still is fighting ."Luke, trust me, just calm down. I just need to talk to you."He ignores me and still continues fighting.

"Luke!" I yell as loud as I could without trying to have the neighbors hear, otherwise they would be suspicious and called soldiers. "Luke, you need to stop. I just need to tell you something, I promise I'll let you go, just wait." He cautiously slows himself down and looks at me. He gives me a squint with his eyes, as to give me the okay to speak, but I know he won't stay for long.

"Luke, just so you know, I love you." I say again, " Remember that I would never do anything to harm you." I continue, "You see, one night when you were away, you sent me a letter. I went to go read it in our tree,that's where I read all my letters from you." Luke's eyes don't move from their cold stare.

"That is where I met Ashton," I say, nodding towards him. Ashton picked up that they were talking about him, even though his German still wasn't very good.

"That night I was reading in the tree and there was a crash. I want to see what made the extremely loud sound and as I went further into the forest, there he was. Lying in his plane, unconscious. When he finally came to, he asked me to help him, but I pretended that I knew no English. He rambled and I found out he was with the Americans, as if I couldn't already tell from his uniform, and that he meant to bring me no harm. He had no way of getting back to his country. I brought him back here, and while I searched for a way to send him back, we got to know each other. But, I need your help to get him back to his country. I've tried so desperately hard on my own, but I just don't knowhow. Luke, you are the only one who can help me." I search his eyes, hoping, praying, that he will agree.

But I already see the rages building up inside of him. He turns and stares at Ashton behind me, still holding down his feet. Luke tries to shuffle out of the bed, but Ashton had a strong grip which Luke seemed unable to penetrate. "Luke" I whisper, "please?" A single tear rolls down my cheek.

Luke attempts to say something, but his mouth is still gagged. "If I take off, do you promise not to scream? To talk calmly?" I ask. He nods. I slowly go to take off to gag, Ashton says behind me in his native tongue, "Do you think that's a good idea? He may break his promise and yell out." I sit and I ponder the possibility. " I know and I trust Luke," I say in English and I turn and I take off the gag

The moment it's off, he speaks,"How could you do this Birgitta? How dare you betray your country! Let me go and I will take care of him." Luke says, nodding to Ashton, putting emphasis on the take care. Obviously I knew what he meant.

"No, Luke. Ashton has taught me some things and I don't think it's right what we're doing with our country. I don't think I am one-hundred percent on the Americans side, I grew up here in Germany. I practically grew up with the Furher. Luke, I loved it. But I know that when Ashton came, I had this feeling. It felt as though, when he told me some of these things, I honestly felt the truth. Especially after today at that horrible parade with the children." I pause. Who should I believe?

I sit and I think, both of the men's stares boring into me. Suddenly, an idea springs over me. "Luke, Ashton, I am willing to make a proposal." I say twice, once in German and once in English . "But you must both agree and promise not to harm one another. Do you promise?" I looked back and forth and they both nod. "All right this is what we are going to do, Luke I am going to untie you and we are all going downstairs into the basement at the table. And we are going to have a lengthy discussion, sort of like a debate, on each of your beliefs. I will be the judge over the debate, and who ever argues their case better will win. The prize, or sorts,will have the right to do whatever they want to their opponent. But," I say sternly, "it does not involve killing each other. The highest ones actions can go is the authorities!"

Ashton looks at me and it seems that he is already tying his noose to hang himself. He probably thinks I probably gave him the lesser card in this since I've grown up in Germany and I've known Luke longer. Maybe I have, but I'm not sure, I just need to straighten out the truth.

"Is it a deal?" I ask, twice.

"Deal."

"Abkommen."