Liebe (BxB)

Chapter 1 - Andreas

The walls shook, creaking like they threatened to escape as the practically deafening sound of the blooming bomb went off in the distance, the rumbles felt like the waves of an ocean. A chorus of screams went over the group that had been packed closely into the bunker-like how herded animals were kept in barns ready for slaughter. The bombs had started hurtling down only a few minutes after the alarm this time, Andreas and his family had barely even reached the bunker before the people had closed it on the family that had been rushing behind. It had been a family of three all with pale skin and black hair, a mother a father and a young girl that couldn't have been any older than three. As they'd been running they'd been begging and pleading, the young girl picked up in the father's arms, a little doll in a buttercup coloured dress in her own. At first, Andreas hadn't understood what all the pleading was for exactly but he realized when his eye caught on the other flicker of yellow. They'd all had yellow bands around their arms which was why, despite their begging, they hadn't been let in. There wasn't enough room in the bunker to fit in all the real Germans and the filthy Jews that tainted that purity.

A second echoing explosion sent a reverberant involuntary shiver through Andreas's body as the cry of young children started up like an unorganized choir of tears being shed. Fear was so thick in the tightly packed air and it left a sour and bitter taste on Andreas's tongue. Over a hundred people of all different ages, appearances and professions filled in the tight space. The town only had one bunker in good shape now and it was fairly lacking in terms of space. Everyone had to stand to fit which meant it wasn't all that comfortable. It had ghostly remains of a once done up space with small straw beds laid out of the floor which had been broken apart in the rush to fit people in.

The tangy and almost salty odder of the space was nearly intoxicating as the mixture of liquids (sweat, tears and probably piss) filled the air. But somehow it still gave off that safe feeling, maybe because the sweaty tang muted and dulled the smell of smoke and other chemicals that had started tainting the air of late.

A small pair of arms wrapped around Andreas's left leg and he looked down to see the small blonde-haired girl clinging to him like a baby would a teddy bear.

"It's okay Heide." the teenager said in a soothing voice to the young girl as he brushed a hand through her hair with his fingers.

"I'm scared mutig." she said and despite the circumstances, Andreas couldn't help but smile a tiny bit at the nickname. Mutig was the German word for brave and Andreas's name meant 'to be brave and strong'. Heide had picked it up first and since then his entire family had started using it to address him.

"I know, I know," he said as she clung tightly to him. If Andreas was to be honest, he was probably pretty scared himself despite how much he tried to stay calm for her since he was left with the task of big brother. Andreas was seventeen and Heide was only the tender age of five despite how often she jumped from acting above and below that age.

Their mother stood nearby, holding tightly to the handkerchief in her hands as she stood on the tips of her feet to try and look over the many heads for her husband's no doubt. Andreas's father had been out at work when the alarm went off and there had been no time to go look for him before they'd been ushered inside. Andreas hoped beyond hope that he was alright and safe in the bunker somewhere with them. Andreas wasn't the closest with his father due to particular life decisions his father had made that Andreas did not particularly agree with but that didn't mean he'd want him to die, he didn't know if he'd be able to deal with another death in the family. No... He didn't know if Heide and his mother would be able to deal with it.

It went on for what Andreas could guess as nearly an hour. There'd be ten minutes of silence, absolute and there'd been a false sense of hope that the bombing was over before another one sent shocks through their bodies and the screaming and crying were picked up again. But now it had to have been at least twenty minutes of the heavy ear-splitting, cold, nothing. Then they were let out with the wave of all clear and it was like the release of running water in a blocked stream that had been fueled with the anticipation of the ocean. Andreas kept his grip tight on Heide's small porcelain hand and took his mother's smooth skinned bony one in his other as they were all forced out with the rush of everyone behind them's eagerness, not wanting either of them to be caught behind in the rough scramble for the exit.

Water bucketed down on their faces, which seemed awfully fitting for the situation. The tainted smoke-filled air hit Andreas like a train and he let out an involuntary few coughs as the thin grey fog tangled up his nose and the wind pulled at his now soaking blonde hair.

People started to dispatch and Andreas's mother started up the call for her husband once more, except this time she was faced with a reply.

"I'm here schön!" and through the crowds, a man with black dusted hair and a semi tanned body could be seen trying to push his way towards the three blondes.

My mother's hand left my own and she ran through the crowd to meet him, being tightly wrapped in his embrace she broke in a fit of sobs.

Andreas let out a sigh of relief of air he didn't even know he'd still been holding in as he watched the reunited pair and couldn't help the small smile that danced across his lips.

That's when he felt a gentle tug on the hem of his shirt from Heide's free hand. Andreas's eyes left his parents to look down at the young girl ."What is it?" he said softly, his smile fading and an eyebrow-raising ever so slightly as he noticed her even paler than her usual complexion. She swallowed noticeably and raised her hand, finger outstretched towards something that Andreas didn't notice at first, then he bit his lip.

Laying on the floor only a few meters away from Andreas was a small pile of five discarded yellow items, three armbands, one small enough for a child and the fourth, the little Jewish girl's doll.