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War

She covered the boy's ears and wrapped him tight in her woollen blanket. The temperatures had dropped drastically overnight; even the moon shivered out of sight.

She floundered in the dark, desperately finding sure footing on the unstable ground. But at the same time, the rubble gave her a bit of a vantage point.

And then she saw it: a house that once had been modest, broken half under the weight of the war. It's door, the entrance to a safe haven, had been painted  with an obnoxiously big  X along with the innocent assortment of letters: L.S.R. Luftschutzraum. Air raid shelter. They were nothing but an abbreviation of one of the many words that had been coined in times of desperation. But to her, they seemed to beckon her with the lure of safety.

And then she heard it: the sirens. Their wailing uncannily similar to the human noises around she had grown accustomed to. Sirens, asking her to seek refuge in the bowels of a house, fortunate enough to not have been bombed down.

And then, the bombs. And for some insane reason, she was grateful for the light it provided. Caging him securely, she made her way to the safehouse, steps muffled by the rubble and trepidation.

Breathing ragged, heart beating wildly behind her eyes and ears, straining in her ribs. Breathe. In, out. In, out. She can make it. The boy looked up at her with big, hazel eyes. Eyes she hadn't inherited from their father. She closed them, for fear of ash and dust finding home in them.

As she settled herself in the sea of terror in the basement, a sob made its way out, whispering, "Stop. Make it stop. Contain the madness", she pleaded her family above. Maybe they could have a word with the one who orchestrated everything.

"Keep him safe. Keep both of you safe", her mother's last words echoed back. It didn't seem worth it. The battle, the war. Nothing was worth it.

A tremor shook the earth. She looked at the bundle in her arms. And it teetered her back to reality.

"Nothing's okay. But you and I are, aren't we, meine leibe? Nothing makes sense. But I have you. I'll take you the other side, jawohl?  There is a place, far from here, far from it all. And I'll fly us there, won't I? I'll fly us through the end of time. Blieb bei mir."

The boy reached out from the cocoon of warmth his sister had shrouded him in, and touched her face. She closed her eyes as she felt the blessing from the heavens above dry her tears. His nimble fingers touched a deep wound beside her eye and she winced.

A flashback of all she'd been through projected behind her closed eyelids. But it was all worth it. He was worth it.

Even if it meant she'd closed her eyes forever, her worn sweater offering little warmth, the blood failing to clot, her three days' meal in her brother's stomach and her woollen blanket around him.

"Stay alive", was the last she whispered.