Following The Map that Leads To You

Coming Home

Sorry I haven't been updating so much...

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The tailor shop was silent.

The boy, now growing into a young man, stood still and tall in front of his father.

I watched as Alex Steiner touched his face, his son's face, and asked him an important question.

"Ist das wahr? Sind sie wirklich? Is this real? Are you real?"

A tear slid down Rudy's cheek. "Ja, Papa."

The book thief smiled as the two men embraced, for the first time in three years.

Liesel Meminger watched as the two were reunited. She did not speak or move. Instead, she listened to her heart beating in her ears.

What a time to be alive.

Now, I cannot say that I never saw it before- there was always life in Rudy Steiner. It was there, at the book burning, whenever he stole something, when he painted himself black, when he would commit his three acts of stupidity in front of Franz Deutschner.

But do not forget my apparent best friend three years prior to this date. I would like to say that I do have a choice in the matter of which messes I clean up, but I do not. When he chooses to rampage on innocent lives, I have no other choice than to clean up the mess. The human mess, of sorrow and fear, of wails made by the living that they knew and the person's silent, sad thoughts about what they hadn't accomplished yet.

It's these messes, you see, that really, truly do make my heart itch. But I, like Alex Steiner all those years ago when he joined the Nazi Party, make a point not to scratch it, for fear of what might come leaking out.

Unfortunately, Rudy and his family were a part of that mess.

*~*AN IMPORTANT THING TO REALIZE*~*

It wasn't fate that Rudy lived.

It was sheer dumb luck.

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"What was it like?"

Liesel looked up from her bowl of soup, before letting her eyes shy back down to the yellow broth before her. "What was what like?" She heard Rudy's father ask. "When I... You know. Or when you thought I did."

Oh. Yes. Of course.

How could one have forgotten?

Liesel was quiet and brought the spoon back to her lips, carefully sucking every last drop off of the metal. Strands of her hair fell from her braids and into her face as a tear slid its way into the broth, silently concealing itself within the murky bubbles. "Ah, well..." She heard Herr Steiner scratch his skin as Rudy's fingertips tapped against the wood of the dining room table. "Let's not dwell on the past, ja, Liesel?" The book thief felt two pairs of eyes on her.

What had happened to the excitement of being ignored?

Liesel slurped on her soup. Noisily, as to enter a sound into the thick, murky silence.

"Liesel?"

She looked up. Herr Steiner was looking at her, but not pointedly. There was a flash of pity in his eye. Straightening her back, Liesel cleared her throat, and sipped at her water, even though she was not thirsty.

"Ja."

Yes.

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Okay, so the reason these chapters are so short is because I want to try to write like Markus Zusak, and some of his chapters were kind of short, so that's why.

2016 EDIT: SO THIS CHAPTER WAS OKAY BUT I STILL CHANGED A LOT OF STUFF. LIKE, SERIOUSLY. WHAT WAS I THINKING?