Second Chance Matches | ONC 2020

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙀𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣

★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★

Sabine had lost consciousness so many times now that she was beginning to lose count. Her mind strayed towards thoughts of what permanent damage this may be doing to her memory but she had bigger things to worry about; like where and when she was. Sabine faced her mystery surroundings and was relieved to see that her faith in the matches had been warranted: she was still at Natzweiler-Struthof and as far as she could tell, no time had passed. This time the matches had transported her to an abandoned corner of the camp that had been fenced off and she was more than thankful to find that the flame that had brought her here hadn't completely burned her uniform off, although it was stained an ashy gray color from the soot.

Sabine's next concern was quickly quelled when she recognized the familiar feeling of the matchbox in her left hand. She pulled the top off to count the matches inside and was surprised to make a discovery she hadn't realized before: the box was still full. Sabine wasn't sure exactly how many matches had been in the box to start with and how many she had used, but aside form the crumpled packaging, it looked as if the box was brand new.

Sabine glanced around before she mounted the rusting fence and pushed her body over the top. Overgrown grass and weeds weaved between the chain links and made it difficult to get a good grip, but she was determined to make it back to the main part of camp. Once Sabine reached the top she attempted to leap to the ground below, but her foot got stuck and she toppled face first into the dirt. Particles of dirt embedded themselves in her still-healing cut and she had to bite her tongue to hold back screams of pain.

Sabine used the sparse buildings scattered on that side of the camp as cover while she wound her way back to a populated area. She didn't know if Wolf and his men thought her to be dead or if they were looking for her and the matchbox, but she couldn't take any chances. Luckily it was the time of the day when the work groups were returning to the camp and the commotion provided good concealment as she bobbed in and out.

A particularly large group of returning workers passed the building Sabine was hiding behind and she took a deep breath before darting out to blend in with the crowd. She followed the cluster of overworked and exhausted prisoners to the center of the camp when she made a depressing realization: there were way more people than matches in the matchbox. Even if the matches did magically replenish themselves, it would take forever to get one to each and every person and by then the Nazis would have caught on. Especially since the Rapportführer was already aware of their existence.

Sabine didn't feel capable of picking and choosing who lived and who died. She knew it was unrealistic to be able to save everyone, but she still wanted to try. Her plan was becoming more and more hopeless but Sabine still didn't feel ready to give up just yet. She had been a coward before and she had regretted it ever since. She had let her own friend die because she swept aside her courage for survival, but that had all changed after the matches. Now she was strong, resilient, and brave, and she would make things right.

Another plan crossed Sabine's mind and she found herself having to once more rely on the matches. Sabine's fate had been glued to the matches since the beginning but now she had to hope that they could do her one more favor. She didn't have the time to distribute individual matches to everyone and to try to convince them that they would transport them elsewhere, but if she could light matches and toss them into throngs of people like magical grenades it was possible that she could transport more than one person at a time.

The matches had helped Sabine thus far and she had to believe that they would do so again. There was the matter of where the matches would transport the prisoners to and whether any of the Nazis would mistakenly get swept up in the craziness, but Sabine held hope that like before, everything would work itself out. All that was left was to try, and there was no better time than now. If she stuck around any longer Wolf would eventually find her and reclaim the matchbox.