The early morning was dark and silent as the girl knelt next to the boy. His hair, the color of lemons, was caked with mud and soot. Tear tracks were evident on his face-but they weren't his tears.
The girl looked down at him, silently stroking his cold face. She gazed into his lifeless blue eyes, looking for something-anything- to indicate that he was still there, but there was nothing; he continued to stare at the blood-red sky.
She felt a deep, agonizing aching. Why won't he wake up? He can't be gone, he just can't be! But he was.
She suddenly grew angry, and began to shake him. His head lolled to the side; his body was limp. And yet he continued to stare.
She shook him harder; needing to wake her best friend up, but… he wouldn't stir. She deteriorated into sobs, clinging to his chest and torso. He wasn't there to comfort her anymore. The girl was alone.
The girl finally stopped her heartbroken weeping. She had loved the boy. The girl had loved him with all of her heart. She could still hear his voice… "How about a kiss, Saumench?" She had never excepted… but why?
The girl looked down at the dead boy that she loved.
"Oh Rudy…" she whispered. She leaned down, touching her lips to his. They had little warmth left in them… his soul was fading.
She broke away from the boy's lips, and she whispered to him, "I love you, you Saukerl." Then, she threw her head back, looking at the sky as red as blood.
And her blood-curdling scream, filled with so much agony and heartbreak, pierced the morning air, breaking the thin glass of silence once and for all.
Every person within ten miles of the girl stopped to watch her mourn her lost love; her best friend. They were chilled by the dark emotion and sadness ringing within her cry. She was so young, and yet she had lost everything; everything that was worth living for in her world.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, and crystallized once they met the cold, cruel winter air.
Only then did her animalistic cry cease, and then disappear. She collapsed in exhaustion next to the lifeless body of Rudy Steiner. As she closed her tired eyes, she could have sworn she heard his voice in the wind. "I love you too, Leisel Meminger."
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The next morning, two children's bodies would be found; dusted with snow. A girl and a boy, they were curled up in each other's arms… never to wake again.