Through Ruby Red Eyes

Chapter 3

The next morning Ludwig and I floated around like mindless ghosts, not bothering to eat breakfast or even step into the kitchen, we couldn't bring ourselves to do so anyways. I had eventually found myself sitting on the couch in my father's office, staring blankly, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I was shaken out of my daze when I heard voices coming from the living room. I hopped of the couch and slowly made my way into the front room, seeing my cousins Roderich and Elizaveta standing near the door. Roderich wore his signature lavender velvet calf length coat, coco brown hair, his violet eyes shielded behind his wire rim glasses, the beauty mark near the left corner of his lips, and his ever present aristocratic scowl. Eliza, with her golden tan hair down, adorned with a pink flower, wore a large ruffled red skirt, white button-up shirt with a black vest that laced loosely in the front, her emerald green coat in her hands. Beautiful as always. Her face lit up the moment I was in her sights, "Gilbert! We made it! We just had to tell them you were home alone and they let us through!" She babbled, "It still makes me uneasy to think how easy it was," Roderich threw in, "But we can't stay for long, a soldier told us to get you boys and get out as soon as possible." he finished with a sigh, taking off his dark brown leather gloves. "How can you be so cheery Ellie?" I asked, not meaning to sound as angrily depressed as I had said it. Her expression slowly gave way, "I'm sorry Gilbert, really," she apologized, " I know that it must be hard, just losing your father the way you did, not knowing what your future will be, and I'm not going to stand here and tell you I know how you feel because I don't," She turned to face me, "But I will try to make things better, as much as the situation will allow, I promise." She gave me a genuine smile, glancing at her husband she finished, "and Roderich will help too, right dear?" Her husband gave a shy nod in agreement. I felt the smallest of smiles tug at the corners of my mouth, running to hug Eliza.

"Danke (thank you) Ellie." I mumbled into her skirt. She always knew what to say to make me feel better, always. "You're welcome sweetheart, where's your brother?"

"I'll go find him." Roderich offered, not wanting to be in the room any longer. He always got flustered at the smallest, heartwarming things. He left the room, going up the stairs, looking for my little brother. Eliza tapped my back, urging for my attention, "Come on, let's go get packed and get out of here." she smiled. I took Ellie's hand and we moved up the stairs, to my room to pack up my life.

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Elizaveta floated around my room, looking for a suitcase of some sort, finally finding two on the top shelf in my closet. She had managed to pack up all of my clothing, save for a jacket and a pair of shoes, as well as a couple of books from downstairs, stuffing it all into one suitcase with in half an hour. With a satisfied huff, she closed the suitcase and placed her hands on her hips triumphantly.

Another half hour, and both my brother and I were all packed up, standing in the living room awaiting our uncertain future. "Bruder (brother), are we going to live with Cousin Roderich and Elizaveta?" Ludwig asked me, feet swinging from his seat on the couch. "Ja, I think so Luddie." I told him with a sigh. Truth be told I was both thankful for my cousins, but terrified for leaving my home of Germany, though I knew it was for the best. Germany was a war zone, with the constant pushing of the Allies from all directions, Deutschland (Germany) was bound to fall. I looked to the coffee table, noticing the photo I was given and had placed there last night. Reaching over to pick it up I stared at it, taking in all the memories I could ever possibly remember. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ludwig trying to peek at the photograph I held in my hand. With a smile I handed it to him, "Do you remember when we got that taken? Vati promised us ice cream if we behaved." I told him, remembering how much I wanted that frozen delight. My brother nodded, tears pricking at his eyes. All right! Do we have everything? Are we ready to go?" Roderich's wife asked with a clap of her gloved hands. Ludwig wiped his eyes, but continued to hold onto the photo.

I sat, thinking a moment, then realized I had forgotten something, something important. "Wait." I said, jumping off of the couch and running upstairs to my room. I ducked to the floor, feeling underneath my bed for- "Got it!" I pulled it out from the depths of my bed's underneath and gripped it in both hands. "Mein awesome crop!" With a smirk, I got up and rushed downstairs, placing my awesome crop in my suit case before running back into my vait's office.

Straight to the bookshelf in the far right corner. There I stopped and searched for what I had my heart set on, hoping Vati wasn't wearing it when he died. Spotting it, I sighed with relief. My father's dog tags from his service during The Great War. So much for "the war to end all wars". I reached up and snatched the tags that hung from a photo of my father and an old friend I've only ever met once, Ludwig wasn't even born then. I think his name was something Italian like… Alfreado, no that's a type of pasta, Rome! Rome…Vargas. He was a happy guy by the looks of it in the photo, my father as stern and stoic as ever.

I slipped the tags on over my head, putting them inside my shirt to join my iron cross. I then looked to the other book shelf, scanning the spines of the books for a certain title, L'Morte d'Arthur, for Ludwig. "Gilbert!" I heard Roderich call my name. I ran out of the office, stopping to take one last look before joining the others in the front room, handing Ludwig the book with a smile. He smiled in return and held the book tightly, boy he loved that book. "Are you ready, now?" Ellie asked me with a slight chuckle. I nodded

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A thud sounded from outside the car as my Austrian cousin slammed the trunk to the rental car shut after loading in the last of out luggage. Roderich started the car after buckling himself in, and as he began to pull away from my house, I turned around in my seat and watched as my home disappeared into the distance for the last time as it turned to nothing.

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For the next half-hour, Ludwig dozed on my shoulder. We on our way to the train station, I was told. At some point I stopped listening to everything, not being able to tell if my cousins were talking to one another or not, too focused on trying to think of something, anything really, but my mind insisted on staying a blank screen of white nothingness. BUMP, jingle, jingle. I looked down at the source of the clinking metal noise. The car had hit a bump on the road and had caused the dog tags and my iron cross to clank together. Grabbing the intertwined chains, I pull the pendants into view, particularly my vati's tags. They were different from American dog tags being a silver metal oval with a perforated line in the middle, horizontally and fields that held the information.

Field 1: Aldrich Beilschmidt

Field 2: GE

Field 3: CATH

Field 4: 412643, B., 2456, 3

The front of the tags read. I ran my thumb over the raised lettering before flipping the plates over to read the back.

Field 5: O

Field 6: NONE

Field 7:

Field 8:

Field 9:

Field 10:

Moving the plates, I looked at the iron cross I held the palm of my hand. Looking down to my brother's sleeping figure, I could see the chain that held his on the back of his neck. With a heavy sigh, I let go of the pendants, letting them clank noisily onto my chest. I looked in the rear view mirror, seeing only Roderich's dark violet eyes behind his glasses and the beginning of his hair line. I closed my eyes and listened to the hum of tires on road and occasional bumps, I fell asleep to dream of nothing.

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Author's Note: About the dog tags, the old German dog tags from that time were metal ovals with a perforated line in the middle horizontally with fields, or little boxes that carried the information. The perforated line's purpose was that, in the case of death, the bottom half, which reflected all the information the top had, would be broken off. There was information on both sides, front and back. The GE was used for Germany on old tags, DEU is now used. I modified the tags a little, field wise, because I wanted to give their dad a name and I wanted a way to throw it in there, so I put his name in the first field instead of leaving it black. For fields 7-10, I purposely left blank because there was nothing in them and I didn't want to write blank and then have people think that's what the tags said. For any more information on German dog tags, or other countries dog tag versions, or dog tags in general:

http:/ en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Dog _tag #Germany

Just take out the spaces

Additional Author's Note:

There sure was a lot of sleeping in here, especially on Ludwig's part. Wellp! A growing boy needs his rest! Or to go to bed earlier. Or to get a hobby. Or both, I don't know I'm not a boy. Well, thanks for all who reviewed and put this story on their alerts! Much appreciated! :D Danke All!