Simon POV
My legs had fallen asleep. My back was stiff and my tailbone ached with every bump and crater the cart drove over. It had been hours, and we still had not reached the concentration camp. Despite our exhaustion, everyone on the cart was highly alert.
That's when we heard the sliding of a chain mail fence, and the air started to smell like something was burning. I could not quite place exactly what was burning, but it wasn't pleasant. The smell made my nose wrinkle up involuntarily.
The cart came to a stop. Nobody moved. "Out!" came Ursula's voice. How disorienting. Her voice was rough, but it still sounded like bells.
My family was the last on the cart, so we were the first ones to get off. I went first to protect my family, and my body groaned with the sudden movement after hours of staying still.
As I stepped out of the shielded cart, the sun was already out of view, but the sky had this faint purplish billowy color. Several of the building had thick columns of smoke coming out of them. I decided that this was where the smell was coming from.
The ground was covered in rocks and gravel, and there were several fences everywhere. Small shack like homes were littered all over the lawn….and that's when I saw the people, if you could even call them that.
They were wheelbarrowing some stones in striped clothing that were hanging loosely off of their bodies. Their eyes were hollow and it looked as if their hair had been shaved. One of them, an older man, met my gaze, and smiled softly. He looked like he could have been a gentleman in another life. My heart lurched.
"Siiiiimoooon," my seven year old brother Noah whined. I realized I had been the only one to get off, and I hadn't assisted my family. I turned around quickly, and carried him off the cart. I placed him on the ground, and continued with the rest of my family.
As I helped each of my family members off, I heard them gasp as they took in the view.
"They're going to starve us?" Eliza asked incredulously.
"They can't do this. We are human beings, not dogs," the other twin Zara sobbed. Thick tears streaming down her face.
"There, there," My mother chided softly. "It won't be too bad, because we have each other. We will make do." She finished.
Her voice carried confidence, but it didn't reach her eyes. She was terrified. We were all terrified.
Everyone had finished getting of the cart, when Ursula and a handful of German Soldiers carrying guns came into view.
Ursula's hair was now tied up in a fashion behind her neck, and though she walked gracefully in front of us, she looked restless. Her hand came up to massage her throat, and her black eyes glared at her prisoners.
"Women on the left, men on the right," Ursula said in a strangled velvety voice. "Children will be escorted by Doctor Schmidt," she said, looking at Noah and another little girl that came with us on the cart.
A guard came up and tried to escort the children away from us, but my family and I shielded Noah. The little girl was also being shielded by her family.
The German soldiers started to smile. They were enjoying this.
"The children will be perfectly safe," Ursula lied. Her face didn't even try to conceal her lie, as everything she said was so obviously a routine for her.
"No!" My mother wheezed. "You will not take my boy!" She was screaming now.
"Take the children," Ursula snarled to her soldiers, ignoring my mother's outburst.
The soldiers came with smug faces with their guns and clubs. They ripped my father from the forefront and started clubbing him on the ground.
We were all yelling now, begging for mercy. Noah was crying at the top of his lungs. One of the soldiers started to eye Zara lustfully. I positioned myself between him and her. He started to reach for his gun, and before I could lunge at him, a voice said, "Enough!"
A man in a white coat and horn rimmed glasses stood next to Ursula….who was looking very queasy. My father, who was still lying on the ground from being clubbed, had a blood wound near his eye.
Eliza rushed over to him and tried to pull him near our family.
The doctor ignored her and my bleeding father. "What is this?" He asked, glowering at Ursula.
Ursula stood still as a statue. She looked like she was trying not to breathe. All I could get from this response was that she was afraid of this man. All the more reason to keep Noah away from him.
"Ursula." He barked at her.
"Doctor Schmidt," Ursula said with discomfort, black eyes at my father's bleeding eye. "The new arrivals are not keen on us taking their children." She choked out.
"I see," He said. "Your children will not be harmed. There are many experiments the doctors are doing, and we need your children's help to run errands. That is all." He finished.
My mother was shaking her head. Why would they need children to run errands? Why not more capable beings, like the soldiers, or the adults within the camp? The only logical thing I could come up with is that they are experimenting on children.
The silence held in the air. Nobody was buying what this doctor was saying.
"Alright," He conceded, "Keep your children. Everyone in a line, now!" Doctor Schmidt said.
We were wary, but did as was told. Zara and Eliza were holding my father up, as it seems that the clubbing had also injured his leg. His face grimaced in pain. My mother stood by Zara and made sure that Noah was between her and me, in case this was a trick.
Quicker than what I thought was possible, the doctor pulled out a gun and let out two shots. Noah and the little girl fell to the ground.
Ursula POV
I knew what was coming as soon as that fool Schmidt ordered the Jews in a line. It was difficult to not kill everyone here now. The Jewish man's eye was bleeding, and I was thirsty.
It was taking everything in me to not rush over there and satiate my thirst, but there were rules my kind had to follow. I would not risk exposure for a dirty Jew. Not to mention, my coven is at war with the Russian Coven. We would not give them an excuse to call the Volturi.
But still, I burned. And I felt him go for his gun and shoot twice. I saw the bullets as they soared through the air and entered the little girl, Sarah's chest, and the head of the little boy Noah.
Thud Thud
Then the fresh smell of blood began to pool all over the floor, and I stopped breathing at the waste that I was witnessing.
Then the screaming started. The mother of the boy wailed first as what had just happened resonated within her. The children were dead. If we couldn't have them, then they certainly weren't going to.
I gritted my teeth, and I felt the heat and the scent of their blood wash over me. Schmidt was saying something, but I couldn't hear over the fire in my throat. If I didn't leave now, everything that my coven and I had been working towards would be lost.
Despite protest from the doctor, I turned and stalked towards one of the outback building. Probably too fast, but I didn't care. I gulped the fresh air, though it did nothing to quench the fire.
I hid behind a wall when I heard some feet entering the building I was in. I growled. Couldn't I have ten minutes to myself?
"Leave the bodies here," Otto, an obnoxious soldier said. He was presumably leaving some poor soul here until we could burn the body later, and closed the door of the building I was in, and left.
The motion of the door closing sent the air rushing to my hiding spot and I smelled them again...the children.
I knew there wasn't anybody else in this building, and my self-control was gone.
Before I could even think of quenching the flames, my mouth was already on the neck of the girl. Her blood had cooled some, but it was cooling the fire. My body filled with excitement as the huntress in me took hold.
I rattled her empty body. Children didn't provide much when it came to blood.
As I moved to the boy, I realized his heart was still beating very faintly. His head was marred with the bullet that penetrated it, and yet, he wanted to live.
Too bad.
His body was warmer than the girls, and I savagely drank from him. His warmth permeated me to the point I could feel his blood in my fingertips.
I heard a gasp, and my eyes flashed up to meet a very angry, yet fearful set of dark hazel eyes. The handsome older brother.
"More for me", I thought as the monster within me rejoiced.