Author's Note:
Hello lovelies! Thought I should mention it'll become harder to post frequently, but I'll try once a week, probably Fridays or Saturdays - life of a uni student!
Languages in this chapter are German, French and Latvian (apologies for Google Translate…)
Songbird - Fleetwood Mac
Nur geträumt - Nena
Rattling wheels clanked against the tracks rhythmically, a lullaby against the night.
Christiane opened her eyes, standing in a cloud of smoke and steam. Each breath as if coating the walls of her lungs, suffocating but also liberating her exhales. She slowly looked around, her heart leaping as she took a step forwards. Her feet started running, distinct echos of her heels against the concrete floor through the haze.
"Le train à destination de Beaufort, départ à 6 heures 28 partiras en 3 minutes (The train for Beaufort, departure at 6:28 will leave in 3 minutes)"
She stumbled, accidentally knocking into a man in an army uniform, with bright blue eyes, as they both turned around looking to each other. Her Bucky.
Thoughts rushed through her mind, her voice unable to find its will.
She wanted to run to him, hold him in her arms, to feel safe and whole once again instead of the lifeless hollowness she felt now. But yet, she could not talk, she could not control her own reactions as if her body took on a life of it's own, standing still and watching him in awe.
Her face reminded him of someone he once knew, his heart beating vigorously like a drum. His lips parted as he tried to find a name to her face, flits of images flying through his mind. He felt an abrupt stab to his head, pain searing as tried to ignore it, his eyes closed. The distant echoes of a man singing french in the distance on the piano, a blur as he saw himself watching himself dance with this girl under the snow and stars.
He pursed his eyelids, opening them again.
Her green eyes shone bright through the smoke coming from the steam engine, her dress' skirt dancing slightly in the wind.
They drank in each other's presence, eyes taking each other in amongst the sudden flutter of people rushing around them to board the train.
An old man blew a whistle as he watched the woman take a final look, turning around reluctantly as she continued running, climbing up the stairs to the wagon. She took one last look to Bucky, walking away, his back towards her.
He stood at the end of the train, trying to recollect his thoughts, his mind trying to consume himself as it beat itself repeatedly trying to fight his memories, whatever the images he saw were.
He felt himself turn around, running at full force as he jumped into the train as it left, scanning each cabin for her frantically.
Something in him told him to turn back, to allows follow to her.
His hand gripped onto the railings as he walked into the next wagon, the dining cart, looking down at himself in a suit and tie. He looked up, seeing her rise from her seat across the wagon in a dark blue dress, red lipstick on her lips and her hair in short curls as she smiled to him for a moment, turning to walk deeper into the cabin as he followed. Lights started to cast throughout the cabin, the windows sending crystalized glares as it felt like sun reflected against snow. He looked out the window to see the train running in a white and barren land.
He kept running after her, the next wagon shifting him into a pair of brown trousers and white t-shirt as she smiled at him through a crowd of men and women in army, navy, and nurses uniform celebrating. She stood out distinctly, a dark blue bellboy cap on her head as she wore a striped blue and white sweater and blue trousers, moving backwards as she smiled to him again, watching him fight against the crowd.
He remembered the bellboy cap, seeing her once in it as he walked beside her in a forest. He remembered her eyes, her smile as a name came to his lips as he followed her into the next cabin.
"Cristiana! Cristiana!" he shouted, trying to catch her attention.
He felt his heart quicken, his once flesh arm on his left side suddenly cold as he looked down in shock to metal, a hand in a fist.
He stumbled, crashing into the seat by the window as his breathing picked up, the pain in his head felt like it was on fire, burning and searing each nerve of his brain bit by bit.
He looked around the wagon for her, looking back to himself in a neoprene suit, his arms locked to a chair as he was surrounded in a lab. A vision of a window in front of him in the train wagon.
Against the bright whiteness of the outside, barren and dry as it looked, he saw a girl sitting in a train cabin with short blond hair sleeping in her black jeans, combat boots and white top. She looked skinnier, dark circles under her eyes.
He screamed out her name again, "Cristiana!"
"Удалите его воспоминания. (Erase his memories.)"
Christiane woke up to the train slowing down as it came into a city, sunrise seeped through as she rubbed her eyes, a sting to her heart as she realized she was alone. She clasped her cheeks into her hands, taking a deep breath in, trying to put away thoughts of Bucky, her past life.
She muttered to herself, a quiet whisper against the train conductor's voice talking that they were arriving into East Berlin.
"C'est dans le passé, c'est dans le passé, Christiane. (It's in the past, it's in the past, Christiane)". Each bone of her hands shook in anxiousness, her eyes set on the outside as they slowly drove into the city.
The train screeched to a halt as she pulled on the shearling aviator jacket Viktor gave her as she swung the duffel bag with her new clothes over her shoulder. She stepped down from the train, amongst the bustle and rush of other passengers.
"Lelia?" A man behind her questioned.
She turned around, eyes defensive as she looked to a man around her age, slight freckles on his nose and cheeks and almost white blond hair and sapphire-blue eyes. He stood taller than her.
"Hängt ab, wer fragt (Depends who's asking)," she replied.
"Rudi," he extended his hand out to her, a goofy smile on his face.
She looked back at him, eyes narrowing.
"Es tut uns leid, Rudolph-Ernst. Ich nehme an, du bist meine Schwester? (Sorry, Rudolph-Ernst. I guess you're my sister?)"
"Das hat Viktor gesagt (That's what Viktor said)" she replied cooly, taking his hand.
"Onkel Viktor hat mir gesagt, dass du einen Ort brauchst, an dem du dich für eine Weile ausruhen kannst? (Uncle Viktor told me you need a place to lay low for a while?)" he took her bag as they started walking out the station.
"Das hat Viktor gesagt (That's what Viktor said)" she replied again, taking in her surroundings, to the new age.
"Du redest nicht viel, oder? (You don't talk much, do you?)" he walked alongside her as they took a turn down stairs into the U-Bahn.
She tried to keep her eyes focused on where she was going in shock, almost abandonment from the era she came from and yet here she was in a future she had no knowledge of, with no identity.
"You look horrible" Rudi chuckled as he let her into an empty U-Bahn wagon.
Christiane turned to glare at him as he smiled back, "Are you usually this blunt?"
He offered her a seat, sitting beside her as he wiggled himself into comfort, crossing his legs with a smile of amusement in his face.
"Welcome to East Berlin."
Rudi climbed up the stairs to the top floor, Christiane's bag over his shoulders.
He turned around to look to her with a smile before opening the door to the apartment.
Christiane stepped into an apartment, books filled one side of the wall of the living room.
"Ich lege deine Tasche in dein Zimmer (I put your bag in your room)," he pointed to the room he came out of.
"I get my own room?" Christiane looked in confusion between the room and Rudi.
Rudi shrugged, walking over to the sofa as he plopped down, "Natürlich ist dies auch dein Zuhause (Of course, this is your home now too)"
She nodded back silently, glancing around the room to the book-shelf, the Ottoman carper on the wooden floors, the wooden bench in the corner serving as a dinner table and old vintage posters of airlines and skiing holiday advertisements. She had to admit that she liked the apartment, it had a personal touch and coziness to it, sheltering from the cold, grey and frigidness of East Berlin.
"Wo ist das Badezimmer? (Where's the bathroom?)" she looked back to him.
"Da ist eins in deinem Zimmer (There's one in your room)" he pointed to her room as he stood back up, walking to the kitchen, "Wasser? Bier? Wodka? Orangensaft? (Water? Beer? Vodka? Orange juice?)"
She smiled briefly, "Wasser bitte (Water, please)", before she ducked out the living room into her room.
The room was bright, in white with a dark blue carpet in front of the bed. Rudi had left some slippers for her, woolen mittens and towels on the chest of drawers next to a small mirror.
She flicked the lights on to the bathroom, shaking her hair out in front of the mirror as she closed the door behind her.
Christiane closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she nervously held the rune bracelet between her fingers.
"Heimdall, can you see me?", she whispered softly.
She waited for an answer, silence ringing her ears as she tried again, exhaling as she tried to reach out into some invisible force around her.
"Heimdall, please let me go back to Asgard, please," her voice cracked, muffling back a sob.
The silence deafened her as she opened her eyes to no reply, looking back at her reflection in the mirror, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her lips parted as she realized she had seen this exact moment, standing before herself - a girl she knew was herself, yet she barely recognized. Her hands frantically went to the sink, turning on a rush of cold water as she splashed herself vigorously in the face, rubbing into her cheeks and face as if to wash away her past and emotions.
She left back up, her hairline soaked, trying to recognize herself in the mirror.
"Lelia? Magst du Rührei oder Spiegelei? (Lelia? Do you like scrambled eggs or fried eggs?)" Rudi's voice came by the door.
"Spiegelei bitte (Fried eggs, please)", she replied, grabbing the towel behind her to wipe her face.
"Okay, nimm dir Zeit! (Okay, take your time!)" his voice replied, as she heard his footsteps leave.
Her eyes moved back to her reflection as she came out the door, closing the bedroom door, beginning to unpack the bag Viktor had given her.
Christiane came out, sitting by the bench as Rudi came out of the kitchen with breakfast.
"Danke," she smiled to him as he sat across from her.
"Labu apetīti! (Bon appetite!)" he smiled back.
She looked to him, repeating the words "Labu apetīti?"
"Latvian," he shrugged, tucking into his plate.
"I remember your father told me he was from Latvia," she smiled quietly, taking a piece of bread to her mouth.
Rudi set down his cutlery, looking at her in confusion, his mouth semi-full, "That's impossible, my father passed away in 1970. Дядя Viktor (Dyada - Uncle Viktor) told me you're the same age as me. I was two years old when he passed."
Christiane realized her fault, hesitantly looking back up to Rudi from her plate.
"Dyada Viktor didn't tell me everything. But you can trust me, Lelia." He leaned over the table, eyes hopeful and filled with concern, "I know how it is to lose everything and everyone you love. I lost my father first and then my mother and older sister."
She continued looking in silence to him, his eyes fixed on hers before she took a deep breath in, closing her eyes briefly, looking back to him in pure honesty.
"I was born in 1922. I had a family in France. Both my parents passed when my older sister and I were young. Anya and I moved to the United States to flee the war, only to be thrown back into it a few years later to fight." Her voice hesitated, taking a breath in, "My name is Christiane. I met Viktor and Ernst in the forest while we were in Czechoslovakia in '44."
Rudi chuckled, "My father wrote a story about you in his letters to me. He called you Lelia because you came in the night with a bow and arrow, lifting the tree off his leg. He thought you were the goddess of mercy. I always thought you were just a character in a story, but then Dyada Viktor called and told me you were a family friend needing help."
Her lips turned, a small smile to him.
"What else?" he asked her.
"I lost Anya, my older sister, best friend and the man I loved in '44 also. I have no one left in this life. Then I got captured and frozen in time. Viktor and his son came to find me a few days ago," she looked back down, her words echoing through her.
"You have a family in me. We may not admit it, but we need each other," he smiled, hope in his eyes. "Anyways," he continued, "Dyada Viktor wants you to study here. I'll be honest, he thinks I'm still studying but I finished last semester."
"What did you study?" she took a bite into her eggs.
"Engineering, but who wants a job working in a factory probably in this shit hole?" he shrugged, looking to the window.
"What have you been doing since?"
"The Resistance in East Berlin."
She looked to him, "I want to join."
Rudi furrowed his eyebrows, "Are you sure?". His eyes moved behind her, eyes widening, "Sūdi! (Shit!), I've got a meeting to get to. It'll be late by the time I get back but if you want, we can meet at this bar," he scrambled for a piece of paper and pen as he scribbled the address, "Meet me here at 9pm!"
He got up, taking his plates to the kitchen and he shrugged on his coat, his hand waving to the house, "You've got to rest. There's music, books, films on video!"
Christiane nodded, watching him intrigued at his antics scrambling around. She chuckled to herself quietly as he hopped around to pull on his boots.
"Don't leave the house yet! I'll show you around later!"
"That's hardly fair," she replied.
"I need to make a good impression of the shit-hole outside!" he waved to her, closing the door behind him.
Christiane looked around in the quietness of the apartment, the faint barking of a dog outside.
She continued to finish her breakfast before walking to the kitchen, therapeutically cleaning each dish before she wandered around the apartment, browsing the book-shelf as she collected a pile in her arms before plopping herself onto the sofa.
Once the books were finished, to her fascination on the books Rudi held on history, art and architecture, she moved to his vinyl shelf, taking out a few albums as she put one on the player, slipping on the headphones.
The winter's sky cast an deep-peach orange sunset, casting it's light and shadows across the apartment as Christiane realized she had been sitting against the wall for the last few hours, books strewn around her, disc after disc as she felt like she tried to catch up to the new age.
She closed her eyes to the opening of a piano playing, a long soft voice that made her heart well. Her hands flipped the disc's slip, finger pointing to the song, Songbird by Fleetwood Mac.
Her head rested against the wall, opening her eyes to the ceiling, a silent whisper to herself, "You would have loved this, Bucky."
Eyes closed again, listening to the music carry on.
Christiane stepped outside in the dark after an hour memorizing the names of streets and each turn on the map Rudi left of East Berlin for her.
Her combat boots crunched against the first sheets of thin ice on the pavement, cold wind whipping her short hair, contrasting against the grayness of the city.
She turned, ducking her head down as she walked through the streets, turtleneck up to her chin, hands in her coat's pocket. Occasionally, she would glimpse up at the street signs, knowing where she was going.
As she reached the club, Rudi waited for her as he hugged her.
"Du bist nicht verloren gegangen! (You didn't get lost!)"
"Ich kann mich wenigstens an den Heimweg erinnern (I can remember the way home at least)", she smiled briefly, following him inside the blaring music.
Around her, people were dressed in black, some with weird metal pointed tips on their jackets, others with what she could only describe as a tall stripe of hair on a man's head that to her resembled a rooster.
Rudi passed her a drink from the bar, taking a drink out of his glass.
"Was ist das? (What is that?)" she shouted over the music.
She took a smell before making a disgusted face, handing the glass back to Rudi.
"Es riecht nach Benzin! (It smells like gasoline!)" she shouted back at him as he laughed, taking the glass from her.
Rudi pointed his hand to the crowd behind him dancing to the beat, "Das ist die Jugend Ostberlins! (This is the youth of East Berlin!)"
"Tanzen war zu meiner Zeit anders (Dancing was different back in my day)", she muttered.
"Was? (What?)" Rudi shouted again, turning around to get another glass for himself.
"Das ist was du zum Spaß machst? (This is what you do for fun?)" Christiane crossed her arms, looking to the crowd.
He nodded enthusiastically, "Es macht Spaß, bis die Behörden uns jeden Abend abschalten. Dann laufen wir nach Hause! (It's all fun until the authorities come shut us down every night. Then we run home!)"
She winced against the blaring of the music, someone screaming words with the song.
"Welche Art von Musik ist das? Es ist schrecklich! (What kind of music is this? It's horrible!)" she winced as she shouted to Rudi.
He swatted his hand, watching the crowd, "Sie haben keine Ahnung, wie die Musik in West-Berlin ist. Ich schmuggele CDs aus dem Westen. (They have no idea how the music is in West Berlin. I smuggle discs in from the West)"
"Wie ist es im Westen? (How is it in the West?)" she glanced to him curiously.
He shook his head quickly, disapproval on his lips, scanning the crowd until he nodded just as quickly, "Es ist der Himmel! Ich warte darauf, dass diese verdammte Mauer fällt. (It's heaven! I'm waiting for that damn wall to fall.)" Rudi glanced around, bending down to whisper to Christiane, "Bleib hier, ich komme wieder. (Stay here, I'll be back)"
She nodded, watching him go into the crowd and disappear. Christiane stood watching the crowd dance, the music changing to a song that Christiane swayed to slightly, her eyes still scanning for Rudi as she went into the crowd, pushing her way through the dancing and blaring over the speakers (Nur geträumt - Nena).
Ich hab heute nichts versäumt (I did not miss anything today)
Denn ich hab nur von dir geträumt (Because I only dreamed of you)
Wir haben uns lang nicht mehr gesehen (We have not met in a long time)
Ich werd mal zu dir rüber gehen (I'll go over you)
Alles was ich an dir mag (Everything I like about you)
Mein es so wie ich es sag (Mine it as I say)
Ich bin total verwirrt (I am completely confused)
Ich werd verrückt wenn's heut passiert (I'm going crazy if it happens today)
Ich bin so allein, ich will bei dir sein (I'm so alone, I want to be with you)
Ich bin so allein, ich will bei dir sein (I'm so alone, I want to be with you)
Ich bin so allein, ich will bei dir sein (I'm so alone, I want to be with you)
A man shouted, passing the message as the sentence repeated loudly around her, "Lauf! Die Bullen kommen! (Run! The cops are coming!)"
The crowd suddenly moved into one direction, Christiane moving in the other as she ran to the back door, trying to find Rudi.
She stumbled through the door into a back alley, finding Rudi knelt on the floor, his lips bloodied and cut as a man held him by his collar, arm in a fist in the air. She quickly pulled up her turtleneck, covering half of her face.
The man turned to her, dumping Rudi's limp body to the ground as he tried to hold himself up, "Bitte, tu ihr nicht weh (Please, don't hurt her)," he coughed.
Ich bin so allein (I am so alone)
Ich werd verrückt (I'm going crazy)
Ich bin so allein (I am so alone)
Ich werd verrückt (I'm going crazy)
Verrückt verrückt verrückt verrückt verrückt (Crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy)
The man stalked closer to Christiane as she readied herself, his right fist flying to her face as she ducked, her right arm striking him in a fist to his temples as he stumbled back. She took a step forwards, knocking him in the mouth with her left elbow as he stumbled again, gripping his mouth. She advanced on him, kicking him as she pulled him down, twisting his arm in the process. She stood up, guarding Rudi behind her defensively.
The man howled in pain, "Wer bist du? (Who are you?)", running to her with a guttural shout in his voice before Christiane mustered her strength, kicking him through the abdomen, tiny blue sparks flying from the impact as he flew across the alley, hitting against the wall, his body falling to the ground unconscious.
"What the -" Rudi looked to the man then to her, "Is he dead?"
She turned around, putting his arm around her, "No, he'll be out for a few minutes at least," she glanced around the alley.
"Turn here, it leads to another road, they won't find us." Rudi pointed to a doorway into an apartment building as Christiane opened the door, holding his limping body through a floral-wallpaper hallway. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?" Christiane took a quick glance behind her back.
"Fight like that. I didn't think the army trained people that well in combat?" he looked behind too out of habit.
Christiane opened a door, leading out onto the road as they walked together, Christiane quickly putting Rudi against a wall as she fished out a handkerchief, wiping the blood from the cuts on his face.
"It's the past," she replied cooly, taking him around her again.
After a few minutes walking, they stumbled into the apartment, Rudi quickly shrugging his coat off on the floor as he laid down on the carpet, arms and legs splayed.
"I'm never taking a meeting for Nik again," he muttered.
"Resistance work?" She asked him, coming from the kitchen with a bottle of vodka in her hands and a tissue as she dabbed it on his wounds.
"Couldn't agree on a price for goods from the West," he laughed, breathing out.
"How hard is it to go to the West?" she looked to him as he winced under the sting from the wounds.
"You'd need a good reason otherwise they'd never let you through," he laughed again, "Why?"
"I just want to see," she muttered, putting more alcohol to another tissue.
"It's better than here, I'll tell you that," he smiled, sarcasm laced in his voice.
"And how are you able to have a place like this with so many things from the West?" she persisted, pushing a little to hard on a cut.
"Sakta! Sakta! (Ouch! Ouch!)" he hissed as he took the tissue from her hands, sitting upright with her against the sofa.
"Latvian?" Christiane raised an eyebrow.
He nodded, "My father left everything for me, all his fortune he made after the war. After my mother passed, I left Latvia and moved here to study. I couldn't get entry to the West so I've been stuck here ever since," he shrugged. "This place, it's better than anywhere else out there. All my dreams and aspirations put in here."
"Waiting for the wall to fall?" She chuckled.
He smiled, "You have no idea how much I want it gone." Rudi turned to her, quietly, "Thank you, for saving me back there."
She shook her head, "It's nothing. Just don't get yourself in a brawl like that again."
He chuckled, nodding his head slightly, "I'll try".
They sat there in silence, Rudi getting up to the kitchen as he returned with two cups and a teapot, the faint echos of a police's siren in the distance outside. Rudi turned to her, "Māsa (Sister), can you tell me about your life before?"
She nodded, taking a deep breath in as she started from the beginning.
Author's Note: Would love to know what you think so far about the story and also the dream scene in this chapter! What do you think about Rudi also?