A/N: I'm sure there are historical inaccuracies in this chapter. I apologize, but if ALW can do it, so can I.
It was back during the war, when the company I was in came upon Manderzen. It was a camp, but not the sort the krauts were famous for building. Officially, it didn't exist. And the poor bastards locked inside weren't Jews or commies or homosexuals or any of the other things that would qualify you for extermination under Nazi law. It contained brilliant madmen. Psychos whom the Germans hoped to get some good use out of before killing.
And that's where I found Erik. He was being used as an architect, and also sang to entertain visiting officers. I found him in a cellar, scratching out a few lines of something on a piece of paper. I fired a warning shot by way of introduction, and when he turned around to face me, that's when I realized he was a prisoner.
It wasn't the fact that if he turned sideways he would disappear. It wasn't the additional fact that he was a dead ringer for the "living corpse" from The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. It was his face.
"Tests?", I asked him.
He was silent. I tried again, in French.
"Medical testing? Is that what happened to you?"
He whispered, in a voice that seemed to be coming from another man altogether.
"Some of it. But I was always ugly."
………………….
When we had rounded up all the guards and prisoners, my commanding officers took a look at Erik's file. I wasn't high enough in rank to view them myself, but apparently they conveyed the shocking news that our glamour-boy friend was dangerous. I sometimes wonder how bad it must have been to convince them that it wasn't safe to have him alive. Then again, I never did think very highly of my superiors.
They thought I killed him, just like they ordered me to, and they'll keep on thinking that. The piles of mutilated corpses were high enough that one more or less wouldn't be noticed. I had proven my loyalty countless times- in fact, the reason I had been assigned to the hit was that they felt an "animal" like me would be less likely to feel squeamish.
If I'd had any brains in my head, I would have done as they told me. As it was, one false move of charity on my part led to more trouble then I could have possibly imagined.