Chapter Eight

France 1943

Eleanore's stupor was broken when she heard the sound of gunfire outside her tent. She reached over and grabbed the pistol that lay beside her, loading it with ammo. She turned on the Kerosene lamp, lighting the tent with a yellow incandescent light. She safety off and sat up. As Eleanore turned to leave, she was shoved down onto her makeshift bed. A strong hand covered her mouth as to muffled her screams. A knife was pointed at her cheek, the tip of the blade hovering over her skin. The man on top of her knocked her gun from her hand and moved his hand from her mouth to her throat.

"If you move a single inch, Fräulein," The Nazi moved the blade to the beginning of her hairline and traced the outline of her forehead, "I will scalp you alive." Eleanore looked around trying her best to plan an escape. "Answer my questions and if you lie you will pay, Fräulein." Eleanore nodded, showing him that she understood.

"Are you on of their whores?" Eleanore quickly shook her head, receiving a swift slap from the officer.

"Wrong answer. How many Basterds are there?" Eleanore had to think. Eight, nine, ten and her.

"Eleven." She received another quick blow, her cheek becoming red.

"Not fast enough. Where is their next plan of attack going to be?"

"I don't know."

Slap.

"Try again."

"I don't know."

Slap.

"Try again." Tears began to come from Eleanore's eyes, as the slapping became harder and harder.

Outside of the tent all of the Basterds had gathered, talking around the dead Krauts. Aldo looked around, noticing that the girl wasn't with them.

"Dammit. She should know that when something happens, we all gotta meet up to make sure everyone is alright."

"If you lie to me one more time I will fucking kill you. I'll ask you once more, where is the next attack going to be?"

"I don't know... I'm not lying... I just don't know..." Eleanore struggled against him, the tears freely flowing down the sides of her face. "I don't know anything."

The large Nazi took his knife and placed it at the left corner of her forehead.

"Wrong answer, whore." The Nazi covered her mouth in a quick motion and began applying pressure on her with the sharp blade, pushing through the surface of her skin. As the blade pushed further and further down into the thin flesh, Eleanore screaming under his bone crushing palm.

She tried kicking her legs, with his body positioned the way it was, dealing no great effect. He began sliding the blade across her forehead, moving ever so slowly. Eleanore's red blood soon surfaced, trickling down her pale face. Without warning, a knife quietly impaled the throat of the officer. Eleanore saw the tip of the blade exit through the front of his Adam's apple. She was greeted with the blade five more times, watching it exit the throat and slide back in over and over. Eleanore stared in awe as the body was pushed off of her, the Nazi's eyes still looking at her.

She looked up into the face of the man that had saved her and her heart immediately stopped. His face was more handsome than his picture in the newspaper had portrayed him. His face looked sadder and his hands were scarred. Hugo was staring at the Kraut for a few seconds longer before looking at the girl. Their eyes slowly met, pouring gasoline on the fire that had steadily been growing over the past six years. They were silent and their breaths were caught in their throats. Eleanore slowly sat up, disregarding the blood that moved down over her left eyebrow to her jaw. He grabbed her hand and kissed it as softly as he had the first time they met, his eyes never leaving hers.

Hugo reached up with his calloused hand, touching the right side of her face. He rubbed her cheek with his thumb, as if to make sure she was real. Eleanore could see his cheeks becoming damp in the flickering light as he swallowed hard. In one swift movement, he grabbed the sides of Eleanore's jaw and pulled her close to him. He kissed her mouth, as if she was the only person in the world that could give him oxygen and really, to be honest, she was.

Aldo moved to the tent, wondering what could be taking them so long. As he opened the flap, he examined the two in their current position. Stiglitz broke from the kiss to turned and face the intrusion. Hugo looked up at the Lieutenant and cleared his throat.

"Eleanore might need stitches." Eleanore moved to the Apache, pulling her hair back from view. Aldo examined her head, pressing on it with his large fingers. Eleanore gasped as more blood poured from the wound. Aldo stuck his head out of the tent and yelled for one of the Basterds to bring the equipment for stitching. Aldo cleaned the blood from her face and patched her up before leaving the tent. He grabbed the Nazi by the feet, dragging him from the shelter and returned to the Basterds.

"Yeah. They're alright." He said as he sat down, pulling a tin from his inside pocket.

"What's happening?" One of the Privates asked, watching for movement in the tent.

"Hey Wicki, why don't you go over next to the tent and see what they're sayin'?" The Corporal moved over to the tent quietly and listen for a moment.

"The Gestapo killed her family." Pause.

"He couldn't stop it." Pause.

"Burnard tried to rape her so she killed him." Pause.

"He deserved it." Pause.

"She fled to France to escape." Pause.

"He thought she was dead." Pause.

"She's sorry." Pause.

"He killed the Gestapo officers that tried to kill her." Pause.

"They deserved it." Pause.

Wilhelm Wicki moved over to the rest of the Bastards, the group eagerly wanting to know what they were saying.

"They weren't saying anything," Wicki lied, figuring it was not anyone's business except Hugo and Eleanore's. The Basterd's made a collaborative sigh and passed around the alcohol.

"I wanna check tents next," Donowitz laughed as he practiced swinging his bat as the Basterds laughed.

Hugo took Eleanore's hand and led her to his tent, since his tent was further from camp. They received cat-calls and laughter while some of them ran up to Hugo, patting him on the back. Hugo smiled and waved them off.

"It's not like that," Hugo told one of them in his thick accent. "We've been dating for ten years... I thought I had lost her." The Basterds settled down when the Private reported what Stiglitz told him. Hugo let Eleanore enter first, closing the flap behind him. Hugo stripped his shirt from his hard body, complaining he was warm. He laid down on his back while Eleanore laid her head on top of his chest.

They talked for hours, telling their sides of the last six years as Eleanore rubbed Hugo's chest and stomach. Hugo was much larger than the last time she saw him and she admitted to him that she found him much more handsome. When she pulled out the torn newspaper cover, Hugo took it from her. He pointed out each officer and explained how he executed each one.

"The last one," he told her, "He was different than the rest. I crept into his bedroom, finding the sleeping Captain alone on his bed. But something caught my eye as I moved forward. Sitting on the bureau, I could see a sparkling object that brought a surge of rage over me. Can you guess what it was?" Hugo asked Eleanore, but she hadn't a clue. Hugo sat up pulled a wrapped object from the breast pocket of his crumpled jacket and handed it Eleanore. Eleanore pulled the cloth from the object and covered her mouth.

It was her hair pin.

"Are you sure it's mine?" Eleanore asked quietly, inspecting it. Hugo sat behind her and took her hands allowing her to inspect the inside of the teeth. E-L-E-A-N-O-R-E was engraved along the comb between each tooth.

"I'm sure." He whispered as he moved her hair and kissed her neck.

"I never noticed that before," Eleanore admitted, turning the pin over in her hands.

Hugo placed the pin in her hair with great ease, making her look the most beautiful he had seen. He kissed Eleanore again and slowly laid her back, pushing his body against hers. He reached over and turned the lamp off and he kissed her again, the tent filling black. She ran her hands over his back, feeling something odd. Along the soft skin were scarred raises in the shapes of lines.

"Hugo?" He was quiet, his breath was hard. "Hugo? What is this?" Eleanore continued tracing the lines, searching for his eyes in the darkness.

"This is your revenge. This is the punishment for your revenge." That night, for the first time in their ten year relationship, Hugo Stiglitz and Eleanore Vogel's bodies conjoined. The union released all the emotions they felt in the last six years: fear, guilt, hope, anger, love, loss, regret, grief, suffering and revenge.