REPOSTED CHAPTER
New A/N: I have just spent the last ten minutes or so looking over my old reviews (which to my delight were found stuffed in my filing cabinet). I can't help but be filled with regret about taking this story away from those of you who seemed to love it so. I had tried at the time to simply change my author name to something different but regardless, if you searched for the old name, the new one popped up. Being traceable still, I hope you understand why I had to do this. But out of my love for all of you, I had to post another two chapters tonight. Enjoy.
Chapter 5- Ada's abduction
There are points in dealing with Hans Landa that his smiling facade drops and he stops the act, looking at you with the most intense gaze…telling you that he can see right into you. Or at least that's what it felt like. I knew he was listening to my every word, all the while studying my body language. There was no denying he was good at what he did.
"It was at night," I said.
"Try to be as specific as possible."
"It was around eight so it was already dark," I said, fidgeting. I was still trying to get comfortable under his gaze. "I was walking home from the store."
"Store?"
"Yes. I came home from work that evening and realized I was low on groceries so I figured I'd run out quickly before it got too dark. The sun went down a bit quicker than I had imagined."
Hans nodded. "Continue," he said with a wave of his hand.
"I was walking home—"
"How far of a walk was that?"
"I'm not sure," I said. "About a mile to and from, I guess."
He nodded again and wrote something down on his notepad. "Sorry I interrupted. Go on."
"I was about a block away from home when a young man approached me. He was dressed very nicely so when he approached I thought nothing of it. I smiled at him and he asked if my name was Ada von Braun. I was a bit taken aback needless to say. I nodded and he came towards me with this look on his face as though he knew something about me that I didn't know.
"So I began to step backwards and before I knew it I was backed into a nearby alleyway. He didn't say much else but continued to walk towards me and I could hear that there was someone else behind me but was too afraid to look away from the first man.
"I asked him, 'What's this all about?' and he said, 'We heard that you are willing to defend our people despite your German heritage and we like that. We want to take you with us.'" I was afraid to look at Hans's face as I said that. I feared that he might not help me should he know how I felt about my family's involvement in the war. After all, all it seemed to do was get them killed.
He only grunted in response and wrote something else on his pad. "Go on," he said. "What happened next?"
"I told them that they were mistaken and that they must have the wrong person, that I was the wife of a German officer."
"Why did you tell them that?"
"I was hoping it would scare them away. Instead it only seemed to make them angrier. By now I could see that there was another man to my right out of the corner of my eye. I still heard the one behind me and there was a fourth approaching from behind the man I was talking to. I had hoped at first that he was not with them and was coming to my aid but I was wrong.
"He asked for the name of my husband and I blurted the first one I could think of—yours."
Hans nodded again and jotted something down. He looked back up and prompted me to continue.
"What was their reaction?"
"They laughed and I heard the man behind me whisper your nickname. Then everything happened so fast. The man in front of me knocked the groceries from my hands and the man behind me rushed forward and wrapped one arm around my waist. He had my arms as well so I could not fight. Not that I had much of a chance.
"In his other hand there was a white cloth that he placed over my nose and mouth. When he did so, he actually lifted me off the ground so I couldn't kick him no matter how hard I tried. Then everything went black."
"You said there were four of them? Can you describe what they looked like? What they were wearing?"
"The man that first approached me was rather short. He had pale skin and really dark hair. As I said before, he was nicely dressed as was the man that came into the alley later, behind him. His hair was lighter though and curly. The man behind me I never got a good look at. It was dark in the alley. The man beside me was greasier looking. He wore slacks and suspenders but was nowhere near as rich looking as the other two. He just watched."
"What was the next thing you remember?"
"When I came to everything was blurry at first and dim. I tried to focus but I still felt 'out of it' and there was a searing pain in my stomach. The pain in my stomach grew and several realizations hit me at once. I was lying on my back, on a table and the man with curly hair was holding my hands over my head. I glanced down and realized that my dress had been opened and there was another man leaning over my stomach with a knife.
"That was one of the first things they did to me. I never knew what it said until you found me yesterday. It was too messy for me to read."
"The man who carved you- do you remember what he looked like? Did they ever use names to refer to one another?" asked Hans.
"No," I said. "I never heard any names. But the man doing the carving was older. He had facial hair and the rest that I had seen so far were clean shaven. He wore glasses and was smoking a cigarette at the time. In fact," I continued, "he gave me my first burn that night. I began to struggle and he lifted my leg and took the cigarette out of his mouth. He said it was for my own good and stabbed the lit cigarette into my skin. That was the first of the burns obviously."
"What else happened that night?"
"He went back to the carving. They didn't bother knocking me out again," I said and Hans wrinkled his brow while he wrote something on his notepad. "What is it?" I asked.
"I find it hard to believe that Jews did this to you," he said.
"You don't believe me?" I asked, nearly in tears. The colonel was all I had. If he didn't believe me, who would?
"I believe that you believe you're telling the truth. However, I don't believe what you believe is the truth is the real truth. Does that make sense?"
"You think I've been misled," I said.
"Tell me, Ada, why exactly do you believe that your attackers were Jewish?"
"Well there are several reasons. For one, they made sure to repeatedly tell me that they were Jewish. I had no reason not to believe them. They seemed to hate me because I was German and hated me further after I said I was the wife of a German officer. What would you believe?" I asked and studied his face. I'd never met someone who was this hard to read. "You still think it was the Americans?"
"Though it doesn't sound like them, no doors are closed just yet," he said.
"You think German supporters did this to me?"
He seemed to take that thought into consideration and wrote it on his notepad. "It is a possibility but so far from what you've described and from what I've observed I'm not sure what to make of things. This could be a new organization that we are entirely unaware of as of yet. But for now I want you to keep going. He burned you with the cigarette for the first time and finished the carving... What happened next?"
"They lifted me off of the table and carried me by my arms and feet to another room. There were no windows so it remained fairly dark. One of them opened a metal door and they swung me back and forth, counting to three before tossing me into this dark room. It was empty as far as I could tell. I was in there all alone in the dark for the better part of a week. I thought they had forgotten about me, honestly. I heard very few noises from the other side of my metal door. No one ever came in to check on me or offer me food or even torture me further. I figured they had left me there to starve to death.
"I was terrified. I had always hoped that I would die peacefully or instantly. I didn't want to see it coming. I think that would be the worst way to go- knowing that it is going to happen and not being able to do anything about it. And what could be slower than starving to death?"
"Perhaps they thought your stomach would bleed enough for you to die that night due to loss of blood," he suggested casually as though he had done it to someone himself.
"Perhaps," I said. "But I think I would've preferred to have died then instead of being subjected to what they put me through the next week. Dying sounds a lot better than having to live with the memory."
"What is that famous expression? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he said with a smile. His smile, which I felt that I hadn't seen in years, put me at ease. Damn his charm. "Now, judging by the state of your injuries and the fact that nothing much happened during the first week of your abduction despite, of course, the one burn and the fact that my name was engraved on your stomach...Would it be safe to assume that we are about to delve into the thick of things?"
"The second week you mean? Yes."
Hans took a deep breath. "I'll tell you what. I'll ask you one more question and then we will take a break and wait until after lunch to continue with the rest. Acceptable?"
"Yes," I said. "What did you want to ask?"
"Did you really say that you would defend the Jewish people?" he asked, his face devoid of that handsome smile. I looked away for a moment. "I'll take your hesitation as a 'yes'," he said.
I began to stutter out a response as he wrote something else on his notepad. Blast that stupid notepad. "Not exactly," I said. He stopped writing and looked up at me, waiting for me to continue. "I wasn't proud," I said. "I wasn't proud to be associated with the Nazi party and what they did. I wasn't proud of my father and brother dying to defend that cause. I didn't consider it brave then and I don't now," I finished trying to hold back the tears of fear.
He merely looked at me with that solid, fierce stare. It was unreadable and I feared his reaction to my words above all else. This wasn't just a Nazi soldier. This was Hans Landa. Before he said anything there was a light set of knocks at the door. His stare lingered on me for a moment, then he stood and walked to the door. "That will be our lunch," he said but I could not yet heave my sigh of relief. I was stupid to voice my opinion at all much less to voice it to him. Only time would voice his opinion of me.
A/N: I am increasingly annoyed by the 'readers' who a) are naive enough to think that the people of the world are either purely evil or purely good with no grey area allowed and b) expect this to plow full force into a steamy hot porn fic- which it won't. Sorry to disappoint.
However, I am amazed by the mature readers I have garnered the trust of who understand all the things mentioned above and never cease to back me up even when at times I'm not overly impressed with my own work. Above all, I thank everyone for their input and honesty, whether in good taste or bad.