It's time to spin the WHEEL OF FEELS™ ONCE AGAIN TODAY!
Todays topic is... /spins wheel
WORLD WAR TWO!
Ah, yes, this'll definitely be amazing, enjoy!
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Sometimes, things happen, and when they do, they happen so suddenly that you're not even sure whether or not they were real, and if this was just a dream and you're going to wake up any moment in what your real life.
These things include being caught whilst doing an act of kindness, and for such things watching as one of your brothers was shot without mercy, then being taken away from your family, possibly for the rest of your life.
These were all things that were true in the life of prisoner 401210, also known as Feliciano Vargas. He was caught assisting a Jewish family, taking care of the children and helping out the parents in secret. However, Feliciano was too scared to admit it, or say anything at all. Because of this, he could remember that day oh-so vividly.
"Please, don't do this!" Feliciano's mother begged, tears streaming steadily down her cheeks.
The reaction from the officers made it seem as if she didn't exist at all. They simply pushed his brother, Lovino, upon his knees.
In the cold weather, you could see that he was saying something quickly and quietly as the small, white clouds escaped his lips.
Feliciano knew that he was praying, a habit that the family had all picked up whenever they were in danger or panicked. However, this time, Feliciano was frozen, he didn't know what to do, because there was nothing he could to. This was happening right in front of him, and he couldn't stop it, unless, maybe….
"ZIELEN!" The soldier raised his weapon.
"Please, stop! I did it, okay?! I helped them, I admit it, I did! Please, kill me instead!" Feliciano pleaded desperately.
The officer hesitated for a second, giving the boy a glimmer of hope. However, the next events seem to happen in painfully slow motion.
The officer turned his back to them, his face radiating pure disgust.
"FEUER!"
"Amen." Was the last word to ever leave Lovino's mouth, before the gunshot rang clearly through the air.
"NO!" Feliciano screamed, along with his mother and little brother, Marcello, who were wailing so loudly that the entire country could hear.
It was then that something even worse happened.
Another soldier came up to Feliciano, handcuffed him, and practically dragged him away like a rag doll, his body almost as lifeless and still as Lovino's. He'd already lost the strength to even cry, so now, what else could he do except…. Accept it as it was. There was no other choice.
He refused to look back, yet the screams and sobs of what was left of his family provided a vivid enough image.
So, this brings us here, with Feliciano in his twenty-somethingth week (he'd long since stopped trying to remember) in what was possibly the worst place in the entire universe- Auschwitz. (Then again, that would suggest that other concentration camps were better. And that would suggest that they were good.) Everyone knew that name at this point, and many shuddered in fear at the sound of it. Now that it was Feliciano's new home, their worries were quite understandable, really.
Around the seventh day, he was broken- he felt nothing. He was an empty shell, quietly wallowing in a pit of his own depression. Hollow.
At multiple points, it was so bad that he'd consider suicide, an option that did not go unattempted.
After all, what was the point of living? To work all day and well through the night? To be punished for your kindness? To have even the most basic of freedoms taken away from you? To not care about anyone, because eventually, they would all die or be taken away from you too somehow?
Well, frankly, that wasn't Feliciano's idea of being alive.
So, how did he survive to seven days times twenty-something?
His solution went by the name of Ludwig Beilschmidt.
Ludwig was a soldier, one of the captains at Auschwitz, yet, if you told some random civilian that, there's no way they'd believe this. He was far too kind, far too… human, to be one. Feliciano could see the utter sadness in his icy blue eyes every time some innocent person was sent to their death. If he'd ever talked about them in a way that was meant to be something like disgust, it was as if he wasn't himself, as if he were a robot and someone were giving him the commands to say these things. He seemed pained to be doing what he was, but he had no choice.
Feliciano didn't know what courageous being possessed him to try and make friends with this soldier. It was somewhere around the something-teenth day, so maybe he wasn't too broken just yet, but still, even if he seemed kind, Ludwig was still trained to quickly and efficiently murder anyone who crossed him. Maybe Feliciano was desperate for… someone. Someone who he could care about without fear of them dying. Just someone close. He needed him.
He also didn't know what soft-hearted being possessed the German to accept the offer of friendship, but he was truly grateful for it, after all he'd been through. It almost didn't matter that they always had to sneak around, hiding it from everyone. It made him feel special, like he had a purpose in this world, one that was so important that Ludwig would risk basically everything for him.
He felt cared, and that was really all that he needed.
One night, it turned out it was a caring of a different sort.
Feliciano snuck out and met Ludwig in his office, chatting with him over dinner, as they sometimes would. (Only sometimes, because it would be suspicious if he seemed more well-fed than the others.) All the while, however, Ludwig seemed more reserved, more quiet than normally. It was easy to take notice of it.
"Ludwig, are you… okay?"
"Huh?"
"You seem… depressed. Is something wrong?
"What isn't wrong?" Ludwig asked, his voice distant and not at all commanding like usual.
"Seriously, Ludwig, are you doing alright? Remember, I'm your friend, you can tell me anything!"
Ludwig sighed. "I… I'll tell you, then. Feliciano, you have shown me warmth, shown me that I can find light in this world. And, I don't want to lose that. When you first approached me, I could not believe that someone like you would even remotely enjoy my presence- for why would you hold any emotion except pure hate for those like me? But you… were different. You showed me compassion, and… and I…." He stuttered as tears slowly started appearing at the corners of his eyes.
"What are you trying to say…?" Feliciano asked, standing up from his seat and eyeing his friend with concern.
Ludwig said nothing. He simply stood up as well, leaned over the table and towards Feliciano, and slowly closed his eyes. In response, Feliciano found himself blushing madly, his face reddening and steadily growing hotter and hotter with each inch that was closed between them until their faces were about a centimeter apart and-
"Ludwig-!" An officer shouted as he kicked in the door, staring at the scene in front of him in a mixture of shock and anger, with two soldiers behind them.
"So, it was true…" You could barely hear him say.
He said nothing else, the two soldiers simply went over to the pair and tied their hands behind them, leading them outside, guns pointed at their backs. Feliciano knew exactly what was happening, for it was the same thing they did to Lovino months before. Immediately, he started praying quickly and silently, until he cut himself off- there was something he had to say, before…
"Ludwig?" He breathed out.
"Yes?" Ludwig responded as they were pushed upon their knees.
"Tu sei un dono del cielo. Significhi tutto per me… Ti voglio bene." The former soldier's Italian was quite rusty, but he knew what most of it meant, and to him, it meant the world.
"ZIELEN!"
"Ich liebe dich auch, mein Schatz."
"FEUER!"
"…Amen."
Two gunshots rang into the night.
「ｃｉａｏｂｅｌｌｏ」
Well first off I would like to give my thanks to George deValier- /shot... oh wait
Oh look Romano's dead... again.
Hah, I just really hate this guy, don't I? Haha, hope you enjoyed!
Translations: [1] AIM! [2] FIRE! [3] You are a gift from the heavens. You mean the world to me... I love you. [4] I love you too, my sweetheart/treasure.
/laughs at your tears
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