Once upon time in a land far away from here, there was a kingdom that was destroyed by hatred and fear and greed. The previous king of that country, let's name it Germundy, was very greedy and mean, but also very weak, using slaughter and proud posturing to get what he wanted. In the end, three opposing countries, we'll call them Francia, Braton, and Usa, anyway, they won and made a cruel and unfair treaty to punish Germundy and her people. Their economy was destroyed, their lives useless. The king was overthrown and set up with a "Democracy" where nothing could get done because they were under the thumb of the three wretched nations who watched Germundy whither and starve with an aloof air.

One day a man, we'll call him Adalwolf Hiter, gathered together the people and gave them hope. Gave them pride again, and power. They felt complete once again, ready to extend their hand over the continent. Not everyone was rejuvenated however. Not everyone was happy because Hiter called to a mass extermination of many different peoples, homosexuals and cripples, Jews and Gypsies, and the mentally insane. All of these people were defects in the Aryan race Hiter proclaimed and cherished. And the people believed him, not wishing for him to abandon them like their last king had. They raised him up and hailed his name, placing a crown of holy glory and fear upon his head. And they went out experimenting, tormenting, torturing, and killing.

A young girl at the age of fourteen, we'll call her . . . Kat, Kat was a pretty little girl with large green eyes and hair like sunshine. She had a doting brother who promised to protect her from the world. There was just a simple problem. Kat heard voices and saw things no one else saw. She could see half-rotted corpses reaching for her, she could see their eyes glowing red and plump, fat white maggots feasting upon their flesh. They frightened her at first, but they said her name, called to her, begged her not to run and that they wanted to love her and make her happy. Of course no one else saw these creatures, but how could she deny them the basic request of conversation? She talked to them constantly, wherever she went. They followed her and would beg to hear her sweet little voice. Before Kat and her brother could leave the ever growing violence in Germundy, she was taken away and placed in what they called a Mad House.

'She talked to spirits,' says they.

'She sees the devil,' says they.

'She sings demonic songs and dances wildly in her room,' says they.

But Kat was only trying to find happiness in what had become of her. Then it started happening. Every day someone was missing from his or her bed; someone was missing from the dining room; someone was missing. Every day, the hospital was becoming more and more lonely. Kat would pretend that she was asleep many a night and midday to overhear the nurses gossiping in the halls.

"They don't say where the vials come from, but the doctor looks very interested in them though. And the notes say the patient dies in a matter of seconds. It's amazing, and obviously cheap if you look at how many there are."

"I heard doctor Vargas wanted to try his hand at it."

"As did I. I also think he got the 'Go ahead' from higher up."

"Which higher up? Mussolini or the Führer?"

"Haven't a clue, but Italy, I hear, is upset that this was sent to Japan and not them."

"As goes the world of politics."

Kat was curious about this drug that was used to take away the familiar faces of her life inside the white, white building, but she had another thing to look forward to that day. Her brother was coming to visit! She sat out in the courtyard, despite being told not to. It wasn't a courtyard anymore, but a graveyard. Her white, white dress blew about her thin, thin legs. She was never very hungry, and the food was poisoned. The voices told her they were trying to kill her, and she would prefer to die on her own accord and not theirs.

"Kat," a masculine voice called, sounding breathless.

A smile touched her pale lips as she turned to him, "Brother!" She ran to him and jumped into his arms. He hugged her gently; careful of her frail ribcage that was the most prominent section of her torso.

"You still do not eat."

"It's not safe, I've told you. Besides, you bring me good food every time you come and visit." She smiled as she saw the piece of cheese and bread in his pockets. He frowned, looking ashamed, but discreetly slipping the food to her.

"I cannot come back again."

"Wh-why!" she exclaimed, almost dropping the food.

"The military is drafting and my being here puts me at great risk in being pulled in."

"Wh-where will you go!"

"Switzerland."

She began to fall from faintness, and he caught her at the last moment, "S-so far away . . ."

"I'm sorry. I must go now. I hear that the military is coming so this will be the last we will see each other." And with that he turned away. It gave her some hope to see him falter and turn back to take one last look at her before walking out the gates.

Not long after, Kat was tied to her bed, angry and screaming at the monsters that wore the white of death. She was certain that when one died, they saw white instead of black. Not because she believed in heaven or anything beyond, but because she learned that white was the absence of everything, and black was the chaotic combining of everything. She kicked against the restraints and cursed the ceiling. The creatures moaning in anger as well, wanting to help but having no physical form. She soon became tired of all the fighting, her wrists and ankles raw and burning. She didn't want to lie there anymore.

"Are you going to be civilized now?" the demon nurse demanded. Kat's voice was raw and scratchy, so she simply nodded her head. She wanted to stretch her arms and legs that were stiff and bruised. The nurse grunted and untied her, leaving the girl to get up on her own. But she was so tired. She laid on the bed dozing for what seemed like a matter of minutes when a voice pulled her from her dreamless sleep.

Footsteps approached her cautiously, "Hey, kid. You alive?"

She opened her green eyes to be met with red. Her heart leaped, not from fear but joy. Had one of her friends obtained a physical form! She was up on her knees in seconds, hugging him tight and burying her face in his jacket. "He said he isn't coming back anymore! He said he was leaving me here!"

The body she held stiffened, "Who?"

"Brother! Brother left me here to die out of fear! Why! Am I not worth anything to him! To anyone!"

"Hey, kid," he pushed against her gently, "I don't know who you think I am . . ."

She looked up, though it sounded like she had been crying she found such a feat impossible. The red eyes didn't glow, but she saw a light behind them, the pale skin looked like a corpse untouched from maggots and beetles. She touched the face gently and looked deeply into the red eyes. He didn't look frightened at all. She smiled, "I know you."

He was confused, that was certain, but just then they were interrupted.

"Gilbert, you have more important things to do than talk to nutcases, though I'm sure the two of you make beautiful chemistry," a dark haired man called from the doorway, "But your brother had a reason for sending us here."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming asshole." And he started out the door, but he turned back and looked at Kat again, for a long, long moment. The light behind those red eyes made her heat skip as she watched him leave. Day after day he would seek her, bringing her food like brother had done. The young soldier with the red eyes, he was honourable, dignified, and handsome. She loved him.

"Kat?" he called to her as she sat out in the courtyard. The leaves were changing colours and dancing away on the wind, happy to be free and to travel, unlike her who was stuck in this wretched place. A feeling of nostalgia reached her, this had been the same place, brother left her, one year to the day. Her birthday. She turned and smiled, fifteen years of her life had passed and she had lost her mind, lost her freedom, lost her brother, found a love. He stood under the oak tree, his hat under his arm and his SS uniform looking as beautiful as ever on his slight frame. She walked over to him lady-like, men liked that sort of thing, not always the running and the jumping. They liked to feel loved, but not obsessively so. They liked beautiful, presentable young ladies on their arms, not children who ran everywhere. That's what the nurses had said when they thought she was not listening. They liked him to, but did he ever sit and talk with them? Did he tell them stories about his brother who was so smart that Einstein was only a theorist in comparison? Did he sing songs to them? Did he bring them food? Did he ever kiss their hands! No, never! Only for her did he act so kind, so caring.

She held out her hand and he took it gently in his own, bringing it to his velvet soft lips in a gentlemanly kiss. No matter how often he did that, she giggled and flushed. She would need to grow out of that in the next three years, that way she could leave this place and leave with him and they could get married and have beautiful children and run away from all the pain and sorrow. Perhaps they could go to Switzerland and find her brother and they could all be one happy family. He smiled down at her warmly, that mischievous glint behind those wine-coloured eyes. It was then she saw the small bag, half hidden behind his leg. "Gilbert, what is that?" she asked curiously, the childish nature she had a hard time breaking out of creeping upon her.

"It's a little something," he chuckled, moving it away from her eyes, "I need to tell you that Ludwig called me back. He believes Dr. Vargas has everything under control for the most part, and one long year without his big brother made him miss me."

It was as though she was slapped in the face. Tears pricked her emerald eyes as she looked up to the man who owned her heart, trying to keep her composure and failing miserably. "Y-you mean . . . I-I'll be a-all alone again."

"I'm sorry. If I could stay I would," he suddenly let the hat fall to the ground and pulled her into a warm hug, her head resting against his chest, hearing the soothing beat of his heart. The bag tapped against her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his waist in a grip like death.

"NO!" she screamed into the thick fabric, "I won't let you go! You can't leave me too! You can't!" He rocked her back and forth, shushing her quietly as she sobbed. So patient, he didn't let go of her until her tears stopped and her wails quieted into hiccups.

He then held her at half an arm's length and looked her up and down, a sad smile gracing his features, "I won't forget about you, okay? I'll be back soon, I promise. I get a here month leave next year. Just you wait, time will fly and I'll see you again Kitty Kat. But I have something else."

"Wh-what is it?" she asked, pushing the left over tears away with the heel of her hand, the salty stains running down her cheeks. He held the bag out to her and she took it delicately between her fingers. No one had ever given her something like this before. It was dull in colour, but inside was a lilac card, written in painstakingly neat handwriting that still needed some work were the words 'Happy Birthday'. She looked at it over and over again before looking up at him. He had retrieved his hat and dusted it off before placing it on his snowy hair. "For me?"

"Go on and open it in your room. That way they can't see what a lucky girl you are," he smirked before placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, "I have to go Kitty Kat, I'll be back next year, I promise."

She saw him off from her room window, as he walked out the gate he looked up to her, seeing her through the bars. He frowned at the inhumane regulations, but smiled at her and waved his leather-clad hand. She waved back, unsure if he could see. In her hands was a pretty porcelain doll, her hair in braids and her eyes as green as trees in the heart of summer. She wore a red velvet dress and her rosy lips smiled, showing off her plump, flushed cheeks. She watched him step into the black car waiting for him; she could see his red eyes flicker up to her one last time before he disappeared and the door closed, hiding him behind tinted windows. The engine roared to life and the driver took off and she held the doll tighter to her chest. On her bed was the card that read 'Happy Birthday', however it was faced down into the covers. She was more interested in the words scrawled on the back.

'Love, Gilbert.'

A/N: I was going to keep ANs out of this story to keep up the darkness and not have me rant forever down here, but this must be done! THIS STORY JUST GOT FANART AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO THANK THEM ENOUGH! Here is where you can find it! I cannot thank them enough!

http: / / nhannghianguyen (DOT) deviantart (DOT) com/ art/ Katarine- 211245891