Chapter Three
There's something innately wrong about hurting a heart of gold. It's instinctive, to protect something that rare and precious. Not impossible, just difficult. Against the nature of things.
There is no such protection for a ruby against pyrite.
Kurt Marko stares at Charles like he looks at the expensive diamond encased in glass in the study. It may have been a relative at some time. He doesn't smile, but he grins in a way that makes Charles' insides squirm.
Cain pushes him around, throws a book at his head, and locks him in a cupboard for hours on end. By all rights, Charles should hate him. But he's seen into his heart and mind. It's even more impossible for a heart of gold to think badly of anyone.
After all that, Charles still smiles at Cain Marko and peers over schoolbooks. 'I'm so glad I've got you for a big brother, Cain.'
Cain gives out a violent kick that sends the younger boy sprawling. 'I'm not your brother.' He spits vehemently.
Kurt's shadow fills the doorway and Cain's mind fills with shit I'm in for it this time bloody Charles at least dad hits where it doesn't show. 'Cain! Charles, what's going on here?'
'It's nothing.' Charles says, too quickly. 'Just slipped.'
Kurt doesn't believe him, and stares at his son and Charles can hear piece of shit waste of space you'll wish you were never born.
Charles screams out in pain and curls up, clawing at his head, ripping out hair from the roots. His head is burning from the inside out, thoughts rattling and growing and pushing and oh, God, it hurts.
A maid is called, 'Charles is having one of his headaches, see that he has a lie down.'
Charles is ushered back into his room and Cain is hauled away to his Kurt's study.
'What the hell do you think you're doing?'
'I didn't do anything, Dad!'
Charles is listening but he doesn't mean to. They're an entire wing away, but their thoughts and so forceful.
'We need that brat. Without him, the rich bitch will never give us the money. You idiot! You're going to screw up my plans.'
Cain stays silent but Charles could hear his mind screaming. He likes Charles better than me. I'm always just the screw up.
'Well that settles it, then.' Kurt decides. 'You'll be going to boarding school, and if you never come back, it'll be too soon.'
Disappointment surges through Kurt. Shame swallows Cain.
Charles curls into his pillow and begins sobbing. There's fearterror as Kurt unbuckles the belt and doubles it over. Embarrassment when he's ordered to turn and bend, then there's just painpainbrighthotpain and Charles is screaming with each lash.
The Doktor with the black heart reforges Erik in the shadow of the smoke pipes. Before he was pinned with a yellow star, Erik wanted to be a tailor. Wanted to work with fine needles and create something useful.
When Schmidt learnt this, he wheeled in a bone thin man, strapped down, stripped naked, and circumcised. The blue numbers on his arm read 214740, only 40 ahead of Erik himself. He could have stood behind this man in a line, been from the same area. Maybe number 40 recognises him, because he smiles sadly and speaks.
'Shalom.' 40 says, but it's almost like he's begging. Peace, he says, please have peace in whatever you will be forced to do.
'He's like me.' Erik whispers and Schmidt's fingers dig into his shoulder painfully.
'No one is like you, little Erik, you are alone in this world.' Schmidt leans in close and hisses into his ear. 'Never forget that, my boy.'
The tall man walks to the wall, to the wide variety of medical equipment (torturing devices) and selects a broad knife. Without hesitation, he spins around and slashes 40 across the chest. 40 screams. Blood laced with silver spills out freely across the metal gurney and striped uniform. Erik can see inside him, through to the smooth silver metal of his heart.
Schmidt places a tray with scalpels and surgical needles and threads beside number 40. 'Show the rat what you can do.' He ordered.
Erik holds the needle between his fingers and Schmidt cracks him across the head. 'Again!' he demands.
The needle had landed on the tiles and scraped a thin layer of green mould onto its point. Erik is only allowed to use his powers, he can't clean it, and there's no anaesthetic, but he gets to work. Down, up. Pull tight, like his mother when she sat by the window with Papa's shirt in her hands.
Shirts don't bleed.
He's so focused, doesn't even blink as he follows the path the needle traces with his eyes and his outstretched hand. He doesn't see number 40 paralysed and sobbing with fear. Erik isn't a doctor, he doesn't know how but he tries to stitch the man together.
When he's done, Erik collapses to the floor and his hands won't stop shaking.
'Stand up and look at him.' Schmidt orders.
Erik's knees are weak but, as always, he does as he's told. 40's eyes are wide and horrified.
'What are you?' he hisses.
A lump tightens in his throat at the rejection. Schmidt's breath in his ear is as soft and deceptive as a feather.
'I want you to remember this moment, Erik. You will always be a freak in their eyes. You must learn to see this as a good thing, Erik, because you are superior to them.' He waves a hand at the man on the gurney and wraps his fingers around the boy's neck. 'It doesn't matter if you save them, or if their hearts are made of gold. You must make the world fear you because it will never accept you.'
Schmidt pats Erik on the shoulder and walks to the door. 'Oh, and Erik,' he stops and smiles through his thin lips. 'Rip his heart out.'
Erik does. The stitches break from the inside out.
Cain misses dinner and Kurt doesn't mention him. Charles drew a bath for himself, got clean, changed into his pyjamas and goes looking for the other boy.
Charles finds him in the big study with the shelves of books and the fireplace and the chess set. Cain is curled up in one of the large armchairs beside the roaring fire. He's nursing his hand and has a split lip. Charles holds onto Teddy's hand and drags him along the carpet.
'Cain?' he asks tentatively.
The other boy glares at him. 'What are you staring at?'
'I thought…' Charles doesn't know what he thought; only that a mind was screaming out to him and he couldn't just ignore him. 'I thought you might want to hug Teddy?'
'I don't care about your stupid bear!' Cain yells.
He rips Teddy from Charles' hands and throws it across the room. Charles screams moments before it lands.
Teddy hits the wall and falls, straight into the fireplace, his button eyes staring out. Fire engulfs him and the cotton wool burns up. Hot tears run down Charles' face, but he can only stand by the fireplace while Teddy burns.
Two days later the Marko's are packed up and gone, and so is the diamond in the study. Mother doesn't care in the slightest. She celebrates their departure by drinking a cheap bottle of scotch and smelling an expensive bottle of cologne that hasn't been touched in years.
As for the boy with the heart of gold, he learnt how dangerous it was to have a pure and malleable heart. His strict schoolteachers had told him stories, about boys who traded their hearts for tougher ones, their lives left in ruins. They also say how precious the gold is, and how important it was to keep it safe.
He wraps his heart in leather and binds it like a book. Then he follows his altered heart and buries himself in learning, in mathematics and biology, ignoring the other children who wanted to reach out to touch his heart.
It's a shame that he does cover his heart in strong leather, because one year later, he finds a thief in his kitchen wearing his mother's face. If his heart had been a little more open when they met, he might have understood her better.
Erik escaped from the camps three days before the death marches start. It's the middle of the night and he bends the wire fences enough to slip through. The heavy gates open for him, now. They didn't a year ago.
The fastest path the Erik has memorised leads right past the smoke stacks and the mountains. He bends down beside the mountain of hearts and picks up a small, flat seed. Mud cakes under his fingernails and he clutches the seed in his fist. He knows it won't become the same blue flower. It has been one year since he last saw that flower bloom and felt his heart harden over.
Still…
Erik carries it for three days, for the three days that he runs and runs, towards the positions held by Allied forces he'd seen on the map in Schmidt's office. He carries the seed until his legs give out and his feet bleed. He doesn't cry anymore.
The ground is packed and hard and cold where he falls, but he digs with his fingernails, places the seed in the shallow hole and covers it up. He smooths it down with the heel of his hand.
Erik stands and runs. He doesn't look back.
Wow. I am so terribly sorry, everyone! I promised you more soon then completely forgot that this story needed to be updated. I feel like I should be punished or something. The inspiration for the seed was from an Australian soldier during World War 1 during the Battle of the Lone Pine. He found a seed on his fallen brother's body, put it in his uniform and planted it in Australia. I was very touched by it.
Please review and tell me what you think! What bits of the movie would you like to see in this 'verse? I'm only going to use snapshots, not retell the story we all know, but I always love to hear your ideas and thoughts!