Schneeweisschen und Rosenrot is a German fairytale about two girls called after the two roses one white (→ Schneeweisschen → snowwhite) and the other red (→ Rosenrot → Rosered)

Hello guys ^^, here the second part of my little Levi x Erwin story Abendlied

Hope you like it. I don't know if you understand everything if you haven't read the first part ^^

Oh my god I truly listen now more than four hours to Vivaldi Celliconcert?

.

Okay I am weird, XD, but I need music to write, you too?

Anyway, I wrote the dialouge first in German and then translated it. I guess it was easier for me somehow.

And please tell me all the mistakes and failures and what so ever here in this story.

English is not my mothertongue!

Also...be prepared for rather OOC Erwin and Levi XD

Sorry ._.

have cookies my lovelies!

It is the sixth time his interrogater hits him. The tase of blood almost drives him insane. It is everywhere. Dripping from his nose into his mouth, dripping from his gum on his tongue, make his stomach twist and turn like a snake hunted by sharp pikes. But he remains silent.

It rains. Like drums the drops fall on the roof of their shelter being nothing more than a small wooden barn, a cage where the wind howls through as if it pities the dead. He can still hear screams outside, footsteps in the snow, rough, whispered Russian and desperate crying. It disturbs him the most. This crying. He wishes it would stop.

His interviewer sighs. Although awfully thin he still is handsome in a way. Blond hair, blue eyes...he reminds the Corporal a little bit of Armin.

"Sie machen es mir nicht einfach, Bastard. Sagen Sie mir wo die Waffenkammer ist."

(You don't make it easy, Bastard. Where is the gun room?)

If he wasn't that tired he would laugh. This man, this Russian has more self-control than every man he knows. Besides one. This behaviour reminds him of Levi. Yes, just like Levi. Adressing someone formally with "Sie" ( a german way to call people older than you in a polite way) and at the same time ending this sentence with Bastard. He almost smiles. It is a bizarre thing to do. Truly, it is.

The Russian lights a cigarette but to Erwin's surprise doesn't smoke it. Instead he hands it into the Corporal's left hand. The crying gets louder. His blue eyes stare at the glimming butt. And he realises his choppy breathing. And that the cigarette is strangely blurred.

And this disturbing sound of sobbing and crying gets louder and louder.

And he recognizes this crying. He recognizes his crying.

The two man look at each other in silence. Embaressement fills his throat. Not because he cries like a little child. Because this man pities him. Because this man is a Russian. Because this man is nice to him. To him, a German Corporal, a German Bastard who gave order to kill his friends. Who is in his, the Russian's country and destroys it for no reason. Who beats his father to death, rape his wife and shoots his children, yet this young man in front of him tries to sooth him in a strange kind of way. Erwin tries to calm down and take a pull on the cigarette with a shaky hand as if his life depends on it. God, he is tired.

The silence gets heavier. Like a cloak it lays upon him and the Russian soldier who scrubs Erwin's dry blood from his knuckles. He seems to have given up asking the Corporal. The German wishes he could speak. But he is sure he will burst into tears again and also that there will be nothing leaving his lips. He has no clue why it would be like that. He watches his interviewer a little bit more curious. He had no accent when he talked, was he originally German? He wants to ask. Instead he again takes a pull on his cigarette. White smoke flies like powder through the air and warms the Corporal from the inside. It is so bloody cold. He hands it back to the young man, but he shakes his head. So Erwin puts it off.

At this very moment it knocks. Both Erwin and the Russian turn around and the Corporal is sure that both of their hearts skipped for this very second. The not really existing door opens screaming like in pain. A skeletton appears in a green Officer-uniform. The face and hands shine white as snow, a green hat on the black hair. Erwin sees his interviewer gulp badly. As if he was afraid of his Officer. In the shadow of the barn the German can't see the officer's face. He seems to be rather small. That is all he gets. And out of nowhere a new feeling pumps through his veins and it replaces his blood, his cells, everything inside of him.

Guilt.

The officer slowly comes into the light. The grey eyes now dark are staring at the young soldier.

Again silence. But not heavy, not calm. This silence is louder and it bursts like a canon bomb. It is like a slap in the face, like a grand wave coming nearer and nearer and you do nothing than standing at the edge expecting it with open mouth and crying eyes. As if you were bound, caged, with no possibility of escape.

Erwin breaths out.

It is Levi.

The Officer is Levi.

And at the same time the German is sure that this man who stares at his subordinate with so emotionless eyes can't be the same man he had spent his youth with.

Finally the silence gets broken by a small nodd of Levi to the door and his young Russian soldier leaves without a word. At the door he gives Erwin one last glare and it looks like he wants to say: Be careful. The Corporal blinks and the young Russian vanishes through the screaming door.

Before the German can do a move Levi grabs him and pulls him up, smashing him against the wall and before Erwin understands what happens a cold gun touches almost gently his forehead.

They stare at each other, one's eyes filled with despite the others with disbelief and fear.

If hell is like this?, Erwin asks himself. Are you confronted with all the failures of your life, confronted with all your sins? And there is nothing you can do than endure. Until the end of internity.

And now he faces the worst of all his sins. And he is speechless. His tongue seems to be swollen by blood, guilt and fear. In his head he catches words, phrases but the moment he tries to grab them they vanish in the dark.

"Wo ist die Waffenkammer?"

(Where is the gun room?)

Levi's voice though low like dead leaves almost crashes Erwin's eardrums.

The Corporal remains silent. The jewish Officer narrows slightly and then grabs Erwin's right arm nothing else now than a bloody stump. He screams his life out of his lungs as the sudden pain seems to tear him apart. God, he screams but the Officer does not stop, looking almost indifferent at the Corporal and Erwin understands that there is nothing left of Levi. Nothing than hate and despite.

For Levi he is a German Corporal belonging to the people who murders Levi's kind, torture them, eat the flesh of their children. Oh yes, the Germans are death closest friends.

And Levi is a Russian Officer. Commander of boys and old men, nothing to eat, ripped from their family, traumatised. And Levi himself. A jew and Erwin does not want to know what his former friend had to go through. Even devil himself would pity him.

The Russian officer stops his torture for a second and although the pain still stirrs in his body like a acid eating him from the inside, the immediate ache calms. His head rolls down even with this cold weapon on his forehead.

For a moment there is just his loud breathing. Levi seems to wait for an answer. But not yet. Pain, guilt and fear. Everything floods in him. He can't speak. He is silent.

The younger Officer hits him with the stuck of the gun in the face. Blood splashes from his nose and cheek like a sparkling fountain making almost the same gurgling sound. He chokes. Like thick water the blood drops down his chin soaking his uniform. He wants to vomit.

"Wo ist die Waffenkammer."

(where is the gun room?)

He shakes his head. Everything whirls and twists. He can't have one clear thought. God, he thinks. What is happening? Then a hand grabs his chin and forces him to look into Levi's eyes.

But he can't anymore. He falls on the floor again and Levi right with him. He expects another hit but the Officer just stares at him.

"Du weißt nicht wo sie-?"

(You don't where-?)

"Wardum isch Levschi?"

(Why me Levi?)

He sounds almost incomprehensible because of the blood in his mouth. But the Officer understands.

He doesn't answer but put the gun again on his forehead.

"Also weißt du nicht wo sie ist? Dann-"

(You don't know where it is? Well then-)

"Levi."

He doesn't say please. Everything here is wrong. That can't be. They studied together. They lived together. They were like siblings, spending hours and hours together. And now? Now he gets threatened by his best friend in this bloody war, somewhere in Russia were none of them ever wanted to be. This is just a fucking nightmare and everything he has to do is to wake up at home, Jablonskistrasse 34, right next to the Alex.

God, he thinks. Why do you torture me?

The moment he has this thought he widens his eyes in horror. And guilt laughs in the depth of his being. He detects Levi again.

Everything: this slenderness, the dead eyes, the shining skin reminding of a water corpse.

All of this.

Is because of him.

Because of his decision.

Because he had sent Levi into living hell.

And there is no excuse. No redemption.

"Erwin?", Levi replies. It is silent. No wind is howling, no footsteps on the cracking ice, no whispered Russian. Nothing.

To the German's surprise Levi is the one who goes on talking, pressing the gun more and more against Erwin's forehead. It is a plain question, almost rhetorical.

"Liebst du deine Soldaten, Korporal?"

(You love your soldiers, Corporal?)

The older one nods tired.

"Bist Du dir sicher? Weil je länger du Dich weigerst zu kooperieren, desto größer wird die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ihr Dahinscheiden dem eines Juden grausam ähnlich sein wird. Und Du weißt, was Ihr mit den Juden macht nicht wahr?"

(Are you sure, you love them? Because the longer you don't cooperate the bigger the chance of your soldiers dying like Jews. And you know what you do with Jews, isn't?)

Erwin starts to shake. The jewish Officer lays his head on the right and watches him. Curious or angry he has no idea, Levi's eyes are as emotionless as the eyes of a corpse.

"Weißt Du wie oft ich mir schon vorgestellt habe, dich zu töten?"

(You know how often I dreamt about killing you?)

Erwin wishes he wouldn't talk at all, he wishes Levi is silent, he doesn't want to know...he doesn't want to know...

"Jedes Mal wenn Tod mich schon umarmte, befreite ich mich mit dem Gedanken dich zu finden. Dass ich diese ganze Scheiße hier übelebe und nach Berlin fahren und dich dann finden würde. Ich würde vor deiner Haustür stehen und ich würde dich abknallen genau wie sie es mit meiner Familie taten. Ich muss Dir eigentlich danken. Der Gedanke an deinen Tod hielt mich am Leben."

(Every time death embraced me I freed myself by thinking of your death. That I will survive this shit here and come to Berlin where I would shoot you down just like the Germans did with my family. I must thank you. Your dead face helped me to live on.)

"Dann töte mich."

(Then kill me.)

Levi shakes his head.

"Noch nicht. Ich muss die Waffenkammer finden, meine Jungs teilen sich im Moment pro drei Leute eine Waffe. Wenn wir es nach Frankreich schaffen wollen, brauchen wir mehr Waffen. Das verstehst Du doch, oder?"

(Not yet. I have to find the gun room. My boys share one weapon for three men. With that we never reach France. You get that don't you?)

"Ich dachte in Polen wärst Du sicher, (I thought you are safe in Poland)," he answers dry, still blood dripping into his mouth but he swallows it down.

Levi leans back and lights himself a cigarette. He breaths the white smoke directly into the Corporal's face. Erwin doesn't blink but presses his lips to a thin line.

"Ich habe mich oft gefragt ob du es wusstest. Glaub mir die ersten Wochen war ich naiv genug zu denken, dass du es nur gut mit mir meintest. Aber im Endeffekt ist es egal. Du erwartest doch nicht ernsthaft Vergebung?"

(I often questioned if you actually knew what was going on. Believe me the first weeks I was truly naive enough to think you meant it well with me. But in the end it doesn't matter. You don't expect forgiveness, don't you?)

What shall he answer? Maybe deep inside he expected forgiveness? What was he? An idiotic bastard seeking forgiveness by the one he sent to hell?

He breaths in and out again. God this smell of blood will kill him one day. He has the horrific sense of blood also dripping down his stump.

"Was passiert mit meinen Soldaten wenn ich kooperie?"

(What will happen to my soldiers if I cooperate?)

"Ich lasse sie auf der Stelle hinrichten."

(I will let them be executed right away.)

It sounds insane in his ears. But what did he think again? Either they will slowly die in a Gulag or right now.

A sour feeling pulverizes his throat and an ugly cough leaves his lips. As he talks he sounds like his father on his deathbed.

"Kann ich sie sehen?"

(Can I see them?)

Levi looks at him.

"Jetzt?"

(now?)

Erwin shakes his head.

"Wenn sie erschossen werden."

(When they are going to be executed.)

Like a puppet made of wood after its show when its player lets go of it, it seems for a second Levi's body collaps. But maybe also Erwin imagines it.

"Bischt Du vielleicht meschugge?"

(Are you mad? Meschugge is yiddish for mad)

Or maybe the Corporal didn't imagine it. Levi seems confused and talks only in yiddish when he is nervous.

A sudden scream clings in their ears. The Officer stands up.

And truly: Never in his whole life Erwin saw Levi that horrified.

A rather quick ending but I just...aahhh, maaan, this whole thing here took a while.

Hope you liked it.

See you in the next chapter ;-)

Until then

Bye!

was is okay to read? Tell me your thoughts