Haunted

chapter 4

Georg's eyes ripped open, the blood from his face seeming to drain when the terrifying noise of those sirens filled his ears.

It was similar to what he was used to hear during the long, cold nights on his ships as a warning for him and his crew from any danger, but it had never been so frightening as it was now. If he had to face a danger on his ships, it was only his own life that he risked. But now ... now the life of his entire family was being threatened.

"We haven't even reached Huber's workshop yet, Christ!"

Georg's last word was an angry speak aloud of his thoughts and it managed to attract Maria's worried gaze. She knew he would have devised a plan in a matter of seconds and trusted him completely, but it broke her heart to see him like that and to see their children, spontaneously ducking their heads down for the fear of being caught by those Nazi eyes.

Georg squeezed the wheel tight between his fingers, pushed on the gas with the full strength of his foot and sped through the dark streets as fast as he could.

But despite all of that, the sound didn't seem to stop, it would decrease some of the times but then it would soon increase again, making Georg's mind go practically blank to any alternative.

"The Abbey!" Maria broke the silence with a worried yet piping tone, "it's the only place where we would be safe even if they come looking for us there" she then reasoned.

For the first time after those long and painful minutes of restless driving, Georg allowed himself to look at her and in doing so, he valued the option.

There couldn't possibly be a safer place than a religious one, those Nazis wouldn't probably even think to find them there. And, Maria knew those people, they had been her family for many years and would have never let her nor her family down.

Yes, that was their only alternative.

"They won't" he reassured her tenderly before his eyes came back to the road.

He pushed fiercely on the gas, causing the poor children to roll one on top of the other, hopefully this sudden change in the direction would have made the cars following them lose their tracks. Or, at least, he hoped so.

He had to.

But unfortunately, nothing seemed to work in their aid.

The Nazis eventually did follow them there, inspecting the Abbey from top to bottom, triggering panic in all the poor innocent nuns and postulants involved. But they arrived some minutes later giving the Reverend Mother enough time to think of a place safe enough to hide them. She led them to the cemetery upstairs on trebling limbs and handed Georg the keys to the gates for them to be safe. It was also this old, good-natured woman to warn them of another misfortune: listening to the wires she had understood that the borders had just been closed.

Up to this point borrowing their car wouldn't have done them any good.

"Alright, if the borders are closed, then we'll drive up into the hills and go over those mountains on foot" Georg resolutely stated, there was no time to lose.

They would have remained hidden there until the Nazi threat was over and then they would get into the car and do just as planned.

The seven poor children were all scared to death as they curled into tight balls, the youngest as aware as their own parents of the danger they were in. Their little bodies shook and trembled under the protective wings of Maria and Georg's arms, their breaths almost held back for the fear of being caught. It was a pain that none of them wished to ever experience but there they were together; one thing that both comforted and scared them the most.

Then suddenly, marching footsteps marched on the grounds,

The gates were shaken fiercely,

Flashlights painfully run every centimetre of the perimeter of the graves that hid the ten tense bodies,

Their hearts skipped a beat and then …

And then their car was speeding through the empty streets.

The night air was cold, still, quiet, with no other sound to be heard other than their car engine. Not even their breaths were audible, everyone had fallen into a dead silence, still incredulous that anyone had followed them.

A hill came into view after some minutes and when they arrived at its foot, Georg spotted and slowly entered the car on the path Maria had told him about some months ago. Stones and pebbles on the ground emitted a creaking sound under the wheel's weight and as soon as they began driving up, the car didn't stop shaking and bobbing from the obstacles encountered. The path was rocky and bumpy indeed, more than how Georg had imagined, soil slick with night humidity covered the tyres, causing great trouble for their car, but somehow it was still accessible and would have worked until needed. Lo and behold, after an excruciating climb, Georg pulled up the handbrake and stopped the car on what seemed to be a flat spot.

He pushed his door open and sharpened his ears, ready to catch even the slightest footsteps and voices. But he heard nothing at all, not a sound, nor a sight, either. Not even when he got out of the car to be sure.

"Are they gone?" Gretl emitted a weak cry from her curled position in her mother's lap.

Probably more than the other children, she had remained with her eyes squeezed in terror for the whole length of the drive and only now had dared to open them up, noticing the sudden stopping of the vehicle.

Maria had been staring at the window wordlessly for that time but at the sound of her daughter's voice, she ducked her head to change its inclination and look down at her, fear still brimming into her poor eyes.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help

The words of the Reverend Mother echoed in her mind.

"Yes" she nodded her head with a shaky breath, "they mountains are safe".

Safe.

The word almost seemed frightening to pronounce, she didn't even know what it meant anymore. Yes, the risks were much lower now but were they really safe? Completely, totally, utterly safe. If she was being honest with herself, not a thing told her they were. But they had to believe it, all of them had to.

From the backseats, the rest of the children began to stir and toss waiting to be freed from the uncomfortable position they had been stuck in, Maira couldn't let those thoughts trouble her mind no longer.

She exited the car and made the children all follow. She saw them either arching their backs, stretching their arms, hitting the ground with their feet to get rid of the tingling in their muscles and it made her stomach twist knowing that they felt that bad only because of their failed plan.

"We shouldn't be far from the point where we'll start climbing, it seems" Georg's voice was heard from afar.

Not even Maria had noticed him briefly leaving for a patrol of the area. He was now coming back, emerging from the tall blades of darkened grass, his expression still tense, his voice still solemn and concentrated but his attitude much more at ease now.

"Yes, there should be a long row of trees nearby and that is a good point for that" Maria agreed, knowing that place as the palms of her own hands.

The children had finally stopped to stretch and stir and were now gathered near the car, an unusual but understandable behaviour despite their energetic spirits. When Georg finally joined them, his eyes softened at the sight of his family in front of him, all their eyes set on him, hanging from his words as their only guide.

"It's late now, I think the children should get some sleep before tomorrow" he spoke directly to Maria, "I'll see if the car is damaged in the meanwhile".

Maria nodded and saw her husband making his way round the car to check on the wheels.

She then held out her hands for Martha and Gretl to grab and take the few, short steps that would bring them right in front of the car.

Before letting them in, Maria pushed hers and Georg's seat as forward as she could so that the children could at least lie their legs a little bit. Louisa and Kurt, Friedrich and Brigitta protected the two little ones on either side as they got back into the car and once they made themselves comfortable, leaning their heads on each other's shoulders, Maria noticed to her chagrin that Liesl could have never fitted inside at this point.

"You take my seat" she offered, gesturing her hand in the air

"Mother, I-" the young girl started to complain but was promptly stopped by her mother's insistence

"I shall be all right", she confirmed.

Liesl, despite being all but comfortable with the statement, knew that her mother wouldn't let her resist any further and obliged, climbing onto the seat and making herself comfortable. No more than a minute could have passed by but when Maria stepped back to the rest of the children, they were all fast asleep. The expression of sympathy in her face softened as she slipped out of her coat and draped it over Friedrich's shoulder, having the young boy kindly offered his own to his younger sister. But since she was bowed down into the car, she also noticed the way so many of their limbs remained uncovered so extended her slender arms in order to arrange the coats as best as possible.

While she was arranging Louisa's, she felt a tap to her elbow and realized it was from the odd shaking of the front seat.

"Liesl, are you alright?" she asked.

Maria knew she couldn't expect the answer to be a positive one, though, the girl's face was buried into her palms and her shoulders bobbed up and down from her silent crying.

Liesl managed to reply a weak yes but was aware that she couldn't fool anyone, especially Maria. So, eventually, once her sobs seemed to begin to calm down, she decided it was better to let out what was torturing her. She uncovered her face, revealing watery eyes and a stream of tears flowing down her cheeks; she looked just miserable. But she was unable to speak yet and Maria assumed it was perhaps because what had happened in the past few hours had overwhelmed them to a dangerous extent.

"You know, if there's one thing you can't do well, that is lying" Maira said, a tiny smile crossing her lips in a vain attempt to cheer her up a bit with what was meant to be a compliment on her daughter's huge help.

But the girl wasn't convinced in the slightest, and instead of taking in the compliment, her mind focused on her mother's last words as a new flood of tears began to wet her cheeks.

"… and minding my own business …" she sobbed, "… it's all my fault" Liesl sobbed again.

The skin between Maria's brows frowned in confusion

"Liesl, what you're talking about?"

Every word cut through her like a knife, she seemed inconsolable as tears and sobs and breaths took over her body for a long couple of minutes. But then her words came out as a river in flood:

"Rolf! It was me to speak first! Had I remained quiet, he wouldn't have taken his whistle, father wouldn't have come out and confronted him, he wouldn't have threatened his life! I should never have fallen in love with him, I despise him with all of myself for what he has done but I had a part in it too. We wouldn't be here if I kept my distances from him!" the adolescent spelled all her guilty feelings in one long breath, her voice choked by the end.

Maria needed to make an enormous effort to catch all the words that flowed out her daughter's mouth and couldn't help chewing her bottom lip to hold back her own tears at her hearing those words.

"Liesl, Liesl ..." she prevented her from hurting herself further, tucking her index under her chin to raise her head up and then brush her tears away with a caress to her cheek, "it's not your fault"

"It is …" Liesl sobbed as she looked away, her eyes losing the focus behind her face

"It's not" Maria caught her cheeks between both her palms and brought her to meet her gaze, "actually, it is thanks to you if we're here, and it's a positive thing because we're still alive" again, she hinted at a smile of comfort

"What?" the girl replied, blinking to drop some other tears trapped at the corners of her eyes

"Liesl, if Rolf didn't know you, by now your father would be off to Berlin and we in a prison of some kind if not even dead" Liesl listened but still couldn't quite understand her mother's words, "what I'm saying is that Rolf didn't whistle for the others any sooner because he knew Georg was your father, and he couldn't possibly hurt the father of the girl he had loved".

Those words filled the young lady's ears and vividly dawned into her mind, making her realize the truth.

"Oh dear …" her sobs stopped suddenly.

"I don't want you to feel any guilt at all, darling. You went through so much already and you shouldn't take on blames that aren't yours" Maria spoke in a voice no higher than a whisper.

She herself was troubled with emotion and even more so if her daughter suffered about something she had nothing to do with. All the children were in the same situation, but Liesl was feeling it more personally, she knew she was, and this was making her stomach twist and turn at the thought. But she was there for that very reason, to ease her off her worries, take her pain away and hopefully give her the lightheartedness of a childhood she was never given the chance to live fully.

Maria opened her arms and wrapped her daughter into her safe, reassuring embrace, the tears on the girl's cheeks soaking her blouse and her hands tightly holding onto her, never more grateful to have not just a mother, but a friend into Maria.

"Now, tomorrow we are going to need the help of a very brave, young woman and she needs to restore energies before the sun raises. How about sleeping now?" she asked, planting a kiss on top of her light brown hair

"I'd like that" Liesl replied, finally a weak smile crisping her lips.

Maria straightened the position of her tense back again, backing of a few steps to get a view of both Liesl and her younger siblings.

"Sleep tight, darling, I am so proud of you" she whispered before blowing her a kiss.

But, as had already happened with the others, she was had already fallen into a deep slumber and didn't make it to hear her goodnight wishes.

Gretl turned slightly, draping her arm over Brigitta's bust, yet not waking up anyone.

Maria felt a squeeze in her heart at the image of those seven children piled up into a cold car, snuggling into each other to find some warmth, stuck in the middle of nothing on top of a hill, escaping, hiding, fearing, yet never once complaining about their condition. For how painful those thoughts were, they made her feel so very proud of each one of them, surely their father had passed on his great bravery and unfailing courage and adaptability.

She sighed, and walked over to the front of the car, finding a kneeled down Georg, intent on checking one of the front wheels.

"It's deflated, we'll have to put on another one in case we need to drive further to the bottom of the mountain"

"Hum, hum" she replied somewhat absently

"I'm going to check the spare wheel, then I'll come to sleep, Maria. Did the children find it easy to fall asleep?" Georg asked.

But he received no answer in return, not even when he passed past her to reach the back of the car.

Maria, children …

Those two words put so closely into a sentence triggered a memory into her that brought her right back to the cemetery, when he had gestured them to go down the stairs and get into the car, early on that night.

It's you we want, not them

Put that down

Not another move or I'll shoot!

Georg and Rolf's words echoed through her mind painfully, they would have hunted her for the rest of her life. And not only through nightmares, after all she was awake and there she was, hunted by them, oblivious to whatever else was happening around her.

She released a shaky breath, hot tears forming into the back of her eyes and threatening to brim and burst on her cheeks, overwhelming her with a pain she didn't even knew could exist.

"Maria?"

Georg's voice broke the silence of the night and pulled her away from the tormenting noise of her thoughts, making her jump a little.

"What?" her voice came out weak, choked out

"I wondered if the children had any trouble falling asleep" Georg repeated himself, unaware of what her thoughts might be.

Maria blinked her eyes again, trying to lock in her tears and allow his face to come into focus through her watery view.

"Hum … no, they- were asleep before I could even say goodnight" she finally answered, coming back to reality, "I let Liesl take over my seat, she was exhausted" Maria continued, noticing Georg had just now spotted their daughter occupying a seat she wasn't supposed to.

The darkness of the sky seemed to engulf them, the clouds hid each of the myriad of stars and constellations he had seen on his ships, but the moon was full, bright, looking after them. It allowed her to see that he was softly smiling at her, a feeling that felt almost completely new after those long hours of excruciating fear.

"And you are too" Georg softly said in a voice no higher than a whisper as he noticed the circles under her tired, swollen eyes.

A hand of his came to cup her cheek and his thumb soothed a caress on the lines under her blue eyes, the feeling of his manly yet loving touch on her skin made her lean into his hand with such relief, she could have melted right there and then.

After several seconds spent in a loving silence, Georg got into the car and patted his lap, inviting Maria to sit there. She lowered herself onto him, dandling her legs at the sides of his thighs carefully, making sure not to disturb Liesl.

"Hold me?" a whisper troubled with overwhelming emotion came out of her mouth, her eyes tearful, he could tell.

He was happy to oblige.

The arm that sustained her back tightened his grip of her, the other one immediately draping around her shoulders as her own hands encircled him, gripping his sides tight into her palms.

She had risked to lose him forever and now would never let him go ever again. The thought could make her crumble hadn't it been for the safely of his strong arms holding her, treasuring her as if she were his most precious treasure. Which she was indeed.

"I love you, Maria" he firmly yet softly stated

"I love you too" she tried to speak again, but her voice still came out weakly.

It was then that he pressed a long, fond kiss to her forehead before she could tuck her head back under his chin.

"We should get some sleep too now. Tomorrow will be tough, we'll have to get the children up those mountains before the sun sets completely, in the unfortunate case they decide to look for us here too. I'll put the spare wheel first thing in the morning to speed things up. Then we'll-"

Georg stopped to speak when Maira emitted a soft snore, revealing she had fallen asleep. She was so willing to listen to his every word for how much she had missed and feared for him, but she was too tired not to let sleep take over her.

"Goodnight, my love, sleep tight".

His head leaned over her soft, auburn hair and for a couple of minutes he revelled in the rewarding pleasure of caressing her skin before tiredness could get him as well.

He didn't know how long it would have lasted, but if he ever woke up earlier than expected, he would find his personal heaven right on top of him, making all his troubles disappear with the simple melody of her heartbeat.

Author's note: Hello everyone and welcome back, thank you for taking some time to read this chapter. It was one I loved to write and I thought a bit of sweetness between Maria and the Captain was really needed after all they went through. I hope you enjoyed reading it as I will love to read your always kind reviews, I really appreciate your support. See you all next week!