The Brocade Baby (Rewrite) Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Fear grows

10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Isaiah 41:10

 

News quickly spread throughout the town of the grim discovery, sending at least a third of the people into a panic. Some of the people decided to leave town until the whole hysteria died down. The Blumenthals and Larues decided to stay for the sake of Ambroise, as they felt that leaving town would be an even bigger risk that they did not want to resort to. Both families were staying at the Blumenthal House and eating what was supposed to be their picnic meal but the incident forced them to cut the picnic short and decide to eat there. Once that was finished, the Larues decided to stay at the Blumenthal House for the night as they felt that it was too risky to go back to their own homes. Audrey and Timotheos were sitting on the floor with Ambroise while he played with his toys without a care in the world while Barnim and Julien sat on the nearby chairs. Miranda and Brielle were seated at the nearby dining table, having just eaten their sandwiches and currently drinking tea as a way to calm themselves, discussing with each other over what Barnim told them. The dogs were all out in the backyard either doing their business or playing with each other like usual.

"I still can't believe someone died today! And in the Forest of Shadows nonetheless!" Brielle exclaimed.

"I know, it is rather disturbing," Miranda replied as she pondered over what happened back there and why it happened.

"Well, the best thing we can do is try to keep each other safe, especially since this is the first time something like this has happened," Barnim explained with absolute firmness in his tone. "Well, other than the Nazis having taken over Belgium."

"Really?" Julien exclaimed in surprise. "You never told us that!"

"Right, I remember that time," Miranda revealed, garnering looks of surprise from everyone other than Barnim and Ambroise. "It was terrible. So many people in our town were targeted, harassed or outright slaughtered in front of everyone as a warning not to defy the Nazi order."

Timotheos and Audrey stared in shock over this new piece of information. Mama and Opa were imprisoned by Nazis? He thought to himself with a shudder. He had heard of the Nazis and all the atrocities that they committed throughout Europe and the rest of the world. His history teacher made his contempt of the Nazis very clear to the class (especially since his teacher was of German-Jewish descent) and went on a 10 minute rant about how he witnessed so many innocent lives being taken away before eventually composing himself and continued to teach like nothing happened. It was an interesting lesson that neither Timotheos nor Audrey would ever forget.

"Oh yes, those Arschlöcher took over the town and basically made it their personal kingdom," Barnim bitterly commented. "They made sure to remind us of how "powerless" and "foolish" we were to defy them and they were so insistent that Hitler would success in creating his "Third Reich", while conveniently ignoring the fact that they had to STEP OVER DEAD BODIES IN ORDER TO GET WHERE THEY ARE!"

After Barnim finished his rant over how much he hated the Nazis, he noticed that everyone was staring at him with expressions of shock, sympathy and concern. He didn't realize that he was standing up as he went on his rant and quickly sat back down in embarrassment. He let out a deep sigh while Julien placed a comforting hand on his shoulder while Miranda and Brielle stared at him with worry in their eyes. Ambroise also seemed rather attentive and concerned over the old man's outburst, prompting Timotheos to pick him up and hand him over to Barnim as a way to cheer him up. Barnim eagerly took Ambroise into his arms and cradled him while he sucked on his pacifier.

"Sorry, everyone," Barnim said. "It's just... it's just that this whole thing brings back bad memories for me."

"No, no, no! It's fine!" Julien said. "It's not your fault. We shouldn't have reminded you of what happened."

"It's alright. I'm not the only one who suffered at the hands of the Nazis," Barnim explained. "Ever since WW2, the Germans were forced to endure the discrimination and prejudice from others who assume that all of Germany supported Hitler's insane ideology when in reality, most of us were either forced to serve him or secretly rebelled against him."

"Well, how did you and your family handle the Nazis?" Audrey asked out of curiosity.

"Oh that," Barnim said with a cheeky grin. "Our family along with some of our neighbors were part of a resistance group who tried to undermine the Nazis' efforts to take over all of Europe."

"Really?!" Timotheos and Audrey exclaimed in surprise and intrigue.

"Oh yes indeed," Barnim replied with pride in his tone. "In fact, we had many different areas in Europe ranging from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal that allowed us to secretly assist the Allied Forces and make sure to defeat the Nazis from within. We even had some in Austria and Germany though we had to be careful due to the large amount of Nazi soldiers being stationed there. Another part of our mission was to assist refugees and other resisting citizens in escaping the areas where the Nazis had taken over, especially if they were Jewish, Romani, and others who didn't fit the "Aryan" nonsense that Hitler kept spouting."

"That's so cool!" Timotheos exclaimed. "I never knew about that! Why didn't you or mom ever tell me?"

The mood immediately dampened again as Barnim and Miranda had painful expressions on their faces, causing Timotheos and everyone else to feel concerned for them again.

"Um, mama? Opa?" Timotheos asked nervously.

"It's because... one of our friends was discovered by the Nazis and got killed for it," Miranda revealed. This shocked the others as they were so caught up in the fact that Barnim and Miranda were resistance fighters against the Nazis that they forgot that there would be casualties.

"How? How did she get caught?" Audrey asked. Miranda could only give her a pained expression before she began her story.

"She was one of our most prominent resistance fighters who sent out various signs and letters that would counter the propaganda that the Nazis had sent out. She also had a son who was chosen to participate in the Hitler Youths and she didn't want him to lose his innocence to the Nazis' corruptive influence. Unfortunately, she got a bit too reckless and was caught by one of the Gestapo who was sent to find out who was handing out those counteractive messages. She was hung the next day alongside various other resistance fighters who were also caught. In the center of her hometown nonetheless!"

This horrified Timotheos and Audrey along with Audrey's parents as they heard of the Nazis doing horrible things to their own people but this was too cruel and inexcusable to be left unnoticed. Those monsters! Timotheos thought to himself with growing rage over this injustice. And she had a son too! How could they!?

"I... I'm so sorry to hear that," Brielle apologized as she saw how devastated Miranda was when recounting the story. She went over to wrap her friend into a tight embrace as a way to console her, to which Miranda replied by smiling through the newly formed tears and grasping onto her friend's arm.

"It's okay," Miranda replied. "It's just that, our friend's sacrifice and death was too much for us to bear, especially during those dark years."

"Not to mention, our cover was nearly blown that time so of course we couldn't talk about it openly even after Hitler died and the Nazis quickly lost their power over the people," Barnim explained to the group. "It was a painful time but the fact that our friend never got to celebrate our victory or reunite with her son made it even worse."

"What happened to her son?" Audrey asked, fearing for the worst.

"He lived and was able to reunite with his father, who was also a resistance fighter that was unfortunately conscripted into the Nazis," Barnim replied. "Though the death of his mother was incredibly painful for him, it helped him realize that the Nazis were not the heroes he thought they were and finally turn against them. It is a shame though, his mother would have been happy to see that her son was finally free from their influence had she not died." Once he finished his statement, Barnim shed a tear in honor of his old friend which brought a few tears from the others. Whether he wanted to cheer everyone up or was just doing his own thing, Ambroise poked and touched Barnim's face which made him smile a bit and chuckle. This brought a chuckle to everyone else as they felt calmer and happier when Ambroise did his usual thing, namely being cute and innocent enough to make people smile.

However, the tender moment suddenly got interrupted when they heard knocking on their door.

"Mom, were we expecting any more visitors today?" Timotheos asked, prompting Miranda to shake her head.

"No? I don't think we were," Miranda replied before getting up from her seat and cautiously approaching the door. The others watched with anticipation and nervousness, with Barnim keeping Ambroise in his arms as protectively as he could. The moment Miranda opened the door, she and the others were greeted to the sight of a man standing in front of her. Only it wasn't just any other man but rather it was the same man that bumped into Miranda a day ago. While his sudden reappearance was shocking enough, the fact that his clothes were slightly tattered along with the fact that he was covered in blood and had serious injuries didn't make the reappearance any less creepy. Miranda could only gasp with widened eyes over his sudden reappearance while Audrey nearly screamed in shock.

"What's wrong?! Why are you screaming?" Timotheos asked as he saw the fear in her eyes.

"T-That's him!" Audrey cried out. "That's the creepy man who bumped into Miranda yesterday!"

"QUOI!?" Brielle and Julien cried out in shock.

"Per favore..." the man began, catching everyone's attention. "Signora... I... need... help..."

He suddenly passed out and fell over before he could finish his sentence, causing everyone to get up from their seats and surround him. Miranda took charge as she realized that this man was seriously wounded, especially since the blood was still fresh and she could see that some of his clothes were scraped by what appeared to be bullet wounds.

"Quickly!" she cried. "Everyone, we need to get him to the clinic NOW!"