War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 72

Chapter 17

A

nna moved into her new place the next day. Because the apartment had previously been assigned to Professor Scherer, it was nicer than the usual staff quarters. It featured two bedrooms, one of which she didn’t use, a combination living and dining room, and a fully furnished kitchen. Best of all, it was less than five minutes’ walk to the lecture hall with the laboratories, and Peter lived in the adjacent building.

But in the midst of her happiness, a smidgeon of guilt gnawed at her over leaving her family when they needed her most.

Anna shrugged. It had been the right choice. She glanced at the clock on the wall opposite her work station and yawned. It was past nine p.m. already. Now that she could work as long as she wanted without having to worry about walking home in the pitch black of night, she’d forgotten the time again.

Usually Peter dropped in to remind her about dinnertime and they would prepare a meal either at her place or at his, but today he’d been out driving the Professor to several appointments.

Everyone else had already left. She stretched her arms and legs, tidying up everything and locking the bacteria cultures into the cupboard. Then she grabbed her coat and purse, switched off the lights, and turned towards the stairs that would lead her straight out to the street side of the building.

The chilly night air smelled of fresh beginnings. Spring had finally returned to Berlin. Dandelions and daisies had sprung up everywhere, even atop heaps of rubble, as if to say

Look! We don’t care whether there’s a war or not, we’ll always be here.

Anna smiled and picked a bunch of daisies to put into a vase. Peter would like that. He always tried to cheer her up, bringing normalcy into her life, even if only with a flower. Moments later the screeching, buzzing, deafening sound of the air raid sirens blasted out across the city.

After so many years she should have grown accustomed to it, but every time it made her writhe in agony – like the sound of nails screeching across a blackboard, only a hundred times louder. Anna looked around for her options. The public shelter was on the far end of the grounds, at least a fifteen-minute walk. But there was a smaller one, nothing more than a fortified room in the basement of the lecture hall. She dreaded spending the night there. She hated that tiny room.

The deep droning of approaching aircraft drowned out even the sounds of the sirens and she knew she didn’t have a choice. She’d never make it to the public shelter.

She hurried down the stairs, trying to contain her fear at entering the creepy space in the basement. There was only a dim emergency light blanketing the room in semidarkness.

“Iiieeeekkk,” she shrieked when she noticed a shadow looming in the room.

“Is that you, Anna? It’s me. Peter,” he called to her from the darkness.

“Jesus, Peter, you spooked me. I thought…” Anna fell into his arms, her heart pounding hard and fast.

“…I was a ghost? Boooo…” He chuckled at the trembles running down her arms. “You’re safe with me. I’ll take good care of you.”

The sounds overhead grew louder, more terrifying, a swarm of angry hornets zooming in on their target.

“I hate them,” she murmured.

“Everyone does. But they’re just doing their job.”

“How can you say that!” Anna turned in his arms, glaring daggers at him. “They’re killing innocent people. Why don’t they bomb military targets? Why do they come here to murder innocent women and children?”

“There are no innocents in a war. Not in this one.” His voice became thoughtful and reminded her of her own inner struggles.

“Can we talk about something else, something less depressing?” Anna asked in a hushed voice as she leaned into him again. In his arms she felt safe. Nothing could harm her.

“Certainly, what do you want to talk about?” Peter chuckled again, tracing lazy circles on her arms. It felt so good. Too good. Her body threatened to ignite as she waited with bated breath for whatever he would do next.

“Tell me about your life before the war. Before you worked for the professor,” Anna said.

“There’s not much to tell.”

“Please,” she begged, snuggling up against him, feeling the warmth of his body enveloping her like a plush blanket.

“Well. I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. I’m the oldest of four and after finishing school all I wanted was to escape. Life in the capital seemed so much more exciting.” He chuckled again, snuggling her close. “For a while my life was perfect, but then the war happened. And now I’m here working for Professor Scherer.”

Anna leaned her head back against him. His words had left her with more questions than answers, but as his fingers lightly traced the skin on her neck, her brain refused any rational thought. Tucked into his arms, her body seemed to burn up with need.

Peter shifted her around on his lap, so she faced him, and tipped her chin up to place a kiss on her lips. Shudders of delight raced through her veins, tingling sensations spreading all the way into her toes.

Anna opened her lips and his tongue slid inside, exploring her mouth, sending more sweet tingles across her body. His hands slid down her ribcage, pulling at her blouse, and then she felt his rough palms on her soft skin. Delicious prickles made her shiver and moan with delight – until the images of T the devil taking what she didn’t want to give attacked her and she frantically pushed against Peter’s chest.

“Anna, what’s wrong?” Peter groaned, breathless.

“Nothing. I thought I heard an explosion.” She hopped from his lap and walked towards the door. He followed her and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped.

“My sweet Anna. What’s going on? Are you afraid of me?” he said with a controlled voice, trying his best to stay calm.

“No.” Anna shook her head, but one glance at Peter’s face told her he didn’t believe one word. “Not of you.”

“What scares you so much that you run away every time I kiss you?”

She couldn’t possibly answer. He would despise her if he knew the truth, he might even break up with her. The prospect of never seeing him again made her mouth go dry as cotton balls.

“Just hold me, please,” Anna finally said.

Peter didn’t respond, but pulled her against his chest and wrapped both arms around her, resting his chin upon the top of her head. Impact after impact shook the building above them and the ground vibrated with each new explosion.

“Close your eyes and try to relax. We’ll most likely be down here the rest of the night,” Peter said and carried her over to one of the cots, where he laid her down, and then squeezed in behind her, holding her tight. He covered them both with a blanket and while the apocalyptic inferno raged outside, shaking the earth with the wrath of a giant, Anna jittered, trembled, and prayed to survive this night.

Despite the never-ending bombing, she must have dozed off in the security of Peter’s arms, because she woke with a start in the middle of the night, disorientated. Another forceful hit nearby moved the ground like Jell-O, and fear sank deeper into her bones. The emergency lights had stopped working and in the complete darkness, she sensed Peter’s chest going up and down with his breath. He seemed fast asleep, but at the sound of the next explosion he jumped and muttered,

Cholera, wszyscy tu zginiemy.

Cold hands grabbed at her heart as she remembered where she’d heard this expression before. Some of the Polish prisoners at Ravensbrück had used it and it roughly translated to

Damn, they’re going to kill all of us.

She squinted her eyes at him, more divining his features than seeing them. With his dirty blond hair and bright blue eyes he didn’t look like a Pole. Not like the ones she knew anyways. He couldn’t be a Pole. They belonged to the defamed Slavic race, and relationships between Aryans and Slavs were strictly forbidden.

There must be a perfectly valid reason for him to mutter in Polish in his sleep

. She’d confront him in the morning.