The Promise

Chapter 12

I walked alongside the road, heading to the headquarter. I thought about Pierre. My childhood friend, my best friend, a piece of where I came from and what reminded me of home. I had never lied to Pierre, but I had to now, I knew that now. How was I suppose to lie to Pierre? I saw Pierre's face, as I remembered it, when we were children. My best friend. I squeezed my eyes. I remembered Pierre once asked me, when we were children, if I was his best friend. I had answered yes. We had run around on the streets, playing, pretending that we was flying in flying machines. And what about Philip? I pulled my pale hair strings backwards. The way he trusted me and he joked about everything. Would he see the irony in me making an impossible promise to a Jewish girl, when I was her worst enemy? Could we just laugh about it one day and be happy that we had all made it through the war? Could we make it through the war? That was the real question to ask.

I walked up to the Gestapo headquarter's main building and went to the window from where mine, Pierre's and Philip's dorm was. I grabbed onto the window and tried to open it up from outside. There was dark from inside of the window. Pierre and Philip was properly sleeping by now, like the rest of the headquarter's members. I sighed. Damn, why can't this old sh*t not just open up? I used all of my powers, and some of the wood frame around the window cracked loudly. F*ck! I thought loud. I heard a bump. Properly Philip falling out of his bed. Just what I needed. Thank you God for completely working against me, I thought ironic. The window opened and Philip looked outside of the window, having not seen me in the dark night.
-"Anton? What the-" -"Ssh!" I put my right hand in front of Philip's mouth and interrupted him. Philip's eyes widened.
-"Shut up, what if Pierre heard you? He would kill us." I whispered and removed my palm from Philip's mouth.
-"Well he would differently kill you after today." Philip smirked.
-"So what? It would almost be a relief by now." I rolled my eyes. Philip looked confused at me.
-"What are you talking about? What happened to you?" Philip replied. I looked away from Philip.
-"You wouldn't understand." I bite my tongue. Sh*t.
-"Try me."
-"Not here. Everyone could hear us." I looked back at Philip again.
-"Then move." Philip ordered me. I moved aside and Philip crawled out of the window in his stripped pyjamas. -"Man, it's cold, how can you be so calm, Anton?" Philip panicked. Cold? He thought about the weather and here I was considering whether I would make to my next birthday? I lifted on my shoulders.
-"Come." Philip nodded ahead of the small backyard behind the Gestapo main building. I followed him and Philip looked curious at me.
-"You've made headlines, man, where have you been? Gyrowetz is furious, he threatened Pierre, because he knows you are best friends." Philip said. I pulled my hair backwards. Damn. Pierre had every right to be angry at me.
-"What do you mean by threatening?" I asked concerned.
-"Pierre will pay, if some explanations don't come soon and you don't show up. Like Pierre is finished." Philip lowered his voice. F*ck. What on Earth should I explain? Like, I'm sorry about today Mr. Gyrowetz, but I had to make sure the woman we had an arrest order on, was safe in her hiding place. I might as well just kill myself then.
-"You have to tell me what's going on, Anton. You know, I'll always be your friend, but seriously what's our friendship worth if you can't tell me the truth anyway? You should at least tell Pierre, what's going on. His your best friend and he'll be the one, who'll be paying, anyway." Philip had never been that serious with me. But he was right. Who was I kidding? If I couldn't to honest to my friends, then what was the point about our friendships? I might as well just quit them, but I couldn't. They was my best friends and Pierre, I had known him all of my life, what kind of man was I? Apparently the kind, who deserted my friends, chased Jews and f*cked everything up. I swallowed my pride.
-"You're right, Philip. You're my friends. Both of you and because of me Pierre have to deal with Mr. Gyrowetz. I have to talk to him, but I'm not sure he can't take it." I replied.
-"What are you talking about? What have you done, Anton? Like, set a building on fire or robbed a bank?" Philip laughed. Yes, what had I really done?
-"No." I said quietly.
-"Then what? You know you can count on me, no matter what you have done. I'm your friend, come on, Anton." Philip almost begged me. I bite my lips nervously. How could I tell Pierre, the most dedicated Nazi officer I had ever met, that I had helped a Jewish girl escape? He would execute me, himself. I closed my eyes and took a deep breathe. But this was Philip, not Pierre. I opened my eyes again and looked at Philip.
-"Remember the Jewish family we had an arrest order on this morning?" I asked.
-"What about them?" Philip looked confused at me and continued, -"the man and the woman was found, but the girl managed to escape, so we're still searching for her."
-"She escaped from behind the apartment, through the basement door and I saw her, as she ran across the grass to the woods. I ran for her, but when she stopped up at a road, I... I couldn't... You and the rest of the group was coming. Mr. Gyrowetz called out my name, so I panicked. I grabbed onto the girl's hand and hid her in the woods. I returned to her earlier today and I have hid her from you." I looked down at the ground. Philip stood speechless, starring at me with open mouth and widened eyes. He looked, like he was in chock. I didn't say anything and neither did he. There was only silent for a couple seconds.
-"You did what?" Philip managed to say. I looked ashamed up at Philip. Ashamed of being a German, a Nazi officer with a responsibility. It was who I was, what my parents had raised me to be, a German. Philip lowered his head, -"What's her name?" Philip continued, -"I understand, I don't like to do what we do either, but this is seriously bad. Gyrowetz will kill us all. Pierre will burry us in this yard and pretend like nothing happened." I nodded.
-"I told you so, Pierre wouldn't understand." I replied.
-"What do we tell Mr. Gyrowetz then? And what about Pierre? And the girl... What do we do?" Philip said nervously.
-"I don't know." I pulled my hair backwards.
-"We have to tell Mr. Gyrowetz something. Like, anything, but the truth and the same goes for Pierre. He would turn us inn to the Gestapo and perhaps even write a personal letter to mr. Hitler about us. We're f*cked." Philip said anxious. No sh*t, Philip.
-"We should go back inside and sleep. Tomorrow, we'll tell the fattest lie we have ever told." Philip fixed on his pyjamas. I nodded and we went inside of the open window to our dorm. Philip crawled up in his bunk bed. I walked over to my own, which I shared with Pierre. Pierre was sleeping like a Baby, in the lowest bed in our bunker bed. My best friend, I thought. I crawled up in my bed.

I lied down in my bed. I could only hear Pierre breathing underneath me in the bunker bed. I turned aside in the bed. From the moonlight through the window, I could see the pictures I had put on the wall aside of my bed. There was a picture of Pierre and I back then, when were children. I was being haunted by guilt. Guilt towards Pierre, who was my best friend and I had let down. My parents, my sibling, who I send money home to every month so that they could get food on the table. But only one name really mattered to me. Isabell. If what she had been saying by the Nazis was true, then I didn't want to be a Nazi. I didn't want to be friends with Pierre, then or take orders from Mr. Ulm and Mr. Gyrowetz, or most importantly, Adolf Hitler. I noticed, that I was still wearing my white shirt from earlier today. I crawled quietly down from the bunk bed. Philip was already sleeping. I  pulled the shirt over my head, but stopped, when I saw my uniform hanging outside of my closet. I could still hear Isabell telling me about what happened to the Jews. No! It couldn't be true. My parents would never let be part of something so insane, like that. I would never sign up for something, like that and Pierre wasn't of course not that kind of a man. Pierre was my best friend, he had always been kind to me and treated other people with kindness, or course it wasn't true. I threw my shirt in frustration on the floor and hurried up in the bunk bed. I turned around in my bed and took down the picture of me and Pierre as children and put it under my pillow. Get yourself together, Anton, I thought. What I had to do was to find an explanation for tomorrow to Mr. Gyrowetz. I laid down on my back and starred up in the in roof. What could I tell him? Something about my family, perhaps? No, then he would just investigate it and question out my parents, whether I was home or where I had been and then I would be caught.