★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★

Sabine had lost consciousness so many times now that she was beginning to lose count. Her mind strayed towards thoughts of what permanent damage this may be doing to her memory but she had bigger things to worry about; like where and when she was. Sabine faced her mystery surroundings and was relieved to see that her faith in the matches had been warranted: she was still at Natzweiler-Struthof and as far as she could tell, no time had passed. This time the matches had transported her to an abandoned corner of the camp that had been fenced off and she was more than thankful to find that the flame that had brought her here hadn't completely burned her uniform off, although it was stained an ashy gray color from the soot.

Sabine's next concern was quickly quelled when she recognized the familiar feeling of the matchbox in her left hand. She pulled the top off to count the matches inside and was surprised to make a discovery she hadn't realized before: the box was still full. Sabine wasn't sure exactly how many matches had been in the box to start with and how many she had used, but aside form the crumpled packaging, it looked as if the box was brand new.

Sabine glanced around before she mounted the rusting fence and pushed her body over the top. Overgrown grass and weeds weaved between the chain links and made it difficult to get a good grip, but she was determined to make it back to the main part of camp. Once Sabine reached the top she attempted to leap to the ground below, but her foot got stuck and she toppled face first into the dirt. Particles of dirt embedded themselves in her still-healing cut and she had to bite her tongue to hold back screams of pain.

Sabine used the sparse buildings scattered on that side of the camp as cover while she wound her way back to a populated area. She didn't know if Wolf and his men thought her to be dead or if they were looking for her and the matchbox, but she couldn't take any chances. Luckily it was the time of the day when the work groups were returning to the camp and the commotion provided good concealment as she bobbed in and out.

A particularly large group of returning workers passed the building Sabine was hiding behind and she took a deep breath before darting out to blend in with the crowd. She followed the cluster of overworked and exhausted prisoners to the center of the camp when she made a depressing realization: there were way more people than matches in the matchbox. Even if the matches did magically replenish themselves, it would take forever to get one to each and every person and by then the Nazis would have caught on. Especially since the Rapportführer was already aware of their existence.

Sabine didn't feel capable of picking and choosing who lived and who died. She knew it was unrealistic to be able to save everyone, but she still wanted to try. Her plan was becoming more and more hopeless but Sabine still didn't feel ready to give up just yet. She had been a coward before and she had regretted it ever since. She had let her own friend die because she swept aside her courage for survival, but that had all changed after the matches. Now she was strong, resilient, and brave, and she would make things right.

Another plan crossed Sabine's mind and she found herself having to once more rely on the matches. Sabine's fate had been glued to the matches since the beginning but now she had to hope that they could do her one more favor. She didn't have the time to distribute individual matches to everyone and to try to convince them that they would transport them elsewhere, but if she could light matches and toss them into throngs of people like magical grenades it was possible that she could transport more than one person at a time.

The matches had helped Sabine thus far and she had to believe that they would do so again. There was the matter of where the matches would transport the prisoners to and whether any of the Nazis would mistakenly get swept up in the craziness, but Sabine held hope that like before, everything would work itself out. All that was left was to try, and there was no better time than now. If she stuck around any longer Wolf would eventually find her and reclaim the matchbox.

Sabine ducked down as she weaved in between prisoners so that it would be harder for the Nazis to see her. Given everything worked the way she hoped it would, Sabine knew that once the matches were struck, it wouldn't take long for the Nazis to realize that something was happening and to pinpoint her location. She had to bet on her own speed and resourcefulness in order to succeed and for once in her life she felt confident in herself.

It took every last ounce of courage that Sabine could muster for her to light the first match. There were an infinite number of ways that this could end and they all seemed to have an equal possibility. The light of the match glowed in Sabine's eyes, and she wasn't sure if she was just seeing things, but this one seemed to burn brighter than any other match she had lit before. The warmth of the flame seeped into her smile and her heart as she watched a tiny tranquil scene of a town play out in the blaze before her.

Sabine took a deep breath and thought a few hopeful words before dropping the match onto the ground. It caught fire on a small, dead patch of grass and immediately imploded in a bright, red flame. Sabine had taken off the second the match had left her fingers but she cautioned a glance back to see the results. A group of twenty or so prisoners that had been mingling around the match had now disappeared and the whole camp came to a standstill as the clap that transported them elsewhere continued to echo through the air.

Almost as soon as the first fire had vanished, another erupted and claimed another group of prisoners. The smile on Sabine's face was so large that she struggled to see but she continued to push forward and light more matches. Everything was working exactly as she had hoped: the matches were saving large numbers of prisoners and leaving Sabine behind each time. She had also noticed a few dazed and confused Nazis that stood alone in the confusion after the prisoners they had been supervising suddenly disappeared.

Sabine had made it through about four matches when the initial shock of the Nazis wore off and they began actively looking for the source of the mysterious magic. Unfortunately the commotion had also attracted the attention of Wolf, who was standing at the forefront of the crowd and barking out orders. With his help, it wouldn't be long before they found her and she still had a lot of people to save.

Sabine continued to race through the crowds when she encountered another issue: the more people she transported, the less cover she had. After she dropped the ninth match, she was finally spotted. Sabine felt immense pain from her head to her toes as she doubled her speed and dodged officer after officer. Her adrenaline helped to numb some of the pain but her determination was what drove her.

There wasn't an exact science behind the matches, but if Sabine assumed that one match transported an average of twenty people that meant she had saved almost two hundred so far. Unfortunately that was still only a small percentage of the population so Sabine had to start improvising. She began lighting multiple matches at a time and throwing them in different directions. The Nazis caught on quickly and attempted to stomp out the fires at every chance, but their shoes did nothing to stop the magic of the matches.

Sabine had been doing well to evade the Nazi officers on her heels until she inevitably took a wrong turn and accidentally ran into one of them. He quickly wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her off the ground. Sabine's legs flailed as she tried to break out of his tight grasp but he was too strong. It was looking like the end.

Sabine continued to struggle in the Nazi's hold until a haunting voice entered her ears and her whole body froze. "You are a creative one, I'll give you that," Wolf commended her with a series of claps as he stepped into her line of sight. "The chant was particularly adorable. But of course, it was all for naught."

"It wasn't all for naught, I saved people!" Sabine shouted back.

Wolf chuckled as he looked around the camp at the hundreds of prisoners that still surrounded them. "You may have saved some people for now, but we will find them all again. Like we found you."

"I saw how this all ends. You will lose," Sabine spat at Wolf's feet. "We will win the war!"

Wolf's hearty laugh had started up once more and this time he was joined by a chorus of Nazi officers. "You revolting apes will never win anything. You are bred for failure, it's in your genetics. You can continue to dream that your precious Allies will come to your rescue, but the reality is that we will crush you like grapes in the end. We will not stop until every disgusting Jew is eradicated from this planet."

The Nazi officers were too distracted with the current predicament revolving around Sabine to notice that something was shifting in the atmosphere of the camp. It took a moment for Sabine to realize, but the onlooking prisoners had crowded in closer and they all wore matching expressions of anger and hatred.

"We will win!" Sabine repeated herself, this time shouting it for the camp to hear. A rallying cry accompanied her announcement from some of the prisoners that were now surrounding Wolf and a large portion of the Nazi officers who had joined the hunt for Sabine.

Wolf and his companions took a step back in surprise when they realized what was happening but it was already too late. Before the officers could even fire a single shot off into the crowd, they were overwhelmed by a stampede of angry prisoners and thrown down into the dirt. Wolf and his Nazis had been so confident in their strength that they had forgotten how outnumbered they were. The revolt quickly consumed their ranks and in the craziness Sabine was able to wriggle out of the officer's grasp.

Sabine crawled between the legs of the brawling Nazis and prisoners in an attempt to get as close to the center of the crowd as she could. The prisoners were holding the Nazis back for now, but back-up would be there soon and the Nazis' weapons would overpower them. Sabine didn't have much time but she knew exactly what she had to do.

When Sabine had made it as far as she could, she pushed herself to her feet and tried to maintain her balance in the jostling mob. Since most of the prisoners had joined the rebellion and formed close quarters, it presented an opportunity for Sabine to attempt a mass transportation, but it would take more than just one match.

Sabine kept a watchful eye out for Wolf, who she was sure was attempting to track her down in the wild throng, but it was hard to tell people apart in the mishmash of faces. Without a second to lose, Sabine drew a match from the box and struck it against the strike pad. The resilient blaze burned bright despite the constant movement surrounding it and Sabine was just about to use it to light the rest of the matches in the box when she felt a hand emerge from the horde and grab her wrist.

"You're not going anywhere!" Wolf growled as he pushed the rest of his body through the throng. His uniform was ripped to shreds and he had scratches decorating his exposed skin. The wild look in his eye once more transformed him into the animal he was.

Sabine furrowed her brows and clenched her teeth as she sneered at Wolf. She ripped her wrist from his grip with a strength that had been lying dormant within her this entire time and finally emerged to the surface. With two final words, Sabine lit the rest of the matches and chucked the flaming matchbox into the middle of the mob: "You. Lost."

The matchbox erupted into a red blaze that rained down upon the camp like fireworks and stained the sky scarlet. A thick veil of smoke wound through the crowd, making it impossible for anyone to see past their own nose. The earthy scent filled the lungs of everybody left behind and when the aftermath had finally lifted, those remaining fell to their knees in remorse.

Wolf was the only Nazi who remained standing, and he turned and twisted in a feverish manner to find that all of his prisoners had vanished, including the girl who had started it all. He lifted his head towards the crimson clouds of smoke floating away and howled his failure into the wind.

★ ★ ★

Sabine was awoken by a faint howl that echoed in her ears and she immediately gasped for air. She sat up from the silky grass that her body had been lying in and looked down to see the outline of her body imprinted into the soft ground. A gentle breeze blew past her face and carried with it the lilting songs of birds, and the setting sun cast an array of colors onto her weary features. For the first time since Lena's death, Sabine realized that she hadn't heard the wind whisper her name; the melody had finally stopped.

Sabine slowly pushed herself to her feet and looked around at her surroundings. Something about it felt incredibly familiar but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She ambled about aimlessly until she felt something crumble between her toes and looked down to see the ashy remains of an extinguished fire. Sabine knelt down to trace her finger in the soot when everything suddenly came back to her.

A blissful burrow greeted Sabine's eyes when she made a sharp turn to look behind her. The last of the sun's warm rays danced across the entrance as if to invite Sabine inside. Sabine took a confused step towards the den that had once sheltered her as she tried to recall how she had arrived here. The last thing she remembered was the crazed look in Wolf's eyes as she threw the matchbox into the air and then everything turned into a red haze.

Sabine had assumed that she would be left behind with the Nazis, but apparently the matches had wanted to save her one last time. Upon thinking of the matches, Sabine was suddenly aware of a familiar feeling in her left hand and she looked down to see her old friend clutched in her grip. They had brought her back to the beginning, but this time Sabine knew it to be the end.

Sabine climbed down into the den with the box of matches and curled up into the dirt. The sun offered her just enough light to see the writing on the matchbox and she traced the curly letters one last time, whispering the words into the wind. They had done exactly as they promised, they had given her a second chance.

After her finger had lifted from the last letter, she gingerly set the matchbox where she had found it all that time ago and crawled back out of the burrow. Once she was out in the fresh forest air, she took one last moment to reflect before she began the first steps of her new life. She had came to that den as a terrified little girl, but now she would leave it as a brave, strong woman.

As the burrow slowly shrunk behind Sabine, part of her hoped that the matchbox would transport itself back into her palm, but she knew that her adventure with the magical matches was over and that it was time for the next person's to begin.

★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★