Victor stumbled on a branch and grunted, trying to keep going, but Lyra stopped, preventing him from doing so. The girl listened tensely. There were no screams, no dogs barking, no gunfire. The sunlight-splashed forest only responded to the young men's heavy breathing with bird song and leaf breeze.

„Victor!„ Lyra called out. "I can't hear the dogs. Did we run away?"

"It's very strange," the young man answered her, looking around. Levi was nowhere to be found. The realisation that his mentor might have sacrificed his life for the two of them brought only pain to his chest.

At that moment, Lyra suddenly recalled the concept of transformations. After getting used to the fact that there was no magic in the camp, she decided to see how far they could escape by creating the simplest transformation, "local time," with her hands. For a brief moment, she vividly remembered the exam in which she and Victor had thoroughly studied all the school's material. How long ago had that been? It feels like it was a lifetime ago.

The figures appeared before her inner gaze for only a moment, but when she saw the year, the girl cried. She fell to the grass, sobbing as if she were freeing herself from something. Lyra, who had recently become accustomed to expressing her emotions, finally seized the chance to express her pain and suffering. Victor realized that it wasn't about a possible injury or trauma, so he sat down beside her, hugging her; he didn't see the figures in front of her, and he didn't interpret her gesture in any way.

He decided to himself that if they were going to catch up with them now, they should kill them both since Lyra could not run anymore, and whispered the prayer Levi had taught him. Victor concluded that the absence of his mentor indicated the Rebbe's departure. Having witnessed numerous deaths, including his own, during that period, Victor remained unresponsive to the news, allowing hunger and fear to smother the pain in his chest. He just hugged Lyra, who was crying bitterly in his arms.

„Victor..." Lyra managed to get a few words out of her mouth. „The year... We're back, Viktor! We have to... we have to..." she froze, thinking. Where to go now? No one was waiting for her; her parents had made it very clear a long time ago...

"Look at me..." Victor sighed heavily. „Don't you notice anything?"

„You're whole... It's all right, isn't it?" wondered at the girl's question.

"We're in camp robes; what will they take us for?" The young man asked quietly, just imagining his carers, who were not different from the aufseers.

„To the madmen?" The girl asked quietly, imagining herself in the shoes of the passersby. Lyra, accustomed to witnessing the destruction of individuals deemed insane, experienced fear.

"Now that we're back," he said quietly, "there is only one place where they won't betray you." The Rebbe... Levi assured us that they wouldn't betray us there. But how do we find it?"
Victor remembered Levi's stories, so he was eager to go to a place he called "synagogue." The young man was unfamiliar with the concept of a "synagogue." According to the stories, it resembled a wonderful house where people like him were welcomed. Levi had elucidated the concept of "anti-Semitism" to Victor, enabling him to comprehend the reasons behind his childhood treatment. In the intervening time, the young man had accepted himself as belonging to the same people referred to by the winkel2 on his robe.

After crying, Lyra was almost unable to move. She was tired, but Victor remembered very well everything his dead mentor had told him, so he almost dragged the girl on his back deep into what he thought was the forest. It was getting dark fast, and it was necessary to find a safe place to sleep. At least, he thought, a place where they would not be discovered by dogs or executioners. Dogs were hardly comfortable in the forest, but SS men were... Moreover, feeding the "bride" was a necessity.

Lyra was afraid again, so she clung to Victor, not allowing him to move normally. Lyra needed to be dragged on her back. The boy's determination to save Lyra and his newly discovered faith kept him going, while the girl only felt fear.

"I'll look for food," Victor said, acting as Levi would have thought appropriate, but Lyra looked up at him with wet eyes.

„Don't leave me, please," she asked, trembling for some reason.

„Then..." The young man's brain was trying to solve the problem. „Then you'll stay close by, making sure no one sees us."

"Good," she nodded gratefully, even though she wanted to grab Victor's hand and not let go.

The forest was rapidly darkening, leading Lyra to believe that fearsome dogs, wielding whips and rubber truncheons, might emerge from the shadows. Attempting to remain visible to the girl, Victor was eager to find a food source. There were few berries in the forest, but Victor could identify them.

Victor gathered the berries he found in a mütze, the name of the camp hat, to present to his "bride." After the first urge to shove everything he found into his mouth, the young man brought the berries to Lyra. She was far more important to him than he was. The girl, shocked by the sight of something edible, did not hold back at all. She quickly ate everything, looking guiltily at Victor.

„I'm sorry..." She was ready to cry again, but Victor stroked the girl's head the way Levi had stroked his.

„I'll dial it back," the young man said, smiling at Lyra, running his palm over her head once more, causing her to catch that caressing hand and kiss it.

It was a real miracle for Lyra. "Victor's care, his desire to help, and... forgiveness instead of shouting and beating, even though the girl was already ready to pay the price." The last few months had changed her completely, taking away everything she had been before. Now Lyra was just a number. But the young man beside her seemed to understand, arranging a place to sleep. It was getting cold, and he didn't care about the barracks, but Lyra was...

"If we hugged, it would be less cold," Victor shared his experience, not knowing how to phrase it. He was suddenly inexplicably shy. "Would you mind if...

"No, of course not," she attempted to smile at the girl, who was requesting a hug. „Stupid. After everything..." she sobbed again.

Victor hugged Lyra, then settled down to sleep on a few spruce paws thrown into a small hollow under the tree to make her more comfortable. The young man remembered Levi's stories and advice, whispering Kaddish now for the best man on earth. The girl's dress showed traces of kroveh, which meant that he had to lay her down as his mentor had shown him, so as not to hurt her even more. The mentor, who had become more than a father to him, had taught him a lot of things that no one but Lyra had ever needed.

„Sleep sweetly," Victor whispered, copying Levi.

„And you... sleep..." the girl answered him, enjoying the peace of that embrace.

They had fallen asleep on spruce branches and dead grass. If someone saw them now, what would they think? But luckily for the teenagers, no one was here at that moment. They had traveled through time and space to get to their year, but they had changed irreversibly.

Two weary teenagers in their world-famous camp clothes were sleeping soundly in an English forest, with the indifferent moon watching them from above. No one cared about them, which pleased the changed young men.

* * *

„Victor! Victor! Get up! We'll oversleep! Lyra shook the young man in panic, knowing exactly what would happen if he overslept. She had witnessed its potential consequences and was filled with fear.

„Calm down, my dear." Victor put his arm around her, laying her back down, and with difficulty suppressed the urge to jump up and run to the Appelplatz. "There's no more roll calls." We have to find something to eat...

"Ho-kay," the girl nodded, almost feeling the lash or something worse on her body.

„We have to move," Victor decided, helping Lyra up. "Just so we don't run into...

Suddenly seeing a gap among the branches, Victor stopped. He and Lyra had frozen during the night, of course, but not completely. In other words, they could move. Only hunger drove black flies to fly in front of their eyes... But there was no choice. It was imperative to leave while simultaneously avoiding encountering the SS. The young man did not believe that the SS was no more. In just a few months, the whole world had become a camp for him, with SS men, blockade runners, and attempts to live another day.

As Victor and Lyra navigated through the forest, they unexpectedly encountered a small road and a closed shop or cafe. Realising that he couldn't break in because he simply didn't have the strength to break the glass, the young man became interested in something else. The large rubbish bins at the back of the building caught his attention. The camp had alleviated their apprehension, enabling them to search for something edible, whatever it might be.

"I'll be right there," Victor hurried to the trash cans without drawing attention to himself.

Trying to keep himself out of sight from the road, the young man plunged his hands into the tank, going through and evaluating what he found. Lyra sat down on the ground, waiting. There was no strength to stand. With each passing hour, it seemed her strength was leaving her more and more, as if the plant had run out. The prospect of pushing the infirm, still alive, into the furnace became terrifying. Lyra's consciousness could not adjust to reality, jumping from one era to another independently of herself.

Finding a few pieces of decent-looking bread, Victor rushed back to the girl to feed her. It was not sweet for him, but the young man kept himself in control, knowing that without Lyra, his own life would be meaningless. Victor believed that his mentor had already passed away, leaving him with only Lyra. And the girl bit off small pieces of stale, unusually white bread, feeling great gratitude to the young man who had saved her.

„You've always saved me," she whispered. „Always-always...

„Well, it's you," Victor stroked her head, copying Levi. „How could it be otherwise?

„I... I... „ Lyra was moved to tears because, for as long as she could remember, no one had done so much for her: "not feeding her, not tearing her away, caring for her, not... "

„I only live because there is you." the young man explained to her in a completely natural way.

Lyra hugged Victor with both arms, hiding her face in his camp jacket. She needed to regain her composure, as the warmth in his words seemed to elude her forever! Victor tried to imagine where London was. The logic behind these reflections was straightforward: London is a large city, and if there wasn't a synagogue, there should at least be someone who could tell him where it was, where they could assist him. Levi couldn't lie; it wasn't for nothing that SS had destroyed these houses in the first place. Victor firmly believed in his mentor's stories.

After breakfast, the two teenagers struggled to get to their feet. They had to keep going. Victor had determined the direction of the south, believing that by moving in that direction, they would eventually reach a point where they could somehow orient themselves. Therefore, they continued their journey for the entire day, pausing to pick berries or visit the shelters that occasionally appeared along their route. And where there were shelters, there were rubbish dumps where they could find something.

"What're you whispering?" Lyra inquired, listening very quietly to what the young man was saying. It seemed to her that the words Victor whispered gave him strength.

„It's a prayer," the young man answered, pausing to catch his breath. "Levi taught it to me. We were referred to as Jews in the camp," he attempted to clarify. „You and me. That's what our vinkels say, see? So our Creator can help, but he punished everyone for something...

"Punished," she sighed, trying to comprehend what she had heard. Lyra perceived that the punishment extended to everyone in their immediate vicinity. "But why are you whispering this prayer?"

„It makes me feel better," the young man confessed. „Listen to this: "Shema, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu..."

Lyra listened, realizing that Victor had found faith, a mentor, and something very important in life. But what did she believe in? It turned out that she believed in nothing... However, when the young man spoke about the Jews, the Exodus, and persecutions, the girl's memory not only brought back memories of the camp, but also her parents' treatment of her. Accepting herself as a Jew, Lyra thought that her parents might have treated her that way because of that, and so she tried to repeat the words of the ancient language after Victor.

The more Lyra thought about it, the more she realised that nothing had changed, even after all these years. The girl reminisced about her childhood and life, realizing that she had no parents but was instead surrounded by onzehrs who were always looking for something to punish. This implied that if she and Victor were apprehended, they would face a gas chamber. Or the crematorium. Even if the SS has already disappeared... The girl didn't understand how that could have happened. According to her, there was no life "before." It was all just a dream of a sweet life, and ahead of them, like everyone else, was the black pipe of the crematorium.