“Can you go pick up some more kindling, East?” Soviet asked the young girl, seeing how the campfire wouldn't start. Russia was somewhere preparing food, a bit away from the tents.

East nodded, bouncing up onto her feet. “Okay!” She ran off away from the campsite, searching the ground for kindling. She knew what to look for. Small sticks that were dry and already on the ground.

It only took ten minutes before she had almost half an armful. There were just so many small sticks on the ground! All broken jaggedly too, enough that East had to be careful carrying them. But when she went to go back to the campsite, she didn't know where in the Black Forest she was. Had she really wandered that far?

“Mama? Russa?” East called, starting to walk slowly back, but the forest seemed all the same, so she had no way of telling where she was. It was getting dark too, but she could barely see the stars in all the foliage that had yet to fall.

“Russa? Mama?” East called again, this time louder. Hoping that she could find them before she actually realized she was lost. But for all her calls, they just seemed to be echoed right back at her, but… twisted.

I have to get this kindling to Mama. East thought, walking forward again, or was she just walking away from the camp? All the trees looked the same. And the snapping of branches, that couldn't be just from her, right?

She stopped, listening. The crackling of branches being trod on stopped as well, though with a split-second delay.

East started to walk again. The crackling continued. She then abruptly stopped. The delay was longer.

“Mama..?” East asked softly, sounding like a five-year-old when she was 15. It had only been a month ago when Reich disappeared. Each time she listened to the radio, nothing. Not even on the Auschwitz-Birkenau case. It had been a false lead, or a… what did Bruder call it again? A red herring. Maybe this was all a trick too.

East slowly turned around, trembling a little bit. And she came face-to-face with… a man.

The man had waxy skin, as if all the light he saw was moonlight and starlight. His hair was black and parted at the side in a bit of an unconventional manner. But what disturbed East the most were the man's eyes and his attire.

His attire was a labcoat dirtied by something dark red, which East hoped was some sort of sauce or food stain. And under that labcoat was a fairly standard uniform of a Schutzstaffel medical, which was also dirty.

His eyes, however, made East shrank back in fear the most. They were black save for white cat-like slits, which she hoped were pupils.

“Hallo, young child. I hope I did not scare you too much,” The man said, bowing his head a little. East noticed the faint outline of a crooked and kind of broken halo. “It's dangerous to be out in these words alone, don't you think?”