Timeless

Chapter 31

A/N: This chapter is a little rough and deals with some gore, so please be aware of that.

Kathryn should have known that Hausmann wouldn't have let sleeping dogs lie. He wasn't one to just appear once—no, he was the boogeyman. He was the nightmare that lurked under the floorboards and in the shadows, waiting for just the proper moment to reappear and ruin things.

Still, she hadn't been expecting to be hauled out of the kitchens with Tina and forced to the big house—finding Annie and Inez already there too. The four women just stood there in a line, doing their best to hold still, to keep their heads up, and to keep from wondering what was going on.

And then as they were standing there, he entered the room. Kathryn swore she could've felt the temperature in the room drop. And it wasn't just because they were nearing December and they already felt like some sort of bundled creatures in this frigid air. No—he came strolling in with a curled lip and smirk as he looked at all of them.

"I trust you've all been enjoying your stay here?"

Not a single word from any of them.

He crossed over to them, looking them over slowly—one woman at a time. As if they were nothing more than a piece of meat to be devoured. "Nothing to say? Not a single one of you? I remember you being much more vocal the last time we all spoke."

Hausmann stopped in front of Kathryn, giving a tug on a piece of her hair. She didn't flinch at the sudden jarring feeling in her head, just kept her eyes staring straight ahead blankly. This was better. This was better. She could do this if she just kept staring at that damn spot on the wall.

"Not you, Doctor? No words? Such a shame," he hissed the words into her ear and then backed away from the group. A cold smile spread across his features as he gestured emphatically at them. "You know, your friend—Beatrice—is it? She's being treated quite well. She sends her regards."

Every single woman that was standing there tensed up at the mention of Beatrice. Is that what this was? An offer? Some sort of deluded form of mercy in Hausmann's eyes? The fact of the matter was that they really didn't know what he wanted from them and until he told them, they were at his mercy and on his timetable.

"Nothing still?" His grin got a bit larger. "I heard about your friend. Maggie, was it?"

Kathryn's fingernails dug into her hands and she had to do her best not to scream at him to get her name out of his mouth. No one would know what it had been to watch her bleed out and be unable to help her. No one knew what it was—no one except those women that had been there and those men in that cabin.

"Such a strange thing, to bleed out in the way that she did. So now I am here and I am asking questions. And if you do not answer them, it will be so much worse."

They said nothing .

They said nothing as German Doctors filled the room—they were stripped bare like they were some sort of cattle or possession. The physical was invasive and it caused physical pain to Kathryn's very being, to all of them. And Hausmann just sat there and he watched—because if something like a pregnancy had arisen in this camp, he was going to be the one to end it.

Annie had spit on one of the doctors and he had slammed her head into the ground. She was still bleeding from the forehead. Tina had gone silent, unable to get out a single word as she wept from the pain. And Inez—Inez was the worst. Shaking and paler than any of them had ever seen her. Kathryn was done with her physical first—dropped back onto the ground and covered in more bruises than when she had entered the place.