The Girl In Striped Pyjamas- COMPLETED. (Short Story)

Epilogue

This part's in third person now! I hope it ties up loose ends for confused people :D

Agnes= Gretchen's mother 

Alfred= Gretchen's father

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue 

"You stupid, stupid idiot!" Alfred rages at Otto, smacking him across the face. His veins are popping out of his neck and his face is scrunched up in the up most fury. Otto is in tears already- no more amount of pain can possibly make him feel any worse.

"I didn't mean to," he manages to utter. Otto looks at Agnes sitting on the sofa with a tissue in her hand.  She keeps her head sagging down to the ground. Hans and Berta are nowhere to be seen in the living room. They are, instead, sat upstairs in their seperate bedrooms asleep. Gretchen's parents have made sure of that; they didn't want them knowing what really happened to their sister. They left it at the mystery that she had gone missing. Hans and Berta were happy with that, they still had a glimmer of hope that their beloved sister may still be alive, although Hans was far too cynical to believe so. 

Gretchen's parents, however, knew there was no hope. It had been confirmed by the expensive officer that Gretchen's father hired. He had paid for him to search the whole proximity of the house until they found out what had happened to her from the account of a guard who saw a girl who was not in the right uniform at the time, but had not done anything about it. Alfred made sure that the guard would never be able to walk again; he had beat him up.

Now, the house is silent except with the crying of Agnes which caused the most unbearable atmosphere. The silence is piercing whilst her constant wailing is too. The sound of Alfred smacking Otto again follows. Otto fails to contain his pain and cries out loud; however, this pain does not come from the violence of Gretchen's father. It, in fact, comes from the burden that Otto had to live with- it was him who caused the death of young naive Gretchen. It was him who caused  her irrational behaviour. It was him who led her to believe she was in love. 

"Just stop it!" Agnes screams, shockingly. Alfred shoots his gaze at her, astounded. 

"Stop?! This guy caused the death of our child and you want me to stop?! Are you out of your mind?" Alfred's anger is uncontrollable and he steps towards his wife, about to hit her. He raises his hand in the air until Agnes speaks. 

"So it's bad when its your defenseless child who gets mercilessly killed but it's okay when it's other people's children?" She retorts. The rooms fills with silence. Alfred and Otto stare at Agnes, stunned. She has never had the courage to voice her thoughts, but yet now she is going against everything their family and this country stands for. Alfred shakes his heads, disbelieving what he is hearing. How could the woman he thought he knew inside out not share his views?

"Pardon me?" His doesn't believe his wife. 

"I'm sorry, Alfred. I want to go back to my family. I don't want to stay here in Munich anymore. I'm taking the kids back to our old house," she explains with her head hanging low. Surprisingly, Alfred doesn't reply with violence. In fact, he sits beside his wife.

"Please, Agnes. Don't." Although the pair only knew each other for a few years, Alfred couldn't imagine life without her. 

"I'm sorry," she utters and gets up. Alfred looks up at her with pleading eyes, unsure of what to say. Eventually, he realises his wife will not change her mind when she places her wedding ring in his hand. She slowly walks upstairs, crying.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault," Otto says. He feels awkward, sitting there with Alfred who is about to cry. He has never so much as seen Alfred twitch, let alone burst into tears- which is what he is doing now. 

"No, it's my fault. I can't do this anymore. I can't live without my wife and kids while doing this job. I'm retiring," he says with an added sigh. Otto can't find the words to comfort nor advice him. Instead, they both sat in the room silent. Tears everywhere. Complete sadness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~The Girl and Otto.

Thanks for reading the story all the way up to here! Don't forget to leave a vote if you liked it :)