Locked Away (GerIta)

Chapter 40

Human. That's all he was.

That's all Ludwig could ever be expected to be. Human beings are resilient, but not repairable. He would never be the same.

And that's what Gilbert realized when his little brother showed up on his doorstep on the 17th of October in 1946.

~

4 Months Prior

Ludwig sat against the concrete wall, eyes closed with his hands clasped around his knees, nails bitten down to the bed.

He liked to keep his eyelids shut, welcomed the darkness that they provided. It was a beautiful scene compared to the cold metal autopsy table that sat in front of him in reality.

Tremors came often nowadays, especially in his hands, something someone could expect from regular electric stimulation. His tongue tasted of blood, a side effect of his teeth clamping down during his shock treatment.

Ludwig looked like a zombie riddled with Parkinson's.

He wondered if it was normal to look like that after 3 months of being "therapeutically" electrocuted; just enough volts at just the right intervals.

He'd tried screaming but these walls may as well have been a coffin 6 feet under. He tried to tell them he was fixed, tried to tell them they could let him go. But he didn't make the rules around here.

Ludwig wanted to die. Quickly would be preferable.

He would've died too.

But one day a dark angel and three of his underlings descended upon the hellhounds surrounding him and Ludwig thought he was dreaming.

He almost wished he was because they all had pistols and a surge of fear overtook him. None of them were pointed at him.

Ludwig watched his captors' brains be blown out onto the dull, grey, cinderblock walls.

What a nice shade of red.

~

Ludwig cried softly as his rescuers cut the restraints off of his ankles and wrists, feeling embarassed and vulnerable. The only woman in the group of four approached him and stroked his hair, shushing him gently.

The affection felt new, raw. Ludwig wished it wasn't so foreign. He was helped off of the metal table and given a pair of clothes to change into.

They asked him questions and tried to coax him out of the silence he'd muted himself to but he said nothing. He laced up the boots they gave him and put on the clothes and they lead him up a flight of 50, 60, too many stairs.

He immediately shielded his eyes with his arm as the sunlight seared his unadjusted vision and he stumbled back. He hadn't seen the light of day in over a year, hadn't breathed fresh air, hadn't felt wind in his hair.

Too new, too fast. Scary.

Ludwig finally allowed himself to look around. Forest. Grass. Dirt road.

This was nowhere. They brought him to nowhere. He was invisible the whole time. No one knew.

"Let's get you somewhere else." The woman spoke again.

Ludwig nodded and stared at the car they'd brought, taking a moment before getting into the backseat. He pulled the hood of the sweater over his head and didn't look when they drove away.

Didn't look back.

~

Four spies. Three American, one Canadian. They were the ones who rescued him.