The soil beneath her feet was driving Lia insane.
Even the air held a certain level of tension that ran through her nerves. On the outside, it looked beautiful. The lush countryside was relatively untouched by the consequences of war. At least most of the construction was still standing. Lia could see straight through it, though. Blood was spilled in this country. Innocent blood by her hands. She thought she had put this behind her in coming to terms with her past, not completely, but she felt like she were improving.
Germany.
It even smelled like Death. Lia hadn't felt his presence since that day in the woods spent searching for Shifty Powers. He walked side-by-side with her, closer now than he has been. It was as if Death was aware of the atrocities she committed in this country, and brought the people she killed along with him.
Joining the war, she didn't ever think she would end up back here. Not a single thought about it ran through her mind when she shook hands with Sink all those years ago. The only belief she had was that she would be dead by the time the American army marched their boots into this territory. If they marched into this territory.
And yet, here she stood in the middle of the small village of Sturzelburg. German citizens still walked about, filtering in throughout the mass of soldiers.
In between all of the chaos, Lia couldn't help but realize this place felt all too familiar to her. A small itch on the back of her palms. A passing voice in the wind. She knew this place.
Lia waved off the feeling as she walked in between the buildings, pinning it as just the dirty feeling that she were back in the country that pushed her to her knees. She came up upon the officers chatting off to the side against a store front.
Piper smiled at her friend warmly, pushing down that she too felt disgusted at the country where it all began. "Feels good to be back, huh?" She joked.
Lia scoffed, "Yeah, you could say that."
Winters and Harry didn't seem too surprised at the idea that the women had been in Germany before. Piper filled them in shortly after Lia told her she had free reign to speak how she wanted to on their experiences before the war.
A presence at her side tore her breath straight from her lungs. It was something Lia was still trying to get used to. Before their night shared together, Lia never outright sought the new captain out. Although she rather enjoyed him around, it was rarely her decision to be by him. Her eyes betrayed her these days in actively searching for that brown hair and stoic expression amongst the soldiers.
He was playing with her ideals, unknowingly of course. She was meant to be a soldier and die a soldier. No matter how much she wanted to leave this war together, if it was just Piper making it out she would have been happy. Now, with Speirs by her side, she had something that pushed her to be more cautious. To watch her step and keep an eye on her surroundings when she was alone.
He made her want to live.
No matter how much Lia tried to push that thought aside, it still forced it's way back in every time his brown eyes met hers.
The small group effectively decided that they needed to discuss plans regarding their eventual push through Germany. Winters, Welsh, and Piper chatted quietly on their walk to the new command building, leaving Speirs and Lia to stew in their thoughts behind them.
Lia watched the buildings as they passed through, still fighting the eerie feeling this town gave her. "How's your thieving coming along, Speirs?" She questioned, turning to face the captain beside her. She had watched Speirs brining in loads of objects, stolen objects, into the mailing office.
Speirs grinned at the comment. "Finders keepers." He paused, staring at the soldier scanning the buildings beside him and fought not to stumble over his quiet words. "You can call me Ron, you know, out here away from all the formalities."
Lia brought her eyes to her feet, before slowly dragging them up to his watchful eyes. They bore into her, ripping away all the pain that ebbed beneath her skin. She never called a soldier by their first name, save for Piper, in fear of drawing herself to close. Names were reserved for friends, and she didn't keep friends in war.
But still those ever calm eyes split right through her. Eyes that knew her. So she smiled, a soft upturn of her lips. "Then you can call me Lia." She remembered the way he called her by her first name that night in Hagenau, and her smile grew even brighter.
Ron moved to say more, but the lieutenant beside him stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes latched onto a building across the street and stayed unwavering. The trio in front of them noticed the sudden stop, and pulled themselves to turn around and draw closer to the soldiers behind them.
"What's going on?" Welsh asked, flicking the ash of his cigarette to the ground. They all followed Lia's gaze to the building across the way, and saw no significance in its worn down state. It was a small town house, secluded from most of the others. The wood boards on the exterior fell in a ragged state as vines grew over it.
No one missed the harrowed look that glassed over Lia's features or at the way she stood unnervingly still. Her knuckles nearly turned white from the force that balled them into fists.
"Lia?" Piper pushed forward and laid a gentle hand on her friends shoulder but Lia brushed it off quickly and crossed the street, not even daring to look if a jeep was rambling through. Speirs, Winters, Welsh, and Piper all shared a confused look, and followed after the lieutenant who had come to a stop at the front steps of the house.
She didn't stand still this time. Lia's entire body shook. From fear or anger, no one was too sure. It could have been both.
Where most just saw an abandoned town house, Lia saw red. Red blood that seeped into wooden floor boards. Red blood that was spilled from a life too soon. That disgusting color of red.
She forced herself to walk up the cracked steps, ignoring the quiet urges of the officers behind her. Ringing filled her ears that washed out any of their words. As her hand gripped the handle, tears streamed freely down her face.
"I wouldn't choose that place to say if I were you." A soft voice filled the setting behind her, one that was glazed with a German accent and struggled with some of the English words. All of the officers including Lia whipped around to face the source. All except Ron who stared at the fresh tears staining Lia's cheeks.
An elderly woman stood behind them on the gravel pathway. Her face withheld a passing look of sorrow as she glanced over the building. "It was abandoned long ago. No one will dare touch it."
"Why?" Winters asked with the subtle curiosity in his voice.
The woman sighed. "1934. An entire family was murdered right inside those doors. It was brutal, and cruel. To this day, I wish I had never witnessed the scene. After everyone had found out, not a soul wanted to come here. Even visitors, as the family was, would not stay here."
Ron watched as Lia's face fell more with every word that left the woman's mouth; as she bit down on her lip so hard that it began to bleed.
Lia turned back to the building and without a second thought, she pushed the front door open.
The woman behind them shook her head softly and as she walked down the street she muttered, "Suit yourself."
Lia knew this place. Every detail of the house, the layout, the color. Everything. The small staircase to her right that led to the bedrooms. The room to her left that held a worn out brown couch. The hallway in front of her to the kitchen and living room.
Living room. If she could even call it that anymore.
He was here. Death. It reeked of him. This was his home now and she knew it; felt it. The same place he had stolen four innocents.
Her feet dragged her beyond the threshold. As her body passed through, she swore she could hear muffled screams of a small ten-year old girl. Breathing did not come easy. It came ragged, now standing at the end of the short hallway. To her right held everything and nothing at all.
One step, and she would hear death.
One step, and she would be met with ghosts.
One step, and she was brought to her knees. Her own hand covered over her mouth to muffle her cries just as a soldier had done eleven years ago.
But it wasn't 1934 and she wasn't ten. Her family didn't kneel before her, only the memory of them and their blood on the floor.
------
Ronald Speirs watched as Lia made her way into the town house. Her steps were slow as she worked down the cramped hallway. The house felt eerie. It was too quiet. The only sound that filled the air was the soft creak of wood beneath their boots.
The officers filtered in behind and not one of them dared to speak a word. Ron put two and two together long before Lia had twisted open that rusty door handle.
With the woman's tale and the horrified look plastered onto the lieutenant's face, he knew this is the place the Germans had murdered Lia's family and stolen the young girl at the break of dawn.
As Lia fell to her knees with a hand wrapped over her mouth, Ron knew she were breaking all over again. A shattered porcelain that was slowly being glued back together had suddenly fell to the floor once more. With every cry that escaped her hand, he could see the glue melting away and the pieces clinking to the ground.
He didn't give her space, no, she had enough space. Ron fell to his knees beside the broken lieutenant and dragged his arms around her body. He pulled her close and brought a hand to her face as she sagged in his embrace. Lia's head fell into his chest while her fingers clutched onto the front of his uniform.
Winters and Welsh behind the pair watched the scene unfold with sadness in their eyes. Winters had seen the lieutenant break before in a building in Hagenau, but that was anger. Instead, he was watching Lia fall further than that. This was anguish, and it tore into him.
Welsh was struck by the sight. The stone faced soldier who rarely bare emotions at anyones feet was in a crumpled mess on the floor before him. He had grown to like the frightening lieutenant, seeing her as an older sister that would punch you for saying the wrong thing, and yet, do anything to protect you. Seeing her now in a heap, clutching onto Speirs, it broke his heart.
Piper had only seen Lia cry twice in the years that she had known her. Once in Hagenau, and once in Aldborne. She were in Speirs' position in England, holding the lieutenant as she cried. Still, this was even more harrowing. The way Lia's entire body shook. The way her sobs sliced into the air. It was nothing she had ever seen before. Piper wanted to turn and run and cry herself. Her friend didn't deserve this kind of pain.
Speirs could feel, truly feel his heart shatter with every cry that came from the girl before him. For the first time in a long time, Ron had tears falling down his own face. They mixed with Lia's as he shared in her pain. He made a promise then and there that when she got past this, and she would Ron would make sure of it, he would never let her feel like this again.
Dried blood decorated the room. Some splattered on the furniture that lined the walls. The most disturbing was the mass of it centered in the room.
No one could keep their eyes off the way the now brown color mixed in with the floorboards and dripped into the small cracks.