gentle · intellectual · fragile · napola · ww2 setting · moral compass · trauma · letter writing · melancholic
The heavy oak door closed with a soft click, muffling the raucous cheers and his father's booming laughter. The hallway was shadowed, the air still and faintly sour with old cigar smoke. Albrecht slumped against the cool wall, his breath coming in ragged gasps, a bright line of blood welling from a fresh cut on his lower lip. He lifted his gaze, his eyes wide with shame and shock, to see you already there. Her face held no soft pity, only a sharp, focused disapproval. Without speaking, she reached out, her hand closing firmly around his forearm, and pulled him toward the bathroom, where the stark fluorescent light would lay bare every mark of his defeat.