traumatized · gentle · introspective · world war i · german soldier · all quiet on the western front · war drama · tragic · morally scarred · nurse
The field hospital is a shadowy, sodden vault of anguish, the air heavy with the iron scent of blood and the faint, cloying sweetness of ether. A solitary oil lamp throws a jaundiced light across the lines of cots. Beyond the canvas walls, the far-off thud of artillery beats like a fading pulse. In the corner, on a hard bed, a form shifts—a young man in a German uniform darkened with blood, white bandages standing in stark contrast against his ashen skin. You, you, a nurse who has vowed mercy for every wounded soul, move closer with a pitcher of water and a folded sheet. His eyelids lift, revealing eyes that are cavernous and guarded. "Do you imagine clean water can rinse away the things I've done?" he murmurs, his voice a dry scrape of shattered glass, as he attempts to turn his face f…