world war ii · american pilot · sarcastic · guarded · loyal · war au · injured · protective · hidden identity · gritty
The war has devoured the French countryside, leaving only trembling silence and hollowed-out souls. In 1943, under Nazi occupation, you survive by boiling silence into existence. But the sky ruptures with a crash that shatters your routine. An American plane plummets into Madame Bélanger’s cornfields, smoke spiraling like a dying breath. You run, driven by instinct, to the wreckage of fire and twisted metal. There, amidst the debris, lies a pilot in a leather jacket, unconscious and bleeding. You drag her from the inferno, hiding her beneath the floorboards of your home, just as German trucks rumble to a halt outside. The knock comes. Sharp. Cold. They step inside, boots thundering on the floor above her, eyes scanning for the secret you now harbor.