Unsettling Tales

THE EMBRACE

“Dieter, mon ami, are you awake?”

“Marcel, let me sleep a little longer. I don’t want to

wake up right now. Ich will schlafen.”

“Allez! Reveyes vous! I want to talk.”

“Talk, talk.. That’s all you ever do, Marcel.”

“I just noticed something… ze bugs... They never eat

our flesh. Ze snow… it never melts.”

“We are in hell, Marcel. There is no time here.”

“If you two could be quiet, I might go back to

dreaming… “

“Johannes, this is the dream, and your dreams are

the reality.”

“No, Dieter. Look at us. I have been sitting here

forever, looking at you two embrace.”

“We are not embracing, Johannes.”

“Yes you are, Marcel. You have embraced in exactly

the same position since … since… Since the battle

ended. And I can’t move my head, so I can´t stop

looking at you. I am stuck.”

“We are all stuck, mon ami. I can’t move my head

either. All I can see is this muddy ground. But I know

you are there... Both of you.”

“We are not in an embrace, Marcel. Don’t you even

think we are.”

“I am on top, mon ami. I can feel your wet tripes on

my chest.”

“It’s you lungs, that’s what you feel. I saw them come

out of your chest when the grenade exploded. Then

you fell on top of me.”

“I saw your guts come out. In fact, I took them out

with my field knife, Dieter. You didn’t even see me

plunge it because when I did the grenade exploded

anyhow. But my hand… it’s still inside your insides.

And … I still hold the knife that killed you.”

“That’s okay, Marcel. I told you it’s okay. I was going

to kill you too.”

“And now, you have told me your entire life story, and

I have told you mine, and I feel like you are a brother

to me.”

“Yes, Marcel, I also have great fondness for you.”

“I would take this knife out if I could.”

“Neither you nor I can move, Marcel.”

“And I am on top of you.”

“Please don’t I prefer that you remind me of that. I

prefer to think of the knife. We are NOT lovers,

Marcel. Being on top of me was just a question of …

chance.”

“Perhaps all life is a question of chance. But I have

not doubt we are dead, and this is hell, mon ami.

We are in hell because we broke the 6th

commandment: thou shall not kill.”

“It would appear we are in hell, Marcel. But I feel no

pain. I just can’t move. And I am always shifting in

and out of consciousness. I just come back here, with

you. Over and over. I would rather dream if I could

and not come back here again.”

“Perhaps there is something we should learn from all

this, Dieter.”

“We have gone through it many times, Marcel. I fail

to see what the point is of being here, trapped with

you.”

“It’s the embrace.”

“What do you mean, Johannes?”

“You are trapped in an eternal embrace. It is so you

will love each other completely.”

“Then why are you there sitting alone, Johannes?”

“For the same reason you are embracing Marcel,

Dieter. We are in hell. We are dead and this is hell.

We must confess all our sins. Go back into our

memories and remember each one, ask for God’s

forgiveness for each one. Only when we remember

every sin will we be forgiven and we will be able to

leave this cold place of death and murder.”

“You sound very sure of yourself, Johannes. What if

there is no God?”

“Then this conversation shall be eternal, and none of

us will ever be free again, except in our dreams. So

be quiet. If you and that Frenchman would stop

chattering I might fall asleep again, and return to my

dreams.”

“What did you die of, Johannes? I can see no

wounds on your body.”

“I think I had a heart attack. Or maybe... Just maybe, I

am not dead, and this is just a nightmare.”

“Perhaps there is neither life nor death, but just

dreaming.”

“Perhaps.”

“Are we three the only ones in this hell?”

Many voices spoke at once, each calling out their

name. Josef, Norton, Jean-Pierre, Abdou, Curtis,

Olaf, Oswald, Jimmy…

“We are not alone, then, there is a legion of the dead

with us.”

“I am General Pierre Le Bullion, and I can account for

twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty-two dead on

this battle. I have murdered all my comrades. And all

our enemies too. It was I who ordered this charge. I

am responsible for this hell, mes amis. I am sorry.”

“Where are you, General?”

“My pieces are scattered all over this field. A bomb

fell close to me and pulverized me.”

“My arms were cut off!”

“I lost my legs!”

“My eyes!

“And yet, here we are, all of us, bound by the events

of this terrible day, that seems never to end.”

“For all eternity.”

“Our eternal embrace.”Start writing here…