635798

“I’ll transfer her to my twins’ ward soon,” Arzt Mengele said as he walked over to a table. Instruments I’ve never seen before were scattered about. Most didn’t looked medical at all. “The only reason she’s here is because some tests were ran.”

“The stitches-”

Mengele interrupted me. “They’re fine and won’t get infected. I’ll take them out soon.”

I walked over to the bed at the side of the room. A figure – female – lied there, naked with no blankets. She crossed her arms over her chest to hide breasts that seemed to no longer be there. Her legs were kept closer together to keep her anatomy hidden. Her body as a whole was one of the worst I’ve ever seen in this camp. All the bones in her body protruded out, some more than others. Certain bones looked sharp, ready to rip out of the female’s skin at any second. The female’s thighs were no bigger than a baseball in circumference and her wrists could’ve been smaller than a Ping-Pong. Her ribs seemed like stairs dancing across her torso. She seemed to no longer have a stomach. If I were to stab a knife through her, it would show up on the other side. Her whole body was covered in grub, meaning no shower for the longest time. Some of the dirt threatened to get into the stitched area. I didn’t need to be a doctor to know that would mean immediate infection. I scanned up to her face. The female’s cheekbones might as well have been bicycle handles and her eyes were dark abysses. She wiped her matted hair away before making eye contact with me. Her sockets were almost too big for her eyeballs. Her eyelids dropped but I still caught a glimpse of her eyes. Those two melted pools of chocolate bore into mine, asking for help.

“Would you like anything to drink, Wolfgang?” Arzt Mengele asked.

“No. Thanks.” I grabbed the female’s fragile wrist and looked along her arm. She made no move to pull it away.

“Wolfgang, what are you doing?” I felt Arzt Mengele’s eyes on me.

The female’s tattoo was dark against her skin. I rubbed my thumb against the bumpy mark, tracing the six numbers. 635798.

“Nothing,” I finally said in a monotone. I let 635798 cover herself again.

Arzt Mengele came by my side and looked 635798 up and down. “Beautiful, isn’t she? Perfect for some of the experiments I have in mind. For my next one, I’m going to look at her organs again and compare them to her look-alike’s. I also want to do something with that eye color. The Führer doesn’t like brown eyes, you know.”

I nodded slowly, keeping my eyes on 635798.

“For that I’ll have to drop some chemicals into her eyeballs,” Arzt Mengele continued. “I might have to stuff her up, though. She’s far too skinny. I’ll sneak her some candy soon. The children I care for love it. They even call me Onkel Mengele.”

“What other experiments do you have in mind?” I asked.

“Oh, all sorts of things. I just want to understand how the bodies of look-alikes work. They seem close enough to be twins.” Arzt Mengele chuckled. “We already have some of her blood. Marks are still on her skin.” He picked up 635798’s arm to show me. She tried to pull it away from him but I saw the grip tighten. He turned her arm to different angles. Each spot showed signs that a needle was stabbed through. “When I switch her to the twins’ ward, I’ll take her measurements there. Then we’ll begin the different surgeries. We’ll have to kill one of them to see different results.”

635798 nearly jumped. Immediately her eyes widened and she whimpered. She backed herself against the wall.

“Now, now. Calm down. I promise you we won’t kill you.” Arzt Mengele smiled.

That was what all Nazis said.

“Will any anesthesia be given?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Why, of course not!” Arzt Mengele exclaimed.

635798 whimpered again.

“I’m apprehensive about it. I don’t want it messing up any of my experiments.” Arzt Mengele pulled 635798 closer. “Besides, she won’t feel a thing.” The two of them made eye contact. “Your last surgery didn’t hurt, am I correct?”

A chill went up my spine when I saw the smile on Mengele’s face. Tears welled up in 635798’s eyes.

“I highly doubt your procedures are painless,” I said, surprising myself.

“Wolfgang, you doubt my abilities.” Arzt Mengele grabbed a scalpel from his table. “Watch. I’ll just run this across her side and nothing will happen.”

635798 was ordered to sit up and she reluctantly did so. She moved to face Arzt Mengele and me. As she trembled, she bit her lip. That didn’t stop the tiny sobs from echoing in the room. Her tears fell into her lap.

Arzt Mengele moved the arm that hung over 635798’s good side. I stood back, ready to stop whatever he was doing. The scalpel poked 635798 and she shivered. Arzt Mengele’s hand turned white as he applied more pressure. Blood oozed out of 635798’s new wound and she bit her lip hard, drawing blood from that too. She shut her eyes tightly as Arzt Mengele began to draw the scalpel down. The more blood that made its way out, the louder 635798’s cries became. Once Arzt Mengele reached the middle of her side, she screamed. Chills ran up and down my spine. Some doctors poked their heads into the room. 635798 kept screaming and Arzt Mengele kept cutting. He reached her hip and pulled the scalpel away. Blood came out of 635798’s body rapidly, dripping onto the white mattress. 635798 stopped her screaming, but her body trembled to violent, silent cries.

“See? Nothing,” Arzt Mengele said, wiping his scalpel.

“Arzt, she’s crying. And are you deaf? She was screaming almost through that entire process!” I exclaimed.

“Eh. Just being dramatic. If it really did hurt she would’ve said something.”

635798 threw a glare at the doctor which he luckily didn’t see.

“What if she needs stitches now?” I asked.

“Didn’t cut that deep.” Arzt Mengele was at his table again.

“Aren’t you going to clean the wound?”

Arzt Mengele shook his head. “I have other things to attend to. I must get going to them now, actually. You can stay here if you want. Please come see us when she’s transferred. Goodbye, Wolfgang!” And he was gone.

I turned to 635798 and put a hand on her shoulder. She shook it off, but then she gave me an apologetic look.

“Let’s cover that wound up.” I went to the nearest cabinet and began my search there.

635798 sniffled.

“Can I ask a question?”

I received a nod. A slow one.

The first three cabinets didn’t have anything so I moved to the next set. “How come you don’t have any sheets?”

The silence in the room buzzed in my ears. I looked over at 635798 and found that she had changed her position. She faced the wall, legs pulled toward the chest and arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes seemed to be staring at a certain point on the wall, but I could tell they were looking at a thought instead. The crying stopped but not the trembling.

“Are you going to answer?” I asked calmly.

635798 kept her stance.

New question. “Where are you clothes?” I looked over at her. “How come you’re not wearing anything?”

635798’s body shook even more. Her eyebrows knitted together in such a way that I couldn’t tell if she was frustrated or angry. She made no intention of telling me anything, so I sighed and went back to what I was doing.

I found the bandages and was about to the close the cabinet when I heard something.

“They took them away.”

My eyes widened. The voice was a whisper, but still fierce, as if angry. I slowly closed the cabinet before facing 635798. She was trembling worse now and she no longer seemed angry. She was angry.

“Did… did you say something?” I asked.

635798 was still facing the wall. When the voice came through again, her mouth moved. “They took them away. They took every. Thing. Away.”

I stepped closer, eyebrows risen. She talked. “Who did? Who took everything?”

635798 faced me, still angry. “Who do you think?”

Nazis. Why did I even ask?

I dragged a chair over to the side of the bed and sat down. 635798 didn’t look at me. When I reached a hand out to her, she moved back.

“You seem so sensitive to touch now,” I whispered.

635798 nodded quickly.

“Why?”

“They… They did things. Things to me.” 635798 crossed her legs and wrapped herself in her arms, rubbing her triceps up and down.

“Like what?” I leaned closer. I tried to look at her face but the blood, still flowing, had my attention.
As 635798 rocked back and forth, she pointed to the new wound. Then she motioned towards the stitches.

“Let me wrap you up,” I said.

She scooted closer to me, staying in the same position. I had to work around her. I began to wrap the bandage around her waist. Was I doing it wrong? I couldn’t tell. People always said we had some doctor instincts, even if we weren’t one. My doctor instincts never kicked in. 635798 winced whenever I pulled too hard but the bandage fell whenever I didn’t pull hard enough. How did doctors do stuff like this?

“Did they do anything else to you?” I asked.

635798 nodded. “That doctor checked. Checked my organs. He said it wouldn’t hurt. He promised me food. If I was good. That’s the only reason why I cooperated.”

“Did you get your food?”

635798 shook her head a little. “Once I was on the table he kept smiling. I thought that. That meant the procedure will be okay. But then… Then. Then he stuck the knife in me. Kept cutting. Cutting. I screamed. A lot. But he wouldn’t stop. Other doctors had to hold me down. I felt that one stick his hand in my side. Stinging everything. He stuck other stuff in me. His way to see. All my organs were poked. Some squeezed. I didn’t stop screaming. He stuck a big needle in me later. I felt the string burn against my skin. I almost couldn’t breathe when he pulled the wound together.”

By now I had finished wrapping 635798 and she started crying again. She wrapped herself in a ball and moved even closer to me.

“I don’t like when he touches me,” she cried into her hands.

“Does he do anything sexual?” I asked, concerned.

635798 shook her head. “Just medical. I think medical. I don’t know. He tells me what he wants to do. All the time. You were right.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“That one night. Our last. You said he liked me. You said he wanted me for experiments.”

I felt my stomach drop. I did. Mengele had mentioned he had his eye on 635798. But how had he managed to get her away to here?

“You know, Six, I thought you died. Aalyshah and I found your uniform with the ones who belonged to the gassed,” I said.

635798 trembled. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her small body, drowning her. Only her head poked out.

“They took it away,” 635798 said quietly.

“Why?”

“As punishment. Dein Vater. Dein Vater thought I didn’t… didn’t deserve it.” Fear grew in 635798’s eyes.

“Because...?”

“Because of what I did. Snuck out. He said no clothes for me. I don’t know why. He wanted me gassed.” 635798 looked at me, eyes wide. “He was going to gas me, Wolfgang!”

I put my hand on 635798’s back. She flinched, but she let me keep it there. I began to rub, but it made no effect.

“The doctor was there,” 635798 continued. “So he convinced dein Vater to let him. Let him take me. He told dein Vater about experiments. The things he wants to do with me.”

“And mein Vater agreed?”

“Happily.”

A chill ran up my spine.

635798 went back to staring at the wall. Her voice cracked as she said, “It hurts.”

“What? What hurts?” I asked quietly.

“Everything.” A tear streamed down 635798’s face.

I stuck a hand out to wipe it away.

The two of us sat silently, 635798 shaking and me rubbing her back. It was because of me that she was here. She got caught because I told her to meet me outside. All she did was what I asked, and this was her price. She was transforming into a skeleton because of me. She was living a nightmare, going through things that were unimaginable to the human mind. Yet I couldn’t save her. Why couldn’t I stop Vater from beating her the day she was caught? I should’ve looked here too. If I haven’t given up, maybe she would’ve been saved by now.

“Wolfgang?”

“Hmm?” I mumbled, startled by the sudden noise.

635798’s eyes burned into the wall. Her trembles shook the bed and a tear fell onto her lap. After a minute of silence, she said, voice cracking, “I want to go home.”

I stopped moving and stared at her, not knowing what to say.

She looked at me, eyes glistening with tears. “I want to go home. With Mama. With Papa. But they’re. They’re probably dead. I don’t want to. To be alone anymore. I want everyone back. Why did this happen, Wolfgang? Why did this war be. Begin? What did I do? What did I do? I know I’m Jewish. But what does that have to do with me? I didn’t do anything. Didn’t do anything. What would a woman like me be. Be capable of doing? I’m twenty-three. Have a mental disorder. It makes me act younger. Mama needed to help me with everything. What could a person like me do? Why am I being punished? I want to go home. I wish none of this ever happened.”

635798 was exploding with sobs. The hairs on my arms were sticking up. I’ve never heard her speak before, let alone speak emotional words. It was all overwhelming for me. Here, on this bed, was a prisoner crying out the words almost all prisoners were thinking. People, Nazis or not, contemplated whether or not prisoners thought such things. They wouldn’t know how real they were until spoken aloud.

I wrapped my arms around 635798 and dragged her onto my lap. She gasped at first, but quickly borrowed herself against my chest. She felt lighter than a baby in my arms which concerned me. I was told that Arzt Mengele kept his patients fed. Why wasn’t 635798 fatter than she was the last time I saw her? She was even worse.

“Don’t they give you food here?” I asked.

635798 shook her head. “Another thing taken. Away. By dein Vater. Difficult. For that Doctor. To give me food. Dein Vater wants me dead. Dead. He’s trying anything to get me there. He thinks this doctor will help .Will help make progress faster.”

“Why is he making you suffer? People have done far worse things by Nazi definition,” I said.

635798 shrugged. “He gives me strange looks. Whenever he sees me. Strange. Like he can’t look at me. Like it’s difficult to do so. Sometimes he hurts me. Tells me to shut up and be a big girl. But he keeps hitting me. With that gun. He gives that doctor ideas. Ideas on what to do to me. That doctor’s allowed to do his experiments still. Only in between what… what dein Vater wants.”

“Wait. Mein Vater planned most of this big punishment then?”

635798 nodded into my neck.

I squeezed 635798 harder. How much more of a brute could mein Vater be?

We had a lot of sorting out to do.