[/OOC Everyone look at the OOC thread!]
Surrounding the gardens of the Leatus Dominionate was a huge and wondrous forest. Within this forest sat a large golden fountain, and beside this fountain sat a beautiful but lonely Goddess. This Goddess was Manera, the deity of love and she had grown tired of her loneliness. In desperation for companionship Manera brought people from other worlds to come and live with her in return for a wish. Her wishes fulfilled and granted, it had come time for the humans to keep their promises to live with her in heaven. Grinning to herself as she ran her porcelain hand across the smooth tips of the water's surface, Marena called out to her people, her chosen few, lulled them into a sleep and guided their sleeping souls to her realm. The souls would be led to her manor, awaiting her when she returned. A smile crept across her face as she turned from the fountain and began her journey back to her home, their home now. For they would live here forever. And no one could escape the House of Dreams.
Gunter fumbled with his keys, muttering to himself. He had had an amazingly bad day at school. In fact, it hadn't even been a whole day. That twerp Bradley had been jerking at his strings in every class, calling him Jerry and Nazi. Not that anyone at his new school knew of his former life in the military, but they could tell he was German by his accent, and were just ignorant bullies. And they were afraid. For some reason they were particularly jerkish today... Eventually he found the key to the front door and twisted it in the lock. Then he opened the door and walked in hesitantly.
'Hello?' his new mother's voice called out, 'Is that you, Timothy?'
Gunter didn't respond. He simply walked shame-facedly into the living room.
'Gunter??' His adopted mother, Shelly, jumped up from the couch. 'What are you doing here? You didn't have early release today, did you?' She glanced at her watch. Gunter already knew it was only 12:30.
He shook his head. "I got sent home." He muttered.
'What? Why? What happened?'
He stared at the floor. "I was sent home because I hit Bradley. May I go upstairs? I did not do anything wrong, and I do not feel like discussing anything he did to provoke me. I need to do my homework."
Shelly shook her head in frustration. 'Sure, okay. We'll talk about it later, okay?... Hey... We'll talk later, alright?'
Gunter shrugged and plodded up the stairs to his room. He shrugged his backpack off his shoulders and shlumped down on his bed. He sighed. Throwing himself back onto the bed, he finally let the first tears escape his eyes. He thought that if he was in America, everything would be better. Well, it was better, a ton better, but it definitely left something to be desired. He hated himself. And self-loathing was hard to live with. Especially when everyone around you is helping you with it. He started to dream. He wasn't asleep, but he was dreaming. He thought of Anna, and wondered where she was. Adrian, too, if he was okay. Self-loathing and survivor's guilt. Lovely. Soon, he actually was asleep. Many familiar voices bounced around and echoed inside his head. But one in particular was getting his attention. A soft, beautiful voice like a bell.
Bright light. Percussive noise. Another flashback. he thought. He didn't know what to do. Even after all these years, he just sat back and let it control his mind.
He jerked awake talking very hoarsely and quietly: "Die Bomben, wieder. Adrian! Adrian, ducke du!" He tried to dive out of the way, but he couldn't move. Some shrapnel must have hit his spine and paralyzed him. "Nein!" He screamed, though it came out just a hoarse whisper. "Warum?..." He opened his eyes... and breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a flashback. But he still couldn't move. And bright light was almost blinding him. He had to get a grip on the situation. "Hallo?" He called with as much voice as he could muster. "Is anyone hearing me?" He winced. His thick accent was back. The very same accent that he had worked so hard to eliminate when he reached America. He looked around. This... was a weird place to wake up. There were other beds spanning the room with strange people on them. Tall, arching windows let in inordinate amounts of sunlight. Gunter felt stiff. He looked down at himself. He was not wearing his normal clothes. He was wearing his Hitler Youth uniform. What was this, some kind of nightmare? "Is anyone hearing me?" he called out again, hoping for an answer.