“Those eyes.

Those horrid green eyes, just staring at me.

Piercing right through me… despite being frozen with death.

I used to adore those eyes… now they just haunt me. No matter what I try they are always there.

I can’t even sleep anymore. Whenever I close my eyes I see her, staring, back at me.

I should have known better back then. I should have known she would haunt me the moment their blood touched my hands!

She’ll always haunt me with those frightening…wonderful… green eyes.”

Click, thud, snap, click. The floorboards moaned beneath my feet.

“They aren’t here!” I cursed to myself and slammed the butt of my gun onto the floor. The corner of my rifle sending a loose piece of wood flying to the side revealing a small iron handle fixed beneath it. I looked down for a moment just staring at the handle, slowly a happy, evil smile crossing my face. I sauntered over slowly relishing each step making a point to my comrades not to move around any other boards, but rather tear the hidden doorway out of the floor just by heaving all of my body weight into it. I flung the door to the side, as if defying gravity and peered down into the darkness that filled the small, dug out hiding space. Finding myself laughing at the sight of two pairs of terrified eyes looking back at me. “Hello…Jews.”

A piercing cry split the silence of the night as an elderly man jerked himself from sleep. His eyes stricken wide with dread, his entire body trembling and his forehead beaded with sweat. He touched his hand to his face, worn and unshaven. Raspy breaths shook his thin weak frame-sitting upright in the darkness of his bedroom.

It was a dream. A dream and nothing more than this.

He murmured to himself over and over, looking over at the small metal box beside his bed. It gleamed in the small beams of moonlight, and it’s lock clapped heavily over the front. He sighed and lay back in his bedding, his eyes transfixed on the small locked box. A look of relief seeming to wash over his old features at the sight of the lock still holding the small container tightly together.

“It was so long ago… and still all I can think about is that day. My one moment of pride… and my one moment where I fell to my ultimate low… how horrible I became.”

“Hello…? Mr. Hirsch?”

“Melanie! Leave me alone! Just leave me alone!” He shrieked clapping his hands tightly over his ears.

“Mr. Hirsch! It’s just me Lynn… remember? I’m the aid during the night; I heard you scream and came to check up on you. Are you alright?” She asked staying frozen in the doorway. The old man looked at her for a moment, his eyes scanning her face for a long time before dropping his gaze to the floor.

“You look like her… Melanie. You look like Melanie.” He muttered softly sliding the box off the bedside table and cradling it in his arms. “I’m sorry Lynn. I thought you were her. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Shh… it’s okay Mr. Hirsch. Are you alright now?” She asked sitting on the edge of his bed and touching his hand. He jerked his hand away and placed the box back on the table.

“No… I’m not okay. She’s still here; she’s going to kill me. She hates me. She won’t leave me alone, please Lynn. Please don’t let her get me!” He whispered frantically taking Lynn’s hands up in his.

“Mr. Hirsch it’s alright. She’s not here. You just had a bad dream is all, if it will make you feel better I’ll stay here and you can tell me about it.”

“No, no… you can’t stay here either. She’ll kill you too! She’ll kill you then she’ll kill me!”

“Hush now Mr. Hirsch you’ll wake the others up. Now calm down and tell me what’s the matter with you.” He let his hands fall away from hers and he leaned back against the pillows.

“Melanie. You know Melanie right…?”

“Yessir. I know your Melanie.”

“I loved that Melanie. And she loved me too a long time ago, we grew up together… I think we grew up together. And we were high school sweethearts. We were in our twenties I think… or maybe a little after that, when it happened and that man showed up. He had us all convinced in no time, that she was the cause of our problems. She couldn’t stay with talk like that going around, none of them could. Her and everyone like her were going to be killed soon, and I was drafted. I learned to agree with that man…everyone wanted to agree with that man. Every word that left his mouth you just believed it was true. At first it killed me to be away, and know that she was in constant danger from my own comrades. But slowly… that just left me. I began believing him too, and I became swallowed with hate for her… the woman I loved. I became just like the rest of them, hunting those people down. Back then that all seemed to make sense… and that day when I found her and that boy in the cellar. It seemed only natural for a soldier like myself to take them out of that hole in the ground. It was my duty; they were hiding from the military. It was a crime, he had told us that they were causing all the problems back then and it was a crime when they hid. They had to wear the star; they needed to keep that star on their jackets so that we could find them easy. She had one too, her and that little boy. I couldn’t just let them stay there… it wasn’t allowed! And my boys were there. My subordinates where there with me. I couldn’t let them down; I couldn’t let them see my weakness. I couldn’t let her and that boy keep on running away they had to be punished, they were causing trouble for us, for us all… but her eyes. Her stunning green eyes staring at me with such… such hatred. It killed me to see her with such a look in her beautiful eyes. They were always so sweet, so kind back when we were young. And that day she looked at me as if I was the devil himself, and she acted as if I had come to take that boy from her and strike every last Jew like him down just so I could brag about it to my boys in the morning. And at that moment I knew that she hated me… and she would never forgive me for what I had to do… she would haunt me forever with those eyes… those horrible… wonderful eyes…”

“Lucas! Lucas Hirsch, leave that boy alone!” Melanie screamed throwing her thin frame between her and the tall man in uniform. Her face worn and pale from worry and hiding from the sun for fear of being seen and her ragged clothes draped over a skeletal body. I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight, a frail woman standing between three soldiers and a boy crumbled in a terrified heap in the corner. The sound of my two boys laughing behind me, yelling vulgar expression and hooting and howling like something spectacular was happening.

“Move Melly, unless you’d like the rule ladies first.” I laughed grabbing her chin roughly and pulling her forward. She just slapped my hand away and scowled at me, her eyes seeming to burn through my body and hitting my soul.

“I will die before you hurt this boy, Lucas.” She replied sternly her eyes locked on his.

“Now don’t be that way Melly… we just need the kid. C’mon, you don’t need to go gettin’ yourself in trouble. Just let us take that little kid out of here and get ‘em where his folks are… ‘aint that right boys?” I asked over my shoulder a smirk across my face.

“Yeah boss, lets get that kid to his folks!”

“Yes ma’am we got to be getting’ that kid back now. They’re waiting to get that damned Jew back!” They bellowed past me breaking into laughter.

“Stop it Lucas! I’m not letting you take him away to wherever the rest of us have been going! He’s just a kid. Just leave him be, he hasn’t done nothing to you.” She begged staying between the two.

“C’mon Melly! You know I can’t do that!” I cooed wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her closer. “I got a job to do.” I sneered tossing her to my comrades and held up my handgun in the other direction.

“Miss Leven!”

“Lucas, don’t!”

“I shouldn’t have hurt that boy… he wasn’t even eleven years old. Not big enough to carry a gun yet… just a little kid hiding from a bunch of soldiers. And Melly… my Melly. She cursed me for that. She cried over that boy while I laughed. She prayed to god while I carried out the work of the devil. She said that to me too… she told me with those horrible green eyes:

‘I’ll never forgive you for this Lucas. You will pay for what you did here today. I’ll make sure of it. There will never be a day where you will close you eyes and forget this moment. When you have lost any power you held over me. And even when I pass away and you live on, alone and unwanted you will remember me and the boy you killed. Lucas Hirsch, I will haunt you until the day you die.’

And she has Lynn. She has. She has haunted my dreams and had taken over all thought. I am alone and unwanted. But I still remember the horrible things I have done. She has made sure of that. I can see her now Lynn, her blood and her eyes. She’s here… and she hates me. She died that day. I made sure of that, but she has not gone away. She will never go away. She will never leave me alone. I locked away her pictures, but still I remember her face and her eyes. I locked away her letters, but I still remember her words. Please Lynn. Don’t let me keep living this way. This is truly worse than anything that could happen after death. I beg of you kill me, or I pray to god to strike me down and send me to hell for that would be less of a punishment then her eyes.” He sobbed his grip tight on Lynn’s wrists. “I locked away her blade but her death is still there! Please Lynn, unlock my box, take out my pictures and letters and blade and kill me. Just as Melanie killed herself with that blade so many years ago! Please just make it stop. Make her go away! Just make her go away… please Lynn make her go away… make her leave…”

“My eyes.

I stared at him with these horrid green eyes.

Although I am dead I know that he can feel them, piercing his soul.

He used to adore these eyes now they just haunt him. No matter what he tried I was always there.

He can’t even sleep anymore whenever he closes his eyes I’m there staring back at him.

He should have known better back then. He should have known I would never forgive him the moment that boy’s blood touched his hands.

And I will always haunt him with these frightening… wonderful… green eyes.

I will haunt him. My love… my hate. And he will never forget. I’ll make sure of that.

Until he dies and then after… he shall pay for what he has done… he’ll pay.

He’ll pay.”