SIX MONTHS LATER

"Get in there!"

Two guards pushed the young couple into the dark chamber, and slammed the heavy metal door shut, sealing them into the darkness. Anneliese trembled in fear on the cold stone floor, knowing what was coming. Her own father was going to gas Jacques and herself.

"Jacques! Jacques!" she cried out. She suddenly felt a very cold hand touch her bare hip, and she let out a yelp.

"Anneliese, it's me!" said Jacques' voice. Anneliese flung her arms around him in a terrified embrace.

"Oh, Jacques," she cried, "I'm so, so, so, so sorry! This is all my fault!"

"Don't be sorry," Jacques said sternly. "None of this is your fault! It is only theirs!" He pointed in the direction he assumed the door was in. "They are the ones who should feel guilt and sorrow! Not you!"

Suddenly, a loud rattling came from the pipes in the ceiling above. Loud clattering followed close behind. The pellets smacked against the floor, releasing their toxic fumes.

"Oh no," Anneliese whimpered. "Oh no, oh no, oh no…"

"Listen to me, Anneliese," he said sternly. He choked before continuing. "Do not blame yourself for what is not yours to blame! I didn't regret meeting you then, and I don't regret meeting you now! I love you! Understand that! Even now, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!"

He touched her cheek tenderly. Their eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness of the chamber, and they looked into each others eyes. Her cheek stung at his touch, for there were long cuts and deep gashes. The two of them began to choke on the toxic fumes of the Zyclon B gas that surrounded them.

"Jacques, I love you so much, and I'm sorry I got you into this entire thing!" she coughed.

"Don't be. Before I met you, I had nothing. My family was taken from me, and I was ready to die. At least now when I do die, I will die with the one I love."

Their voices became mere whispers in the shadowy darkness.

"Please don't let go," Anneliese rasped.

"I swear I won't," Jacques whispered back.

"I love you…" "Don't let go…"
The whispers seemed to disappear into the darkness as the gas filled their lungs.

"I love you Anneliese," Jacques choked with his last breath.

"I love you too," she whispered back. At long last, their limp and naked bodies fell to the stony floor, lifeless.

Then, there was only silence.

After twenty long minutes, Gustoff sent to workers into the chambers to retrieve the bodies of his traitor daughter and her Jewish lover.

As the men enetered the darkness, they looked around in search of them. They spotted them both lying in the center of the chambers. Even these men, who made their living moving and cremating the bodies, were met with sadness and fear.

The girl's body was lined with cuts and bruises, and it looked like she had had her head shaved and she wasn't fed in weeks. The boy's body looked almost identical, except he was thinner, and looked as if he had been struck with a whip.

These two men took the lifeless young bodies to the crematoria to cremate them. And together, the ashes of Jacques Phillipe Genet and Anneliese Claire Koftinoff were spread with the ashes of the rest of the Jews, Gypsies, and those who were discriminated against that had been burned before them.

The End