AN: I wrote this three years ago, but I'm rather happy with it, actually, so I've decided to share it.

The kitchen was dark. Eleven chimes rang out across the silence.

Elsa took no notice.

Hours had blurred together, forming long chains of indeterminate days. Though it had been three since the day, she did not know. Night, day, all were the same. It did not matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

Nothing.

She sipped from the glass in her hand, sloppily, a parody of high society. There was warmth in that glass, oblivion in that glass, but it was a poor substitute. What she truly wanted, she could not have. She could never have that back, her childre- child, could never have that again. It was gone.

She sipped again.

She heard the door open, but did not turn.

'Maria, go to sleep-'

It was not the maid who replied.

'Elsa, darling, it's me.'

Silence.

'Maria is up with Gretel. She cannot sleep.'

'Maria or Gretel?'

'You are being deliberately obtuse.'

'Am I?'

He sighed, crossing the room in three paces, prising the glass from her fingers. She recoiled from his touch.

'Yes, Elsa, you are!'

He tipped the sherry down the sink. Elsa reached out half-heartedly, as if to stop him.

'Elsa, darling, you must stop this ridiculous habit.'

'What habit?'

He threw his hands up in exasperation.

'This drinking! It is-'

'What, Ralf? Not befitting of your perfect family?'

'You know that's not what I meant! It's not good for you!'

She turned to him with red-rimmed eyes.

'In case you missed it, my son is dead!'

His voice softened slightly.

'I know you are grieving, Elsa, and I know our son is dead, but it is not healthy, darling-'

'Don't call me that!'

He nodded reluctantly.

'Elsa, please-'

'How can you act as if it never happened? Bruno is dead!'

She burst into hysterical tears.

'I know, Elsa, I know, but-'

'I know, I know, it's important to maintain the image of a perfectly happy, but appropriately devastated Aryan family with a Commandant father, an obedient mother and a brainwashed daughter!'

'Elsa! Those are dangerous words! The soldiers will-'

'There! Soldiers, duty, meetings, that's all that matters-'

'Elsa, you know that's not true. You, Gretel, Bruno, are the most important-'

'He's dead! Everything that's important to you is to do with death!'

'Elsa!'

'You brought us here, Ralf. You brought the most important things in your life to this place. You willingly brought your children to a place unfit for them, and killed both!'

'Elsa, Gretel is upstairs -'

She shook her head.

'She's not been the same! My little girl-my little girl is as gone as her brother! She's-she's unrecognisable, no more real, no more alive than the posters she worships!'

'Dangerous words, Elsa! You must be careful!'

'I don't care anymore! It's your fault, it's all your fault that they're gone!'

'How could I have known, Elsa? How could I have known that he could have found the camp, crawled beneath the fence, been caught up in a- a march! How could I have known that the guards wouldn't catch him?'

'You brought us here, Ralf! You put Bruno in harm's way by coming here! Of course he would have gone exploring! You knew your son! Or- or at least I thought you did.'

'Elsa-'

'You betrayed us all! You betrayed me! You lied to me! You told me it was a work camp! You never told me that the man I loved and married was a- a murderer!'

His face was an angry shade of puce.

'I am not a murderer!

'You run an- an extermination camp! You're some twisted butcher, some heinous culler of rats!'

'Do not say those words! I was building a better future, Elsa, for all of us. For Bruno, for Gretel, for all the people of Germany!'

'Not all the people!'

'Would you wish your children to grow up under the shadow-'

'I'm tired of propaganda, Ralf! I would rather a world full of Jews and my son alive, not the other way around!'

'I- I was following orders, Elsa! I am Commandant here, but there are always those higher than me! If I didn't-'

'They would have fired you, or demoted you! You are a coward!'

'I am not a coward! They would have killed me, and you and Bruno and Gretel!'

'So my son was the sacrificial lamb? You-'

'I did not know, Elsa! I did not know he could see the camp, I did not know it was that close, I-'

'There was nothing you did not know! You knew! He did not, I did not, Gretel did not! You let us think that- that you were some sort of hero! You exploited my ignorance, shattered my daughter's innocence, and killed my son!'

'Elsa, I did nothing of the sort! I was not at liberty to-'

She snarled at him.

'To do what? To break a few rules? To let us see this side of you, this monster? I am a fool, Ralf. A fool for marrying you, a fool for following you to this place!'

'Elsa-'

'Don't! If this is what you really are, then- then you deserved it! You deserved to have your son die by your hand, by the same hand that slew a thousand other sons! '

'Elsa!'

'You deserved it! You deserved it and it serves you right! If it is God's will, then let my pain be my repentance for my sins!'

His face was contorted, red with rage. He raised a fist, above his head, crying out in incoherent fury.

The kitchen door opened, a sliver of light from the passageway shining through.

A blonde-haired girl in a nightdress stared blankly at the tableau before her.

'Mistress Gretel, your parents-'

Maria came to a halt behind her young charge.

'Master Ralf, Mistress Elsa! I'm sorry, Gretel didn't know that-'

Elsa shook her head, quickly drying the tears.

'No need to apologise, Maria. Come, Gretel, you must get some rest. Finish packing my things, Maria, we leave for Heidelburg tomorrow, as soon as it can be arranged.'

'Of course, Mistress Elsa. Shall I go to the station tomorrow, to buy the tickets?'

Elsa looked up from holding her daughter.

'No, Maria. Ralf will arrange that, won't he?'

The Commandant nodded, turning away from the women.

As the light of the hallway vanished, Ralf wailed to the heavens.