The Thirty-First Tale

How long had she been there?

How long had she been in this awful, dreadful place?

Alice didn't care anymore—every last ounce of hope gone from the maltreatment and desecration.

She no longer remembers her family, the faces of her most important people. She no longer remembers herself— 

What was she like? What was her favourite food? Was she a kind or a malevolent person? How old was she? When was her birthday?

What was her name?

Alice could only, yet vaguely remember events post her apprehension. Any other precedent memories were obscure and almost nonexistent. She could remember whispers of voices and blurry figures of what she'd assumed to be her family and friends.

She couldn't believe how she hadn't lost her mind yet with the amount of experiments inflicted upon her. In fact, she couldn't even believe how she had managed to survive with the amount of deaths she had witnessed from the concentration camps—whether it was coercing and forcing people in gas chambers, from overworking, starvation; or from dehydration, exhaustion, the weather; or from execution, simply because they could no longer work anymore.

She had seen too much. She had cried too much that she could no longer shed any more tears.

They were free, she could hear them rejoice. Oh, how many years she had yearned to be free.

Liberation was what everybody had been seeking for, albeit it had long since devastated almost every single one of her people. There was no celebration. She could barely hear the small traces of joy from their crying voices. 

There were only so few of them left, and she was one of them. However, she doubts that she'd make it any longer.

"Too late..." The words had managed to slip from her lips before she collapsed on the ground.

The Allied soldier felt helpless as he stood in shock and horror, being the first to notice and enter the tent filled with emaciated bodies.

All this time, they were blinded by their own obligations to triumph against their enemy. All this time, they were so blinded that they've neglected to notice the constant torture right under their noses.

The Allied soldier cried.

Not because he failed to save numerous innocent lives.

Not because he lamented for the deaths of so many people.

But because he had immensely failed to protect his significant other.

Inspired by the Holocaust that occurred in WWII | Alice (although we know it's her stage name) in this fic is a name given to her when she first entered the concentration camp