Wolf Child

September 1935

"How long until we get there?" An eight-year-old Marlene Erskine asked her mother.

"It's still a few hours, we aren't even in Switzerland yet. Are you excited?"

Greta Erskine was a tall woman, her hair in beautiful locks and wearing an elegant dress, yet the stress did not do her any favours. The lines between her eyebrows were more prominent than ever before and the smiles she gave her daughter hadn’t reached her eyes in a long time. She was glad that her daughter was unaware of all that was going on, much less the reason for her worry.

"Yeah! Papa said I can finally go to school and he'll teach me how to ski!" she blabbered on excitedly. "Do you think I'll be good at it, Mama?"

"Skiing? Of course, Lenchen, but only if you practise a lot. Nobody is good at anything right away, just remember that."

The mother stroked her daughter's blonde hair, braided in two neat braids and exchanged a look with her husband, who sat across from her. He smiled softly, reassuring her without words that they would be fine.

The train came to a halt. It was the last station before they would cross the border.

People boarded the train. Nothing out of the usual if it wasn’t for their uniforms. The swastika on their upper arms glaring at them.

Greta's heart clenched in fear. They could be here for any reason, she tried to reason with herself, they didn't have to be here because of them. But that piece of hope was destroyed when she heard what the two men were doing.

“Do you know this man?” one of the uniformed men asked a passenger and held up a photograph. “Erskine. I am looking for Abraham and Greta Erskine.”

Abraham also saw what they were doing and stood up.

"Abraham, no!" She grabbed his arm, trying to stop him.

"It'll be all right, Greta. Strangers shouldn’t have to suffer because of us." 

He turned towards the men. "I am Abraham Erskine."

They looked at him for a moment, as if assessing if it was really him. Their eyes wandered to Greta, staying on her a moment longer than what was comfortable. They didn’t spare Marlene a single glance.

“Come with me.” One of them gestured for them to follow him.

Greta grabbed her husband’s hand with one hand and their daughter’s with her other. The couple shared a look. They had known each other long enough that Abraham knew she wouldn’t leave his side and Greta knew he would do the same. They were in this together, for better or for worse. He loved her very much, but he was worried that her lack of backing down would put their daughter in danger.

“Mama? Where are we going?” Marlene whispered with a frown, having picked up on the tense atmosphere.

The mother shushed her daughter. “Later, Lenchen.”

The family of three followed the uniformed men out of the train and into another building. The station was swarming with other men in uniforms, which wasn’t unusual for a station this close to the border. The civilians pointedly looked away from the family being led away. They didn’t know what was going to happen to them. They didn’t want to.

Marlene gripped her mother’s hand tighter as they walked inside. She looked down at her daughter with a small smile and squeezed her hand. The blonde girl wasn’t stupid, she knew her parents were worried. They thought she didn’t notice the worried glances, the hushed conversations back home. Marlene knew her parents had been worried for a while now, the only time she had asked her father if everything was okay, he had reassured her that everything was good. But this wasn’t supposed to happen, usually people stayed on the train until they arrive, right? Although, she wasn’t too sure what usually happened when you took the train, it had been her first time.

But when she watched the train leave the station, the eight-year-old girl knew they weren’t getting to Geneva anytime soon.

They were led to a room where a man was already waiting for them. Two men in uniform with big guns blocked the door once the Erskines had entered the room. The two from the train stood next to the family. Marlene moved closer to her mother.

“You waited too long to run, Herr Professor.”

The man spoke to Abraham. Marlene thought that he had probably never smiled of happiness in his life, ever. She tried to imagine a happy smile on his face, and failed.

“Run? No, not at all. Just a brief holiday, we’ll be back in time for the fall semeste-“

“Shut up,” the man interrupted. “Sit down.” He pulled out two chairs.

Abraham moved to sit down, but Greta didn’t let go of his hand, her own feet rooted to the ground. The man’s eyes snapped to their interlocked hands.

“How touching.” Greta stared him in the eyes unflinchingly. “I don’t ask twice, Mrs. Erskine.”

The couple shared another look and Greta let Abraham go. Reluctantly. Abraham sat down on one chair, his wife sat down on the chair next to him. Their daughter stood in between, clutching her mother’s arm and staying as close as she could.

“I know why it took you so long to make up your mind. Your research at the university was going so spectacularly well and you were loath to leave it,” the man spoke again, hands clasped behind his back. “Increasing the molecular density of cellular fibres- skin, muscle - through synthetic proteins of your own devising. My-“

“Our work is still merely a theory. There is no proof that it could work.” She ignored the fact that the proof of their success was gripping her arm at this very moment. “There is no way to tell what the side effects could be, much less if the results would be perma-“

“Our work, you say?” An evil grin spread on the man’s face. “I heard you were helping your husband with his work, is that right?”

He hummed in thought.

Greta opened her mouth to say something, but the man held up a gloved hand and continued talking.

“As I was saying, my group has been monitoring your progress for some time, to see how much you could achieve without our assistance.

“But then, someone in the party warned you what the Führer would be announcing at the rally tomorrow in Nuremberg: Laws against Jews and Aryans intermarrying... Restricting the types of jobs Jews can hold, et cetera.”

He turned towards Greta. “Your father was Jewish, was he not? That means your girl is somewhere on this Aryan heritage chart, yes?”

He held up a piece of paper.

Greta tightened the grip on Marlene’s hand and looked at her daughter, who was looking back at her with furrowed eyebrows. The girl wasn’t entirely sure what a lot of the things the adults were talking about meant. Why would she be on some sort of chart because her grandfather was Jewish?

The man threw the piece of paper into the crackling flames of the fireplace without a care.

“Rubbish,” he said. “Racist superstition masquerading as junk science.”

Leaning down, his face much closer to Abrahams now, evil grin still spread across his face. Marlene pressed more into her mother’s side, as if she could protect her from this man.

“We know that the superior man will not be born, Professor Erskine. He will not be a member of any ‘master race’. He will be a race unto himself. And you are going to help me make him.” He looked at Great. “Both of you.”

“You…” Abraham wasn’t sure what he thought of the man. “… work with Nazis even though you do not follow their ideology?”

“And?”

“And is that supposed to make me think you are less despicable than them? or so much more?”

“Forgive me, Herr Professor, for answering a question with a question: If I kill your daughter because of her Jewish blood... or if I kill your daughter because you refuse to aid me... will she not be dead all the same?”

Marlene looked up at her mother, eyes wide. She understood that part just fine. But her mother wasn’t looking at her, she was staring at the man, eyes filled with hatred and a jaw clenched so hard she could’ve broken diamonds with her teeth.

Abraham looked down. He refused to be the reason for their daughter’s suffering.

“When do we begin?” The professor resigned to their fate.

“I already have, Professor.” The evil grin turned just the slightest bit happier. Not happiness in the sense of joy, more in a satisfied way. As if he had just gotten everything he wanted, without doubting that he would ever get it.

“Take the girl.”

The words were directed towards the men who had escorted them out of the train, the strongest reaction however, came from two concerned parents.

“You said you wouldn’t harm her!” Abraham rose from his chair.

“What?!” Greta stood abruptly.

Greta pulled her daughter close and slung her arms around her.

The man sighed. “As long as you cooperate, the girl will be fine. However, I do believe that you need some sort of incentive to aid me in my plans. If you go against me, she will be the one facing the punishment.”

He looked towards Greta.

“Which includes not letting her go.”

The concerned mother released her daughter from her grip and crouched down to be on the same level as her.

“You behave, you hear me, young lady?” She smiled sadly at her daughter.

Marlene nodded earnestly. Greta pulled her into a hug and gave her a kiss on the head. Abraham smiled sadly at the scene.

“We love you, Lenchen.”

She looked at her father and he gave her a nod. Greta stood up and the man, who had never told them his name, gestured to the men who had moved to grab her before.

One of them took her hand and the other stood at her other side. Marlene glanced over her shoulder at her parents one last time, before the trio left the room. They led her towards a truck. The back of it had a roof, but no real doors.

The one holding her hand lifted her up into the back of the truck and followed with the second man. They sat her down at the very back on the bench and then sat down themselves. No words were shared between them when the truck drove off. Marlene tried to catch a glimpse out of the back, the most she saw was the dust the vehicle threw up as they left the train station on a dusty country road.

Marlene had no idea how long they drove for. There wasn’t much to do, there was no window she could look out of and talking to the uniformed men was out of the question. They scared her. The older one more so, he just had a mean face. She was glad that the younger one had been the one to grab her hand, he had even smiled at her.

⨯⨯⨯⨯⨯

When they finally stopped and exited the truck, Marlene Erskine saw something she hadn’t expected. A castle.

The girl stood there with an open mouth, staring up at the turrets and high brick walls. She did not get long to admire the building, the scary one put his hand on the back of her neck and shoved her forward. He pushed her through the corridors of the castle and didn’t stop until he arrived at a wooden door that looked like all the others.

He opened the door and shoved her inside. Marlene stumbled, but managed to catch herself before she fell. She dared to glare at the man, who had already slammed the door shut and thus couldn’t see the angry child anymore.

The locks clicked and Marlene was alone.

The room wasn’t very big. A bed stood in one corner, the white paint chipping and showing the dull metal underneath. A pillow and blanket lay neatly folded on top. On the opposite wall stood a wardrobe, but the doors were missing and it was empty. The only other thing in the room was the window on the opposite wall to the door.

Marlene opened the curtains and peered outside. The sight wasn’t very impressive, just some sort of courtyard. It held only one tree, its leaves had already turned yellow, and bushes that might hold flowers in the spring and summer. There were windows on the other side, however they seemed to only lead to hallways or unused offices.

Not many people passed through the courtyard, but for a lack of better things to do, Marlene looked outside until it got dark. She had tried the door in the meantime and as expected, it was locked.

As it got dark, she had wanted to turn the lights on, but could not find the light switch and was forced to either sit in darkness or go to bed.

She had no other clothes to sleep in, so she just took off her shoes and slipped into bed. As soon as she lay there, worry for her parents and herself overcame her. That man had spoken of killing or punishing her if her parents didn’t do what he wanted of them. Would he really do that?

Yes, she thought darkly, he seemed to be the type to kill little girls.