The Final Solution

Alsace was a state of the art home with all of the luxuries and amenities money could buy. Once there, Mortimer and Adelina entered into the front of the building, stopping at reception.

“Mr. Hearst,” greeted the woman behind the desk, pleasant smile on her face.

Mortimer nodded, placing his hand on Adelina’s shoulder, “My daughter Madison,” he stated.

“Is she to be granted access?” inquired the woman.

“Yes, I think it is important she get to know her great grandfather. How has he been?” he asked.

The woman shook her head, “He’s been moved to a more functional treatment bed. He seems fairly lucid most of the time, though more and more he resorts to speaking German,” she informed.

Same room?” he asked.

She nodded.

Adelina, still in the guise of Madison, followed Mortimer to the room. The door was opened, a small circle of pale light directly over the head of the bed itself, but with the curtains drawn, the rest of the room was fairly dark.

Klaus Wilhelm Hertz lay in a raised hospital bed, tubes connected to his frail arms. His face was gaunt, spectral, little more than waxen skin stretched over a skull. His teeth were yellow and the wisps of hair on his head were white. The gown he was wearing was a light blue.

“Grandfather, it is me Mortimer, and I’ve brought someone very special to meet you, your great granddaughter Madison,” he said, stepping into the room.

Rolling his age spotted pate in the direction, “Come forward,” he beckoned, motioning with his gnarled hand.

Stepping into the room, Adelina moved closer into the light. If not for his eyes, she doubted she would even have recognized the man who had visited so much destruction in her life.

He smiled up at her, “So beautiful,” he breathed, extending a hand toward her.

She smiled back, heart racing, so close. Taking his hand.

He immediately jerked his hand back, mouth falling open. “Nein!” he screamed while trying to push his withered body away from her, stopped from falling out of the bed by the elevated support bars at the side.

“Enough,” Mortimer said, perturbed, placing a hand on the distraught old man’s bony shoulder.

“Sie ist eine Hexe!” he yelled, rheumy eyes huge and filled with a mixture of anger and fright.

From the way he was behaving, she knew he could see passed the magic of the necklace and see her as she truly was.

“No,” Mortimer soothed, trying to calm the completely distraught man.

Reaching up, Adelina pulled a single from Mortimer’s head, mouthing the words to the curse.

Mortimer turned, frowning, “Madison?” he asked, voice slurring. Staggering backward, she guided him into a chair before walking back over to the bed.

“Geh raus!” he shrieked.

Walking back over, she shook her head slowly, “Do you remember me?” she spat.

He glared at her, eyes flicking over to the chair where his grandson had been but now only his clothes remained and then to her face, “If not the face, I know what you are,” he declared.

“What did you do to my baby girl, my Nadia?” she demanded, pulling the blanket away from him.

He rolled his head from side to side, eyes narrowing, “Ah, now I know you,” he answered.

“Nadia!” she repeated, pressing her hands down on his shoulders. “She was just a child when you took her from me!” she snarled, face filled with fury.

“I will do you this courtesy only because I choose, she had to be sacrificed for the sake of the baby,” he whispered, “she died the day Edward was born.”

 Leaning her head back, a wracking sound much like a sob escaped her lips, filled with breaking emotion.

He tried to grab her arm and push her away but his fragile aged body was too enfeebled and weakened to fight her off.

Bringing her head forward again, tears rolling down her face, “I want you to know what is going to happen before you die,” she hissed.

“I am prepared to die,” he snapped back.

“Look!” she instructed, pointing to the chair where Mortimer had been. His eyes darted over in that direction.

“I have shrunk him and he will spent the remainder of whatever days he has left a slave. Your great grandson is also shrunk and at the mercy of another. All that you have wrought will fall into the care of my great great granddaughter and your mission will come to an end, a bitter disappointing failure,” she raged, eyes flashing with triumph.

“No,” he said.

“All this time you were seeking power, and all this time it was right there, under your boot heel,” she laughed before tearing at his flimsy gown, she pulled the garment away, exposing a sunken chest decorated with old faded runic tattoos and mystical symbols.

“I am protected,” he stated.

“No,” she replied, grinning down. These pathetic attempts mean nothing to me,” she answered, placing her hand in the center of his chest, she channeled the power of the curse, driving the energy into the old man. She wanted him to feel it, to feel his body shriveling away.

Staring up at her, his fierce eyes remained impassive as he shrank in on himself, until he was under her hand. Curling her fingers around him, she walked over to the chair, finding Mortimer tiny form in amongst the now oversized clothes.

Clutching Mortimer in her other hand, she held her hands side by side, making sure Klaus could see Mortimer.

“Now you will die, I will take every last thing from your little body. I want you to suffer,” she seethed.

“I have lived much longer than I should have, I go now to join my brethren, do as you will,” he stated calmly, closing his eyes.

Licking her lips, still the soft and supple appearing lips of young and beautiful Madison, she raised the former SS officer over her head, mouth opening.

Klaus remained silent as he was dropped into the open maw, and turned around. He did not yell or scream when she swallowed him down.