Mephistopheles

Nazi patrol had been especially active that night. It was now a week that the dreaded SS had been looking everywhere for members of the French resistance. Little boys had been bringing news as one after the other of his comrades was picked up.

He heard the screeching noise of trucks stopping in the street below. Jaque looked down from his sixth floor flat and immediately blew the candles. He saw soldiers spilling out of the back of the truck on to the snow lined street, like black ink being poured on a white sheet. He knew then and quickly tried to wake her up,

‘Yvo.. Yvo get up. We have to move.’

Yvonne had been suffering from consumption since last winter; she had seemed to recover a bit in the summer. Petain’s betrayal in June had destroyed all their hopes and future. It had been six months now. Nazis controlled everything in Paris. Jaque struggled to get food-tickets and her medicine.

He would have moved her to the hills but Nazi pressure had forced Jaque to hide in Paris itself. Winter had set in now and Yvonne was struggling to even breathe. They would stay up nights as she sucked in short sharp gasps and spat out blood.

Now the Nazi vampires had reached their door-step. He woke her up and covered her with warm clothes and a blanket. They escaped from the fire-ladder and dropped to the street. As they moved from the shelter of the building, a gust of icy wind hit her and Yvonne collapsed. Jaque lifted her in his arms and ran. He crossed the back alley and came out behind the park. He carried her on his shoulder and moved towards the Seine.

It had been snowing. He saw flakes floating down to settle on the ground. It seemed like a dream painted by Delacroix with Mephistopheles clouding over France. As he gently put her down on a bench overlooking the river he called out to her,

'Yvo, Yvo, we are safe here for a while. These devils will not come out to check here in this weather. But we must move soon, this cold is not good for you'

She nodded and coughed once.

His only passion other than France was Yvonne. They had loved each other since they were kids. He had enrolled to become a doctor before the war broke out. He knew that TB was an even bigger threat than the war. Even though BCG had been developed, it was still not widely available. The disease had killed hundreds of thousands in Europe. The sanatoria were full of patients waiting to die.

'Yvo... Yvo! Wake up Yvo. Wake up'
He was now shaking her hard. Not believing that on this cold winter Paris night he would save Yvo from one devil and lose her to another.