Beyond the Broken Angel

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

***DISCLAIMER: This chapter may be upsetting to some. ***

— that night —

February 18th, 1944

"TWENTY TWENTY-FOUR?" was the first thing Steven asked once Giselle was done telling the workings of the tree. He overemphasized the syllables, speaking the words as if they were foreign to him.

Giselle nodded. "Yep. 2024."

"This is preposterous," Steven said, laughing under his breath. "Surely you're playing a trick on me."

"She's not," Will affirmed, his eyes cold as she stared at Steven.

"You can't possibly believe such a thing." Steven looked to Giselle. "Do you have proof?"

"Um," Giselle glanced down at her open suitcase, "yeah, just give me a sec." She dug through her belongings again, digging out her electric toothbrush and one of Liam's toys—a toy smartphone that made noises and when the screen was touched. She explained the objects as she held them out for him to take.

Steven gingerly took the items from her, eyeing them before inspecting them. He seemed to enjoy the phone the most, continuously pressing on the screen to hear noises.

"Such an odd device," he marveled. "And this truly is what telephones look like in—in the future?"

Giselle nodded. "Yep." She pointed at the fake apps on the screen. "If this were a real phone, you could tap that to call someone, or this one to take a picture or video, this one can show you your exact location and tell you instructions on how to get somewhere, and this is probably my favorite." She pointed to the internet app. "This one will give you the answer to any question you ask it. I actually used that one to figure out everything I could about this war." She grinned, nodding her head towards him. "You guys win, by the way."

Steven stared at her, wide-eyed.

"I think that was too much all at once, Elle," Will said. "It looks like you broke him."

Steven frowned at him before looking back to Giselle. "We truly win?" When Giselle nodded, he asked another question. "When does the war end?"

"Next year. The Germans surrender in early May, May 7th or 8th I think, but the war officially ends on September 2nd."

"A year . . ." Steven's voice trailed off. He looked down at the toy phone in his hand, his face going blank. "It feels so far, yet so close all at the same time," he said.

"It still feels far to me," Will grumbled, his eyes meeting Giselle's. "Much too far."

Giselle reached forward and grabbed his hand, giving it a small squeeze as she managed a smile for him. "One more year, honey. We can do it."

Will nodded. "We can."

Steven looked in between the two, narrowing his eyes. "I should take a leave," he said, slowly standing. "I'll return in five minutes." He left without saying anything more.

Once he was out of sight, Will was upon Giselle, pressing his lips against hers and her body against his. "William!" Giselle playfully protested as he guided her body towards the ground, keeping his upper body propped up by his hands on either side of her head.