Like Ghosts

April 1945, Stanley, a young British POW has escaped during the final days of WW2. Injured after stepping on a bear trap, Stanley’s forced to take refuge in an abandoned factory, hidden deep within the woods of central Germany. Hearing a sobbing woman, he discovers skeletal remains in a rusted water tank. Is it a ghost or has he simply succumbed to his injuries? Stanley finds a secret box beneath an office floorboard, containing food and more importantly, morphine. Overwhelmed by pain, he takes the morphine. The next morning Stanley now not only can hear but see the woman. She has no awareness of his existence and passes through Stanley like a ghost. (Disappearing whenever she leaves the building). The next morning however, she can hear Stanley and after initial fears, they talk to one another. She is Anna, late 30s, Polish, well educated (unlike the working class Stanley), but also an escapee, from a forced labour camp. Anna has lost all hope of survival, while Stanley, believes he’s a coward. Captured on his first day of combat and fleeing at the first chance he got. It appears Anna is from 1944, exactly a year before and although Stanley doubts she is real, he informs her of the skeletal remains. Anna is convinced she is doomed. Unheard or unseen by Stanley, Anna is terrorised by the shrieking voice, of a young German woman, another ‘Ghost’ they conclude is from some time before. Both feeling unsafe, decide to brave the unknown and leave at dawn. Come dawn, Anna can now see Stanley. They bid farewell, until Anna flees with fright, as her ‘Ghost’ has returned to her time, 1944, attacking her with a knife. After some struggle, Anna injects her attacker with morphine and with Stanley’s help, Anna shoves her attacker over a railing, both landing on the hard floor far below. Hours later, Anna awakens, to Stanley’s relief. She drags ‘Ghost’s’ body into the rusted water tank and for the first time, has hope that she may just survive the war. As both depart, Stanley sees Anna rush back inside, chased by unseen German soldiers, before she’s dragged away, disappearing from a frantic Stanley. As all hope seems lost, Anna appears, in Stanley’s time, frail but alive, liberated by US forces. Both disappear into the woods, heading for freedom.