Alongside those who are sinful.

Chapter 18

For those who didn't see the message on my profile, I had thought that my subliminal undertones about the characters and their characteristics were being understood.

After the last chapters reception regarding how it ended, I believe I have overestimated my abilities in writing. And so, it got me wondering: How many of my other subtle meanings throughout my other stories were not picked up? Or were they?

I don't have the answer for those questions, so I decided to rewrite this chapter and shift perspectives to better explain things in an easier way. I don't wish to spoon feed every hidden meaning in my story, but I may need to ease up on the subtlety. So, apologies for the delay regardless.

That, and my 3 lovely capstone classes are all writing intensive and wanted 8 page term papers due around the same time.

That's right, Author lore time: I'm doing this shit while trying to graduate college and get into the real world. But there's no stopping now! Onwards to the next chapter!

XXX

In the span of mere days, Katya felt that she had a grip on the man named Dietrich Fischer.

She knew he was in his twenties and had a brain that was more mature than his body was. He had been able to apparently see through the fanaticism of the fascist Reich and had done what many others had as a soldier fighting for his country.

However, once past the uniform and gun, Katya had come to know that Dietrich was a monster. First and foremost.

Besides being a known absolute menace to the Red Army during his reign of terror as a sniper, he had a penchant for killing anything that he could get an excuse for. Humans. Animals. Humanoid animals.

It did not matter.

While his actions and reasonings were selfish in nature and causing pain sowed pleasure for him, he had recently began to show that he, in fact, was a human just like the rest of them through the creature they called "Kasma."

He had approached the felid with an unseen care that nobody in the group had seen the man perform. He was always there to show Kasma the reality of life while somehow calming and nurturing the poor animal.

Katya had thought that such displays from Dietrich meant affection, but the look that he was giving her after she had asked him proved otherwise.

"Katya? Do you see any pink triangles on this uniform?" Asked Dietrich. She was brought out of her thoughts by the heavily accented voice of the Chort, and by looking over his clothing, she did not find any of the pieces he had asked her to.

"Uh...no." She said. Katya had been made aware of the camps and the symbols used to sectionalize the persecuted. She had learned of every symbol that the Reich used to identify "subhumans" and easily target them. Homosexuals were made to wear a pink triangle while in the camps, as had been supposedly passed down from the liberators of the damned.

She looked back up to Dietrich's face and saw that the look he was giving her was a truly nasty expression. His whole face had turned sour.

He looked over at her with what she knew to be contempt, with malice in his eyes, staring directly into her soul.

"Then that fact on its own should tell you more than enough. I can barely stand other people as is. What would lead you to believe that I would lower myself to such disgusting levels?" Growled Dietrich.

Katya shifted her legs under her so that she could feel a semblance of comfort. Dietrich's generally venomous tone did not inspire feelings of comfort for her.

"I had believed that you were above the fanaticism of your regime. Everything I had learned and noticed about you these past days had led me to believe that you saw things differently." Explained Katya. She finally settled down on her legs, and looked towards Dietrich once more.