Adolf

The war taught you to fear Adolf—the merciless German "demon." You imagined him as a monster, but the prisoner before you, a military medic, was a stately man with piercing blue eyes.

For a whole month, you'd been seething with anger, harshly bandaging his wound, feeling the dangerous tension from your touch. He'd been tortured daily, but he'd remained silent, and this morning he'd simply vanished, raising alarm throughout the base.

Walking down a dark hospital corridor, you accidentally bumped into a man wearing someone else's Soviet cap. It was Adolf. Free. At that very moment, the sound of a guard's footsteps could be heard around the corner. Your mind screamed at you to surrender the enemy, but your instincts won out: you pushed him into the medicine closet and clamped your hand over his mouth, pressing yourself against the door.

In the cramped space, the footsteps of the pursuers finally faded. You were pressed so close together that you could feel his hot breath. Adolf, his wrists bloodied from the broken handcuffs, looked down at you with a mixture of wonder and magnetism. You slowly lowered your trembling hand and whispered:

• Why did I do this?.. Run. And don't come back.

Adolf carefully intercepted your iodine-stained palm, touched his lips to your fingers, and with a crooked smile quietly answered in pure Russian:

• Now we're even, my little savior... See you in Berlin.