Hours passed. Maybe longer, and time blurred in misery. And then...The gates opened. A small figure stepped out. A girl, so bright, and clean, she looks like nothing could touch her purity. To him, she appeared to be wrapped in warmth and softness he couldn't even understand.
She wasn't supposed to come out. Not alone, and definitely not to him. But she did. And then, she had looked at him... Not with disgust, neither with fear, but with ardent curiosity.
"Are you okay?" she had asked.
Her voice small.
Gentle.
He didn't answer. Because he didn't know how. No one had ever asked him that. She stepped closer. Too close. The guards who noticed her movement, shouted from behind. He called her back, and warned her. But she ignored them. She held something in her hands.
A small box.
Wrapped neatly.
"My nanny said I shouldn't talk to strangers," she said, almost thoughtfully.
A pause.
Then...
"But you don't look scary."
She knelt down in front of him. Placed the box gently in his hands.
Inside...
Food.
Warm.
Fresh.
The smell alone made his head spin.
"You can have it," she said.
He stared at it. Then at her. Unable to process what was happening. No one had ever given him anything before. Not at no cost, demand, strings, or just because it was the right thing to do.
He had been used, cast aside, manipulated and battered. After escaping from the factory where he was forced into child labour, he had been running endlessly through the night. With his clothes tattered and his stomach aching from neglection. He finally decides to take a rest and maybe run back to the factory. With tears dropping from his eyes he at least remembered that...
there is shelter and some measly food provided at the factory and above... he won't have to keep running.
The world seems meaningless to him at this point and he couldn't help but think that his existence in this world itself is the problem. No more kindness in the world, just cruelty and savageness.
That was until he met her. just one single moment of kindness changed his life and gave him hope again.
The guards were closer now.
Their voices louder.
"Miss, you need to come back..."
She stood quickly.
But before she left...
She smiled.
"You should eat," she told him.
"As fast as you can… so no one takes it."
And then...
She ran back.
Gone. She was gone.
Just like that.
He never saw her face clearly. Not completely. Because everything blurred after that.
Tears.
Rain.
Heat rushing through his body as he ate with shaking hands. But one thing stayed.
That moment.
That kindness.
Because for the first time, someone had seen him. Not as a burden. Not as something beneath them. But as someone who needed help.
And that...
Changed everything.