Fourteen
A/N: Hoping to write more later today.
The boy crouched beneath a bush, shivering in the rain. For days, crammed under blankets in the back of the truck, his t-shirt had been stiff with sweat. Now it was eagerly soaking up the icy water. It clung to his small frame, useless against the cold. His side ached with a dull burn that blotted out the pain of his hunger. With shaking fingers, he slid his hand up beneath the shirt, wincing as it came in contact with the still-tender scars under his ribcage. He shouldn't have run, he knew that. He was weak, weaker than he'd ever been, even in the worst times of war. But he'd had no choice. They'd had no choice. He'd run, and after he'd run, there was no way to go back. Even when he'd heard the blast of the gun, even when he'd seen, from the corner of his eye, Josue fall. He couldn't have gone back… But he should have done. He should have done… Hot tears joined the rain spattering his small face, but they were silent.
Around him, the woods were quiet apart from the rain. He could hear birds in the trees, although he only knew them as birds by their rustling wings and sudden bursts of flight. They sounded like no birds he recognised. He wished he could sprout wings, and escape as they did, straight up into the sky. He couldn't run anymore. Especially now that he had only one shoe.
He had loved those shoes. He had treasured them, the only thing he had in this new life, and the only thing he had wanted to save from his old one. He'd liked the bright orange colour. It had been like a sunset from far back in his memory, from a time and a home that no longer existed, at least for him. There was a song that his mother used to sing to them, as the night fell. The boy shut his eyes and conjured her face, what it had been like when she was alive, before the soldiers had come, before…
Ō-Ō Byanswahn blay Tanner tee-o-o.
O Byanswahn jekah jubha.
De jo Byanswahn se kah jujah dai.
Ō Byanswahn blay dai Tanner tee-o-o.
He pulled off the one shoe he had left, and removed the dirty white lace, tying it around his wrist in case he had use for it later. Then he threw the single trainer, as hard as he could, out into the damp and miserable falling dark. The action tugged the cut muscles in his ribcage, and he bit his lip until it bled.
Something else joined the patter of rain. There were voices, somewhere out there among the trees. He looked up and saw flashes of strange light, blue and red swirling against the inky sky. The boy's heart beat faster, the fear returning. He'd thought they had gone. He'd thought he had outrun them. But here they were, looking for him, as they had looked for Josue…
Adrenaline forced him to his feet. He darted out of his hiding place and into the deeper shadows, barefoot.
[TBC]
Song translation (courtesy of Mama Lisa[dot]com)
Oh boat, come back to me.
Since you carried my child away,
I have not seen that child.
Oh boat, come back to me.