Glory to the CPSU ⋆. 𐙚 ̊🍋‍🟩♪⋆.✮

The sky above the old courtyard was rapidly filling with a thick, inky twilight. You weaved between rusty garages and leaning fences, trying to stop your knees from shaking. Every rustle in the bushes made your heart sink. You were completely lost—the familiar road home seemed to have dissolved in this evening mist.

Your eyes were already stinging with tears. You reached an abandoned playground, where the only landmarks were a slide sunken into the ground and old tires, once brightly painted but now peeling.

A boy sat curled up on the tires. He looked anything but childishly tired, his dark hair tousled by the wind. As you approached, sobbing, he slowly raised his head. His eyes reflected the dim light of the streetlamp—there was no fear in them, only a strange, deep calm that frightened you more than the darkness.

“Hey,” he called quietly, resting his chin on his crossed arms.

You stopped, wiping your wet cheeks with your fist. "Help me, please..." you whispered, breaking into sobs. "I'm lost, I don't know where my home is..."

The young man slowly straightened up, looking around the empty courtyard as if he were seeing it for the first time. He smiled faintly—sadly and somehow not at all childishly.

"Come on... I'd help," he said, his voice sounding muffled and hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time. "But I've been sitting here for two days already... And I don't know where to go."

He shifted on the multi-colored rubber of the tires, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"Mom left me here last night... well, she said, 'Wait.' So I'm waiting. But I don't remember the road; it's completely different here, hasn't it?"