CODE-7 : PARS

If only I had followed her that day. If only I had begged her to stay, insisted that she take me with her. Perhaps then, just perhaps, she wouldn’t have abandoned me.

My mother brought a different man home almost every day. I never knew who my father was. He was one of them, I supposed, but which one? I had no way of knowing.

Some of the men who came to our house beat me. Others wandered around naked as though there were nothing unusual about it. Sometimes, during the day, sometimes in the evening, strange sounds drifted from my mother’s bedroom. No matter what I heard, my mother had made one thing perfectly clear: I was never to enter that room. So I stayed in mine, sitting quietly, waiting for the sounds to stop. Whenever I was hungry, she told me to take some food from the table and return to my room. And that was exactly what I did.

That day, another man came to the house. But unlike the others, he was different in every way.

He wore a suit and stood tall, somewhere around six foot three. Yet it wasn’t his clothes that caught my attention most. It was his face. He was extraordinarily handsome.

When he came inside, he didn’t hit me or shove me aside like the other men did. Instead, he gently patted my head.

I liked him. He seemed like a good person.

My mother treated him differently, too. She didn’t wear the hollow smile she so often gave the other men. How could I describe it? Her smile seemed genuine, as though it came from somewhere deep inside her.

She was happy.

After that man began visiting us, none of the others ever came back. He was the only one who visited, arriving a few times a week and usually leaving in the morning. Sometimes, he even spent time with me.

Whenever he came, another man always accompanied him. I thought of him as an older brother. He never entered my mother’s bedroom. Instead, he would sit with me, talk to me, and play games with me. He was the one who taught me how to read and write.

I liked him, too. He was kind, just like the other man. Every time he visited, he brought me a book. I loved reading them.

For two whole years, those peaceful days continued.

Then, one day, my mother came home from somewhere outside. This time, she was alone, but she had brought me a cake.

We spent time together, just the two of us. It was the happiest day I could remember. That night, I even fell asleep beside her.

But the following morning, she woke me up without warning and helped me get dressed.

“What happened, Mom?” I asked.

She told me we had somewhere to go.

“All right,” I replied.

It was the first time I had ever been on an airplane. I sat quietly by the window, watching the clouds drift past. I must have fallen asleep while gazing at them.

When I opened my eyes a few hours later, I was in my mother’s arms. We had already landed.

We put our belongings somewhere before going out together. My mother took me to beautiful places I had never seen before. We explored, had fun, and ate delicious food. We spent several days like that, visiting one place after another.

But that morning, something about my mother seemed different. She appeared unusually anxious, almost as though something were weighing on her mind.

I didn’t understand why. I didn’t ask, either.

We went out again that day. I was curious about what we would do next, wondering what wonderful place she might take me to this time.

Instead, she brought me somewhere strange.

I couldn’t figure out where we were or why she had brought me there. She told me to wait while she went inside, assuring me she would be back shortly.

“I’ll come with you,” I said.

“No!” she snapped.

“But, Mom…”

“No! Do as I say and stay right here. Be a good boy. You wouldn’t want to upset your mother, would you? I’ll be right back. Wait for me, all right?”

I nodded.

“That’s a good boy.”

Then she left.

And I waited.

No matter how much time passed, my mother never came back. The sky began to darken, and fear slowly crept into my chest. Still, she didn’t return.

Eventually, I began to cry.

Someone was approaching. Thinking it was my mother, I ran toward the approaching figure and threw my arms around him.

“Mom! You’re finally back!” I cried. “There were horrible noises, and I got scared. Mom, why aren’t you saying anything?”

When I finally looked up, I saw a man staring down at me.

He wasn’t my mother.

Fear seized me.

He crouched closer, smiling as he spoke.

“What’s wrong, little fellow? Did you lose your mother?”

I nodded.

“Hmm. Then come on. Let’s go find her. She must be worried about you.”

“No. My mother told me to wait here. She’s coming back. I can’t go with you.”

“If you stay here, you’ll be in danger. Nobody comes around this place, and there are more dogs in this area at night. They might attack you. Just imagine how upset your mother would be if she found you injured. You wouldn’t want to make her sad, would you?”

He straightened up.

“Well, if you’re not coming, I’ll be on my way.”

It was getting dark, and I was frightened. Strange noises had begun to echo around me, and the thought of being left alone there terrified me.

So I followed him.

He took me to a house where several children were gathered. Then he told me to go inside.

“But we were going to find my mother,” I protested through my tears. “She must be worried about me.”

The man seized my arm and hurled me through the doorway.

“Forget your mother! You don’t have a mother anymore! Haven’t you figured that out yet? She abandoned you! What kind of mother leaves her own child in a place like that and walks away, you stupid little brat?”

Then he slammed the door shut.

I was terrified. Tears continued to stream down my face as I stood there, unable to understand what had just happened.

One of the children told me to stop crying.

“You’re going to beg on the streets like the rest of us now. That’s why he brought you here.”

“But my mother… My mother must be worried about me!”

“If what Lester says is true, your mother abandoned you. Don’t worry. We didn’t believe it at first, either. But that’s how it is. The sooner you accept it, the better off you’ll be. Otherwise, you’ll starve.”

He paused, watching me.

“If you don’t want that to happen, you’d better do what we do. Look for valuables. Money, gold, anything worth selling. Bring back whatever you can find. As long as you bring something to Lester, he won’t let you go hungry. But if you come back empty-handed, you go without food that day. Now get to your place and go to sleep. And if you can’t sleep, at least keep quiet.”

I retreated into a corner, too frightened to do anything else.

But I refused to believe him.

My mother wouldn’t abandon me.

Days passed. I was beaten, and I went hungry. I refused to listen to that man, clinging stubbornly to the belief that my mother would come back for me.

But I was starving. My body was covered in bruises, and I had nowhere to turn.

Eventually, I had no choice.

Like the other children, I learned to adapt. I watched them closely, studying what they did and how they managed to survive. Then I began taking valuables myself, bringing whatever I could find back to Lester.

At least I no longer had to go hungry.

There was nothing else I could do.

Yet one question continued to haunt me.

Why had my mother left me?

Didn’t she love me?

And so, the months went by.

Once, the man who had taught me to read and write had been my only friend. Now, I had plenty of friends of my own, and I was happy.

Still, there was one child who behaved strangely.

Noah.

He was the boy who had comforted me on my first day there. In the beginning, he hadn’t gone anywhere alone, but lately, he had started slipping out at night after everyone else had fallen asleep. Sometimes, he even disappeared during the day, only to return later as though nothing had happened.

That night, he sneaked out again.

Curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know where he was going and what he was doing, so I decided to follow him.

He went a long way before finally reaching a dilapidated house. He slipped inside.

Several minutes passed, but he still hadn’t come out.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I crept inside after him and began searching for him. When I finally spotted him, I hid and watched from a distance.

He seemed to be examining something, but I couldn’t see what it was from where I stood. I shifted to another position, hoping for a better view.

That was when I discovered his little secret.

A puppy.

Noah had been sneaking away to feed a puppy, saving his leftover food for it. Once he had finished feeding the little creature, he began playing with it.

For a while, he simply stayed there, enjoying its company.

Eventually, Noah tried to leave, but the puppy refused to let him go. Every time he approached the exit, it would scamper after him, determined not to be left behind.

Except this time, instead of chasing Noah, the puppy came bounding straight toward me.

It had given away my hiding place.

With nowhere left to hide, I reluctantly stepped out.

Noah stared at me in disbelief.

“What are you doing here? Were you following me?”

“Noah, I was curious. You sneak off somewhere every day, so I decided to follow you. I’m sorry.”

“You really are a pain in the neck, you know that?”

He let out a sigh.

“Whatever. We need to get back before Lester notices we’re gone. We’ll be in serious trouble if he catches us. And stop looking so miserable. I’m not angry with you.”

He glanced at me before adding, “Besides, you can come with me tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Come on. Let’s go.”

We left the ruined house and started making our way back.

We were halfway home when we heard the puppy barking behind us.

We turned around.

It was following us, bounding along as fast as its little legs could carry it.

At that very moment, a black car approached from behind.

Before either of us could react, it struck the puppy.

“No! It can’t be!” Noah screamed.

We rushed toward it, but it was already too late.

The puppy was dead.

There was nothing we could do.

Several men climbed out of the black car. Noah was trembling with fury.

“You killed my friend!” he shouted, charging at them.

One of the men caught him by the arm and flung him aside as though he weighed nothing.

The men began talking among themselves, barely sparing us a glance.

“Great. Just what we needed—more kids to deal with. As if we didn’t have enough trouble already.”

“Hey, we could take these kids with us. They might come in handy, don’t you think? And look at that one. He looks pretty strong. Could be the kind of kid the boss is looking for.”

“Good point. Grab them, then!”

The men seized Noah and me by force.

We struggled, but there was nothing we could do. We were powerless against them.

One of them produced a syringe and injected us both.

My eyelids grew unbearably heavy. No matter how hard I tried to keep them open, they began to close against my will.

The last thing I heard was Noah shouting.

Then the darkness swallowed everything.

By the time my eyes finally closed, I had already lost consciousness.