He was running away at the middle of the night, trying to escape his hell like reality. In that dark forest, he clutched his bag to the front, at his chest. He found a small light far away at the end of the jungle. He lost his glasses while running, so he couldn’t see that far clearly. A gleam of light shone to his eyes, so he sped up in hope, but tumbled over a puddle. With a sprained ankle he kept on leaping on his other leg and reached the end of the forest.

Sitting on an almost broken bench he sighed, he was too light to break it though. He had a sandwich with him in his backpack, it won’t make him full but he only had this at the moment. His ankle was swollen and reddened, he had small bruises on his feet as well from scratching on sharp branches and leave. He didn’t had any medicine.

A bus came, he took his bag and got on the bus. It looked quite old inside the bus, the fabrics on the seats were torn at some places ,but it’s the only bus to go next city at that time.

Sitting on a window seat at the back of the bus, his heart was pounding, so excited for his new journey but afraid as well. His legs were trembling and sweating all over his body. A cold breeze brushed his face, he calmed down with a sigh . The bus was almost empty at this hour, dark inside, he looked outside the window to the jungle. A bright full moon lit up the forest, the leaves waved him goodbye.

A man sat next to him, a tall quite bulky gentleman with a sharp jawline, also young ,maybe about in his 20’s. He was staring at him from the first sight, then he looked away quickly. He hid his face as to hide his bruises in his hoodie. Staring at the window, enjoying the breeze he fell asleep.

Two boys were playing on a sunny day in an empty playground, around 5-6 years old, they were playing on the sand. One boy couldn’t make a sand castle no matter what. Although he had help from his friend but his castle fell down over and over again as soon as it built. That place was quiet as there weren’t many people there.

“Ryan, let’s play something else”, his friend asked.

“What should we play?”

“ Hm, we can play a role-play game as a family, Ryan you be my wife, I’ll work for you and you will cook me food”, they played like that by themselves for quite a long time.

“ Ryan, let’s go home”, his mother called him over from the swing at distance.

Their mothers were chitchatting while they were playing. Ryan waved his friend Darius a goodbye and went with his mom. He saw his dad reading a book at their study room when they reached home. A loving happy family with a big house, comfortable and cozy too. One could feel warmth in their everyday life.

He ran to his father, laughing and talking about how he spent his day playing with Darius. Suddenly, he heard something breaking down behind him, turned to see his mom was standing in some distance while the walls were crumbling in front of him. His mother started to fade away in front of his eyes, his face saddened, eyes filled with tear, cried and ran to save her. Only to notice his father too was disappearing, he ran to catch his dad, but to no avail, he lost his perfect happy family in front of eyes.

Ryan woke up from a yell beside him with teary eyes.

“How the hell did you get to be my manager, you can’t even take care of my car,… in this middle of the night I can’t even get a taxi”, that person was shouting on his phone

“Sorry Mr. Davenport, it was my negligence, I am driving there to pick you up”, his manger replied over phone.

“No need, you go back, I am already in a bus , I’ll meet you at my office, don’t waste time anymore… And take my car from there and arrange my flight ticket for tomorrow evening, don’t forget”, he hung up the phone.

The bus stopped at the next city bus terminal. It was a big place with lots of buses resting there. Only two people including him got off there. In that early in the morning , a calm breeze blew through him, freshened his mind. His didn’t wanted to remember any of his past that happened in these few years , though it haunted him every now and then.

Five years ago, Ryan’ s father was a high ranking employee on a famous company, but he lost his job. He harassed a female co-worker in an year ending party. After losing his job he started gambling with his saved up money, but blew them over in a blink of an eye. Even to put food on table he gambled over their house. At that time they lost both their house and dignity. They moved to a small room apartment after being homeless like that. His father went mad for even a tiny bit of mistake by his wife or son. He beat them whether he was drunk or not. The difference was when drunk , he acted like a beast, breaking everything in their tiny house, beating anyone he found in front of him. Every time his father went on a rampage, his mother put him in a small bedroom and locked him. That room was small, with just a old mattress on the floor lying. Ryan cuddled in that mattress and covered his ears, he never wanted to hear his mother screaming like that. When his father beat her enough, then he started hunt for his son. He also beat him to a pulp leaving bruises all over his body.

Ryan looked at a scar on his hand near his elbow and thought, “ I shouldn’t dwell on my past . . . I am going to live my life fullest from now on”. He was walking on an alley ,it was quite narrow, only two person can walk together through there. He passed two apartment buildings, he was searching for the 25/A/1 B Lane, he was already walking through B Lane and looking for the address. At a corner of an old building he found the written address, but it was too old and rust was all over the writing, it couldn’t be read properly, Ryan didn't hesitate much and called his friend’s number whom he was meeting. No response came. He called him again. This time he heard the door opening sound so he stood there properly straight and neatly.

“Darius, at last I found the correct place”, Ryan sighed.

“Well, come on, my room’s on 1st floor, let’s go”

“How long have you been living here?” he almost stumbled over while stepping on the stairs.

“Hmmm… about 3 years, Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah” Ryan’s feet were numb and swollen but somehow he was trying to walk as normally as possible.

“ Dad and mom are working all the time, so I have to live on my own anyways… so here, I’m living”, He smiled.

“All by yourself?”

“Yeah! It’s easy, don’t worry, you’ll get accustomed. Well I’ve got a roommate for the first time you see.”

They entered a relatively big apartment, it’s Darius’s room. Relatively big because the apartment he lived before with his parents was only an apartment with a small bedroom and hall *** kitchen with a cramped bathroom. But Darius’s house is a lot bigger with a bedroom *** study room. Although piles of books scattered literally everywhere, cloths were all around the bed, chair and also from the cupboard hanging.

“It’s quite messy now I know”, Darius hurried to gather his shirts and stuck them in the cupboard, “ now, now, you sit here.”

“Um, this is a single bed” Ryan looked around to find another bedroom but there wasn’t any, “ It’s quite small.”

“ Yeah, I’ve talked to the owner she will manage another bed, it’ll come in next few days, so adjust for now.”

“… thanks”

He smiled, “ You can stay here as long as you want, don’t take any stress about anything. If you need anything just let me know, I’ll be at your service.”

Next day morning, 8.00 am,*alarm rings*, Darius already went to his school. Ryan woke up at the alarm and saw clothes scattered all around the place. He picked them up, washed them, cleaned the whole house. After quite a few hours of labour, the room seemed a little sweet home. He served himself a puffy omelete, with 2 piece of bread and butter, a glass of simple coffee. Sipping on his coffee he thought what type of job should he be finding?

Nothing to do much as he dropped out from school. He tended his swollen ankle with a pack of ice. Although it was still quite swollen, but better than before.

“Sorry, I’ll be late tonight, eat something, and I’ll bring some food at night, take care”, a text appeared in his phone.

Staying at home for almost all day was quite boring ,so he thought he should walk out to get some fresh air. “I’m going out for fresh air, I’ll be back before dinnertime”, he texted back.

At night various kinds of shops were opened at the end of the alley. He just roamed around unknowingly the way to back home. He didn’t knew the locality quite much as he arrived just yesterday.

He walked to the road. A large number of shops of various types appeared in front of him. At the left there was a flower shop with so many flower, a soothing fragrance coming from was as mesmerizing as they look. A young girl was cutting and putting the flowers to make bouquet for a wedding ceremony with. A bookshop right next to the flower shop was there although there weren’t many people in there.

If anything could lift his mood up it would be books, specially novels. Whether in distress or happy, books were always the reason of his euphoria. He had tons of books at that man’s house specially for him to read.

“I should have took my books as well” , he mumbled.

He could read all day long. In his early childhood, he was fond of story books ,he almost read every novel in his middle school library. But after he transferred to a relatively poor school, where one could say library doesn’t exists. At that right moment, he found a bookstore, he can read it without any worries haunting him like a year ago. He entered there, there were barely people there, in these days not many people came here as it was in earlier years,

“Are you new here?”

“Uh….”Ryan was startled as the man approached him.

“Hello , I’m the owner of this book store”. That man replied.

“Yeah I’m new here, Do you have any recommendation for thriller novel.”

“ Yeah, there’s that bookshelf, you can find it there. Ryan found a lot of books which caught his eyes. He started checking out those and chose a book “ Eye of the evil” written by K. Miller. It was a story about a killer who had two different eye colours, but his eyes were full of rage, resent, one could see a burning hell in his eyes. How that killer killed all of his prey with his own designed equipment and the reasons behind murders, were caught in Ryan’s eyes. So he decided to buy this book

He went on the road at the corner of that street he saw a café. It also had different types of desserts. There were peanut butter cookie lush, cheesecake trifle, oreo-chocolate mousse pie, black forest skillet brownie, S’mores Lasagna, cinnamon apple pancakes with vanilla maple syrup and more, also a variety of coffee like latte, espresso, mocha, americano and also vanilla bean latte, caramel apple macchiato etc. He ordered only black forest skillet brownie and caramel apple macchiato.

“Here’s your order sir, enjoy”, the food was gorgeous.

Ryan took a bite from the brownie, he got a unique sour-sweet flavored cherries with bitter dark chocolate perfectly balanced with brown sugar. And the macchiato had rich and sweet apple juice with toasty dark caramel and caramel ribbon crunch as toppings. Overall it was a delicious treat for dessert lovers like him.

While paying bill, he noticed there were not much staff at the café , there was only one person making and serving. The other person is cashier and manager. He asked the manager, “ Does your café not going well, you have very few staffs here, but I can see there are much customer”.

“We don’t have much staff for this shift, girls shouldn’t be working till this late and very few boys works at café, so”, the manager replied.

“Umm, can I be a part-timer here, I-I can do this shift, if you don’t mind”

“Uhh, okay you can give me your resume and then you will be working as a server, is that fine with you”

“Yeah, absolutely”

“So your shift will be from 7 pm to 12 am, Monday to Friday, you need to come here at 6.30 pm sharp”

“ I will”

“Then tomorrow take your resume and you’ll be joining from this Monday, is that okay with you”, he instructed him gently.

“yes sir”, Ryan smiled.

“So come that day at 5 pm, you need to learn some basic attics, then you’ll be all set.”

“Okay, I’ll be here” he was about to leave but, “…umm, do you mind if I ask you something”

“No, ask anything”, manager smiled.

“Do you know anyone or any shop in this area if they are hiring anyone or not. It would be a great help if I can find some more jobs.”

“Why, is the pay here so low”

“N-o no, I didn’t mean that, I just want to save up some more money, so I can live on my own, alone”.

The manager noticed a slight frown on Ryan’s face. He said, “ Hmm, one of my friend owns a car washing center, you can contact him, wait I can give you his card”, he ruffled the drawers.

“Thanks a lot”, his face brightened.

“Hmm, where have I put it,… ahh, here”, the manager mumbled, “I found it, here contact him”.

Ryan left the café happily. He just got here yesterday and found himself a part time job. He needed to save up so that he could rent a room of his own as soon as possible. He didn’t had any parental support as well. As he couldn’t study at this moment, all he could do was work.

“I’ll probably be late tonight, there’s some food for dinner I made. Have them if you’re hungry”, Ryan texted his friend.

Walking alone at night like that, he never imagined it to be true. He reached a bridge edge over a small river, leaning at the edge. A shivering cool breeze brushed past him. Though the wind was harsh cold he felt somehow relaxed. Leaning over he heard the flowing sound of the river. That sound went through his heart in the silence of the midnight. A stream of tear rolled down his cheek as his heart felt a long-lost peaceful freedom. At least that demon will not hunt him again.

Two years ago , he ran off from his home. A fifteen- sixteen year old boy with torn out dirty clothes barely covering his skin, crouched at the corner of a street beside a trash can. He was wandering and begging there for almost a week. People sometimes gave him something to eat while passing by out of pity, but no one ever asked about his circumstances, why he was there at this condition. Also warned their child to stay away from an uncleansed, homeless child like him. He had a fair complexion, cute triangular face with a mesmerizing hazel eyes, although a small stature, he still was a pretty teenage boy, but all that dirt made him a pathetic ugly homeless beggar.

A luxurious car was parked in front of a big flower shop near the corner of the street where Ryan was sitting. He peaked at the shop. A tall man, around in his mid 30s, wearing a luxurious suit ordered a dozens of bouquets. Although he was a bit old to be called a young man, his complexion was so bright that he seemed to be shining like a diamond. His spellbound beauty left the flowers in that shop at shame.

While leaving the shop, he noticed a boy peaking at him hideously. He saw that boy sitting there in that cold, trembling, crouching in fear.

“Boy are you okay, why are you alone here like that, where’s your parents”

“…”, he curled his lips and tried to avoid him.

“ Don’t be afraid”, that man lifted his chin and smiled, “ I’ll help you find your parents..”

“ No no no… I don’t… I don’t want…” Ryan panicked, his voice shuddered.

“ Calm down, calm down, fine, I’m not taking you to your parents, but can you tell me what happened to you.”

He didn’t said anything to that man, he only trembled whenever his parents were mentioned.

“ Will you come with me, I’ll take you to my house, will you live with me”, he asked gently.

Ryan didn’t replied but nodded.

The house was large as a mansion. A big chandelier hanging on the ceiling at the entrance. Both male and female maids greeted them.

A young female maid took Ryan with her. In a big room there was a clean set of suit laid on the bed. He was astonished to see such an expensive suit. That room was extravagantly big, a queen sized bed with fluffy mattress and blankets placed there. The blankets were so soft and fragrant that he wanted to lie down for long but the maid he accompanied to came there asked, “Sir , master is waiting for you to come and have dinner”.

“Coming”, he went to the dinning hall. The hall was as well big , a long table with full of scrumptious meals and desserts. That man sat on the far end of the table A servant pulled a chair on the side next to the man for him to seat. It seemed like, that man didn’t had any other family member. He was hungry so he didn’t thought much and started eating his meals. He felt a strange shiver over his spine as he noticed, that man was staring at him continuously while cutting and eating his stake. He observed a slight smirk too. When he looked up, with a cheerful smile on his face,“ Eat up” .

Almost everyday that man brought him gifts, sometimes books, sometimes expensive snacks or new suits or watches. But Mr. Dayholt never let him step a foot outside the mansion. He could get anything as long as he didn’t leave the place for even a breather. He officially adopted Ryan and took great care for him. he even hired a tutor to teach him everything that a school taught as well as how should a young master behave In the household or in any party. Although it was quite a hard thing to remember and keep up with everything he never hated it. He never hated this life of him until that day.

Ding, Ryan’s phone rang, “Come home asap, I need to talk”, he saw this text from Darius.

He was deep in thought, so he didn’t realize that it was quite late almost 1:00 AM. He hurried back to home.

Darius was waiting for him, his face reddened after eating the dinner made by his dear friend. His eyes were teary as well after eating the tasty dinner, because it was full of spices. He didn’t realize it would be this spicy at the glance of the soup. He regretted his life decision at that moment. Moreover, previously when he just returned home, the room was so clean and neat apparently. The blankets were folded and placed neatly. Not a single dirty clothes found on the floor. But his shirts weren't hanging for drying, he didn't saw his books that were scattered before. Without judging he thought Ryan might have kept them elsewhere. He opened his cupboard to find a shirt to change on, then suddenly all the things stuffed there fell on him, Specially the books he couldn’t find before, they fell on his toes. He screamed out of pain, then the dinner. Ryan returned, his eyes were puffy, although he was smiling, it was clear what emotions he were in before coming home.

He saw his friend’s red glare darting him like a hunter, any moment he could be killed, But suddenly Darius teared up and cried, “ It was so spicy, why did you… why did you do that… sniff… I… I can’t…”, he sobbed continuously. Ryan hugged him to calm him down, Then apologized, “Sorry, I forgot you couldn’t bare chili, I’ll make light food from now on, don’t cry now, shush”.

“What about the cupboard, you stopped everything there, without organizing, everything failed when I opened it”, he sobbed.

“ I didn’t know where to put those books, I will keep them in place for next time, now, now, eat this ice cream or it’ll melt”, he pulled out an ice cream from the plastic bag, he bought it on the way. Although Darius acted like a child, he was quite mature. In critical situation he never gave up on friendship, he never hesitated to help someone regardless their relation.

Next day morning, it was Sunday, Darius had some free time so he accompanied Ryan to the Café to give out his resume. the cafe owner had a small interview and then they left.

“So where should we go next Ryan…”

“Hmmm, where? Not home?”, he asked astonishingly.

“Let’s go… to the amusement park, lets ride everything, I’m sure you hadn’t gone there for a long while

“ It’s really a long while, I was maybe a child last time I visited an amusement park”, he thought and agreed, “ Ummm.. let’s go”

They rode on various rides. They grew so tired, sat on a bench under a tree, sweating all over, laughing and huffing, Ryan said, “ I didn’t have this much fun in a long while, I think we should eat something, I’m hungry”.

“Let’s go to there, there’s the snack store”

While eating the ice cream, sitting on that bench from earlier under the tree shade, Ryan thought about the days when they were little. Every time they played together, they went up to middle school together, but it was destiny that they weren’t studying anymore together, Ryan's situation was not like before, he was alone at this , he only had this friend of him who was helping him till this time.