Chapter 1 - The Echo of a Stolen Name
The afternoon sunlight filtering through the ancient oaks of Oakhaven Park felt deceptively warm, masking the underlying tension that crackled in the crisp autumn air. Julian stood twenty feet away, his grey t-shirt slightly damp with sweat from his short sprint across the emerald grass, his chest rising and falling in rhythmic gasps. Opposite him, Sharda stood with her arms outstretched, her braided hair catching the golden light, a fragile smile trembling at the corners of her lips. The cinematic perfection of their reunion dissolved the second Julian’s voice dropped from an excited shout to a trembling whisper.
"I missed you so..." Julian murmured, burying his face in the crook of Sharda's white t-shirt.
"You shouldn't have come back here," Sharda whispered fiercely, her grip tightening around his shoulders until her knuckles turned white. "They know you’re alive, Julian. They’ve been watching this bench for three days."
Julian pulled back, his six-year-old face contorting into an expression far too severe for a child. "I had to. The man in the grey coat—he showed me the photograph again, Sharda. The one from the basement."
"Keep your voice down!" Sharda hissed, glancing wildly toward the distant picnic pavilion where adults lazily chatted under the bright daylight. "If my uncle hears you talking about the basement, we won't just have to run. They'll lock us both away where the sun never reaches."
"Let them try," Julian challenged, crossing his arms defensively. "I'm not hiding anymore. You promised we would tell the police about the screaming behind the brick wall."
Sharda stepped closer, her dark eyes flashing with sudden, restrained anger. "The police work for them, Julian! Are you completely stupid? My uncle is the one who signed the intake papers at the facility."
"You're lying!" Julian snapped, his voice rising, cutting sharply through the ambient park noise. "You promised we were a team! You said we’d leave together on the red train!"
"The red train doesn't exist!" Sharda cried out in a sharp, desperate whisper, tears finally pooling in her eyes. "I made it up so you wouldn't cry yourself to sleep on the concrete floor!"
Before Julian could fire back another accusation, a heavy hand clamped down firmly on his right shoulder, stopping his breath.
May you like
"Well, well," a gravelly voice murmured right beside Julian's ear. "Look who decided to crawl back to the light."
---
