S E C R E T S

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The fire had eaten every little piece of the house. Corpse of a man on the stair case and a woman in a bed room were coated in pool of their blood.

Everything was destroyed. Smoke had polluted the night sky, hiding the stars with it.

The area was quite, too quite for someone's liking. It was like giving people chill in the cold days of winter.

Amongst all the commotion, a little girl barely 10 years old was crying. Crying for help to no one but darkness. Cold pitied her for her loneliness that no one came and helped her.

She was miserable too much. Curled up at the end of a corner street, she felt overwhelmed. Feet tired of running too much, yet she was again at the door step of her house. The house once utopia to her and her family had turned into ashes.

From far away, a man passing by looked at the ashed building. Due to heavy rain, the fire had been turned out already. He heard the cries of a small girl.

Worried, he went there in the house only to find a girl soaked with rain. Hair stuck to her forehead and clothes  drained too. She would get sick in the rain.

" Hey!"

She looked up instantly, startled that he would hurt her. She had so many questions roaming her mind. Who was this man? Why was he here? Is he one of those bulky men from prior?

She couldn't know how much she was trembling under the rain. It was due to rain or out of fear. She got up to run, but fell back. Her feet couldn't run anymore so she had to stick to one place now.

" I'm not here to make you suffer, but to help you."

Why would some stranger come and help her? She couldn't know about much, as she was only 10 years old.

But she felt warmth touch her heart because till this moment none of her neighbors had come to her aid.

Yet this stranger was offering her help without knowing anything. She knew at the moment, she could trust this man. Her eyes traveled from his face to his out stretched hand, and she knew her hands in his hands would change her.

Without much thoughts, she grabbed  his hand, and from there he pulled her up to her feet. They started walking and stopped at the front door.

She looked at him, confused.

" Hey kid! Don't ever forget to look back, hmm? It's nothing bad, but you will get the strength to move on ", he told her.

The words got written in her memory, the moment he had finished.  So with last glance, she moved on with the stranger. A new hope grew in her heart for something good and better days.

But will she be the same old girl?

Or she would choose to be some one new? Maybe different?

From that day onwards, life took another stroll for her.

April 28, 2024
Update: July 20