"when you're lost in the darkness, look for the light"
AVI— lost in the darkness
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— CLEO— the light.
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—
Avi Kumar wasn't a man who believed in fate. The world he lived in had long since taught him that nothing was guaranteed, nothing was given, and survival didn't care about your dreams or desires. But then he found her. Cleo.
It had been a cold, dreary evening. The kind where the air stung your lungs with every breath, the kind that made you question why you kept going. The collapse of society had left every person in a state of numb autopilot. Avi had been one of those survivors. He had lost everything—family, friends, the life he once knew. The only thing he had was the will to keep moving. His body, his mind—they were machines running on the fumes of necessity. But that night, everything changed.
He had been scavenging, like always. There wasn't much left to scavenge, but every now and then, you'd stumble on a jackpot. Something that could get you through the next day. Maybe even the next week. As he ducked through an alley, pushing aside toppled garbage bins, something caught his ear. A sound that didn't belong. He paused, listening. It was faint, almost swallowed by the wind, but unmistakable.
A baby.
His heart lurched in his chest, and for a moment, he thought he was imagining it. But then it came again, soft but insistent. Avi followed the sound to a dumpster, his hands trembling as he lifted the lid. Inside, nestled between discarded boxes and bags, was a tiny bundle. Filthy, cold, but very much alive.
He lifted her out with shaking hands, her cries subsiding the moment his arms wrapped around her. She was light, too light, as if the world had tried to strip everything from her before she even had a chance. But she was warm against him. Her tiny fingers curled instinctively into his jacket, her breathing evening out as if she already trusted him.
"I got you," Avi murmured, his voice thick with emotion he hadn't allowed himself to feel in years. "I got you."
