Beneath the Surface

Chapter 3: The Lost Boys

After his mother's arrest, Raju was sent to live in a group home for children. The children's group home was a world unto itself. It was supposed to be a place of refuge, a halfway home for kids like Raju, who had been torn away from their families by the cruel hand of fate. But it didn't feel like refuge to him. It felt like a place where broken souls were crammed together, each one fighting for survival in their own way.

Raju had been in the home for only a few days, but already the cracks in his fragile sense of security were showing. The building itself was bleak-an old, grey structure that looked more like a prison than a place for children. The windows were barred, and the furniture was cheap and worn. Everywhere Raju looked, there were signs of neglect, both in the building and in the kids who lived there.

The other boys were loud, rough, and always looking for trouble. Most of them had been in the system for years, hardened by their experiences, and they had learned to fight their way through life. The noise was constant-shouting, banging, laughter that never sounded quite right. It was nothing like the silence of the house where his father had ruled with an iron fist, but it wasn't better either. It was chaos, in a different way.

Raju kept to himself, as much as he could. He didn't fit in with the other kids. He wasn't angry or rebellious like them. He was just...empty. The loneliness that had been growing inside him for years now felt like it had finally taken root, wrapping its cold fingers around his heart. He didn't talk much, didn't interact unless he had to. And that made him a target.

---

At first, the other boys didn't know what to make of him. Raju was small for his age, quiet, and avoided eye contact. To them, that was a sign of weakness, and weakness was something they could smell from miles away. They started testing him, prodding at his defenses to see what kind of reaction they could get. Little pushes in the hallway. Snide remarks during meals. Objects "accidentally" knocked over near him.

Raju ignored them, retreating deeper into himself.

But ignoring the other boys only made them push harder. They were used to a hierarchy-a system where the toughest kids ruled, and anyone who didn't play along got crushed underfoot. Raju's refusal to engage made him an anomaly, and they didn't like anomalies.

His loneliness grew in the group home. It was different from the loneliness he had known at home, where he had learned to hide from his father's rage and his mother's fear. Here, it was a loneliness of isolation, of being surrounded by people who didn't care, who couldn't understand. The staff at the home were overworked and underpaid, their patience worn thin by years of dealing with troubled kids. They didn't have time to notice the quiet boy sitting in the corner, barely speaking.

The few friends Raju had tried to make quickly drifted away. They were scared of the boys who ran the place, the ones who ruled through intimidation and force. It was easier to avoid him than to get involved in the inevitable conflict that was brewing. So Raju found himself sitting alone at lunch, walking alone to his room, and sleeping in the cold, empty silence of a shared dormitory that never felt like home.

---

It wasn't long before the other boys took things to the next level.

One afternoon, Raju sat at a small table in the corner of the common room, staring at an old, battered book. He wasn't reading it-his mind was elsewhere, lost in the memories of that night. His mother's face, the blood, the coldness in her eyes. He was drifting, floating somewhere far away from the noise around him.

Suddenly, the book was yanked out of his hands.

"Hey, you think you're too good to talk to us?" A rough voice broke through his haze. It belonged to Karthik, one of the older boys-tall, broad-shouldered, with a permanent sneer on his face. He was flanked by two others, equally mean, their eyes glinting with the anticipation of trouble.

Raju blinked, his focus coming back to the room. He glanced up at Karthik, then down again, his body tensing. He had been expecting something like this. It was only a matter of time.

"I'm talking to you, freak," Karthik said, shoving the book into Raju's chest.

Raju didn't move. He didn't say anything. His mind was a blank wall, cold and impenetrable.

That seemed to infuriate Karthik even more. "What's wrong with you? Are you deaf or just stupid?" He pushed Raju again, harder this time, sending him stumbling back.

The other boys laughed. The sound echoed in Raju's ears, sharp and grating. But he still didn't react.

And that's when Karthik snapped.

In a flash, Karthik grabbed Raju by the collar and yanked him up from his seat. "I'm sick of you acting like you're better than us!" he snarled, spitting the words in Raju's face. "You think you're special? You're just another loser in this dump!"

Something inside Raju cracked.

It wasn't anger, not exactly. It was more like a dam breaking, the flood of years of suppressed emotion and pain crashing through the walls he had built around himself. He didn't feel fear anymore. He didn't feel anything but an overwhelming surge of something dark and primal, something that had been sleeping deep inside him for a long time.

Without warning, Raju shoved Karthik back with a force that surprised even him. Karthik staggered, caught off guard, his eyes widening in shock.

Before anyone could react, Raju lunged. His fists flew, connecting with Karthik's face, his body, anywhere he could reach. It wasn't calculated-it was raw, animalistic. Karthik fell to the ground, and Raju was on him in an instant, pummeling him with blows that felt like they were coming from someone else, someone far more dangerous than the quiet, numb boy he had been.

The room erupted into chaos. The other boys backed away, shouting, unsure of what to do. Karthik struggled under Raju's weight, but he was no match for the fury that had taken over.

Raju didn't hear the screams of the other boys. He didn't feel the hands trying to pull him off. All he felt was the release-the sudden, terrifying freedom of finally letting go of everything he had been holding inside. Years of fear, pain, and anger poured out of him, and with each punch, he felt the monster inside him wake up a little more.

It wasn't until one of the staff members physically dragged him off Karthik that Raju finally stopped. He was breathing hard, his knuckles bloody, his heart pounding in his chest. Karthik lay on the floor, groaning, his face bruised and swollen. But Raju didn't feel any satisfaction. He didn't feel anything at all.

He stood there, shaking, staring down at his hands, at the blood on his skin. Somewhere deep inside, the part of him that still cared whispered that this wasn't him, that he had crossed a line he couldn't come back from. But the whisper was faint, drowned out by the rush of adrenaline and the heavy silence that followed the fight.

---

Later that night, Raju lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. His body ached, and his mind was a storm of thoughts he couldn't control. What had happened today scared him, not because of the fight itself, but because of how easy it had been. How easy it had been to let go, to give in to the darkness that had been growing inside him for so long.

Psychologically, Raju's transformation had already begun. The years of abuse, the isolation, and the emotional numbness had chipped away at his humanity, leaving behind something raw and untamed. He didn't understand it fully yet, but he could feel it-something monstrous inside him, something that wasn't afraid anymore.

In that moment, lying in the cold, dark dormitory, Raju realized the truth: he wasn't like the other kids. He wasn't just another lost boy in the system. He was different.