Please... (Mavi/PTX)

18

He fell asleep soon after, the tears rolling down his cheek when he closed his eyes to rest again. He needed a few peaceful hours, I didn't know if he even got any sleep when he lived under the rules of the older man. Singing to him awoked some emotions in him, hopefully good ones, to the point where he shed a few tears. My voice has never been the best one but I thought it was more the words than the melody that got him. Looking forward to make this a routine I smiled and closed the door before heading downstairs towards the livingroom. This boy had changed my life in a matter of a few days and even if they hadn't been the brightest ones he managed to make my heart flutter whenever we locked eyes.

My friends were sitting on the ground around the coffee table, looking up at me when I entered the room. I was greeted by every single one of them and they asked how the student was doing so far, as if they didn't know already. Kirstie had a huge smile on her face and when I asked her about it she just shrugged her shoulders and complimented my singing voice. They had heard me and I was embarassed about it. Trying to change the subject I darted my eyes to the coffee table.

"What are you guys doing?"

I noticed that they all had their laptops out and were looking up some things, nothing linked to college papers though. I sat down next to Scott and leaned towards him to get a better look of the screen. He was on a page which displayed a few orphanages.

"Are you trying to adopt a child?"

"What? No!"

He chuckled a little and went back to work. He didn't explain what he was looking for so I shuffled over to Kirstie and took a look at her laptop. A page with the slogan: Find classmates you haven't seen for years. Even after giving her a questioning look she kept typing a few things and ignored me completely. Now, Kirstie and Scott could hold secrets pretty well but Kevin was easy to break. I grinned and sat down to his right, peaking at the website. Articles over articles, all talking about murderers or thieves. I widened my eyes and Kevin lifted a hand to keep me from asking him. He took the liberty to explain it himself rather than to be questioned.

"We're trying to find out who he is."

By looking up orphanages, murder websites and one where you could find old classmates? Unlikely. 

"Do you even know his name?"

Kevin turned his head in my direction and shot me a questioning look.

"You forgot?"

I was confused. How did they know his name and I didn't? Was it because the cold had frozen and destroyed some of my brain cells? Maybe. Knowing that they remembered his name I began to feel a little excited but mostly worried. What would they find? We have seen the way he has been treated. We have seen his injuries, the scars which formed out of his cuts and burns. We have taken in the circumstances under which he lived for, most probably, years. I was afraid that, whatever we would detect, was going to be a lot more awful and right now I was not prepared for that. I shook my head slowly and indicated that I had forgotten his name completely. Kevin gave me a sympathetic smile and proceeded to say it.

"His name is Avi. Or that's how the man called him."

Avi. A beautiful and mysterious name fitting the student perfectly. I knew so little about him and yet so much. Even without having his ID I could describe him to other people. He was a wonderful human being, not an object or a piece of trash. He was sweet and innocent, most likely had a heart of gold which has been covered in a thick layer of sadness and fear. He had the eyes of a wise man and little child in the same time. Lips, unkissed but bruised to the point where it would hurt him to even open his mouth to eat something. His body, fragile and breakable, so thin I could touch him and he would fall apart. Those were only a few things I noticed and I knew that everyone could see but underneath that broken shell there was someone else. Someone I wanted to meet.

"Hey Mitch? I think you need to see this."

Leaving my thoughts I came back to reality and saw Kirstie and Scott looking at Kevin's laptop. I leaned in a little and saw a list of names and the mark of our college in the top right corner. Kevin must've found an access to the college's secret server. He scrolled down a little and a few names under the letter 'A' appeared. Gladly the list showed First names before Surnames, which made it way easier.

Augustine Mancuso

Aurora Petri

Austin Wright

Avi Kaplan

I gulped a little and stared at the name for a while, letting it get to me. The name fit perfectly to him and had an angelic tone to him and when Kevin explained the meaning of his First name it confirmed my thesis.

"Under the wings of God."

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#Yanie