LSNMIATSaAaK: a working title

Chapter 1

They hoped this was it, that this was the end. They couldn’t afford to keep this thing here. Not that they wanted to anyways. It wasn’t expected, someone appeared on their doorstep one night and shoved this child into their arms. They couldn’t get a single word in before the stranger took off without a word, disappearing into the night. They refused to give it a name, let alone proper pronouns. They raised it for five years and as time went on, they grew more and more disgusted by it. They had bright yellow hair and deep blue eyes while it had light brown hair and dark, shit colored brown eyes. It stood out far too much and they couldn’t handle it.
    “Take it into the forest. Leave it to die. You didn’t want it in the first place, now did you?”
    That was that.
“Let’s play a game! Close your eyes and walk with us. No peeking!” Her mom laughed, a soft sound that always brought Aya comfort, even if it was never directed at her. She also liked games just as much as her mom and dad. Sure, she doesn’t look like them, brown hair and eyes compared to their blonde hair and deep blue eyes, much prettier than hers they always said. She didn’t mind though. Any time spent with her parents was good enough!

“We told you, don’t you ever. Call us your parents. You haven’t earned that yet.” her dad’s voice booms in her ears. Aya covers her ears and sinks down into her corner.
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry.” her words are uneven as she sniffles and fat tears roll down her face. She’s made them angry again.

Aya shakes her head to rid herself of the memory, her eyes still tightly shut behind her hands. They told her to not peek and she’s a good girl. She’ll listen to them so maybe someday they won’t get mad and hit her when she calls them “mom” or “dad”.
    “Are you ready? We’re almost there!” her dad’s voice booms from her left. Aya nods frantically.
    “I’m ready! I’m ready!” She feels not-yet-her-mom-and-dad stop as they arrive.
    “Good! Now, what I want you to do is count down from fifty and when you get to zero, open your eyes and your surprise will be right there. Ready? Start counting!” Aya giggles as she starts counting down.
She doesn’t hear them leave. She doesn’t hear them turn around and run the direction they just came from. She doesn’t know it’s pitch black out.
She fumbles a few times (is tenty-one even a number? it is now, she supposes) but eventually gets to zero.
“Okay! I’m done counting! I’m gonna look now!” Aya opens her eyes and sees-
Nothing.
Nothing but pitch black. Was this her surprise? it’s not a very good one. Aya doesn’t like the dark. They remember that, right?
    … Right?
Maybe they’re behind her! That way if she peeked before she finished counting she wouldn’t see the surprise! They’re very smart! Aya turns around, the smile on her face growing even bigger.
And then the smile disappears from her face. There’s still nothing but darkness. She spins around, trying to look for where they went.
She doesn’t see them.
“Hello? Are you still here? It’s dark and I’m getting scared. You… you didn’t leave me right? You’re just hiding! Yeah! You really, really want this to be a surprise so you’re hiding!” She runs forward and finds something she thinks is a tree. She looks behind the maybe-tree and sees nothing. Anywhere she looks is just nothing. She can barely see her hand in front of her face, let alone a foot behind a tree. She runs past the maybe-tree and only makes it five feet before she trips on a protruding root and falls flat on her face. Aya slowly sits up and holds her knees to her chest, her left knee throbbing. Her head falls onto her knees, sending another wave of pain up her body.
She takes another look around. There’s still nothing she can see.
She’s getting cold.
Everything hurts.
She’s tired.
She starts crying.

Above her, something peers down from the tree it’s residing in. He sees a child- a human child- resting against a larger root than what it tripped on. They’re crying. He fights with himself for a second, debating if he should intervene.
Something pulls at his heart. And in that moment, he makes a split second decision.
This child is his responsibility now.