Four days. Or maybe five? Hard to tell when every day looked exactly the same.
His stomach was making that noise again. The hollow one. Right in the pit where it felt like something was eating him from the inside out. When was the last time he'd eaten? The bread Maya gave him, obviously, but that felt like forever ago even though it was probably yesterday. Or the day before.
Man, he was thirsty too. Always thirsty. The water that dripped from the broken pipe in the corner tasted like metal and made his stomach cramp, but it was water. Probably should go drink some of that after...
Footsteps.
His head snapped up and his heart did that thing where it felt like it was trying to climb out through his throat. But these were Maya's footsteps. He'd learned to recognize them. Lighter than the heavy boots. More careful.
"Found one," she said when she appeared in the hole in the wall.
"Found what?" Though honestly he was just happy she came back. Which was stupid. Getting attached to people was how you ended up disappointed. Or dead. Probably both.
"A name for you."
A name. For him. Someone had actually spent time thinking about him enough to pick out a name. That was... when was the last time anyone thought about him for longer than it took to step around him?
His mouth went dry. Which was annoying because he was already thirsty.
"Want to hear it?"
"Yeah." His voice came out croaky. Sounded like he'd been eating sand.
"Echo."
Echo.
He tried to picture it written down, like on those forms people sometimes filled out. Where it said NAME and there'd be something written in the blank. Echo. Would that fit? It was short enough. Only four letters.
"That's..." What was he supposed to say? Thanks? It felt too big for thanks. "Why that one?"
Maya sat down. Same spot as always. "You know how you listen to people?"
Did he? Most people didn't talk to him long enough for him to listen to much of anything. But maybe she meant something else.
"When I talk to you, it's like you understand without me having to explain everything. Like you hear what I'm actually saying instead of just the words." She paused, studying his face. "And echoes need something solid to bounce off of. They can't exist alone."
Ouch. That hit somewhere that already hurt. Because yeah, he couldn't exist alone. Had been trying to for years and look where it got him. Sleeping on concrete, drinking metal-tasting water, counting days until someone came back.
"Echo," he said out loud.
Felt weird in his mouth. Like wearing shoes that were the wrong size. Not painful, exactly, just... not right.
But maybe not right was better than nothing? He'd been nothing for so long he'd forgotten what something felt like.
"You like it?"
He looked at her. Maya, who'd watched him for weeks. Who'd shared her food when she didn't have to. Who'd thought about him enough to pick out a name. Real person sitting there asking his opinion like it mattered.
"I think so." Which was probably the best he could do. Nothing felt completely right anymore. "It's better than what I had before."
Which was nothing, so that wasn't saying much.
Maya smiled. Different smile than before. Sharper somehow. Like she was pleased about something he didn't understand.
"Names change how you think about yourself," she said. "How does it feel? Being Echo instead of nobody?"
How did it feel? Like someone had drawn lines around him where before there'd just been empty space. Like suddenly he had shape instead of being just... whatever. A thing taking up room for no reason.
"Different," he said. "Like I'm..." He struggled for the words. His brain felt fuzzy. Probably needed more water. "Like I'm real now, I guess."
"That's exactly right." Maya nodded like he'd gotten something correct on a test. "Before you were just surviving. Just taking up space. But Echo has a reason to exist."
A reason to exist. Damn, when was the last time he'd had one of those?
"What reason?"
Maya leaned forward. "To listen. To understand. To be the thing that reflects back what people need to hear." She reached out and touched his hand. Quick, like before. "You're good at that. I can tell."
Was he good at that? He tried to think of times when he'd done that, but his brain kept getting distracted. His stomach was making noise again. And his shoulder hurt from sleeping on the concrete. And there was this smell in the air like something rotting.
Focus. Maya was talking to him like he mattered. That didn't happen often enough to waste it thinking about stupid stuff.
"Maybe," he said. "I don't know."
"I do. I could tell from watching you. The way you pay attention to things other people miss." Maya stood up, brushing dust off her pants. "That's why I picked you."
Picked him. Like he was worth picking. Like out of all the kids in this broken building, she'd chosen him specifically.
The warm feeling in his chest was probably stupid. Getting attached never ended well. But it felt good anyway, and good feelings were rare enough that he decided not to question it.
"Picked me for what?"
Maya paused at the hole in the wall. "To understand things. Things other people can't handle. But not today." She looked back at him. "Today you just need to get used to being Echo. Try it out. See how it fits."
After she left, he sat there trying to wrap his head around having a name.
Echo.
He was Echo now.
The nameless kid was gone. Had probably never really existed anyway. Just been a placeholder waiting for someone to fill in the blank.
He should feel good about it. Did feel good about it, sort of. But there was this other feeling underneath. Like he'd lost something, even though he couldn't figure out what. You can't lose something you never had, right?
Maybe it was just weird because change was weird. Even good change.
He pressed his hand against the concrete and whispered his name into the empty space: "Echo."
The word bounced off the walls and came back to him. Thinner. Distorted. Not quite right.
And sitting there listening to his own voice come back wrong, he had this thought that maybe the name wasn't describing who he could become.
Maybe it was just describing what he already was.
But hey, at least it was something.