"Wh... why, why are you always like this..."
The boy's voice trembled, not out of fear anymore, but because of something deeper, Anger born from despair, Hatred born from endless pain.
"You who have everything, you who can eat every day, you who have warm beds..." His hands were clenched tightly at his sides, his knuckles blackened with dirt.
"Why don't you ever care?! Why do you always look at us like... like trash?!"
His voice rose, almost shouting.
"We're human too! We want to live too! Nia did nothing wrong! She just, she just wanted to eat..."
Tears began to stream down his dirty cheeks, leaving clean wet tracks.
Dex stopped walking,
Didn't turn around, Just stopped.
Silence filled the narrow alley, only the soft sobs of the boy and the weak breathing of his sister lying on the ground could be heard.
"Why?" Dex muttered softly, almost as if speaking to himself. "You want to know why?"
He turned his head slightly, not completely, but enough for his voice to sound clearer.
"Because this world never cared about anyone from the start"
His tone was flat, empty, like reading a fact from a science book.
"You think I have everything? You think my life is easy?" Dex smiled faintly, a smile without warmth, without humor. "I lost my family, My whole village was slaughtered by people who 'have everything' like you said, Mother, father, sister, all died right in front of my eyes"
He paused for a moment.
"No one cared, No one came to save us, No one cried for us"
The boy fell silent, tears still streaming but his voice stopped.
"So why should I care about you?" Dex continued with the same cold tone.
"You're starving? I've been starving too, You sleep on dirty ground? I've slept on ground soaked with my own family's blood"
He finally turned around, looking at the boy with an empty, piercing gaze.
"The world is cruel..." Dex said softly, each word spoken with cold precision. "No one will come to save you, There are no heroes from fairy tales, No miracles like in fiction books"
Dex placed a single silver coin in front of the boy.
"But remember one thing" Dex's voice came again from the darkness, farther away. "If you want to survive in this world, stop hoping someone will save you, Live by your own means, even if it means stepping on others"
Dex turned again Before a coin hit his head, from behind came the boy's voice.
"I don't need your money, I don't need your advice" The boy shouted loudly even though tears kept streaming down his face.
"You pathetic loser"
The words came out like poisonous spit, filled with genuine hatred, not towards Dex personally, but towards what Dex represented, the despair that had given up, the emptiness that had accepted the world as it was.
"I won't become like you! I won't be someone who looks at the world with empty eyes like you!" His breath was ragged, tears streaming down, but his hand pointed toward Dex's back with a trembling finger.
"If there are no heroes, I will be that hero" His voice rose, almost hysterical.
"If there is no light, I will be that Light" He took a deep breath, his whole body trembling.
"If there are no miracles, I WILL CREATE ALL THOSE MIRACLES"
His scream echoed through the entire alley, bouncing from wall to wall, until it felt like the whole slum could hear it.
Total silence enveloped the night after that scream.
Only the boy's soft sobs, his ragged breathing, and the too-loud beating of his heart could be heard.
Dex stood where he was, his back still facing the boy.
Didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Just silent.
The night wind blew softly, carrying the smell of garbage and wet earth.
The boy still stood trembling, tears still streaming, but his eyes, his eyes burned with a fire that Dex knew all too well.
"You want to be a hero" Dex said softly, not as a question, but as a statement. "You want to be the light. You want to create miracles"
He paused for a moment.
"Alright"
That word came out flat, without emotion, but somehow sounded heavier than anything he had said that night.
"Then do it"
Dex crouched again, this time picking up the silver coin that had been thrown at his head, He looked at the coin for a moment, the metal surface reflecting the moonlight faintly, turned, then looked back into the boy's eyes.
"But remember this well"
His voice changed, still flat, but there was something sharper in it.
Something that sounded like a warning born of bitter experience.
"Heroes die faster than ordinary people"
He placed the coin in the boy's palm, forcing him to take it this time, giving no choice.
"Light always attracts greater darkness"
Dex's fingers closed the boy's palm, forcing the coin to stay there.
"And miracles... miracles always come with disasters at a cost higher than you can imagine"
Dex released his hand and slowly stood up.
"So if you really want to be a hero, if you truly want to be the light, make sure you're ready to lose more than you ever imagined"
He looked at the boy one last time, his gaze empty but somehow heavier than before.
"Because this world doesn't care about your good intentions, This world doesn't care about your determination. This world only cares about one thing"
Dex turned, started walking again into the darkness.
"Whether you're strong enough to survive when everything collapses, And whether you're strong enough when the sword is at your throat, or your loved one's"
"But if you're still standing after that..."
Dex's figure began to disappear around the corner, swallowed by shadow.
"...maybe you really can become the hero you talked about"
"I'll be waiting to see the result kid" Dex vanished as if swallowed by darkness.
Silence once again enveloped the alley.
The boy stood still, his trembling hand holding the silver coin that suddenly felt very heavy, not because of the weight of the metal, but because of the weight of the words attached to it.
"I won't become like you" he whispered softly, but this time not with anger.
But with determination.
A colder, sharper determination.
"I will become stronger than you"
He closed his hand tightly around the coin.
---
Dex walked down the street at night, his hands in his pockets, his gaze straight ahead.
For a moment, just a moment, something stirred in his chest.
Not pity, Not sympathy.
But something more complicated.
A desire.
A desire to see if that boy could really prove him wrong.
A desire to see if that fire would keep burning, or fade like his own.
It stayed there, small and faint, like a seed planted in soil too hard to grow.
And somehow, Dex felt a little disturbed by it.
Because for the first time in seven months, something inside him almost felt like.
Hope.
Hope to see that the boy was right and he was wrong.
---
The boy finally moved.
He carefully lifted his little sister, a body too light, too weak, and carried her to a corner of the alley that was a bit cleaner.
He laid her on an old sack used as a mattress, covering her with the worn cloth he had.
Then he sat beside her, staring at the silver coin in his hand.
Under the dim moonlight, the coin glimmered with a cold light.
The boy stared at it for a long time.
Then, slowly, he clenched it tightly, so tight that the edge of the coin pierced his palm, drawing a little blood.
"I will be a hero"
"I will be the light"
"I will create miracles"
His vow echoed in the silence of the night, not loud, but so clear, so absolute.
As if the world itself heard that vow,
And smiled.
Or maybe laughed.
Because this world had seen too many vows like that.
And this world knew exactly how such vows usually end.