Hunger was normal for us. We hadn't eaten for two days. Sometimes, we only ate once a week. But even with empty stomachs, we were happy.
Me, Jawa, and my father, Adada. We were really, really happy together.
Well At least Until the day the blood came. My father started coughing. Red blood splattered on the dirt floor of our tent.
A few days later, he was so weak he couldn't even sit up. Three days after that, the sickness took him.
I tried. I really tried to help him. But every time I moved to go outside the park, he grabbed my arm with his weak hand.
"The world… it would break if you go out there, son," he wheezed.
I didn't understand. Why? Why couldn't I go out? Why couldn't I ask for help? Did he know something about me that I didn't?
But I listened. I listened to his coughing all day and all night. I watched him get thinner. I watched the light leave his eyes. I watched my father die right in front of me.
I should have ignored him. I should have run to find someone or something to help. But I stayed.
And now, I am standing in front of a mound of dirt. My father's grave. My stomach is empty. My clothes are torn rags. My face is covered in mud.
"My last wish," he had said, "is for you to never meet another human." I saw fear in his eyes when he said it. Not a fear of them. But a Fear of me being free.
"Father," I whisper to the dirt. "I am here. I hope you are in peace. I won't leave you alone. I won't meet any other humans, i promise"
I sat down beside the grave. I waited.
Four Days Later
Water drops hit my face. "Oh… it's raining." I looked up at the grey sky. "I remember you really liked the rain, Father. Even though our tent leaked and we always got soaked."
My hand moved to my stomach. It hurt. A sharp, twisting pain. "I am hungry. I think… I haven't eaten anything in eleven days."
Tears mixed with the rain on my cheeks. "I remember you always brought meat home. When I asked where you got it, you just smiled and said, 'I got it for free.'"
I laughed a little, but it sounded weak. "But I knew, Papa. I knew it was from the dead animals in the forest. Sometimes cat, sometimes donkey, sometimes dog. But that meat never tasted like meat of animal. But hey… I never complained. Meat is meat."
My head started to feel heavy. The world was spinning. "Okay, Father. I am feeling sleepy. I will talk to you after my nap."
It wasn't sleep. My body was shutting down. I was dying of hunger. But as the blackness took me, a memory flashed in my mind. A dream from when I was four years old.
Flashback
The fire crackled in the cold night. "Hey Papa, what is that you are burning?" I asked. "It is money, my son." "What is it used for?" "It is a piece of paper. If you have enough of it, you can buy anything in this world. The person with the most money is the Richest Person in the World. He can buy houses, meat, wood, anything. He lives a very happy life."
My eyes went wide. "Oh! So that is money? Then why are you burning it, Father? Why can't we just burn wood?" Father looked at the fire with a sad, confused face. "Because… it is against our morals to burn a tree, son." "So why aren't we living happily if we have this much money, Father?" Tears welled up in his eyes. "Because this is fake money, son. We can't buy anything with this. It is just a toy."
I smiled at him. I wanted him to be happy. And then I promised him, "Don't worry, Papa! I will make you the father of the Richest Person in the World! Just wait!"
Present Time
My eyes snapped open. The memory burned inside me hotter than the hunger.
"FATHERRRRR!!!!"
I screamed his name into the forest. I stood up. My legs shook, but I stood.
"Sorry, Father. I am really, really sorry. But I have to. No, I must break one promise to keep the other."
I wiped the mud and tears from my face. "I promised I would make you the father of the Richest Person in the World. Just wait and see."
I looked at the grave one last time. "I don't know why you always burned that real money you brought from outside. But I will find out why."
I smiled. A real smile. "I should go now, Father. I am going to the streets. I am going to see the world."
I turned my back on the grave and started walking.
We lived in an abandoned park, hidden inside a deep, dark forest of giant trees. It was just a few blocks from the main city of Seoul, (well at least my father used to say that) but the trees were so thick I had never seen a building. I had never seen a girl. I had never seen anything except my dad and the broken rides in the park.
But now, at age nine, I took the first step.
The forest was scary. "I never came this deep into the forest," I thought. "It's so dark. I should have come during the day."
The deeper I was going the more and more I was seeing those black&yellow stripes all around the trees. I also saw some round red signs all around. It was like that they were put there to keep others away from something dangerous. But there was nothing dangerous in there to be scared of so why that much restriction.
I walked for a while, not for too long but enough that I was still able to keep moving. Then, I saw it. Lights. Blue, red, yellow, white. Glowing through the trees.
"What are those lights? Is that… the city?"
I walked faster. My heart pounded against my ribs. I pushed through the last bushes.
I stepped out of the forest and froze.
I was standing on the edge of a highway. Below me was Seoul. Huge buildings that touched the sky. Metal boxes zooming on concrete rivers. Flashing signs. Things flying in the air.
It was bright. It was loud. It was beautiful.
I stepped down onto the road to get a better look.
BANG!!!!
Something hard hit me. I fell back onto the asphalt. A heavy weight landed right on top of me. It was heavy but it was soft and it smelled nice.
A Person was lying on my chest. Her face was inches from mine.
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I am really sorry!" He scrambled up, pulling me and her ride to the side of the road before a car could hit us.
"Please God, I hope you are not hurt! Are you okay? Please tell me!"
I lay there in shock. He was beautiful. But I was looking at something else. I had never seen someone else before. Why is His chest so big and soft? I thought. My dad's chest was flat as well as mine.
He was panicking. He opened her purse and shoved a piece of paper into my hand. "Sorry, please take this money and forget this ever happened!"
"It's all I have, so please forgive me!" He bowed down, hiding His face in shame.
I looked at the money, then at him. "Why is your chest so huge? And how much money is this?"
He froze. He stood up, His face turning bright red. "Because I am a woman, you moron!"
She pointed at the paper in my hand. "And that is five dollars! You can buy anything with money! Literally anything! Cars, houses, people, love! You can buy whole cities! Even countries!" Her eyes shined with passion when she talked about money.
I thought to myself "Ohh… So he is a woman, My father told me of my mom and she was a woman so she must also be a woman, So that's how a woman looks. I Never Saw A Woman In My Whole Life, Just Heard Of Them From My Father."
Then she looked at me properly. Her face changed from embarrassed to confused. "Hey… that's not a proper way to talk to a girl. Are you some kind of pervert? And you don't know what money is? Are you from another world?"
She looked past me, at the dark trees. "It looks like you came from the forest… where the abandoned park is. That place is forbidden. People say some kind of… Entity lives there." She shivered. There was fear in her voice.
RING, RING, RING!
She jumped and grabbed a metal box from her purse. She put that thing near her ears and I heard a loud voice "Shoot! Only ten minutes left before the interview is over! Come quickly or you will never get this job!" a person screamed through that metal box.
I was shocked that how another person is coming from a metal tool, is he trapped inside that thing or is there something else, some other reason that i dont know.
"Okay, I'm coming!" She looked at me. "I have some ques—" I started to ask.
"Sorry! I have to go! See you next time!" She hopped on her ride. She looked at my rags. "And why the hell are your clothes like that? Go home and buy some clothes with that money! You are so dirty!"
She gave me a beautiful smile, put on a head safety gear, and went away. SHOOoooooo… She disappeared down the road.
I stood there, holding the five dollars. "What the hell just happened?" "Who was she? Why was her chest big? Do All Women Have Big Chests Like Her? What are these metal things zooming by?" "Who was she talking to in that small box? There was no one else here."
And most of all… "Who was that 'Entity' she talked about?" "Only me and my dad lived there." "So… who is the Entity?"