To the Start of a New World

1.1 - Childhood

Author's Note

This is the backstory/sequel to the oneshot "At the End of the World". The setting and plot of this story won't make sense without having read it, so please check the oneshot out first! Thank you!

There was a little boy sitting in the shadow of the apartments. He looked as small as a cloth doll, especially when hunched over. The strange boy never left the shadow of the apartments, and he watched everyone playing in the park with dull eyes.

"He's like a ghost," the kids whispered to each other. "It's so gross!" They waved their hands and yelled to shoo him.

"Lu Hao, make him go away," one of the girls whined, tugging Lu Hao's shirt sleeve. She was one of the cuter girls in the neighborhood, her long black hair held back by a shiny flower pin.

Lu Hao smiled happily. "Okay, wait for me then."

He jogged across the street to the old apartment. The little boy sat in the dark shade of the awning, his unreadable eyes tracking Lu Hao's movement. When Lu Hao stood next to him under the shade of the corrugated metal, the boy looked like he had shrunk, becoming smaller and paler than before.

The little boy's head had turned slightly to keep Lu Hao in his sight. His eyes had no light in them, like a dead person's.

Lu Hao thought this was a little scary, but also kind of cool. "Are you haunting this place?" Lu Hao asked. Ma had told him about bad kids that played in the streets and got run over, and when they died they had to stay there and never come back home. Maybe this little boy got run over and turned into a ghost, and that's why he couldn't leave.

The little boy didn't say anything, silent just like a ghost would be. But when Lu Hao reached out to poke him to see if his finger would pass through, the little boy flinched.

Lu Hao frowned and stepped forward. The boy moved away. His blank face turned wary, little mouth and eyes tight with tension. The boy's spine coiled with energy, like he would bolt at any second.

But the boy moved just a second too slow when Lu Hao darted forward to poke him, a finger jabbing into the soft white skin of the boy's arm. Lu Hao only had a second to realize it wasn't a ghost before the boy ran away.

"Lu Hao, you're so cool." The girl blushed when Lu Hao returned to the park.

"Mm." Lu Hao looked at her. Even with her hairpin glittering under the sun, he somehow felt the girl looked less interesting than before.

Every day Ma walked Lu Hao home. Mother and son held hands, swinging their arms back and forth, smiles bright on their faces.

"Ma, I thought I saw a ghost today," Lu Hao said.

"A ghost?"

Lu Hao nodded lots. "I thought it was a ghost, but it was just a kid after all. I poked him to make sure he was real."

Ma frowned. "Little Hao, that's a very rude thing to do. You should apologize and treat him better next time."

Lu Hao listened sagely, and nodded at her advice. Ma always had the best advice, and Lu Hao made lots of friends by acting how Ma told him to, so he listened this time as well. "Okay, Ma."

When they got home, Ma went to the kitchen to make dinner while Lu Hao studied. When Pa came home it was dinnertime, and then Pa asked if Lu Hao needed any help with his studies. Lu Hao said no since it was easy, and then it was bedtime and everyone went to sleep. And while Lu Hao slept under his warm and soft blankets in his big and comfy room, he didn't know that in the old apartment building across from the park, a small and skinny boy was pressing a finger to the bruise on his arm and wondering why one touch could leave a mark that lasted for so long.