I never met my parents. I envy the children who are playing at the park. I want someone to care for me too.

I never had friends. All those who tried to approach me eventually turned their back to me.

No one talks to me.

No one sees me.

Not even wild cats and dogs. As soon as they see me, they all run away.

Why?

I only want someone to talk to.

I don't want to be alone.

Please, even if it is for a day, I don't want to be alone anymore.

•••

Each morning is the same. I wake up in the small wooden house that I found in the wood. There has been no one for years, so it's mine now. I looked outside, and the sun was already high up in the sky. I sat up on the small bed and went to the fire pit and took the rest of yesterday night's food. I ate it cold all alone in the small square that is my house.

I could hear the birds sing and the rustling of some animal walking by, but as soon as I set foot outside of my house, everything went eerily silent. I walked down the path as I usually do every morning and I end up in a park. I looked around and there are children playing around as their parents talked to each other. I sat on my usual bench to watch.

Sometimes if I'm lucky, some children ask me to play with them before their parents take them away because of me. And when they come back, none of them comes back to see me.

I know that I have dirty clothes and every part of my body is covered in black, but since I didn't have money, I couldn't afford anything else. I have black long sleeves, black gloves, black pants and black shoes. Only my face was uncovered. I also have black hair, black eyes and a golden earring that always has been with me.

Time passes, and I watched the sun disappear on the horizon. Slowly, the moon started to come out. I like to look at the moon and the stars. They are so beautiful. They never seem alone since there are so much.

I sighed as I lean my head back, enjoying the cold breeze blow on me. So peaceful. It is the only time of the day that I don't feel lonely. It is as if the moon and the stars are watching over me.

Suddenly, my stomach growled. I only ate a piece of meat this morning and nothing else. I doubt I'll find something in my small cabin. I'll have to look in the garbage bins again.

I sat up and trailed my feet as I walk. I was the only one walking in the streets as the cars flew beside me. When I reached a buffet, I walk behind the establishment where the garbage was. I carefully walk in the shadows and look inside the humongous bins. To my luck, there is food that still seems good.

I take out a food box and start to put things inside. When it is full, I close the box and run away before someone can catch me. As I approach the forest connected to the park, someone caught me by the arm.

I freeze and fearfully look at the hand that is around my arm. I try to struggle out of his grip, but the hand is still firmly gripping on me.

"P-please l-let go," I whimpered fearing the worst.

"I won't hurt you, I promise," the voice tells me.

"P-please let go," I repeat as I hold the food box tightly.

"If only you promise that you'll not run," his grip loosened a little making me take a step back, but I did not run. When he is convinced, he let go of me and crouched down so he can talk to me while looking at me in the eyes. I try to avoid his gaze by looking at my feet. "What do you have inside that box?" he asks making my body go stiff and ready to run. "I'm not going to take it away, I promise! But I saw you going through the garbage. That's not healthy," he gently says as I can still feel his gaze on me. "Instead, eat this," I hear a rustling sound and then I saw a brown bag. "There's food inside, take it, but don't eat those," he pointed to the box with the spoiled food inside. He put the bag on the ground. "See you again," he is about to touch my head, but I avoided his hand before he could.

I hear him sigh and then his footsteps. I wait a little more before looking up and see the back of a man. He is well dressed and walks with confidence. I wonder what he is doing here at this hour? And why does he even care?

I look at the ground and open the brown bag. There were an apple, a box of juice and a sandwich. I take the food out, and it is still cold. He must have just bought it.

"Thank you..." I whispered in the darkness as I take the bag and run into the wood.

When I get back to my cabin, I sit on the ground and for the first time, I eat without caring for tomorrow morning. It is not only the taste of food that is so good but the gentleness that man talked to me. It has been so long since someone did that, that tears start to slide on my cheeks, "Thank you... Thank you..."

When I go to sleep, I secretly hoped that I would meet that man again, even though inside me, I know that it may have been the first and last time.

(_ _).｡o○

I put my hand in front of my eyes when I felt the sun rays shining through my closed eyes. I tried to fall back asleep, but now that I am awake, I can only think of that man. Maybe I will meet him again tonight?

Optimism fills my body as I got out of bed. I take the empty brown bag on the floor and fold it carefully as I put it on my desk with a smile. Then, I looked at the box with the food I found yesterday night. I have nothing else to eat, so I opened it and take an old piece of pizza. I eat it and went outside.

The weather is nice, so maybe I should wash up. There is a small river a little deeper in the forest. So I take a small towel and started to walk toward my source of water. Arrived there, I look around and when I'm sure there's no one, I first take off my gloves, then my shirt, pants and shoes. I put everything on a branch near the river and went into the cold water. I shiver, but I only stop walking when I am in the middle. I sit down and let the water surround me.

I look up hoping I can see the sky, but the leaves are blocking the blue sky. Then I look down to where I have been standing before I got inside the water. There are black spots where my feet have touched the grass.

Shaking my head before going under, I let the coldness wake me up. But at the same time, it does not give me the effect I want since everyone has always been so cold toward me.

I wonder why I was even living. Being lonely and have no one to talk to is not bearable.

"Why me?" I whispered to myself in the ever silent forest each time I wasn't inside my cabin.

When I start to shiver, I sit up and walk toward my towel. I dry myself up until everything is dry, except for my hair. Then I get dressed and walk toward the park.

When I get there, I am surprised by the number of people here. I look around as I carefully walk on the edges of the park. It seems like it's a small festival being hosted by a company or something like that. Luckily, my bench is empty, so I sit there and watch the adults talk and the children play. Today will be more entertaining.

"Do you want some?" ask a young girl holding a tray of food making me look at her surprised. I read what is written on the bags and there is something named popcorn and the other was like a pink fluffy cloud?

"What are those?" I point to the pink cloud.

"You're joking right?" she answers making me shake my head. "It's cotton candy. Do you want some?"

"I have no money," I whisper slightly disappointed with an apologetic smile.

"It's free," she smiles as she gives me the cotton candy and a bag of popcorn.

"Here, have fun at the festival!" she cheered before walking away to give someone else food.

I put the bag of popcorn down and try to eat the cotton candy first. How do I eat this? I start to look around and see girls taking a piece of it before putting it in their mouths. I do the same and it disappears! I take another piece and again it disappears! The cotton candy disappears when I put it in my mouth. It's so sweet and soft. I take another bite and another. When I finish it, I take the small bag and take one popcorn between my fingers. Does this corn pop in my mouth? What will this one taste like? I put it in my mouth and since it does not pop, I start to chew. It was salty and not as special as the other one, but it was still tasty. I eat the rest happily as I look around as I smile to myself. It is almost as if I am not alone.

Hours later, everyone is now gone and I here I am still sitting on my bench with lots of popcorn. The people who were in charge of it did not want to keep it, so he gave it to me. As I try to fit all of it in my arms, I did not notice that someone was walking toward me.

"Do you need a hand?" asked the same gentle voice from yesterday.

This time I look at him in the eyes and I perceived the most beautiful deep blue eyes. I shook my head shyly as I still struggle to carry it all. He sits on my bench as he looks at me struggling. "Are you sure?"

"Thank you," I softly say as he looks at me confused.

"Why? I have done nothing yet."

"For yesterday night," I explain as realization hit him.

"Yes, I remember now. Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"It is everything to me," I mumble before walking away.

"Hey, where are you going?" he follows me as I walk toward the woods. "You should not go inside at night. It may be dangerous," he looks around as the moon is already high in the sky.

"It's okay, you should be the one going home sir. Your family must be waiting for you," I answer back as nothing could happen to me. In fact, I am the one who's dangerous.

He looks at me as if I just insulted him. I am about to apologize, but he put his hand on my shoulder.

My breathing hitched, "Don't touch me!" I shrug away from his grasp. When I realize that I just shouted at him, I immediately apologized, "I-I am sorry... I-it is just that... p-please do not touch me..."

"It's okay, but come to my house tonight. I heard it will be a cold night, and I can give you a change of clothes and warm food," he proposes making me hesitate.

He is the only one that is nice to me. I do not want to lose him. I will make sure of that no matter what.

"On one condition," I start making him raise an eyebrow, but say nothing to stop me, "no matter what do not touch me," he looks at me curiously before nodding.

I follow the man through the streets before reaching a sleek black car. I don't know what kind of car it is, but it looks very luxurious.

"Let's throw that away," he points to the bags of popcorn making me nod and throw it away in the closest garbage bin I see. Inside his car, I didn't dare to touch anything, but he keeps looking at me. "Your seatbelt," he gently smiled as I look at him put it too. I imitate him, and we are on the road.

I look outside by the window as the city fly through. It is a weird sensation to move this fast while seating. Then I am distracted by the man's feature. What a rare combination, a black haired man with blue eyes.

What is his name?

"M-may I ask you a question?" I shyly ask as he glanced at me before returning his gaze on the road.

"Sure, go ahead."

"What's your name?"

"Mark and yours?" I try to say his name, and it sounds good to the ear. I smile at the sound of it, and I hear him laugh. I look at him not knowing why he is laughing. "You like my name?" I nod and say it another time making him shake his head while smiling. "What's yours?"

"I don't have one," I say as his smile disappear a little.

"Raven. How about Raven?" he proposes making look at him for a while before beaming.

"Raven," I say my own name before saying it again. "I like it. My name I like it! Thank you!"

We continue to talk a little before the car stops. I look around and see a huge tower going up in the sky. It is huge!

He gets out of the car after taking off his seatbelt as I struggle with mine. I don't understand how he unlocks it. Then my door car opens, and Mark helps me with it. He pushed a red button, and the seatbelt unlocks itself. I thank him, and he helps me out of the car. We enter the tower and look around mesmerized by the interior. Everything is so clean, shiny and... Looks so expensive. I look at the people around me and see some of them giving me a weird look. I hid behind Mark as he ignores the others. Now that I look at his clothes, he too has a suit on. Maybe I should not have come with him.

We go into an elevator, and I just wait until the doors open again. I don't like being in this kind of place. What if the cable holding this box break? Mark will die. I don't want that. When the doors open, I can't help, but sigh in relief as I walk out of it.

I look around and my mouth is surely wide open because I never know that a house can be this beautiful. How much money does this man have? Everything looks like it comes from a different world and that I am an unwanted outsider.

Mark takes off his jacket and put it on a chair, "Raven, what do you want to eat?"

"Anything you want," I answer not knowing if I should stay standing or sit down. But I am dirty, so maybe I shouldn't touch anything.

"Okay, come sit here," he points at a high chair just in front of a kitchen island after looking inside the fridge.

I nod, but I hesitate to sit on it. My clothes were never washed. So, I just stand beside the chair looking at Mark cook.

When he sees me still standing, he frowns, "Why don't you sit down?"

"I-I'm dirty, I-I don't want to dirty it," I answer with my cheeks flushing.

He let down his knife and tells me to follow him. He gets something behind another door and opens another telling me to go inside. I should have known that his bathroom would be as luxurious as the rest of his house. He explains what bottle is what and how to run the shower and the bath. Then he put some spare clothes and tells me that once I finish, the food should be ready.

I undress and get into the shower. The water is cold first, then it starts to warm up. So, this is the feeling of hot water. It's so soothing.

Why is he even helping me?

Why does he care about a stranger like me?

What will happen when he knows about my secret?

I really hope he will never know about it so I can be with him forever.