In a narrow alleyway of the giant concrete maze, there was a small bundle lying like trash. The cold weather made it shiver, though, and Laila was curious as to what it was.
“Hello?” She dared to say with a racing heart.
But there was no answer.
“Is anyone there?” insisted Laila.
Although intrigued by that thing, she didn't want to come any closer, and let curiosity leave her body.
“Don't move away!” harshly pronounced a voice behind her back.
Laila jumped high, and from such a fright her water bottle fell and broke into many pieces.
When she turned her face robotically back, she looked that the trembling bundle on the floor had pale hands and long tousled blond bangs covering a sobering face.
"Child, what are you doing here? It's cold and dangerous," Laila warned almost breathlessly.
But the girl didn't answer.
“Hey, can you hear me?” what's your name?" asked the woman already more terrified.
“I am you, don't you remember?” surprised the girl revealing her sad and grimy face.
This drove Laila mad, and she began to run away as fast as she could.
Her steps were nimble, but still the girl's piercing voice reached her ears again.
“Where did you go?” echoed several times in Laila's ears.
She stumbled and her cell phone slipped out of her sports jacket. Still with the screen splintered, her Iphone displayed an incoming call from her boyfriend.
“Igor?” cried Laila trembling.
“Yes, love, what's up?” where are you? It's time for dinner," replied the distraught man.
"I'm going to take a taxi. Wait for me at the entrance, please!" added the woman on the verge of tears.
Almost half an hour later, Laila finally embraced Igor at the entrance of the building where they lived, and in the elevator she told her partner what had happened to her. He comforted her with kisses, sweet words and that delicious sushi she loved so much.
“I swear the girl was real, love,” commented Laila.
“Nah, all that gym training is driving you crazy,” Igor joked.
The two had a good laugh, until the apartment doorbell rang. They stared at each other in dead silence.
Igor went to check the front door camera and no one was there.
“Who rang the doorbell?” hurried Laila to ask.
“No one,” he replied.
“Now we're two crazy people, apparently,” she shrugged.
Igor was not satisfied, and with great trepidation he ran to his room and put on a t-shirt to leave the apartment. When he opened the door, he beheld only the endless emptiness of a hallway filled with drab frames.
"It doesn't matter anymore, Igor. Let's go take a shower now," Laila vociferated from the kitchen.
“Igor, I'm asking you to come back!” exclaimed his girlfriend in a broken voice.
Hearing not a word from him, Laila ran toward the entrance. The athletic figure of her partner lay frozen contemplating the horizon. She tried to pull him in several times without seeing at what he was seeing. However, it was she who ended up being pulled out by curiosity and fear.
Nothing. A pale hallway with gray doors. To the left and right there was only a dull repetition of apartments.
“I saw the girl,” Igor muttered unlocking his mouth.
“Honey, I'm already too scared, don't joke with me anymore,” Laila said hugging Igor as she pulled him in and closed the door.
But the mysterious girl was already inside. Hiding behind the door, she stood up quickly with a frown and clasped her hands.
“Is that my dad?” asked the girl, who nearly killed the couple with a heart attack.
They were both so frightened that in the first few seconds they didn't react, just walked back and forth in slow motion.
“Laila," began to sob the girl,"don't you know who I am?”
Igor turned to look at his girlfriend also looking for some answer, but she only seemed to bite her lips as if holding back an explosive reaction.
"Where did you go, mom? I've been chasing your silhouette for years," the girl blurted out becoming more and more sentimental.
"Mom? Laila, who's this girl?" her boyfriend no longer held back.
"My name is Laila, just like you. I have your face, your hair and your hands. I just don't have you, mother," the girl confessed, pulling a knife from somewhere on her body.
The shocked mother started screaming like crazy, and Igor reacted immediately by throwing himself at the daughter. For someone not that big and stout, the girl put up more of a fight than expected, but he finally got the upper hand and managed to neutralize her.
"You abandoned me in that horrible place, but I never gave up hope of finding you. I don't care who you were," cried the girl.
“Laila, what the hell is all this?” asked Igor increasingly worried.
But his girlfriend eventually succumbed to all her nervousness and collapsed in front of him right after uttering a choked daughter.
About an hour later, Laila woke up surrounded by her partner, her daughter and some police officers. She was going to start fading again, but a paramedic helped her stay in her senses.
“Miss Laila, could you tell us why this girl is chasing you saying she is your daughter?” asked one of the policemen with utmost kindness.
She was slow to answer. She looked sadly at her crestfallen boyfriend, and her withered daughter.
“Miss, I could...” the officer was about to repeat until Laila motioned for him to let her speak.
“Yes. I've been a bad mother,” Laila began somberly, "I didn't have the best life before. I was starving and the streets were the quickest and easiest option. I was a misguided teenager and got pregnant unintentionally," Laila said, barely opening her mouth.
“Go on, please,” the officer requested.
"I left her at the hospital, and from there I never heard from her again. I'm not sure how she found me if I never looked for her again," Laila said tearfully.
From this, the little girl stood up and held up a small photograph showing Laila holding her in a hospital bed.
Such an proof was the strength needed for mother and daughter, even her father to join in a big, tearful and tight hug. It was hours before they were able to separate them and offer all kinds of help in the future. That was perhaps the first and only show of affection to be seen in a long time in that bright, but cold Schiaz City.
