The shooting and bombing outside our apartment building stopped. Finally, we started to feel a bit relieved. When it was all going on in the outside, my mother was crying and my father was reciting a verse from the Quran. I, along with my two younger sisters and a brother was hiding under a bed. We were afraid of dying like the way my uncle's family died when their building fell down to the ground during an air strike.
They used to live not so far away from our building. It was only a couple of blocks away.I had a cousin who was around my age. I used to go to his house and play with him almost every morning since we didn’t have schools anymore. All the school buildings in my area either got destroyed by bombs or got occupied by the militants.
I used to live in Aleppo with my family which is one of the largest cities in Syria. But after the death of my uncle’s family, my father decided to move with his family. He paid a local leader of the Islamic Militants in our area so that he grants us a safe passage to the Turkish border. We had to stop in many places while we were on our way to the border.
The ISIS fighters stopped us in different places and wanted to send us back. But my father told them about his connection with the local leader of militants of our area so they let us go. We had to change our routes of travel several times. Sometimes we were traveling by car, sometimes we were on our feet and sometimes we were just waiting in the dark.
After five days, we reached the Turkish border and the aid workers who were in charge of there, gave us some foods, waters, and medical supplies. Then they gave us a tent for our family.
Life in the refugee camp was another struggle, there were so many problems. I have seen hundreds of people waiting in line to go to the toilet. I have seen people trying to kill each other for foods and water.
So we decided to run away from the camp and get on a boat for Europe. During our journey to Europe, I lost a sister who died from diarrhea. She was the youngest among my siblings. She was just three years old.
I can’t imagine, I won’t be able to see her anymore. My mother wakes up crying every night looking for my sister. She had four children but now she has three.
I don't know how to console her, neither does my father. I am just twelve years old but I have already seen the horror of war. I have seen thousands of dead bodies but I regret that I couldn't see the body of my cousin who died. The rescue workers couldn’t recover his body from under the demolished building.
I have seen that the two young girls of my neighbor were taken away by the militants. When their father was trying to stop those men, they shot him in the head. He was such a good man. My father often says he was like an angel. He always came forward when anyone asked him for help. I had never seen anyone speaking ill of him.
I have seen so much in my life that by now probably you are wondering how old I am.
In that case, I want to tell you again, I am just a twelve years old boy who lives in a refugee camp in Germany. Our life is good at present but I have already learned a lot about the ugly truths of our life.
I have grown tired of those people coming from different aid and humanitarian organizations asking about my life. I am tired of some people from here who hate me just because I am a refugee. Sometimes they look at me in a way that makes me feel like I am an insect who has crawled up from the sewerage.
I know that they will never understand my situation. I have seen war and war is something that changes you forever. Like, look at me right now, look at the way I am talking to you.
Don’t you think I sound like an old man? Don’t you think I have grown up a lot faster? Do you want to know how I feel about you?
I think all of you are hypocrites who talk about peace and do nothing about it. I know you only take a deep breath while watching or reading the news about the horror of war. But you never come forward to stop those who run this war business, who trade on arms and who make a profit from this war.
Unlike you, I have embraced the truth. I have realized that I will never get to see my sister, my cousin or my neighbor whom I lost just because of the war.
* * * * * * * *
A few words about this story
After writing this story a few questions came to my mind like:
Why did I write this story or what led me to write this story? Is it an anti-war story or Is there anything called anti-war story?
I had no idea how to answer those questions. The plot of this story came to my mind as I often get to see so many news about the war on the internet.
Anyway, I always have been against the war. I believe that there should be no such thing as the war in our world.
(P.S:This story is my original work.I am a writer who is trying to create quality content in steemit.)
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