Lilia peeked through the bushes with eyes full of fear. After confirming that the men were still busy arguing, she started moving.
Lilia took off her backpack and opened it slowly, being careful not to make the slightest sound. Then she took out a chocolate bar and her drinking bottle. Lilia guessed that the child must be starving after running fast since earlier. She unwrapped the chocolate and broke it into small pieces before feeding it into the boy's mouth.
But the boy didn't accept it right away. He closed his mouth tightly, as if he couldn't trust the food someone else was giving him.
Lilia took turns staring at the child and the chocolate in her hand. She frowned as she racked her brains, trying to find a way to get the boy to eat the chocolate. Finally, Lilia broke the piece of chocolate in half, then she ate the piece in front of the child.
"This chocolate is harmless, okay? Look, I'm still fine after eating it!" Lilia deliberately smiled broadly when she said that. "This chocolate is so sweet, you should try it too!" she said as she handed over the chocolate piece.
The boy looked at Lilia with blank eyes. The little girl's smile was so pretty and made him forget the torment he had been through so far. The boy slowly opened his mouth, letting Lilia feed him chocolate. He closed his eyes as the sweet chocolate taste spread across his tongue. The sweet taste mixed with Lilia's distinctive fragrant flower scent. He would never forget this scent.
The child wondered if he was actually dead and was now in heaven. How long had it been since he last tasted something this sweet? The boy swallowed the chocolate and opened his mouth again without prompting.
Lilia smiled in relief when she saw him willing to accept the food. She fed the boy lying on the ground with great patience. After running out of chocolate, Lilia poured the drinking water she brought into the cap of the bottle, which was in the shape of a small cup. The boy was able to support himself after eating something, so Lilia just handed over the cup.
The boy sipped the water greedily, as if he had been wandering in the wilderness for years. The plain, tasteless water tasted as sweet as honey on his tongue.
When the boy was busy quenching his thirst, Lilia reached into her bag again. She pulled out a cell phone with a triumphant expression. Lilia remembered that her father put the cellphone in her bag before she left this morning. Her father told Lilia to contact him with the cellphone if something happened.
Lilia struggled with the cell phone for a while. Her parents didn't allow Lilia to play on her cell phone that much, so she had a hard time using it.
"What is that…"
The boy's voice made Lilia turn her head. The boy's eyes were glued to the cellphone in Lilia's hand.
"... a cell phone?"
Lilia could hear the hope in the boy's voice. She nodded and held out her cell phone.
"I want to call the police, but I don't know how! Can you teach me?" she asked innocently.
The little girl believed with all her heart that a policeman's job was to catch bad people. The men who chased them with clubs and whips were clearly the bad guys. If the two of them could call the police, then the cops would arrest them all!
The boy grabbed Lilia's cell phone as fast as lightning.
"The opportunity ... finally came ..." the boy muttered in a hoarse voice. "I have to ... tell ... my family."
He started operating the cell phone more smoothly than Lilia earlier. Even so, his strength had not fully recovered so his fingers trembled when pressing the button on the cellphone.
Lilia watched as the boy entered a series of numbers. She understood that the boy was calling his family. He might've missed his parents and wanted to hear their voices!
But just before the boy hit the final digit, their time had run out.
"He's here!"
The scream made the two of them turn their heads with pale faces. The sound of footsteps grew louder as the men rushed towards them.
The boy glanced at Lilia, who was frozen in place of a terrified expression. The little girl had helped him escape, gave him food, and even gave him hope of escaping this place. Even though Lilia could have left him and saved herself, that little girl didn't. If he didn't do anything, Lilia would also be caught and locked up like him.
The boy made a decision. He shoved the cellphone into Lilia's hand before pushing her further into the bush. Then he forced his weak body to rise from his hiding place.
In just an instant, he had been surrounded by the men who had been chasing him since earlier. They waved their maces while taunting the boy.
"Where do you think you can run to?!"
"Do you enjoy being hunted down like an animal, huh?!"
"You damn kid, do you still hope your family will come to help you?!"
They showered the boy with beatings while continuing to ridicule him. The boy collapsed back to the ground. He curled up and tried to protect his head with his arms, but the men continued to beat him mercilessly. The boy opened his eyes lightly and met Lilia's eyes.
The little girl was too shaken with the brutal sight before her eyes to react. She could only sit silently while watching the men gang up on a helpless child. Then her eyes widened as one of the men swung a thorny whip.
The whip stuck into the boy's shoulder, causing him to let out a scream of pain for the first time. However, that weak voice made the attackers laugh in satisfaction. The man holding the whip forcibly pulled it, causing the boy's blood to splash everywhere.
The splash of blood landed on Lilia's face, and made her even paler. She stared in horror as the man raised his whip again. The boy would die if they whipped him one more time!
Lilia opened her mouth to shout something — either to distract them or call for help. But fortunately, Lilia's voice was drowned out by another sound coming from the direction of the village.
"Lilia! Lilia Pangestu! Where are you?!"
The voice came from Lilia's class teacher, who finally realized that one of her students had disappeared somewhere.
"Damn, someone is here! Let's go!"
The men stopped abusing the boy. They hurriedly took the boy away from there.
"Wait…!"
Lilia lunged forward while holding out her hand, but instead she fell and hit the ground. Her body refused to move, as if still traumatized by the brutal sight earlier.
"Let him go…!" Lilia screamed weakly, but her voice was lost in the wind.
She clenched her fists tightly, hating herself for being too weak to protect the boy. Then her hand touched her cellphone, which had fallen to the ground as she moved just now. Lilia picked up the phone with a trembling hand and looked at the numbers on the screen.
"… Do you still hope your family will come to help you?!"
Even though the man's Indonesian was difficult to understand, Lilia understood the meaning of his words. It looked like that boy was indeed captured by criminals!
Even so, the boy deliberately pushed Lilia away and showed himself in front of the kidnappers to protect her. He must have known that Lilia wouldn't survive if she was caught with him. The boy's eyes were clear without lies. Lilia decided to believe those dark blue eyes.
There was only one thing Lilia could do right now. She would call the boy's family!
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