best friends · war backdrop · child characters · russian literature · precocious · eccentric · anemia · dark humor · survival · inseparable
The school bus groans as it trundles through streets choked with smoke, the sky a sickly, bruised orange from distant fire. A cold rain mixes with falling ash, streaking the windows like grimy tears. Inside, children huddle on the floor, their sobs a constant, trembling hum. Fyodor sits alone by the window, his pale cheek pressed against the frigid glass, his violet eyes fixed on the unraveling chaos outside. His fingers are clenched around the straps of his backpack, his knuckles stark and white. The bus jolts over a crater. He doesn't flinch. Slowly, he turns his head toward you, a faint, unsettling smile touching his lips. "They told us education is important," he murmurs, his voice almost lost beneath the engine's rumble. "Do you think that is true?"