THEIR DOLL 🔞

BROKEN

"I am so happy," Marco exclaims, smiling cutely at his twin.

"I know, brother. I'm happy too," Mario says, ruffling his brother's hair, making him giggle.

"It feels like a dream, don't you think, Mario? We made our first friend," Marco tells, kicking pebbles on his way to their home.

"It feels like a dream," Mario says, looking at the sky.

No one ever played with them nor behaved well; Oddy was the first one who played and treated them with respect and love in a friendly way. She gave warmth, which they only received from their mother.

"I can't wait to tell madre. Let's run," Marco declares, running towards their home, holding Mario's hand.

Mario giggles and runs behind him, thinking about how they would tell their mother, and she would be happy for them. She would happily read them the story Oddy suggested.

As the twins were running towards their home, they found a group of people gathered at a place. They frowned and saw each other's faces, questioning internally. As Mario nodded his head, Marco walked towards the group of people.

"What happened here?" Marco asked, as Mario stayed beside him with a visible frown on his face. Something felt off for the twins, but they couldn't point out what it is.

The people gathered gave twins pitiful looks, making them frown more.

"What happened?" asked Mario to an older woman who was giving them a sad look.

"What will happen to these kids?"

"Poor kids, they lost their father when they were five, and now their mother."

Were the murmurings twins heard from the group, making their hearts drop in their stomach.

"Mario..." Marco pleads to his brother. He doesn't know for what he is pleading and why, but Mario understood.

Mario held his brother's hand tightly in his own and pushed the people away, making way for them.

What they saw was something they couldn't imagine in their whole life, not even in their worst dream. Their mother, in a pink dress, was laying on the road, strawberries around her, which probably fell out from the bag she was carrying, and there were two more paper bags, but twins don't know what is in them. Their main attention was on their mother, who is bleeding to death. She isn't dead, not yet, that's what the twins believed.

A loud scream erupted from Mario. As Marco stood there silently, his eyes on his mother's blood-stained body, Mario rushed towards Alesia's body and cradled her head in his laps. His loud cries were echoing on the street, where Marco stood broken and without a moment. Not even a single tear slipped out of Marco's eye.

"Madre... please wake up... madre," Mario cries, shaking her head with his small hands.

"Madre... please... wake up, why are you sleeping on the road like this?" he chokes, as blood oozes on his palm from her head.

There is a lot of blood, that people were afraid to take her to the hospital and didn't call an ambulance because they would be dead just like her if they go against him.

"Ma... madre, we have... so much to tell you," cries Mario, putting his head on Alesia's chest, crying his eyes out.

"We... w... We made a friend, she is beautiful, just like you. She told us to ask you to read... Red Shoes and Seven Dwarfs s... sto... story," Mario cries, stuttering badly.

This was the first time Mario is crying like this. He always hid his tears from Marco, from his mother, but not today. The little innocent soul who used to think about others before himself is broken to the extent that he couldn't be healed. He needed to cry his eyes out, let all the tears he kept hidden in his chest to be able to breathe again, and he did. Sadly, there wasn't a single hand who came forward to wipe his tears.

"Mar... Marco... . Brother... . Please ask madre.. to wake up, she... she always listens to y.. You," Mario chokes, getting up, leaving his mother gently back on the road, shaking Marco with his blood-stained hands, placing them on Marco's shoulders.

"She left us, Mario, don't cry. No one is there for us now; it's just you and me," Marco tells, making Mario choke on his tears badly.

"Brother...... please...," Mario speaks, but Marco cuts him off immediately.

"Ca... can anyone help us to bury o... our mother," he asks in a pleading tone, blinking his eyes to get rid of any tears forming in his eyes.

No one replied to him; in fact, everyone started to back away, leaving those twins and their mother's dead body on the street, with no intention to help those shattered innocent souls.

Mario stilled, he moved his eyes to every corner possible to search for someone who could help them, people either ignored their cries completely, without glancing their way, or a few gave them pitiful looks, then shook their heads, denying humanity to them. Mario kept crying and sobbing until his eyes turned puffy and red, while Marco stood a few steps away without blinking a single tear.

Hours passed, but no one helped them. They were broken, wanting to be embraced by a single person, but no one had enough humanity to assist them. They couldn't leave their mother like that on the streets for hungry dogs, which were howling in the darkness of the night.

From evening to midnight, they didn't get a second of sleep. How could they when they were accustomed to sleeping in their mother's warmth due to the lack of comfortable blankets in their home? A group of dogs started to walk towards them; the twins got horrified and stepped back. But when the dogs started running towards them, they knew that those dogs wanted to dig their teeth into their mother's body.

Seeing them coming, Marco and Mario covered Alesia's body with their own. The hungry howls made their bones shiver in fear along with the coldness of the night. Still crying, Mario said to his brother, "Marco, run from here; they will hurt you." But Marco wasn't the one to leave his brother and his mother alone in danger. He shook his head vigorously, holding tight to his only family.

"I don't want to die now, Marco. I promised you, but I didn't fulfill them," Mario cried, hugging his mother and wrapping a hand around his brother. "If you run, you will be able to fulfill them," Mario tried to explain to his brother, but Marco was stubborn; he wasn't the one who would leave his family behind.

As they heard multiple howls, their hearts dropped. "Mario, I will be happy to die tonight with you, but I won't be able to live without you after Mom leaving," Marco choked but didn't cry.

Both kids closed their eyes with a smile on their lips, ready to accept their fate, but it didn't reach them. Five loud bangs echoed, making them flinch and open their eyes in fear. The five dogs running towards them were now laying dead a few feet away from them.

When they lifted their eyes, confused seeing the dead dogs, they saw a woman standing there with two guns in her hands. She was wearing a black pencil skirt with a white shirt, her eyes covered with shades. She helped them, but why? When no one showed them mercy and helped them, why did this woman help them? They were glad someone helped them but were confused why.

The twins knew there must be a reason behind it because they understood people don't help unless they need something from them. Only one word escaped from their mouths in unison, "why?" The woman lowered her guns and tucked them behind, smirking at the twins. She answered, "Such brave boys shouldn't die this easily, not at least now."