I came into this world surrounded by tragedy. My birth, a moment that should have been filled with joy and celebration, was marred by death and despair. My mother, after hours of grueling labor, gave her life to bring me into this world. She never got to hold me, to see my face or hear my first cry. At the same time, my father, desperate to be by her side, was rushing to the hospital when his car collided with another on the rain-slicked road. His life, too, was lost that night.
In a matter of moments, I was left alone, an orphan before I even had a chance to know what it meant to belong to someone. This story of loss and heartbreak followed me like a shadow. Whispers spread through the small town where I was born—rumors that I was cursed, that my arrival had brought death. It didn't matter that I was just a newborn, innocent and helpless. People saw me not as a child, but as a harbinger of misfortune.
Unable or unwilling to take me in, the townsfolk decided to cast me out. On a cold, moonlit night, I was taken deep into the forest, wrapped in a thin blanket, and left there. The cries of a newborn echoed through the trees, a heartbreaking sound that no one came to answer.
But fate wasn't entirely cruel. By chance, a woman passing through the forest heard my cries. She was a wanderer, someone who never stayed in one place for too long. She followed the sound until she found me, a tiny, shivering bundle left on the forest floor. She looked down at me with pity in her eyes but also a hint of fear. Perhaps she, too, had heard the rumors. Perhaps she wondered if the stories about my cursed nature were true. But she couldn't leave me there to die.
Without a word, she picked me up and carried me in her arms. She didn't cradle me with the affection of a mother, but she held me firmly, as if she had made a decision she couldn't turn back from. She walked for what felt like hours until she reached the edge of the forest and the gates of a small orphanage. The building stood cold and unwelcoming, but it was my last hope.
The woman knocked on the door and waited until a caretaker opened it, her expression wary and confused. Without giving her name or any explanation, the woman handed me over. "I found this child in the forest," she said simply, her voice emotionless. Before the caretaker could ask any questions, the woman turned and walked away, disappearing into the night as silently as she had arrived.