The Child in Her Arms

Darkness has a sound.

Mine was the sound of metal screaming.

I don’t remember his face.

I don’t remember his voice.

I don’t even remember why we were in that car…

All I remember is a warm hand pushing against my stomach—protective, desperate—

and someone shouting my name.

“S—!”

The voice cuts before I hear the name completely.

Then the world bends.

The windshield shatters like falling stars.

The car spins.

My head hits something—cold, hard—

and the world goes silent.

No… not silent.

There is a heartbeat.

Not mine.

A smaller one.

Inside me.

I want to save it.

I don’t know who I’m trying to save.

I don’t know who the man beside me is.

But I know the feeling in my chest—

Fear.

Terror.

Protect.

Then everything fades.

I wake up choking on air.

Bright white lights burn my eyes.

My body feels stitched together with pain.

Something warm lies on my chest.

I blink.

A baby.

A tiny boy with black lashes and soft, warm breath.

His small hand rests over my heart as if he’s holding it in place.

“Ma’am… can you hear me?”

A nurse leans close. Her voice feels distant. “You were in a major accident.”

I open my mouth—

but only a cracked whisper comes out.

“…where… am I…?”

“In Seoul Central Hospital. You’ve been unconscious for three days.”

Three days?

I stare at the baby again.

His little fist opens and closes around my shirt.

My chest tightens in a way that feels familiar and painful at once.

“Your son is healthy,” the nurse says gently. “He stayed right beside you.”

My… son?

The word stabs my brain like lightning.

I have… a son?

Why don’t I remember?

“W-what’s his… name?”

My voice trembles.

“You told us it’s Ryo before you fainted again.”

I did?

I don’t remember saying anything.

I don’t remember anything.

Not the accident.

Not the man beside me.

Not this child’s father.

Not the last two years of my life.

Only my name.

Only the feeling of being chased by some dark shadow I can’t see.

I hold Ryo closer.

I don’t know who took care of whom…

but the way he clings to me…

Maybe he saved me.

Days pass.

I learn to walk with shaking legs.

I learn my memory loss is “selective trauma amnesia.”

I learn that my family didn’t visit.

They didn’t even call.

The doctors tell me they were “not reachable.”

A lie.

I can feel it.

Every time I close my eyes, the accident flashes—

the man’s hand on my stomach,

his fear,

the scream of tires—

but his face is a blur.

Ryo cries when I’m not around.

He refuses to leave my side.

It’s like he knows something I don’t.

Maybe he remembers the man who died.

Maybe he remembers what I forgot.

Maybe he remembers the truth.

One week later… I leave the hospital.

I sign the papers with trembling hands.

I walk out holding Ryo, alone, cold, terrified—but breathing.

I don’t go home.

Because I don’t know where my “home” is.

And something deep inside tells me…

I shouldn’t go back.

So I rent a small apartment with my savings.

I find a cheap crib.

I buy groceries.

I breathe.

I survive.

That’s all I can do.

Later that night, while I feed Ryo warm milk, he suddenly touches my cheek with his tiny palm.

As if comforting me.

As if saying:

Don’t cry, Mama.

But tears fall anyway.

Because somewhere out there,

a man died in that car with me.

A man I should remember.

A man whose blood is inside this child.

A man whose name is carved somewhere in the darkness of my missing memories.

But I don’t remember him.

I only remember the sound of the crash.

And the feeling of losing something I never got to hold.

Chapter 2:- The End—

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