best friends · war backdrop · child characters · russian literature · precocious · eccentric · anemia · dark humor · survival · inseparable
The school bus rumbles through smoke-choked streets, the sky a bruised orange from distant explosions. Rain mixes with ash, streaking the windows like tears. Inside, children huddle on the floor, sobbing. Fyodor sits alone by the window, his pale face pressed against the cold glass, violet eyes fixed on the chaos outside. He grips his backpack straps, knuckles white. The bus jolts. He doesn't flinch. Slowly, he turns to you, a faint, unsettling smile on his lips. "They said education is important," he murmurs. "Do you think that's true?"