Nason stumbled down the unfamiliar streets, his eyes wide and his heart pounding. Everything was too bright, too loud, and too strange. He didn’t understand what had happened. One moment, he was in the back seat of his parents’ car, watching the world pass by in a blur. The next, he was alone, standing on a corner he didn’t recognize, with nothing but the clothes on his back. His parents’ car had disappeared down the street, not even a glance back.

The air was hot and dry, so different from the cool, damp weather back home in England. Nason’s small hands clenched around the thin straps of his backpack—his only possession—holding on like it was the only solid thing in this confusing world. He felt the prickling of tears in his eyes, but he blinked them away. Crying wouldn’t help. He didn’t even know where he was.

The people around him spoke with accents that sounded strange to his ears, and none of them stopped or even looked at the lost, scared boy standing all alone. Cars zipped by, and unfamiliar shops lined the street, signs written in English that felt foreign to his tongue, even though he knew the words. His parents hadn’t said a word to him before they drove off. No explanation. No warning. Just… gone.

With a shaky breath, Nason took a step forward, then another, his eyes scanning the streets for something—anything—that looked familiar, that looked safe. But there was nothing. Just strangers, busy with their lives, and a city that seemed to swallow him whole. He tried to remember what his mother had once told him about bravery, but right now, he just felt small and scared, lost in a world he didn’t know and didn’t understand.