20XX

The humid air hangs heavy, thick with the scent of monsoon earth and the faint tang of antiseptic. It's a familiar smell, one that's been woven into the fabric of my life for years now. It's a smell that reminds me of long nights hunched over textbooks, the sterile white of hospital walls, the quiet desperation of patients clinging to life.

But tonight, the smell doesn't evoke the usual weariness. Tonight, it takes me back to a different time, a different place. Back to the dusty, sun-baked streets of a small town, back to the days when I was just a boy with a dream.

I remember her. I remember her bright eyes, her infectious laugh, her boundless energy that seemed to defy the poverty that surrounded us. She was a spark, a flame in the darkness, a reminder that even in the most desolate of places, hope could bloom.

She was the reason I studied. The reason I pushed myself beyond my limits, striving to become something more than the circumstances of my birth allowed. I wanted to be a doctor, not just for myself, but for her. For all the children who deserved a chance at a better life.

The years have passed, a relentless tide washing away memories and leaving behind only the faintest traces. I've seen things no child should ever witness, things that have scarred me, things that have made me question everything I once believed in. I've traded the sterile white of a hospital for the dusty brown of a warzone.

But even now, in this chaotic world where life and death dance a macabre waltz, I still remember her. I still remember the day I made a wish upon the holy grail, a wish to become ordinary, to shed the burden of my past, to be just a human, a simple human with no ties to the darkness that had consumed me.

I wonder what she's doing now. Is she still the same girl, full of life and dreams? Does she still believe in the impossible? Does she still remember the boy who promised her a better future?

I don't know. But I hope, with a fierce, unyielding hope, that she's found her own path to happiness, her own way to escape the shadows that threatened to engulf us both.

And I hope, with a quiet, almost desperate hope, that somewhere, somehow, our paths will cross again.