The night was heavy, the streetlights flickering weakly as if afraid of the darkness swallowing the roadside. The air smelled of rain and dust, thick with the sound of hurried footsteps.

A girl, no more than seventeen, stumbled barefoot along the cracked road. Her once-bright eyes were now swollen with tears, her cheeks streaked with dirt and pain. Her clothes—half torn, stained with blood and dust clung helplessly to her fragile frame.