A 10-year-old boy is abandoned by his parents during a move, locked inside the old empty house with no water or food.

 

A 10-year-old boy is abandoned by his parents during a move, locked inside the old empty house with no water or food. Days later, when a mysterious new owner arrives at the house and finds the boy in a shocking condition, something unbelievable happens.

“No, please, don’t leave without me. Hey—come back. Dad, Mom, Clara, I’m here. You left me behind. Please, come back. Don’t leave me alone!” shouted little Nico, only 10 years old, as he pounded hard on the thick living-room window.

His thin, trembling arms kept striking the glass, even though he knew no one would hear him from there. His eyes, full of tears, never left the car that was getting farther and farther away. It was his family’s car, loaded with boxes and suitcases strapped to the roof—the moving trip. They were leaving. They were leaving without him.

Nico stood there, motionless like a statue, trapped between hope and shock. He was sure that at any moment the car would brake, that his parents would realize, that they would come rushing back for him, that they would laugh at the misunderstanding and hug him tightly.

After all, who would leave a child behind like that? No one. It didn’t make sense.

But the car didn’t stop. In fact, it only kept moving faster and faster, disappearing little by little down the dirt road. The boy kept his eyes fixed until the vehicle became a distant dot and then ceased to exist. The silence after watching the car disappear was deafening.

When he realized no one was coming back, panic began to swell inside him. He took a step back. Then another—and suddenly he spun on his heels and started running through the house, eyes wide open, his heart pounding a thousand beats. That house that had once been full of life was now empty—completely empty.

Nico ran to the living-room door and yanked the handle with all his strength. With sweaty hands he tried again, harder this time, but it was useless. Then he turned toward the kitchen—also locked. Desperation drove him through every corner of the house searching for a way out, trying to escape, but every door was locked. Every window was tightly shut.

It was as if they had left him trapped inside. On purpose.

“This can’t be happening. They… they couldn’t have forgotten me,” Nico said, panting as he stood in the middle of the empty living room. Even the old couch where he used to sleep was gone. Only bare walls, a dusty floor, and the echo of his own voice.

Not knowing what to do, he ran back to the living-room window—the same one where he had watched his family leave. The street outside was empty now. No cars. No sounds. No sign that anyone was nearby. Only the wind making the dry leaves in the yard crackle.

Little Nico pressed his face against the glass, trying to see something on the horizon. He stayed there for several minutes, unmoving, convinced that at any instant the car would reappear, that it was all just a mistake.

“No… they have to come back. They’re going to come back. They wouldn’t leave me here alone,” he whispered, almost like a prayer.

But time passed. A whole hour dragged by slowly. Nothing—no engine sound, no footsteps at the door, no squeak of the gate. Nothing from his mother, nothing from his father, no sign of his sister Clara. The silence was unbearable.

Exhausted, the boy let himself fall to the floor, his back against the wall. His eyes kept staring at the street, but now with a different glint—a glint of doubt. A painful confusion began to take over. He tried to make sense of it, to find an explanation.

“Maybe… maybe they think I’m asleep in the back seat. They didn’t realize I didn’t get in the car,” he whispered, trying to convince himself. “Clara was probably on her phone playing those stupid little games like always, and she didn’t notice I wasn’t there.”

But as the minutes kept passing, that hope began to fade too.

The idea of an innocent mistake started to feel absurd. If it really had been an error, they would have come back already. Maybe everything didn’t fit in the car and they went to drop things off first? Maybe they told him they were coming back and he hadn’t heard, he murmured, trying to cling to some logical thread. Mom always says I need to pay more attention.

But the hours kept going by. The sky, which had been blue and clear, turned orange and gold. Sunset painted the empty walls of the house with warm light. And soon the darkness began to settle in.

The boy startled when he heard a noise. “Mom?” he called out hopefully—but then he felt it. It was only the growl of his stomach. Since he’d woken up, he hadn’t eaten anything.

He ran to the kitchen, but what he found there was even more desperate. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was completely empty. There was no refrigerator, no stove—not even a bottle of water or a forgotten pack of cookies. There was only an old cupboard with a broken door, covered in dust and smelling of dampness.

Nico opened every cupboard door, searched every last corner, but found nothing. All that remained was the sound of his stomach growling and the increasingly strong feeling of thirst tightening his throat.

He ran to the sink, turned the faucet on—and nothing. Not a drop. Not even a trickle.

The water…