Protostar

One day, I woke up, on a Sunday Afternoon, it was 2:00 pm. It was a bright sunny day. I was in a hospital room. A mother had given birth to a child, she was filled with joy, holding the baby in her hand, tears in her eyes. Her husband was standing next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder, looking at the baby with loving eyes.

"Krishnamrit", he said with a smile on his face.

"His name will be Krishnamrit" the father said while holding the head of the baby in his hand.

"What a terrible name", I thought to myself as I proceeded to spread my wings and fly out of the window. I turned back to look at the baby once again, a curious look in my eyes before flying off. I get on the ground as a roach doesn't have much flying power compared to other insects, I walk around in an alleyway with my six legs and see other ones of my kind. It was a group of cockroaches.

"Yo, my name is...

...uh....

I wondered what to call myself, roaches didn't have names. It was a concept I had learnt from humans.

... Krishnamrit"

"Can't believe I'm using that terrible name" I thought to myself.

The other roaches didn't understand what I said and just looked at me without saying anything. Seems like they weren't capable of language in terms of words and concepts. Another thing I had learnt from humans.

"Um hello, do you not hear me?"

I asked, hoping for an answer, but they didn't respond. I get a little annoyed and then speak again

"HEY, DON'T YOU HEAR ME-

I stopped speaking and my eyes widened as the group of cockroaches in front of me got crushed by a group of people passing by, the ones that were in direct contact with the feet suffocated to death while the others started running for their lives. The group of people stopped and started wiping their shoes in annoyance. I was traumatized by the sight in front of me and started running away as well, in fear of getting killed. I quickly hid inside a hole to save myself and then calmed down. On that day I developed a great fear of humans. I then grew some courage and left that hole. I wandered off, to try to communicate with some other group. Everyday, I tried to communicate with some roaches but not a single one of them understood any word I said. For some reason I had more consciousness than the other roaches and also had a longer lifespan. Most of the ones I spent time following, observing their activities died off in around a month to over a year. Some getting crushed, some getting eaten by other insects, some dying naturally, their lives filled with nothing but survival and reproduction. 2 years went by, I had lost track of time, each attempt of mine to communicate with others of my kind failing because of the differences we had. One day I came across the house. It was quite average. I went inside it, looking around for something to feast on. There was a 2 year old baby, watching something on television with curious eyes, a nursery rhyme about stars. I walked closer to it, keeping my distance. He was so engrossed in what he was watching that he didn't pay attention to me. I realised it was the same baby whom I had seen in the hospital 2 years ago, whose name I was using.

"Heh, long time no see", I thought to myself.

He finally looked at me, he wasn't scared, instead he looked at me with curious eyes. He stared at me for a while and then he tried to grab me.

"What the hell?", I quickly move away in an attempt to save myself. "That was a close call".

I then flew away and observed him from a distance. His mother came to feed him. She put him on her lap, ruffled his hair and fed him. I looked at the caring gesture and got even more curious as the only thing I had known from humans was violence and apathy. I started walking away, deciding to leave, but then I turned around and thought to myself.

"Perhaps I should observe this one, after all he's young. I can spend a lot of time with him, he'd be more interesting than the cockroaches, who simply live and die." I decided to observe the baby and his mother, seeming to have found something interesting. Something more than simple life and death.