Garbage Spirits

A young teenager stooped down on the orange earth and raked his fingers over the ground searching for a something shiny that had caught the rays of the sun just a moment before. His lips turned down in a frown as it was only a piece of glass that had shone so brilliantly. Thin fingers reached out to grab it, none-the-less, but they stopped as the light was suddenly vacuumed from the glass. The boy's head turned up and bangs fell across his cold green eyes. The last sprays of orange and yellow proceeded to fall quickly into a deep red behind the mounds of garbage.

The sun was sinking.

He stood up and shook the dust from his pants and made his way over to a pile of scrap just come in a few days before. He hadn't 'inspected' this one yet. With all hopes, he might find something useful there. Of course, this wasn't the main reason for wanting to rummage through this heap. No. This pile was such a massive mountain that he could climb to the top and watch the sun be eaten away. With a small piece of dirtied cloth, he wrapped his hands and scaled up the sharp toothed mountain. Hopefully no one would see him. He could always make the excuse as coming here for a late rummage.but he knew that curfew was a sunset. A chuckle surprised him as it vibrated up his throat. Did he even really give a damn?

No. Of course not.

His hand reached up and grabbed the last piece of jagged metal that would skewer his hand, and pulled himself up to see the something he waited all day to see. Beauty. Those colors. They filled him up with calm and blissful hope, but he was only too sad to have only caught the last of it as it sunk behind the haze of the dump. It was a tainted beauty from his view, but from someone surrounded by filth.something a little dusty looked as good as new.

And so the last bloodied red rays seeped into a deep purple and the young teen slumped over into the cushion of what used to be a car seat. Right before he closed his eyes.is when he saw something. Two little somethings moved to the entrance of the dump. His eyes narrowed to a slit and then widened in horror.

******

"Come on Chichiro!" A young girl dressed in red called out playfully in the night.

"Oh! Stop it will you!"

The girl in red stuck out her tongue and held up a small bag of crinkled plastic. "I'll give you the last one if you go in there. Come on! I dare you!"

"But Rin! I'm the one that bought those." Chichiro jump up but was sadly just out of reach from the taller Rin's hand that was held up high and taunting. "And you ate them all!"

"Tsh! Then fine! Go and have it!" With that Rin tossed back her hand and launched the bag off into the darkness with a triumphant yell.

"I'm not going to go get that." Chichiro crossed her eyes in defiance. "I can live without one little piece of chocolate."

"Oh.but I forgot to mention." The older girl's smile widened and her eyes held a frightful look of teasing. "Your money was in there too!"

Chichiro's jaw dropped down in utter disbelief. That was her stepfather's money! He'd kill her without another thought, so she raced off hoping to find the small candy bag that contained the few bills to save her life. A few threats and the waves of a fist had assured that.

Rin's hideous cackle faded off into the night.

Chichiro groaned and groped along the ground where she thought the bag might have landed. Rin was such a pain sometimes, but she couldn't say anything because Rin was the favorite child anyway. Well.that's what her stepdad said anyhow. Mom didn't say much at all anymore.

******

The boy's thoughts whirled as fast as his feet slipped and stumbled down the shrapnel heap. The piles of scrap were just a blur on the outskirts of his eyes. How insane! Stupid, stupid girl! He hadn't made out exactly who was heading into the dump, but he could see from the persons' features they were both girls. Girls didn't belong here.ever. Especially not now. If ever.especially not now. The last rays of light had slipped away just seconds before he had seen them. Stupid, stupid! Didn't everyone know?! Everyone should know. This wasn't the place for.

"Ukah!"

He skidded to a stop.

"Ukah! Where ya been man? Yu's been lookin' for you!"

Ukah's eyes darted around and saw a small boy crouching down on a mountain of stacked tires. The tires swayed a little under his weight, which wasn't much at all. Quickly, Ukah put on a slate face and walked over to the boy.

"Dun look at me like that man." He drawled on. "I'm just the messenger, hah! But you always look like you're about to murder someone man! Lighten up!" The young boy bursted with laughter and the tires shook underneath him.

"What's Yu want?"

The boy reached up with a hand and scratched at the dirty skin under his bandana, and then two more gripped at the tires to steady himself, and then another pointed down at Ukah. "Look, man, you know what happens when you're late for the scouting instructions. Yu's looking to give you a good.a good-ah.." The many armed boy's eyes shifted away and far past Ukah into the dark. "Man.is that a?"

Ukah's eyes widened and he lunged out at the tower of tires pushing them over and rushing away not caring if the spider armed boy was hurt. He had seen the girl. Now what? Those cold green eyes darted around and around in the dark that flooded his vision.

There. There she was.

His feet drove him towards the stooping girl whose hands sprawled across the ground and tackled her down into a pile which shielded them from plain view. She twisted and tried to shriek, but her eyes turned from bewildered fear to recognition. Her mouth opened slightly as if to speak, but a long single finger dirtied with the earth covered her lips.

"Don't.don't say my name."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note: Well, its been a long time since I've done one of these. How do you like it? This story might actually replace 'I Work for Spirits'. I don't tend to update as much when I have more then one story going, and I like this one better, don't you think? And remember, notes and reviews speed up the process!