Micheal carried some trash bags from the restaurant to the dumpster in the ally. Before he opened it, he heard some shuffling. Listening closer, he was sure there was something inside. Flipping open the lid exposed a girl with a trash covered dress and tangled hair.
"What are you doing?" Micheal said with disgust.
Her grey eyes were wide and stunned with shock. "I... I'm just so hungry..."
"Get out of there," he said, and the girl stumbled out. "Why don't you go before you get yourself in trouble."
Without another word, the girl started down the alley. Micheal shook his head and picked up the bags. Just before he tossed them in, a squirrel jumped right on his face. He yelled and fell straight back. As soon as Micheal hit the ground, the animal caught up to and climbed up the melancholy girl to rest on her shoulder.
She wound through the alleyways, watching her feet sadly. She came to a nook in an alley hidden behind a ratty blanket, barely hanging by close pins. The way the building was shaped was perfect for this little alleyway home. It gave three brick walls to the nook, with only one window about two stories above. The little girl had a mattress she found in the corner, and some crates for storing items she found while dumpster diving.
She sat down on the mattress, and the squirrel joined her. "I'm never going to find her, Snickers," the girl said to the squirrel. "I can barely find anything to eat." She undid the latch of the chain around her neck, and gently held the little locket that hung from it. She popped it open, and exposed two pictures: one of her when she was a baby, and one of her older sister. "She's eight years older than this picture, right?"
The squirrel nodded.
The girl sighed. "There's no way I'd recognize her now. I look so different from back then; I bet she looks a lot different too. The only thing I know is her name written on the picture. 'Aurora'."
The squirrel jumped down and ran out of the nook, and the girl sighed. She had the circle locket for as long as she could remember. She latched it, and ran her finger around the diamond in the center. It was the most valuable item she owned. Although she wasn't sure what it was worth, a diamond and gold certainly were worth more than a tattered dress and a worn-out mattress. She'd never try to sell it though. It was her link to Aurora. Her stomach growled, and she curled onto the mattress for a while.
When Snickers returned, and the girl sat up to greet him. He had a paper sticking out either side of his mouth.
"What's this?" She took it and opened it. The paper was a flier advertising the annual carnival that was in town. Snickers pointed at the flier, then at her pendant.
"You know, I bet she will be there!" She jumped out of bed and searched through a crate for an old hair brush. "Will you help me?" she asked Snickers as she sat down again.
The brush was nearly as big as he was, but he tried his best to grip it. He shakily lifted it, and stuck it to her hair. That's where it stayed: stuck in the matted mess. Snickers examined it from both sides, then gave it a good yank, making the girl yelp.
"Hello?" a boy called from the other side of the red blanket.
Snickers and the girl exchanged nervous glances.
"I heard a yell," the boy peeked in the nook.
"I'm fine," she responded, "Snickers just got the brush stuck." She tried to get the brush, but couldn't reach.
"Can I help?" the boy around her age asked, coming inside. "Whoa! Is that a real squirrel?"
"No," the girl laughed, "He's a RobotiPet, you know, a robot squirrel. The dog RobotiPets were more popular, which is why Snickers got thrown away."
"Oh. Well, my name is Zack."
Snickers flicked his tail wearily, still unsure of the stranger.
Zack sat down next to the girl and started to gently brush the knots out. "Why do you live here?"
"This is my home," she answered.
"This isn't a home," Zack retorted. "This is an alley. The apartment I live in, up there, that's a home."
"Oh, have you been watching me?"
Zack blushed, "I've seen you before."
She nodded. "Well, I won't live here forever. When I find my sister, I'll have a home like you."
A noise from the ally made them stop talking.
"Did you see that spider!?"
"A spider?" Zack asked as he shook his head. "There's no way a spider made that noise. It was probably a cat. Anyways, you have a sister?"
"Yes," she turned and showed him the pictures in the locket as he continued to brush.
"Why aren't you with her?"
The girl shrugged. "I don't know. When I find her, I can ask her myself. Snickers thinks she'll be at the carnival, so that's where I'll look."
"Well, you can't go to the carnival like this," the boy stated.
She wrinkled her nose.
"You need a new dress, and your hair needs untangled. My dad and mom aren't home, and she has a few dresses she won't notice missing."
After he got all the knots out of her greasy hair, they went up to his apartment while Snickers waited outside. He found the smallest dress in his mom's closet, and gave it to the girl to try on.
When she came out of the bathroom, it was so long she was using it as a rug. Zack got some scissors form the kitchen, and carefully cut the bottom off the dress. It now neatly rested at her knees.
"Okay, ready to go?" she asked with a tilt of the head.
"To the carnival? No, I can't go."
"Why not?"
Zack thought about it. If he went, he'd be back home before either of his parents got home, but he didn't want to take the chance of getting in trouble either.
One look at the girls confused, almost pleading face made his mind. "Alright, I'll go." He grabbed the little allowance he had, and they were off.
When they reached the carnival, the girl became anxious. She held the locket tightly for comfort. They were surrounded by teenagers. She looked at every face that passed, desperately searching for one that matched her sister's. Snickers was tailing closely behind, carefully avoiding being crushed by the inattentive feet stampeding by. After the sun set and walking around for at least an hour, Zack could see she was stressed. He slid his hand into hers and pulled her away from all the games and rides to sit on a bench by a tree. Snickers thankfully accepted the break, and curled up on her lap.
"There is so many girls that would be her age." The girl's stomach growled. Snickers was the first to notice, beings he was so close. He jumped down and ran off to the carnival.
"Well, I think if you see her, you'll just know. She's your sister, after all. Are you hungry?"
"Um," she stalled, not wanting to show how starving she was.
"I'll be right back." Zack got up and joined the crowd of carnival goers.
Not but a minute later, Snickers returned and presented an ice-cream cone to the girl.
"Snickers! This looks so..." She was going to say 'good', until she saw the dirt and a bit of trash acquired in transit. "Thank you."
The squirrel was about to climb into her lap again, but was interrupted by a rustle in the tree. They both curiously watched and simultaneously jumped when a spider-like robot dropped from a branch, dangling by a chain. It was about the size of a cat, and held out a bowl of grits with a spoon.
"Hey, I saw you in the ally earlier." Her smile was broken when Snickers flicked his tail and hissed a warning. "Snickers, be nice, he's only trying to help, right?" She gave the spider-bot a suspicious tilted-head glance.
The robot nodded it's head, resembling a glass blimp with yellow lights.
She put the ice-cream on the ground, and gladly took the warm grits. Before she could even get the spoon in the bowl, Snickers sniffed the contents and determined something was wrong. To keep her from eating it, he jumped into the bowl. The contents spilled everywhere, and the girl hollered in surprise.
In the confusion, the spider-bot leapt for the girl's locket and pulled at it. The girls chain didn't break, but the locket came open. The robot got a clear look at the pictures.
"Get away!" the girl shouted, and the robot retreated to a thicket of trees near by. "What was that about?"
The squirrel did a quick charade, pointing at the spilled grits, then held his throat and fell over, acting dead.
"Poison?!" The girl reached for her locket, and noticed it was open. She snapped it shut.
After a few more minutes of antsy waiting, she asked, "What is taking him so long?" The squirrel was sound asleep next to her. The moon was high in the sky. When the girl looked about the shimmering scene, her eyes fell on the thicket. She saw a lady waving. The girl stood.
Zack wove through the crowd with two funnel cakes. When he saw the girl standing by the bench looking toward the trees, he looked too. He saw a lady that looked like a glowing, older form of the picture in his friend's locket.
"Aurora?" she whispered.
As soon as the name was spoken, the figure ran into the trees.
"Aurora!" The girl darted after her.
"Hey, wait!" Zack tried to warn, but by the time he set down the food, she was gone into the trees, chasing the luminescent figure.
"Aurora!" the girl called, following the lady through the dark thick trees adjacent to the carnival. "Aurora!"
A teenager gasped when she heard the yell. "Did you guys hear that?" she asked her friends.
"Hear what?"
"It sounded like a girl yelling in there."
"You're imagining things..."
"There! Again! I'm not kidding, come on."
"There's no way we're going in there!" her other friend protested.
"Fine, I'll go alone." She bravely jumped into the trees.
"Are you crazy!? There could be creeps in there!"
"Auror..." the girl stopped when the figure she was chasing vanished, and a man came out from behind a tree, the spider robot on his shoulder. "Good job leading her here."
"That wasn?t... That was just a picture?"
"A hologram. But enough, give me that pendant."
"No!"
"I've spent a long time tracking down that little necklace. That diamond in your locket is more worth more than your life. I'll take both if you don't hand it over." The man approached.
The girl fell backwards onto the ground in fear.
Before the man got to her, the teenager leaped from behind, and got between the two of them. She was breathing heavy, standing with her arms out to shield the girl. "Stay away from her!"
The man was startled, but he quickly recovered and laughed. "And what are you going to do?"
The teen reached into her pocket, and faster than he could react, she sprayed mace into his eyes. The man yelled in pain, and blindly shuffled away after shouting, "This isn't over!"
The teen turned to the girl. "Are you okay? We need to get out of here."
"Yeah, I'm fine." She looked up to her savior, and gasped. "You look, just like..."
The teen squinted at the girl. "A... Oh my God... Alyssa?"
"Aurora! It's you!"