Guard and Scythe

Seven Years Earlier

I curled up tighter into a ball under the raggedy shawl I had found disregarded at in the streets yesterday morning. The shadows concealed me from the streets, and from the people, but it's blissful discretness couldn't provide a barrier of all the noises and voices shouting.

I shut my eyes and hoped the world would disappear before I had to open them again. People never wanted me to be part of their society anyway. They shunned little street urchans like myself, and beat us with sticks and drove us away if we came to close to their perfect little world. 

I held out one of my arms. It was pale and bony. I could see it strethed tight over my spidery fingers.

This hand had once been beautiful. When I was a real girl Momma would hold it tightly, and rock me to sleep, resting me inside a cradle of dreams with the melodies of her sweet voice. Momma's voice had dripped like honey, and made any man's heart melt.

She had promised we would be together forever. She told me I was her stars, and I believed her because I would always see them twinkle in her bright blue eyes. When we would go sell flowers on the filthy streets of New York, I would pretend to hide my stars in my pretty little basket, underneath the violets and pansies. I would sprinkle them like dust around the streets and pretend I was Momma's little fairy. We would snuggle together by the warm fires in trashcans alongside strangers, and I would curl up in Momma's arms.

But then one day I lost her. Momma disappeared and took every last star I had given her from the sky. I was a little girl whose heart had been forgotten. I was no longer that little five year old any more.

Now I slept in the darkest shadows of the streets, and stole rotten food from the garbage cans of pretty houses. Eight long years had gone by since Momma had left me. I hope she found her way to Heaven alright. The gunshot to the head probably wouldn't have been her choice of how to go, but at least she was safe now.

"Safe and sound. I know just where she is. Safe and sound," I would always remind myself. I had lost her, even though I knew just where she had gone. She was as real as I was. One day I would find her, and we would play in the meadows of heaven together, and we would catch stars together at night.

I tried to make myself smaller, smaller, hoping I would become so small I'd disapear entirely. It was cold tonight; early spring is always still cold. It was so much better than winter though.

When I found that the sun had began to crawl back up into the sky, I decided to go for a walk around town before the city awakened. Staying to the shadows, I walked along the narrow streets carefully, my bare feet getting cuts and scrapes from all the broken glass and sharp rocks.

Behind me I could hear a carriage pull up. This made me curious. Lately cars had been becoming more and more abundant on the streets. I pulled the gray woolen coat around my shoulders and made my long black red brown hair into a wavy curtain to shield me from these passing strangers.

I was suprised when I heard the carriage stop next to me. A man in a dark tailored suit stepped out of the carriage.

I did not like this man. He had slick black hair and a stern countenance. His piercing black eyes snapped sharply on to me. He had a strong build, and had hands that were big and covered in scars. Everything about him screamed DANGER! really loudly inside my head.

He walked closer to me, holding his hands out like I was a small lost kitten.

"Hello pretty girl," he said in a deep velvety voice that sent shivers running up my spine. I had run in to plenty of men like this one before. I could guess what he wanted from me. Street urchins aren't known to have standards though, especially if money was involved.