Accidental Savior

Chapter 2: The Trash Man

I hissed in fear and my eyes widened as I stared at the man before me. However, after a few tense seconds of staring in shock, I realized that his grip on the weapon was pitiful. Even though he might know how to use that thing, he would not be at his peak performance thanks to whatever injuries he had. At the end of the day, though, he was still a crazy dude with a sword, so I couldn't afford to underestimate him as I worked out just how he ended up wounded and in the dumpster of Java the Hut.

"Listen. Put that... that thing away. You can't even hold it properly. Just... just let me help you out of the trash. Then you can be on your merry way, and I can get on with my night."

In the dark, the man glared at me for several long moments until he sighed and nodded his head almost imperceptibly. The shadows on his dark olive skin made his features even more pronounced, and I wondered what he'd look like in the daylight.

I let out a small huff of frustration over my stupidly ogling this mystery man before swinging my leg over the lip of the dumpster. I forced myself to focus solely on helping the trash man, though before I lowered myself into the container, I realized that if I jumped in, we'd both be stuck.

"Ah... shit. Hang on, man. Let me go get the stepladder from the back of the shop."

When I looked at him, the man merely nodded once more, and taking that as a sign that he wasn't going to move or anything, I scrambled down the boxes and jogged through the back door of the café. In my haste, I stubbed my toe on the door frame, cursing as I moved aside some cardboard boxes in the storage room to reveal the foldable stepladder we used to reach products on the top shelf. Grunting, I hefted the object and did my best to hurry while carrying the thing to the dumpster, which was a chore considering the stepladder was a bit large for me to easily handle.

When I reached the dumpster, I looked at its rusted green facade before placing the ladder against the edge of the dumpster and scrambling up the boxes then asking. "You still in there?"

After several long seconds, I saw the shadow that was the man's head move as he replied. "Yes."

"Good." I mumbled as I moved back down the boxes and grabbed the stepladder, struggling to tug it up after me. "Hang... on"

My words came out strained as I pulled the ladder up the rest of the way then swung the thing over the edge of the trash bin before losing my grip on it, leaving it to clatter onto the bottom of the metal container with a loud thud. The man in the dumpster winced against the sound. Even in the minimal light, I could see that the figure was leaning against the wall of the dumpster and clutching his side as if his pain was intensifying.

Cursing once more, I swung myself over the side of the thing before landing with a heavy thunk that set me off my balance and sent me face planting right onto my cell phone. I cringed as I heard a crack from the device, then looked down to see the screen shattered against the hard metal and trash beneath it. Frowning, I grabbed the device and slipped it into my pocket before turning my attention to the dude with a sword.

He slowly lowered his weapon more, and his breathing was labored as he watched me with an unreadable expression. Now that I was near him, I could fully tell how much larger he was than me.

"I... umm... you got, like, a holster or something for that sword? I feel like you're going to stab me or something."

My heart thundered in my chest when, for a moment, the man didn't move. He merely stared at me with that unreadable glare, though after a few tense moments he looked down at the metal weapon as if he'd just realized he was still holding it. With tremendous effort because of the pain he was in, he slid the sword into the scabbard on his back. I nodded as if to reassure myself that what I was doing was the proper thing as I picked up the stepladder from a pile of trash and unfolded. Slipping on the garbage, I situated it by nestling it into the trash at the edge of the can and just next to the pile of boxes.

With our escape route in place, I turned to the man and looked at him expectantly. When the guy didn't move, I pointed.

"Stairs."

With infinite slowness and his eyes glued to me, he spoke. "I see them. I... I don't think I can move easily—"

I huffed before cautiously approaching him in the dark. "Do you promise not to poke me?"

"Poke you?"

"Stab me with your sword thing!"

"Oh... of course no harm will come to you. Thank you for your offer of assistance."

At that, I scowled from uncertainty. Why did he sound so weird. "And what if I don't assist you, though? You gonna stab me, then?"

He shrugged. "Certainly not. If you choose not to help me, then I will remain stuck in this refuse receptacle."

I appraised him as best I could in the minimal light until I let out a resigned sigh and approached him. "I'm going to be pissed if you kill me so... don't? Okay?"

The man snorted but otherwise ignored my words as I cautiously reached out and took his arm. Gently, I guided it to wrap around my shoulder while pulling him to lean heavily on me as I led our way to the stepladder. I was careful not to touch his injury, but as we moved more fully into the ambient light from the distant streetlights, I could tell that his injury was bad.

Because of the added weight of his large body against mine, I stumbled and slipped in the grime a few times, nearly sending the two of us toppling over into the trash.

Somehow, we kept standing and wading through the garbage until we reached the ladder. I paused at the first step to give the man a moment to catch his breath before tugging him up the stairs behind me, offering words of encouragement whenever he faltered. When we reached the lip of the dumpster, he placed his hands on the edge, bracing himself as I slung my legs over and settled myself on the stack of boxes on the other side. When the man made no move to lift himself over the thing, I ignored his murmured protests and grabbed his arms, veritably pulling him over the edge with me.

Unfortunately, his weight set us off balance, and the boxes flew out from under us, sending us both flying to the hard ground below.

Fortunately for the mystery dude, I broke his fall, finding myself winded and resting on the nasty, moist asphalt, pinned there by a mountain of muscle. Luckily, I only felt a slight throbbing in my ass, which told me that although I'd probably bruise there, the rest of me was relatively uninjured. With a groan, the man rolled off me, and for a moment, I just laid there, staring up at the night sky, which was devoid of visible stars thanks to the light pollution filtering out from the city.

After spending a long time panting, I whispered. "You smell like shit."

When I turned my head to venture a look at the mystery man, I found him smirking in the dark from where he laid next to me. When he spoke, pain colored his voice, but he still seemed bemused. "And my nose tells me you fared no better than I."

I rolled my eyes before pushing myself off the ground. "Come on. If you're well enough to make quips, then you're well enough to get off your ass. Let's go into the shop. I'll give you a drink and check out your injuries then decide whether I should call you an ambulance."

"You won't call an ambulance." I looked down, watching him lift himself to his feet as he spoke. When he stumbled, I caught his arm and wrapped it around my shoulders so that I could tug him over to the back entrance of the coffee shop.

"Yeah. Well, it's not really up to you anymore since I found you in my trash can. I think that gives me the right to decide whoever the hell it is that I should call."

His quiet snort was the only sign of his amusement as I tugged open the door and all but pulled him inside after me. I was going to be cleaning garbage juice from shop floors for days. Hopefully, Edgar wouldn't give me any shit, at least. Hell, if he did, it would give me a chance to demand that new mop bucket I'd been asking him to buy for months.