BECOMING HUMAN

CHAPTER 1

Aurora covered her mouth in disgust. Her bitten apple fell out of hand as she almost vomited.

The smell of the garbage mixed with the sight this body convinced her that this boy was decaying. But he didn't look as though he was rotting. Aurora was very confused.

She yanked the body as hard as she could, but he was very heavy. Aurora cursed under her breath, stepping one leg on a firm bag for support and pulled as hard as she could on the body. Eventually, the body was freed, but her grip slipped, causing her to fall back on the ground. Rubbing her butt, she opened her eyes seeing the boy laying now—on the ground.

He was completely nude—not even boxers on him. Aurora blushed profusely. She had never seen a man naked in her life. She felt violated—as though it was his fault her eyes could not unsee what she has witnessed. Looking around hastily, Aurora tried to find something to cover up his body. Looking across the street, she saw a couple of sheets that were laying on a table left outside of a smoke shop. Running, she went and grabbed them, hurrying back.

Aurora spread the sheets over the male's body, and tapped her chin. She began to wonder why she was even doing this. He didn't know her and she definitely did not know him. Aurora didn't even know if this boy was alive. But something just told her that he should be left with some kind of dignity, at the least. But where should he rest until he awakens? Aurora didn't know how to bring the boy along with her. She was definitely not planning on taking him on her back, back to her base. He was too heavy, and he was naked.

Aurora decided to leave him there for a while to scout the hood. No one in The North Sea cared about homeless people, nor did they care for the dead. They all looked the same in their eyes. This proved to be a benefit for Aurora in times pass. And now, it would prove to benefit this boy—hopefully.

Aurora found a supermarket that had spare shopping carts standing around the parking lot. Without a second thought, she hurried into the parking lot and stole a cart, fleeing the scene. A worker on break had just lit a cigarette. Seeing the girl running with that cart made him shake his head in pity. He took a puff of his drug and exhaled.

"Such a damn shame..." He breathed.

Aurora panted, sprinting as fast as she could to the body. Seeing that he was still lying behind the garbage, she was relieved. She tilted the cart on its side and shoved him in there, using all of her body strength to get the cart back on its wheels. It took her quite a number of tries to make this happen. He was just too heavy. Once on its wheels, Aurora played it off cool, covering the body with the rest of the sheets and went about her business.

After twenty minutes of pacing through the streets, Aurora finally made it back to her domain—under the docks at the pier was where Aurora dwelled. The ocean was her safe bet—just in case she had to swim to get away from the people who may pursue her and want her dead. Since the sand was too grainy for the wheels to be stable, she poured the body onto the sand and dragged his body down, leaving the cart behind. Laying him down flat under the docks, Aurora trembled with feelings of excitement and concern.

Kneeling down next to him, she uncovered his face, seeing that he was still unconscious. She pulled the sheets further down his body, admiring how well built this boy was. Aurora ran her hand over his body to see what was wrong. She couldn't identify it. It finally dawned on her to check for his heartbeat. Putting her ear to his left pec, she was shocked to just realize there wasn't any heartbeat. But he looked perfectly fine! Did he just die recently, as in when Aurora had just gotten back from York Seoul City?

Aurora was truly terrified and creeped out that she carried a corpse all the way from the border back to the water. She thought perhaps she should just let his body float away at sea to delete his existence forever. No one was looking for him, because if that was the case, he wouldn't have been in that trash pile.