Queen Of Green Dahlia

Two

The nights were getting colder and it was beginning to rain more and more as the days went by. Summer had come to an abrupt close nights after I began my hike to an unknown destination. I had hoped the warmer days would last longer, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting a Cold on my cross-country journey, but Mother Nature had other plans. I wasn't sick yet, but it would only be a matter of time before I was, and getting to a hospital wasn't an option.

My stomach rumbled angrily, begging me to fill it with nutrients and water. I continuously beat myself up for only taking a hundred dollars with me and spending most of it on food that didn't last me any more than two days. I wasn't even sure how long it had been since I had last eaten. Judging by my freezing hands, despite keeping them in my jacket pockets for hours under the warm sun, my increasingly raspy breathing, causing my lips to dry and crack, and my pounding heart even though I hadn't been pushing my body physically all that much since I woke up under a highway, I was starving. My body felt weak and my mind was spinning the longer I walked. I felt that at any moment I could collapse and never be able to get up again.

The people I passed would glance in my direction, but immediately look back to their phones or do their best to not look at me at all. I couldn't blame them. With how much I was shaking from the lack of blood flow that should have been flowing through my veins, my jacket stained with mud and dirt from sleeping outside for I wasn't sure how long, and my hood covering my dirty face and straggly, unwashed hair I was sure people thought I was a meth-addicted homeless teenager when in reality I was a woman in her twenties trying her best. Though, to be fair I think I preferred that they thought I was a meth-addicted homeless child than this pathetic mess that I was. Plus, it did keep people from getting a good look at my face.

I glanced up every once and a while to see if I could get a clue as to where it was I had ended up. I had lost track of how long and how far I may have been walking, opting to only sleep when I desperately needed rest. The nights when it rained made things far more complicated when I had to find places with a roof that wasn't already owned by a group of territorial homeless people. Luckily, I had been spared from any local creeps or switchblade carrying psychos when I did find a place to shield me from the rain. Other times, I would just find a park or an unclaimed highway to sleep under. Could I ever find out where I was and if it was far enough, perhaps I could finally take my chances in finding a job and getting an apartment, even if it's a cheap, crappy, bed bug-ridden apartment, I couldn't keep walking forever and just hope for the best that this wouldn't be my last night on Earth.

As I glanced up and down the streets, trying to find any familiar landmarks that I may associate with a state or even just a city, my trek came to an abrupt end as I slammed into something solid. My face blushed when no one made a response as I wondered if I had run straight into a wall, but as I raised my head to be sure I saw before me a tall, tattered dark-skinned, shaved-headed older woman staring with narrowed eyes down a dark alley before her. I tried to apologize to her, but she appeared to be in a trance as she stared down the alleyway. Her fists were clenched, turning her knuckles white and her cracked lips formed a tight line. Her clothes were worn, a ripped sweater hardly covering her torn shirts that she seemed to try hiding under each layer. Her baggy jeans were covered in mud and ripped at the knees, her shoes falling apart at the soles and her socks meant for men looked just as bad. Thank God I was blessed with the inability to smell right, otherwise I most likely would have been trying to hold back vomit from the stench she most likely emanated.

I followed her gaze down the alley, seeing if there was anything there or if maybe if she was just seeing things because of something she may have taken. However, what she was staring at made me double-take and stagger on my feet. I began to shake as I clasped my hands over my mouth, trying my best to keep myself from puking. I wanted to scream, to call for someone to call the police, and see if the limp body hanging from between two of the buildings that made the alley by chains that had been installed into the walls was still alive. But the more I stared at it, the more I began to accept that there was no way it was still alive. I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman.