Uncaged

A Buddy, A...Bunny?

Millie flopped down on the ground next to a pile of metal and junk, exasperated. She wiped a layer of sweat off of her forehead before checking the watch on her wrist (which her grandpa has insisted she wore ever since the incident on Christmas Eve, so she wouldn't lose track of time). 16:28. She had been rummaging around in the old, abandoned scrapyard for nearly three hours now—what else is there to do on winter break?— the sun was starting to creep towards the skyline, a light breeze blowing her hair out of her face.

Millie took a moment to gaze at the slow moving clouds in the sky and decided that the weather wasn't too bad. It was a little cold for her liking, but all of the digging and moving around in her search had warmed her up.

She was searching for something very specific, but she wasn't sure if she would find it. She didn't lose hope or motivation, though; she had told herself that she wouldn't make that mistake again, ever since she made her unlikely escape from the cruel, cold claws of Death. Or rather, her captor, the old rusty animatronic bear that had been collecting dust in grandpa's garage. She was eternally thankful that he had agreed to let her go, and if she could display her gratitude if she could find what she was searching for.

Millie stood back up, eyeing the hills of junk that littered the scrapyard. She thought back for a moment, reminding herself why she was there.

One thing she had noticed about the bear was that he had only one hand; his right was missing, with only a few wires sticking out, and some sort of connective joint. She thought he must have lost the hand when he was left in the scrapyard, and decided that she wanted to be on his good side, figuring she could do that by finding his right hand.

She just had to be home before dark, grandpa had told her. He didn't want her out in the cold at night again. He really thinks I can't handle myself? She thought for a moment, sorting through a small pile of junk, before dismissing the thought. He's just worried about me.

She snapped back to reality when she dug her hand into the pile and felt something move. She paused, her eyes widening in surprise. She felt the thing shift again, on its own. She grimaced, extracting her dusty hand from the pile of junkmetal. A rat? A opossum? A skunk? A raccoon? Various guesses as to what the animal was scurried in her mind, but she wasn't curious enough to stick around and find out. She didn't want to end up with a bite. Or an infection. 

As she stood up, an idea slipped into her head that drew her attention back to the junk: what if the thing is trapped there? What if it's injured? I could help it out...

She sighed, turning back to the junk.

No. You know what, I don't care. I don't want to help it, it's probably gonna try to bite me anyway.

Survival of the fittest.

She started back home, wiping her hands off on her chest, which left streaks of dust and dirt on her hoodie. She looked down, and multiple streaks of dirt covered her hands and clothes, smearing her purple and black attire with shades of brown and grey, so she looked more like a homeless mourner than an inquiring goth girl.

Not that anyone would notice. Nobody noticed her, even after she tried now to fit in and be kinder. As she fumbled with the rusty handle to the gate of the yard, she looked up to see that the sun was crawling even closer now to the skyline, masking the sky in shades of gold, orange, and blue, staining the clouds with a pinkish cotton candy look. The sun was setting, and taking with it the warmth of the day. A chill ran through her body that made her realize that again, she should've listened to grandpa and brought her coat.

After some shoving and use of force, the gate finally opened, its rusty hinges squealing in protest. When she stepped onto the pavement, she was hit with a wave of guilt that penetrated her thoughts. If I'm cold, that rodent back there must be cold, too. She paused, holding the gate open still. It didn't feel warm at all, that poor thing's probably been out here in this cold for days...