Lily froze.
No one came to the dump at midnight for innocent reasons.
She darted behind a stack of worn tires and crouched, barely breathing.
Headlights cut through the darkness. A sleek black car rolled to a stop on the edge of the landfill, its polished surface glistening unnaturally against the filth. The lights flicked off.
A woman stepped out.
She wore a long beige raincoat, her dark hair plastered to her cheeks by the storm. She wasn’t calm. She kept looking over her shoulder, scanning the shadows.
Clutched in her arms was a bundle wrapped tightly in a thick blanket.
Lily’s stomach twisted.
The woman hurried toward a hollow between piles of industrial waste. She hesitated only a second. Whispered something the wind swallowed whole.
Then she dropped the bundle as if it burned her skin.
Quickly, frantically, she piled smaller trash bags over it, dragged a soaked cardboard box across the top, and rushed back to the car.
The engine roared.
The car disappeared into the rain.
Silence returned.
Lily stayed hidden, counting her breaths.
What could someone throw away like that?
Money? Something stolen?
If it was valuable, it could mean food. It could mean warmth.
Need pushed her forward.