The huge yellow bus stopped and as its gates flung open , a stream of kids wearing clean clothes and carrying a bunch of books ij their backpack with a phone in their hands got of the bus .
Their parents waiting for them by the sidewalk , all wearing really good clothes with faces that didnt have a single blemishes.
Sitting on the back of the garbage truck that zoomed past this scene happening on the streets , a boy not older than the other kids that got of the bus , felt a surge of emotions .
Envy , hate , jealousy and anger .
Various thoughts and dreams ran through his mind but to him , these kids and their parents belonged to a different world altogether .
A world that he wasnt born into , a world that had already rejected him and pushed into a version hundreds of time worse than the worst day of these clean phone holding kids could ever possess.
As the garbage truck came to a abrupt stop , Roan was forcefully jerked out of his thoughts and gave up on his thoughts .
Grabbing the black garbage bags off the street he shoved them into the truck.
Patting the body of the huge metal truck twice to single the driver to move , he climbed on the back and turned one last time to look at the yellow bus as it disappeared around the corner . The faces of children in its window , laughing and full of life.
A cruel reminder that Roan had to face everyday now .
It has been three years ever since his outburst on the top of the garbage mountain and five since he had been orpphaned ... Yeah he finally learn the word for his situation ... After coming to the city as for how he came to the city was both a incredible and awful .
Fortunately , Roan was hired as a garbage picker soon after and has been living since then in the city .
Life in the city was not that bad ... In fact it was far better than a life Roan could ever have had in the slums .
More over , he was earning a decent amount of money , had acess to clothes and a place to sleep ... Plus his food ... Oh the food was incredible ! .
At the end of his shift , Roan got his daily pay, a full eighty credits . Which was enough for Roan to live by on his own granted he didnt spend it on something stupid , he could easily pay for his rent and food .
Instead of taking the bus , Roan used to walk to his small one room condo . As by saving on the bus ticket , Roan was able to afford another five sandwich .
Thanks to the life in city , Roan was earning better , eating better and breathing in better air than the slums .
Although he still looked weak and thin , atleast he now had some amount of blood running through his body thanks to the food.
Taking off his shirt , Roan looked at himself in the mirror with a smile as he saw that he no longer could count his ribs ... something he could have done earlier ... A proof that he had atleast gained a little bit of humanity .
But as his eyes fell lower , his face darkened as he ran his thin fingers across a scar ... A scar that was visible even though he was facing the mirror .
With a grim face , he clenched his fist as he tried not to remember... Remember the one who gave him the scars ...yeah scars ... The one visible was only a small portion that extended to the front but as he slowly turned around ... Roan gritted his teeth both in pain and anger .
All across his back were huge scars ... Red scars crisscrossing across his entire back .
Tens of them , as Roan grabbed a tube of ointment and used a backrubber to slowly apply the medicine across the scars that still sometimes woke Roan up in bouts of pain at night and even sometimes in the day .
Roan , grimaced as he was currently experiencing one right now .
Although the scars had been healed completely and the ointment was only for moisturizing the scars ... The pain ...was something that Roan would have to live with ... Or rather suffer .
Even after two years ... The Pain hadnt completely ended but now it was more of a phantom pain...atleast thats what the doctors who treated him called it ... A pain that wasnt caused by physical injuries anymore but had rather a more disturbing origin .
Roan only knew the term that the doctors used to describe his situation... Apparently he had something called Post Traumatic Stress disorder ... Roan had no idea what it meant but he didnt care .
In fact , Roan had stopped caring a long time ago , he had gone numb to life .. or rather the suffering of life .
As the fragrance of the ointment filled his entire room , Roan's tired body started to power down and he went into deep sleep .
" AHHHH !!.. "
Unfortunately, screaming in pain or rather screaming in fear , Roan was forced to eake up in the middle of night .. once again .
His heart was throbbing ready to burst out of his chest , His face contorting in pain and his scars tingled as if they on the first day when he received them .... Roan was hyperventilating and having a episode .
Something that had haunted him for the last two years .
After almost fifteen minutes , Roan managed to calm down and aid flat on the bed with his limbs gone numb and his eyes heavy and irregular breath .
His scars tingling as if hundreds of ants were crawling across his back .
He watched the ceiling of his room in a daze like state where he couldn't help but think ...if this was real ... If he was really alive .
Maybe he died and was reliving his life ... Or maybe ... He was cursed ...he was ...wasnt he .
As his mind was dangling on the precipice of insanity , he pulled together his thoughts and took a deep breath .
" i just wanna sleep ... "