Ghost had woken up too early. She could still feel the peals of warm sunlight drifting in the listless way of dusk down to her back, though she had buried herself beneath a clearly abandoned, nearly rotten pile of archaic sacks, perhaps once having held potatoes or something of the sort. It was no matter, really.
She had fallen asleep too early, too. Dimly, she could recall the fading moon still alive in the evening sky as she had crawled into the day's hiding place. It was never good to let that happen. Only sleep during the day. It disappeared so easily then. One could go on as if it did not exist at all. But she had been so tired after running back and forth for the Man, carrying the strangely marked papers between him and the Girl. They had kept her at it so long she had begun to wonder if she would ever find her breath again, and she would have certainly left them to their own devices if the reward had not been so tempting. And they had paid. One sweet bun from each of them, although the Man's had been stale. A sudden growl from her stomach reminded her they had both been devoured the night before. Another thing not to do. She could not sleep like this: no longer tired, and now hungry. Squeezing her eyes shut, she removed herself from the ancient bedclothes, and slowly lifted each lid to the light. Fortunately, not as much light as she had expected. She could see perfectly well; had none of the white blindness daylight usually brought. So she had not been so terrible after all.
Slowly, she began her waking routine, taking a few steps forward to loosen her stiff legs, and nearly landing herself into a remarkably inconspicuous pool of water. Had it rained during the day, then? That would help her clean. With that in mind, she loosened her tangled clots of hair from their battered ribbons and shook her head vehemently twice, but to no end. The locks remained wild as ever, if not more so, as she returned them to their tails. Paying them no more mind she crouched down by the puddle, slipping her feet behind her knees and reaching her frail, cupped hands into the murky water. She did not bring them back immediately, instead watching the white image reflected before her flicker in and out of comprehensibility with dull eyes. It glowed a deep red from the last attempts at light the sun provided as it wandered down to sleep. 'Red and white, red and white', the words rang without life in her mind. Blinking once, she pulls her hands towards her chin and, first steeling herself for the cold, splashes the icy water across her face. Oh! Too cold, too cold! Her features scrunched into distaste and she shook her whole body, like a dog, to rid herself of the sensation. But it was what she must do to stay clean. Somewhere in the back of her addled mind she remembered that this task was important, but where this idea originated was a mystery, the same as any of the other compulsions which struck her.
Hunger, on the other hand, was no compulsion. The pain of her empty stomach soon enough forced her mind away from any thought other than sustenance.There was none on this street, no, it was so empty at night. There was no where, though, she reasoned, that was certain to have a meal, and if there were, someone else older or stronger was bound to have already found it. That was indisputable. She would just have to walk down the usual way, and see what she could find.
Shifting from her crouch to standing without grace, she lifted her empty gaze to the sky. The moon had replaced the sun now. There were stars out: tiny, glittering jewels on their dark canvas. A few listless clouds drifted across the blue-black, but there was no sign of rain. She felt absently encouraged by the sight; a clear sky could only make her task easier. Without much thought toward the action her barely booted feet began to take her on her way, and she reached out as she turned off the road into the next alley, letting her fingers drift gently across the brick. If she was capable without great inclination, she may have smiled. The day had begun poorly, but the evening was not starting off so badly after all.