Dirty Deals

1st prize, Bacharelato, IV English Literaty Contest

She was dead. All of that had started a few weeks ago, when she moved to Australia with her family.

Alice was a sensitive wise girl. She had got shiny red hair and deep blue eyes. Her parents were science writers and as they were looking for new places to develop their projects, they decided to move to Narooma, Australia. It is a little sea village in the south-west of the country with a lot of wild beaches, forests, lakes and steep cliffs. Their  new address was  50, Ballingalla Street. It was a small house opposite the Little Lake.

From the first day, Alice started looking for amazing views to take photos, her little passion. One day Alice took her bike and rode to the beach to photograph surfers in action. It got dark without her noticing and on her way back home, she could see two men in black throwing rubbish bags to the sea from the cliffs. Then she decided to take some photos of such strange guys and when she approached them, she slipped and fell down, which both men noticed.

-Oh!  What are you doing here, girl? You are in the wrong place at the wrong time and  doing the wrong thing!

-You must give us your camera  right now and never tell anything about what you have seen here, otherwise you may get into trouble. GO AWAY NOW!

Alice couldn’t believe what she had seen. When she got home, she ran upstairs to her room and began to seek for information. Two hours later  she found a report in a local blog entitled: “The trash Mafia”

“In the last months, a lot of rubbish bags have been found  floating in the sea over a mile away from our village. What’s happening? We have well-founded reasons to believe that an organized group is getting rid of waste throwing it to the sea. But we haven’t got enough information or evidence to report what is really happening. If you get some pictures or videos about it, please send them to our email address. We must do whatever we can to save our planet.”

Still in shock, Alice turned off her computer and went to bed.

A few days later, once the school year had started, Laura decided to send an email to the environmentalists’ blog telling them about her story.

***

-Sam, do you remember the case of the trash Mafia?

-Oh, yes Amie. We tried hard to get some pictures of the men in black but when they found out our intentions, Mary began to receive threats and we had to stop the publication of the journal.

– We have an email from a girl who has seen them, Sam. She could serve as a witness.

On the next day, Sam and Amie went to talk to the Mayor to inform him about what they had found out and advised him to protect Alice. When they left the Council, back at their office, they published a new short post: “Be careful, trash Mafia men, we are about to have you”.

***

-We are in trouble Matt, if Salvatore and his men find out that a girl knows what they are doing, we and our families are dead.

-I know, Lord Mayor, but leave it all in my hands.

***

On the next day, Salvatore’s men arrived at Alice’s home. The door was already open and everything was in a mess inside. Someone had come before them and she was already dead.