Hiding

I am still hiding. It has been three days - I have no more food, I am so hungry, but I am afraid to sneak out, to get more. All the people of the village who had left came back. They smelled like the flowers in the fields when they are dug up. They don't speak, they simply walk, even do the same things they used to do but they don't do it properly – they do it like they barely remember how. I don't know how long I can stay here, but they are not leaving. I can hear them moving through the houses even now, their feet scraping on the floorboards, hear their breath. Sometimes… sometimes I think I hear Marisse, whispering my name. She wouldn't hurt me. She would never hurt me. Anika