Buddy stayed close to her legs as she read while walking, pushing her out of the way of a hole in the ground.

Remembering her hair made the top of her head itch, and scratching made it worse, spreading to the back too. She groaned, feeling her greasy hair and the gunk gathering under her nails. Bea offered to help her wash her hair. She should accept it. Could she ask Roxi to let her wash in a sink at Amante? Or even at her house? Would that be too much? That would be too much.

Garofița wondered if she smelled bad to other people and they weren't telling her out of politeness. She knew she did that. Vitalis stank of cigarette smoke. God, if only sweat didn't exist. Making herself clean was tedious and exhausting enough in a fully-equipped house. Could she use just drinking water to bathe and wash her clothes? What would she drink then?

How did people survive in the past when they didn't have clean water and soap? Well, they stank. And died.

Garofița's parents always accused her of not washing properly. Her mother did this annoying thing where she would insist the teeth by her canines were still dirty, that it was visible when she smiled. Didn't matter how much Garofița brushed, her mother could still see this phantom yellowness. It was one of the many maddening things she did.

Garofița shook her head. Don't think about her anymore. She will figure out how to stay clean. And her teeth are perfect as they are.

Sprawled across the ground were light green leaves, in clusters so close together they were a fuzzy blanket over the ground. Buddy pushed his nose between them and started munching on something.

"Blueberries?" Garofița asked.

She pushed some leaves to the side with her book.

"Boo-berry!"

She crouched next to Buddy and put Bezea down. The first berry she picked was soft and mushy, but she still ate it. Bezea took curious steps between the leaves and fruit, the same colour as her tiny eyes. Her tail stood up like a flag pole, showing where she was even through the denser parts. Garofița caught it between her fingers and let it slip.

Walker stood by a tree with darkened bark, resting with his back against it and his bad leg raised up. After eating some blueberries herself, Garofița gathered enough to fill her palm and stood up.

"Ow, my knees!" She muttered. "I'm already old."

She held up the berries to Walker's nose.

"You want blueberries?" She asked. "Blueberry? Berries for the boy? Berry boy? Death for blueberry boy?"

Walker ate from her palm like a horse. Good God, he was ugly. He didn't look anywhere near convincingly human, especially up close. He just happened to be shaped like one. The skin was paler and saggier by the day without a blood stream, and when she would try to pet his hair it would fall off, as no new ones could grow to replace it.

"Walker, please lose this skin faster." She said.

Without it, no one would know it was him who killed that hunter guy. All skin-walkers look pretty much the same, don't they? That man from Amante who has a skin-walker - "Toad" was its name, wasn't it? - that one had really long legs. The name Toad makes sense. It's more creative than Walker, that's for sure.

"Mew!" Bezea said as she wobbled around the blueberries. "Ehw! Mehw!"

"Yes, baby?" Garofița asked.

"Mew!" She said.

Garofița moved closer, careful not to step on the plants, and picked her up. "Are you just chatting?"

She put her back on the book platform and pet her head. "Do I smell bad, Bezea? Do I smell like death, like Walker?" He turned his head to look at her when she said that. "Am I breaking your nose when I hold you?"

Birds chirped loudly and unbothered by the four of them. Some sounded like rapid-fire violins, others like car alarms. A pigeon was softly cooing "hoo hoo, hoo". A sparrow swooped down and back up right in front of them to Garofița's delight.

There was a small clearing between oak and linden trees. Garofița sat down on the grass, not even thinking about the insects. She set Bezea down and Buddy languished at their side. Walker stayed close to the trees, but gradually slid down too.

A cuckoo bird was singing evenly and Garofița tried to look around to see it, craning her neck from side to side. Some blades of grass under her hands were soft and others were sticky, with fine little white hairs. There was a patch nearby with 3-leaf clovers. A fat bee flew straight into a leaf from a bush, spinning around before buzzing back on track.

The forest was so pretty and peaceful. While sitting in her house, no matter what Garofița was doing, she would eventually turn to look out the window, at the green of the trees. In her old home it was all concrete blocks and parks and roads, grey and brown and more grey, and cars and barking dogs and people shouting. Ferești was marginally prettier, more rustic.

She couldn't remember seeing too many homeless people in her home town. In Ferești there was a whole community of them.

Garofița could recall walking through the park with her mother when she was very little. While she was skipping, her mother pulled her by the arm and motioned to be quiet. She didn't understand why at first, until she saw a man sleeping on one of the benches. He had a long beard, amber skin and a raggedy jacket in place of a blanket. After they walked past him, she could make noise again.

He kind of looked like Mr Gliga. Or maybe she was just associating him with the first old man she could think of.

Her father was less discreet. He complained (as he always did) that homeless people were popping around their neighbourhood. Folks couldn't afford homes, the economy was bad (not that it was ever close to good) and the unlucky ones sought shelter wherever they could. Her father raged that you couldn't go on a walk without seeing them, ruining the view. (The boulevard they lived on was grey and full of cars, what view was there to begin with?)

Garofița sighed. She wondered cynically what they would think of her now. Did they think about her? Were they at least a little bit worried? Was it them who requested the missing posters? Who else would have done it?

She plucked a clover flower, white with pink tips, and tempted Bezea by shaking it close to the ground. Bezea stared, adjusted her body, shook her butt, then jumped for it. Garofița snatched it out of the way and placed it where Bezea came from. Bezea spun around and attacked again. Garofița giggled, but her mind wandered again.

What will she do now? The article proposed she, or one of the other missing girls (Jesus Christ...), might be dead, now a skin-walker's coat. How can she make them fully believe that? And then what? Will she ever be able to show her face again? What's that thing called? Statute of limitations? The freaking thing that says the police will only investigate something for a set amount of time. When do they stop looking for a runaway child?

Could Garofița hide in the encampment forever? What about Buddy and Walker? She can't go to too many places with them in tow.

No, she will not give them up. They are hers.

And she didn't want to hide in the encampment forever either. She didn't want to be homeless forever. To live on streets for decades like Vitalis sounded terrifying. She didn't want to end up like her, or Gliga, or Bea.

...

She's so mean for thinking that...

But what can she do? How do you get a job and a house if you are "missing" or "dead"? She could work at Amante- no, Vitalis would be mad.

Garofița sighed again and let her head down against Buddy's back. Her head itched again.

Bezea trotted up to Walker, swatting her little paw against his good leg, which still had a pant leg that covered the calf. Walker drew his foot closer to himself. Then, he slowly moved it back within Bezea's reach, slowly, sneakily. Bezea slapped him twice. Walker drew his foot back. Then he did it again. Bezea stood on her hind legs, front paws outstretched, and she pounced down. Garofița giggled at the scene.

"I wish I was a cat." She said, either to Buddy or herself. "Or a dog. Or a bird. Or a rabbit. I'd live in the woods and not worry about anything. I'd be incapable of thinking so much. I'd just eat and sleep and try not to get eaten."

Buddy was breathing quietly, rocking her head as she lay over him. The grass was soft against her hands and against Buddy's whole body, for sure.

"I'd live in the woods, drink water from puddles and streams. I wouldn't need as much to eat, and I could eat raw food too. God, I miss sushi. I'd play in the flowers. No need for money, no job. No mean women, no angry men. Or I would be a cryptid like you, Buddy. Yeah, I'm more of a cryptid. People don't like them, but I do. I like that you look weird, like me."

Bezea tried to climb up Walker's leg, but he shook her off.

"I'd be a bug-like cryptid. Like a spider or a centipede. I'd crawl out of a hollow tree trunk and smack people's heads. And when they turn around to look I have white eyes and a pin-teeth. I'd drag them into my hollow tree and eat them like a crunch wrap."

She sighed. "I don't want to be found." She watched the leaves above their heads dance in the breeze. "I want to stay here forever. I will become a witch, like muma pădurii. Do y'all have one?" She asked Buddy and Walker. They didn't reply. "How do you become one? Is there, like, an application? An apprenticeship? I don't freaking know..."

Garofița raised herself to sit on her butt again, one hand petting Buddy's neck. "There's a lot of scary things in the woods, that guy who has Toad said. Judge Holden-lookin' ass... He was at Amante yesterday. I hope Toad escapes and eats him. Mr Marius was at Amante too. I don't like him either. I hate men. They're always yelling or being creepy. Case in point... ...I'll adopt Toad! Walker, would you like a roommate?"

Walker didn't know what else to do to stop Bezea from climbing on him. He stood up and backed away, but Bezea was determined.

"You're not scared of him either?" Garofița laughed.

A rustle in the nearby bushes made all of their heads snap in that direction. Before she could see it she heard the wheezing giggle. It was the fox, the same one from the stream, with doll eyes and dirty orange fur.

Garofița hunched forward and screamed all loud as she could, startling Bezea and Walker. Buddy closed his eyes and leaned away.

The fox fell down, rolled over, and scrambled to run like a cockroach. The forest was quiet for a second, then resumed its ambiance.

"I'm the scariest thing in these woods!" Garofița pointed to her chest with her thumb.

She led the way through young pines and goldenrods, Bezea riding on her shoulder. Walker scratched his face by pushing his claws under the skin's cheek. Buddy bit another clump of grass, with a couple shamrocks in it.

"I'll become the folk tale of these woods!" She declared, holding the book forward. "I'll be the stranger with leaves in her hair that sneaks from behind trees, wearing missing people's parkas! I'll dance around the sidewalk at night while staring up at the sky with the biggest grin!"

Walker stopped in his tracks. Garofița only noticed when she was a few steps ahead and Buddy stopped as well.

"What is it?" She asked.

Twigs snapped and she was startled, drawing the book close to her chest. Bezea almost fell off, digging her claws through the shirt and into the skin.

"Walker, what is it?" She asked, becoming frantic, hiding behind his figure.

From the treeline emerged a dog. It was a large shepherd, black and white, with long fur that clumped into dreads. It was very dirty, paws brown and yellowed. Moss may as well be growing in its hair. Its face was drooping around the eyes, revealing red, and its nose was a big black dot.

"Hello!" Garofița peeked from behind Walker, endeared to the dog despite herself.

It stared back at them, ears alert and tail stiff.

Walker stepped forward, hands held together in front of his chest and head tilted innocently, bad leg down on the ground in a normal stride.

The dog dashed back where it came from, rustling the leaves.

"He looked like an old god." Garofița said, and then watched Walker turn around to face her. "... ...why the fuck are you posing like me?"

Walker didn't answer.

"Stop that."

He let his hands down.

They continued their search for comfrey, but there really wasn't any. Garofița was grumbling under her breath, while Buddy happily ate grass and dandelions. Lucky, she thought. If only she could eat anything too, cooked or not. Being a human sucked so much.

She plucked a dandelion without stopping from walking, keeping Bezea on her shoulder with the book as a stopper, and ate the yellow head. It was very bitter.

"At school, in French class, they said that 'dandelion' is called 'pissenlit'." She told her pets. "Because dandelions make you pee, so they make you pee your bed, piss en lit."

She gave the stem for Buddy to eat, and he licked her palm.

"Didn't think I'd miss school." She said.

She recognised the part of the forest they were in. She took a few steps forward and as she expected, the altar was there. The dirt path, the wooden bench and the miniature church were completely unchanged since her last visit. The flowers were all dried up.

Garofița picked fresh dandelions and put them inside the altar. Buddy tried to take them from her hand, but she pushed his nose away.

"There's plenty over there, dude!" She said. "Those are for the Lord! You glutton!"

Buddy puffed through his nose. Garofița rolled her eyes at him and set the book on the bench, and Bezea on the ground. She checked the legs of the altar with her paws, then made a beeline towards Walker. Walker tried to shake her off his pant leg, but it was hard with it being the only leg left for balance.

Garofița giggled as she watched her, then turned her eyes towards the altar, resting her chin in her palms.

The woods were quiet in this part, as if respecting the little structure. When at church, even when it was all empty, she didn't dare raise her voice above a whisper. The echo was very strong.

She didn't try to pray again. It would have only made her anxious. She was scared to think about how her prayers never worked, because what if God heard and punished her.

Garofița still liked religion in general. She liked the lore of the bible and theories on afterlife. Every religion had the same ideas at their core: be kind to others and respect God. Which God? Good question.

It was fun to read theological and occult forum posts (and to read people arguing).

God is real, but not how we imagine Him.

God created the universe, but that was it. He does not get involved anymore, He is long gone.

God doesn't watch over us, He just watches, like a child watching a TV show.

God decides everything we do, like an author writing a story.

There are multiple Gods and multiple universes, some similar and some completely different. That's where the afterlife, supernatural realms and alternate dimensions come from.

That last one was a bit much.

Garofița never worshipped anything other than orthodox christianity, but she did try witchcraft once. She was scrolling through tumblr witchy posts, spells and infographics and recipes. That was a lot of fun too! She couldn't really try any of them, though. Everything involved candles, fire, jars, spices, wax and gemstones. She couldn't use any of those things without being caught.

She resorted to drawing sigils, coming up with her own for peace, luck and money, but she was caught anyway and got beaten. Her fault, she thought, for not hiding them better. Then she had to tell the priest at church what she did. And none of the damned sigils even worked.

Books and forums and tumblr posts all say you have to believe in the magic for it to work. Garofița couldn't believe in it unless she saw it work. She believed in God, but that was more out of fear that He would punish her if she didn't.

Could she be a Christian witch? There were posts about that too, not all witches are pagan. How would that work, though?

She could make her own altar, maybe. With icons of Mother Mary, flowers and trinkets. She could make crosses out of sticks in the forest. Hang them in trees, make it spooky. You can make rosary beads out of rose petals. Rosaries are catholic, though. She always wanted one, with purple and green beads.

She sighed deeply, sliding her arms down, her body along with it until her forehead landed against her knees. She felt Buddy's nose against her hair and straightened up to pet him. Buddy pressed closer, halfway climbing into her lap.

"I'm okay, I'm not sad." She said, hugging him. "Just annoyed. That everything is so difficult."

She looked at the altar again and thought about how she prayed to get away from her family, that somebody would help her, even snatch her away. It really really felt like being dead was the only way out. She did get away, but it was her who got herself out, packing, sneaking outside and climbing the bus.

Walker paced around the treeline, sniffing the air, and Bezea was right by his ankles. Garofița thought his broken leg was enough divine punishment for killing that hunter guy. She viewed her disappearance the same way. Her parents and her family and her church will never ever see her again.

She had picked 5 dandelions to put on the altar. After a moment's thought, she took one back and ate it whole, flower and stem. The book said every part of the flower can be eaten, even the roots. Now what was left was one for her, one for Buddy, one for Walker and one for Bezea.

"Let's go home." She stood up, helping Buddy down gently. "We'll look for comfrey later. I'm tired."

The way back was easy, an almost straight direction to follow from the altar. Garofița held Bezea in one hand and the book in the other, skimming through the mushrooms section.

"I'd rather not try to pick mushrooms by myself." She told her pets. "I guess I could hand them to y'all and see if you'll eat. Buddy will eat anything, I think."

Buddy made a sound like a sneeze.

"If I'm gonna be homeless for a while, I should do it eventually. Mushrooms are kinda like meat." She sighed. "I should buy a camping stove. I hate the idea of working with gas, though. Maybe if it's outside it won't be that bad. You need fire to cook God damn everything, ugh. I should just become a vegetarian, for real. I'll eat all the flowers and mushrooms in the woods. Maybe I'll go crazy and become a forest hermit oracle lady. Like Ballard, but, you know, without the gross stuff."

"Meow!" Bezea said.

"Meow meow!" Garofița replied. "I don't know, it said on wikipedia that Ballard was ostracised by everyone and that's made him go mad, but I think there has to be something wrong with you in the first place for you to wanna violate corpses. I don't think poverty and loneliness just makes you do that, I mean I hope not. I don't mind being alone. One time I managed to find a PDF of 'Child of God', but then it disappeared. Anyway, I managed to read the first paragraphs and I think, dunno if I understood correctly, I think Ballard took a shit. Like, that was how he was introduced. Not sure why."

She hopped over a fallen branch together with Buddy and waited to see if Walker needed help, but he didn't.

"I don't wanna shit in the woods." She continued. "I don't want bugs touching my butt. One time a girl at school went on a camping trip and she needed to pee, and she sat over nettles! Oh God, I would have died." She flipped through the book again. "I think I saw nettle recipes in here..."

Garofița suddenly felt cold all over. Her head whipped to look around, feeling the unexplainable tension you do when eyes are on you.

She looked back and saw, many feet away down the path they had been carving, the shepherd dog from earlier. It stood like a dark silhouette, doing nothing but watching them leave.

Their house was how they left it, quiet and dusty. Garofița checked that nobody was on the street or at the far end of it, and took them all inside. She thought about cutting a hole in the old wire fence for quicker access to the woods, but she also didn't want to let other things quick access.

She drank water and held her palm as a bowl for Buddy and Bezea to drink as well.

"Walker, can you drink from a bottle?" She asked. "Or would you spill everywhere?"

She gave him the hand bowl as well in the end.

"I'll eat a bit later." She said, taking another gulp. "I want to make the peanut butter last longer. It's a big jar, but I go through it fast if it's the only thing I eat. I gotta share it with y'all three too."

Garofița lied down, letting Bezea climb and trekk over her. "You only need water every single day. If I become a master forager, we'll eat like hippie kings and queens, hehe. Do you mind eating peanut butter and bread every day, Bezea? I read that peanut butter was made for people who can't eat meat. I'll find meat for you. And Walker. Buddy seems fine without it."

Buddy yawned, a squeaking sound coming from his throat.

"I wonder if I can eat any raw meat without dying. Inuit people eat raw fish, but it's cold as shit there, which I think helps." She sighed, looking at the ceiling. "There was this girl at school I hung out with sometimes who was a total bitch, but she would sometimes order sushi takeout during lunch break. I got to eat nigiri sushi! It's just rice and salmon, the only one I really wanted to try. She'd let me have 2 pieces if I did her french homework. Y'all, it's so good! I didn't know rice could be so good. And the salmon too was so soft and smooth."

Her stomach growled.

"I couldn't pick up anything with the chopsticks, so I would hide in the bathroom and eat it with my hand. It's so gooood! I love love love it. I wanna buy a salmon filet and eat it like a bear." She held her thumb, pointer and middle finger together above her face, pretending to lower the filet into her mouth.

Bezea advanced towards Garofița's face, stepping over her chest.

"Ow! Ow!" She pushed her off. Buddy's snout came to move Bezea away as well. "What the hell? Why does my boob hurt-?" She suddenly paused, staring up at the ceiling as she tried to remember the calendar dates. "Oh my fucking God, is my period coming?"

She groaned loudly, slapping her hands against the floor. She read that when you are malnourished or very stressed, your period stops. She always thought it was bullshit, because no matter how miserable she felt, the damned thing still came around to make it worse. She thought her current austere diet might do the trick, that she would have one less worry, but apparently no. "This is bullshit!"

She pretended to choke herself with her own hands around her neck. Buddy and Walker side-eyed her the way dogs do.

"I want a hysterectomyyy!" She hissed, wriggling on the floor.

"Garo?" She heard a voice calling out from the street.

Garofița shot up.

"Roxi?"

She ran to the window and saw Roxi walking by her house, looking around the dilapidated buildings, a plastic bag in hand. She spotted Garofița and said "Ooh! There you are!"

"H-Hello!"

"I got something for you!" She smiled, holding up the bag.

"Uh, uhm, one second!"

Garofița made her way to the front door, then came back and gestured with her hands to Buddy and Walker to stay where they are, stay quiet, dear God please!

"W-What is it?" Garofița went outside, careful to shut the door. Between her and Roxi was the wire fence.

"I brought you soup!" Roxi held up the bag, with a black takeout bowl inside. "Dumpling soup!"

"Thank you so much!" Garofița said.

"With pleasure!"

"You didn't have to..."

"Don't worry about it! We have to help each-other around here."

"Thank you... You've given me a lot of soup."

"Yeah, well, uh, it's kinda the only thing I'm good at making..." Roxi scratched her jaw with one finger.

"It's fine! I really appreciate it!"

Roxi smiled again, her snaggle tooth sticking out. That day she wore a white crop top with cherries on the boobs, maroon trapeze pants and the black choker. "So this is where you're camping out?" She asked.

"Uh, yes... Does it belong to anybody?"

"No idea. It's always been empty as far as I know. I used to squat a couple streets down, next to an old gas station!"

"Oh, right. Vitalis told me..."

"Yeah, I ran away from home too." Roxi sighed. Garofița thought about how she only told that to Vitalis, but it was also Vitalis who told her about Roxi and not Roxi herself, so she stayed quiet. "Vitalis took care of me." Roxi continued. "She looks mean, and she kinda is, but she's not a bad person. Far from it."

"Is it ok to ask why you ran away?"

"Oh gosh! I used to be gay."

Garofița blinked. "Used to be?"

"Yeaaah, but then I realised I'm a girl, so actually I'm straight."

"Oh! I understand."

"Some girls are really pretty, though. My parents are everything-phobic, so it's for the best that I stay here." She laughed, leaning against the wire fence.

"I'm sorry about that..." Garofița leaned against the fence too.

"It's fine." Roxi pouted. "Their loss."

"And then... you got a job at Amante? Or before you realised?"

"After! With Gabi and Mihai in tow!" She leaned further. "It's a bit hectic, but it pays pretty good."

"And, uh, that vampire lady Mirabela is your boss..."

"She's not that bad! I mean, a vampire is just a reanimated human. Kinda like a zombie. And Mirabela has her... quirks, but she treats her own people well. She really does look after us."

"She does?"

"Amante is this... weird funky place, where all sorts of misfits can gather together under a queen of misfits."

"... should I get a job at Amante too?"

"Oh no, no, definitely no."

"Oh."

"It's not a place for young kids."

"Mihai told me that too..."

"I'll help you get by." Roxi said, gentle and serious. "Me and Vitalis both will."

"Why...?" Garofița glanced up at her.

"We can't just sit and do nothing while seeing another girl struggle!" She smiled. "I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met someone like Vitalis. I think that if you're able to help somebody, then you should."

Garofița nodded, looking down.

"So! What have you been up to today?"

"Uh, I foraged in the woods. I found blackberries and blueberries."

"Wash them before you eat them, okay?"

"Uh, yes, of course. I also found, uhm, a little christian altar."

"Along a path, next to a bench?"

"Yeah!"

"Ooh, if you go to the right of the bench, you will find a freshwater spring!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! There's a little concrete slab with a pipe you can take water from. You can get drinking water from there if you've got a bigger bottle. It tastes pretty good too."

"Thank you!!"

"You're welcome!"

"Uhm, what are you doing today?"

"I'll go to the encampment to tell Vitalis I delivered your soup! And then I think I'll hang out with Gigi. She asked me to go on a Craigslist gig with her. Somebody is looking for a petsitter for their 5 dogs."

"Can I go talk with Vitalis too?"

"Eeerm, maybe not today. She's not feeling well."

"O-Oh, is she okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's just hungover and really cranky right now."

"Oh..."

"Tomorrow she should be herself again."

"Does... does Vitalis drink a lot?"

Roxi sighed deeply. "Yeah... she's almost always drunk."

"She is?"

"It's kinda at the point where she needs to drink to be able to function." She said, scratching at the inner corner of her eye. "You know, there's people who could be hammered out of their minds, at their job and everything, yet you would never be able to tell."

Was she drunk every time she met her, Garofița wondered.

"And when alcoholism gets really super bad, if you suddenly stop drinking it can kill you." Roxi continued, eyes to the ground.

"And, uh... Vitalis... gets drinks from... Amante?"

"I'd rather she get them from me rather than God knows where, and lose all her money."

"I understand..."

"... oh gosh, our conversation got so depressing." Roxi straightened up. "Let's change the subject!"

"W-Was Vitalis mad at me yesterday?"

"What? Why?"

"B-Because I was at Amante with Mirabela, when she told me not to go..."

"She told you that?"

"She, uh, she told me to stay away from Mirabela."

"Ah, got it."

"Did I make Vitalis angry...?"

"Nooo! If she was mad at anybody, it was probably at Mirabela. She doesn't like her at all. I think they dated at one point, but that might just be me wildly speculating."

"Okay... She looked angry..."

"She always does. That's just her face." She giggled. "I'm gonna go check on her. If you ever need anything, let me know, alright?"

"I will."

"See you later, Garo!"

"Bye bye!"

Garofița went back inside with the bag and shared the soup with all her pets, everybody getting one dumpling until it was finished. She had a bowl now!

Evening came fast, the world slowly growing darker. Without her bright phone, Garofița spent her time reading the guide and playing with her little guys, her eyes adjusting to the dark until she realised it was almost pitch-black in the house and she still wasn't in bed.

"Bed time!" She said, fixing the blankets over the cardboard. "Sleepy time!"

Bezea tucked herself by her makeshift pillow. Garofița could reach a hand above her head to pet her. Buddy lay at her side, his head on her shoulder. Walker stood in his usual spot by the wall, closer to the door.

"Good night, everyone!" She said and closed her eyes.

She was still awake, still thinking. Tomorrow she must go to the encampment, she must try to forage again and fill her bowl, find the freaking comfrey, get water in her water bottles, ask Bea to wash her hair, see what and where exactly she wanted to do it, maybe get some bread for Buddy and meat for Bezea.

She must go to Amante and see Roxi again. Maybe she could at least sweep the floor or wash dishes in exchange for food. Garofița still felt bad just receiving things for free. If you're able to help somebody, then you should, she said. Garofița used to pray that somebody would help her. Tears welled up under her eyelids and she brought up her sleeves to wipe them away.

Garofița sighed shakily, trying to fall asleep. There was noise outside she could not ignore, and she opened her eyes to look out the window. From where she lay, it looked all black beyond the square frame.

Twigs snapped and grass rustled, and Garofița felt something was out there. She carefully stood up, placing Buddy down on the blanket, and tiptoed to the window.

She slowly peeked from the edge, half-way expecting something to grab her face like the bug cryptid she imagined.

It took a moment of staring at the treeline in the distance, but eventually she found it. It was the shepherd dog, between the trees, legs as long as the trunks now and its dirty fur fading into the darkness.

Garofița jumped when she felt something press against her leg. She took her eyes off the dog to glance down and saw Buddy, half-asleep, leaning against her. She pet his head, holding him close, and turned her eyes back on the beast.

It wasn't doing anything. It was just standing, watching their house, watching her. Crickets continued to sing their little choir, as if the huge beast wasn't even there.

Garofița's whole chest hurt, especially above her heart, an ice cold vice over it, creeping up into her throat and squeezing it shut too.

She could handle physical pain, she could handle hunger, but Garofița could not stand feeling scared. She hated feeling always afraid, always in pain from it. She could alleviate or tolerate the hollow in her stomach from hunger or the dull ache from bruises, but the pain caused by fear? Caused by her own stupid brain, a phantom ache in her bones so strong she was paralysed, all strength drained from her clammy limbs, ready to be hit by a car like a deer.

She stared back at the dog she found cute a couple hours ago, now a threat. Along with fear there was annoyance. Why can she not enjoy anything for long? Why did everything turn against her? Would Roxi turn too?

She stared back at the dog, jaws tight and rubbing her fist hard against her sternum, making her skin hurt worse. She will never be scared again, she angrily decided. Nobody will make her scared again.

Garofița heard Walker stand up and come towards her. She watched him stand in front of the window, looking at the huge dog as well. After a long moment of thought, Walker started taking a very deep breath. Garofița realised what he was going to do and covered her ears at the last moment.

Walker screamed, in her voice but louder, more like a shrieking cat. The shepherd dog disappeared, scrunching its shoulders, turning around and skidaddling. Buddy jumped wide awake and Bezea hopped like she had a spring under herself.

Garofița peeked outside one more time and scanned the dark treeline. "Good job." She pet Walker's arm. "You are a smart cookie."

Bonus Illustration: