“So where are we going then?” Blue asks while following April.

“To look for shelter of course! Haven’t you read that humans can only go three hours without shelter? So that’s the most important thing to do!”

“Wait, you don’t have a shelter yet? And you can read? Never heard the three hours before..”

Scratching the back of her head April mutters. “Ah well, ehm I haven’t been on the streets for quite long. Actually, today is my first day.”

Blue notices that April avoids the other questions. ‘Guess she doesn’t want to talk about it’

Deciding to change the subject Blue starts asking other questions. “So where can we find shelter?”

April listens to what Blue asks before her face turns into one full of concentration.

“Where can we find shelter? If I had internet I could’ve googled it, but noo this has to be the 1600’s, where people didn’t invent that yet. Maybe there’s some empty houses? Nah that won’t work we would be noticed there, and how would we get food and water? That’s also important, we need to be near a food and water source. Maybe out the city? Near a river or something, that’s what people did right? Then we can build a hut, with, eh, sticks? Wait how do you build a hut? Can we even build it with just the two of us?”

Muttering to herself she’s soon lost in thought.

Blue doesn’t understand anything of what April said and has a lot of confusion in her eyes.

“Ehm, how about we just find a spot to rest for the night?”

Just thinking about sleep is enough to make her yawn. Trying to hide the memories of what happened before costs a lot of energy. Still somewhere inside her is the hope that she’ll wake up and it turns out to be just a nightmare.

As if a bucket of cold water just got dropped onto her, April is taken out of her thoughts. “Ah yeah, we can do that, I guess. How about you go sleep here against a wall and I’ll stay awake to make sure we’re safe?”

Taking a look at a wall Blue notices things she never paid attention to before.

The wall is made of wood, the kind of material almost every building uses. There’s a little mold here and there showing that it hasn’t been maintained in a while.

All that doesn’t matter though. She realises this wall is part of a building, presumingly a house. The thought that there are people sleeping behind those walls scares her. And now instead of having a soft warm bed all she gets is a wall.

April stares with a sigh. “Yeah it’s not the best bed, we don’t have anything else though. Tomorrow will be better.”

And thus, having no other options, Blue drags her body towards the wall and sits down against it.

‘It’s cold. It’s really cold. It’s really really cold. Wait, don’t think that, distract yourself with something. But with what?’

With closed eyes Blue tries hard to think about other things to make her fall asleep. Suddenly she feels something warm on her shoulder. Opening her eyes she sees April sitting next to her. April’s arm over her shoulder pulling her closer.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that just wearing a dress is cold. I hope this provides you at least a little warmth.” April looks away with a slight red tint on her cheeks.

“Thank you.” Blue closes her eyes again and lays her head on April’s shoulder, a lot comfier than the wall. After a few moments she falls asleep as if she wasn’t wide awake just now.

“...m”

“...am!”

The noise wakes up Sam. She tries to understand what the noise says.

“SAM! Come on this is the fifth time already, get out of bed, will you.”

The shout got to Sam and made her sit up and look at what called her.

Two purple eyes look back at her.

“Finally. There’s life in you after all.”

Tears start flowing out of Sam’s eyes before she jumps to hug Lilianne, surprising Lilianne as she tries hard not to fall.

“Good morning to you too? Wait are you crying?”

Lilianne softly touches Sam’s chin before pushing it up.

“You are crying, what’s wrong?”

Before responding Sam hides her face in Lilianne’s dress again.

“I had a bad dream! Really bad, you died in there!”

Lilianne’s mouth turns into a gentle smile while she pets Sam on her head.

“They call a bad dream a nightmare you know. Don’t use the word dream for it, dreams are great things and should not be put on the level of a nightmare.

As you can see, I’m still here and alive. No nightmare can ever kill me, I can promise you that.”

“Really?”

“Really, now if you ever have a nightmare again just come call me and I’ll get rid of it.”

“How will you get rid of it?”

“I’ll turn all the bad and scary things in good things! I’ll give you something great to dream about instead!”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

With that the world fades into white.

Opening her eyes she’s greeted by the bright Sun.

‘Of course it’s just a dream.’

‘Maybe I was supposed to have a nightmare instead and my sister kept her promise’

‘Dreaming about her just makes me feel lonely. I miss her.’

With that thought a reminder of the corpse flashes into Blue’s mind, making her feel nauseous instantly. ‘No no, bury that thought. I got April here now, I’m not alone!’

Looking at April next to her she noticed the girl was still asleep. ‘So she fell asleep instead of staying awake like she said’

She taps April’s shoulder to wake her up.

When April sleepily looks at Blue it makes Blue laugh.

“Good morning princess.” Blue smirks.

“Ah no, I didn’t sleep, I just closed my eyes for a second!”

“I believe you.” Blue is still laughing obviously not believing it.

“Ah come on!” April lightly pushes Blue away.

“What? I said that I believe you!” Blue pouts

“Obviously you don’t!”

With a fake sad smile Blue says. “So you don’t believe me?”

“Maybe if you stop laughing” April rolls her eyes before standing up. “Well we got a lot to do, so how about we start right now!”

“Alright” Blue’s stomach starts to growl. “Maybe food is the first step.”

“Not even shelter?” April tilts her head.

“No looking on an empty stomach!” Blue defends herself.

“Okay.” April sighs. She is silent for a bit, thinking about her options. “Okay, so there’s a bread seller nearby, we might be able to steal some.”

“What’s a bread seller?” Blue asks.

“Ehm someone who decided to set up a shop to sell the bread they make..? How would you not know this?” April raises one eyebrow.

Blue’s gaze drops to her feet while playing with her hair. “I.. uh.. haven’t been outside my house before.”

“Really? Not even once?” April’s eyes widen.

“Not even once.”

April falls silent with that.

“Let’s go to this bread seller.” Breaking the awkward silence Blue decides to move on.

“Okay..”

Arriving in an alley near the shop, Blue stops moving. “I don’t think I should go out in the big street, everyone will surely notice my eyes.”

April looks back over her shoulder. “Hmm? Okay then, wait here and be ready to run when I come back.”

Blue nods and April swiftly moved into the big street.

Suddenly Blue is all alone. In a dark alley hidden from the people.

‘What if they find me now.’

‘What if they get here and and..’

‘No one would hear me scream, would they?’

‘And even if they did, would they care?’

She starts to shiver. She has a hard time standing and breathing became difficult.

‘And what about April?’

‘What if something happens to her?’

‘Would I even know?’

‘Would I be waiting here forever?’

‘Why isn’t she back yet?’

'How long would it even take’

‘Should I come out to look?’

‘But what if people see me?’

Her vision starts becoming darker till she can’t see anything anymore.

Something grabs her hand and pulls her away. Her legs automatically start to run the direction she’s pulled in.

The hand isn’t letting go and keeps pulling.

Till it stops.

“Blue, we did it! Look at all this what I got!”

A familiar voice calls out to her. Gradually her vision returns as she sees April carrying a bag of bread in her free hand.

“And look at what I found while trying to get bread!” April happily announces

“Could you not call me a ‘what’ ” An unfamiliar girly voice speaks.

Following the sound Blue finds a girl who is shorter than them. She has black hair like Blue, and her hair ends a little before her neck. She has a braid in her hair forming a little crown. The rest is loose. To end it with she wears a girly yellow dress.

“Hey, I’m Julie. Nice to meet you”