The disease spread like a tsunami. It washed up thousands, and had mercy on little. It captured the children's bodies, they would reside in small towns. Hoping for anything to keep them alive. People didn't care about them. As long as it wasn't their own, they avoided the problem. Until hunger called out, like a wolf in the night. The winter was vastly approaching, the animals were growing scarce and the people had to take another approach. To save the lives of their own, they sacrificed the ones no one wanted, the outcasts.
The mayor chose Hannah because she had once met with the children. No one ever was to even see them because they had the disease. They were forbidden, it was like darkness creeping into light. She was also an orphan, no one would ever care. The ordeals went as usual and she was taken in a horse drawn carriage down the path. The sun was just setting and Hannah's brown hair blew in the Mayor left her at the house and told her the children needed to talk with her on an important topic. Hannah was scared and anxiety overwhelmed her even though she was promised the disease could not hurt her, she was were names upon the rght side of the wall, names of people she had never heard. It struck her as odd but she let it roll off her shoulder.
Hannah spent her days in the house making up stories and games.
Hannah fell in love with a pigs while she was at the house. There was one wild hog that would roam at night, lost and never realizing winter was coming, stealthily ready to freeze it in the night while it gently slept. Hannah's mind was not as strong as it once was due to her lack of information from the reality of life. She began to grow tired and dazed. She stopped playing games, and prancing with the hog. Nights chased days and minutes after hours.
She would watch as the apple tree outside would slowly loose it's fruit and as fall would wither away. The hog only came around every now and then at night and sleep in front of the house.
The children ran down the path into the woods, howling with laughter.
"Is she in there!?" Paul asked.
"She better be, they promised."
A young girl spoke, her pigtails flowing through the wind, she was wearing a beat up yellow sunflower dress and a smile.
Hannah grinned as she heard them, she couldn't tell if it was another dream so she closed her eyes again.
She awakened as a brick was sent hurtling through the window and a brisk wind was let into the house.
The brick was a dark crimson and a note was attached:
"The children, is the name were called. We come to the house after fall.
We have a topic to discuss, please don't try to make a fuss. Now listen dear child,
and listen well. We have quite an important story to tell. Our names can be many but our friends
are few. Upon the wall, soon will be you."
Hannah stared wide-eyed at the small poem lying before her. A loud thud boomed and the door was slammed open. An older boy entered through the doorway.
"Hannah, welcome to the house. We didn't expect you to be coming!"
He smiled and leaned up against the wall like keeping children locked away was completely normal. The rest of the children entered, then the door was closed and all was silent. It was as if God's world was locked away from this room and no could enter.
The girl in the sunflower dress spoke gently.
"We do have a topic we need to talk about. In general, well I can pretty much say were discussing your life."
A boy laughed in the corner. Hannah didn't seem to think this topic was very humorable.
"What do you mean, my life?" replied Hannah with an anxious gleam imprinted in her eyes.
Paul, the eldest walked towards her.
"It's more like a proposition. As I am sure you know about the disease and that we need to survive somehow. It's winter our food is running low."
He gave an eerie smile towards the rest of the children then turned back to Hannah. The disease always confused Hannah, as well as the rest of the world. Everyone infected seemed to have several personalities, or maybe that's just how humans act. The children all walked towards Hannah then sat down, implying for her to do as well.
Once she caught hold of the jesture she seated herself.
"I will come out with it quickly and easily. We need you to find us food. Anything to feed us for now, or at least until the people send us another. We've tried stealing but the towns are cracking down on the diseased. They have no pity for us. We are asking you to hunt for us."
Hannah thought this over in her mind, it seemed reasonable, she had to admit to herself that the topic gave her a scare. Why would they add a comment such as that
about her life? She pushed it off as a joke.
"Why can't you get your own food?"
"As Ive said before, we need to survive we don't have the proper apparel to go out hunting for food."
"Well I don't either, what am I supposed to do?"
A boy came out from the corner. He looked tough and ruddy, and played it cool.
"Either way we eat. You kill it yourself or we take your life."
He laughed and walked over towards the wall with the names covering it. He rubbed his fingers against a name that read, Sarah.
"It would be ashamed to add your name Hannah." Paul said, sadly.
Hannah slipped downward as her legs collapsed.
"What did you just say? You can't be serious?!"
The children nodded in agreement.
"You see the clock is striking by and our hunger is yearning. Even the diseased need to survive." His face grew into a melancholic look then turned into a cold stare.
"You have untill tomorrow night. I am not sure the time but I garuntee once darkness creeps upon this house, we will be back."
As soon as they came they left. The house remained silent once more. Hannah stood up and slowly crept to the window, realizing the children were gone. She ran towards the door and opened it up. It struck her suddenly that Paul was still standing at the edge of the woods a few feet away.
"Don't try to escape. We are always watching."
The woods seemed empty, no vast forest this size could ever hold so few animals. Hannah had cut her upper forearm several times trying to open up a tree where a nest of squirrels might have been hiding and she had no luck. The night wore on and her hands were stained with the blood of an innocent, herself.
She searched the trees for birds, anything to spare her life. She had no idea what the children held in store, but she was hoping to never find out. The grounds were empty as well and her search was over. Her outcome was nothing. The day began to approach and she rested inside till midday. When she awoke her search resumed, but her hope was lost in the forest last night. Bags hung under her eyes and her persistence got the better of her. She searched and looked until the sun began to fade away into a strand of golden string, over the edge of the world.
The children arrived that night and all went as planned. The fire was started and the children left with their stomachs full of hog, all but one. The names were slowly deteriorating as the wall started to burn in front of her. She lit the entire wall on fire, disgusted by it's whole being. Of all the other children that had to die because of the ways of human nature. The house had to go. The girl smiled in satisfaction and walked out of the house as it began to collapse behind her. The ashes from the house flew through the wind, leaving the town and gone to rest in another place. Paul waited for her a little while up the road. She caught up with him and watched as the rest of the children ran ahead.
"Your an outcast now, it will never be the same." Paul spoke, breaking the silence.
Hannah shook her head,
"It wouldn't have been the same, I don't even know what the same is."
Paul looked curiously at her,
"Well aren't you even the least bit scared?"
The house burned ferociously behind her. It gave up one last valiant fight as it's grotesque colors burned into the night.
She looked at her forearm and felt the spot where the disease had apparently entered airborne from one of the children. She planted her eyes straight ahead of her. The earth surrounding them was dark except for the blaze behind them.
The feeding house burned and the names inside were gone, forever to be forgotten, except by the eyes of a little girl.
"I am not afraid of the future, but how my past has affected it."
She believed in a greater source in this world, a hope to bring her away from the darkness she was in, even if the hope started as a small house burning wildly in the dead of the night, with the dawn spreading throughout the world.