No, no this can't be happening.

Where am I? It's cold, so cold here, eyes are watching me. Someone is screaming. Melchi.

No, no, stop screaming, Melchi. Another scream, two this time. Ilse and Moritz.

Where are they? I can't find them and the eyes keep on watching me.

I tear through the dark, empty nothingness, trying to find the source of these frightening noises.

I'm running, running, running, running…

I sit up in bed, screaming my head off. Melchi jumps up next to me, looking alarmed.

"Wendla, what's wrong?" he asks, rubbing his eyes.

I sigh and lie back. "Another dream."

He smiles a small smile and lies back onto his side too. "This is the fourth in a row." He says, brushing the hair from my face. "Are you sure you're feeling well?"

I nod my head. "I'm fine. It's Ilse. She still haunts me."

Melchi doesn't move, his face growing concerned. "Wendla, that was more than a month ago. It's not that that's giving you the dreams."

'Perhaps it's the child then, I don't know!" I exclaim, exasperated.

Melchior shakes head, looking at me. "You're lonely. It's all very well and good you talking to me but you need to talk to other girls as well. I wonder…" he trails off, turning to lie on his back.

"You wonder what?" I say, propping myself up onto my side, despite the painful protests my large abdomen makes.

He turns back to me excitedly. "Wendla, let's go back to our village!"

I stare it him for a minute, wondering what has crept into his head through his ear. "Melchi… we can't go back, we're outcasts. I would be forced to go back to my Mama. And you would be sent back to that place."

He shakes his head. "No, we can stay in the forest, like we first did! I've needed to go back there to get some things from my parent's house and you can see Anna or Martha. I'll swear them to secrecy."

I nod, but a thought still bugs me. "And if an adult finds out?"

Melchior shrugs. "They find out and we run. I could carry you, and we come back here."

I laugh. "Melchi, this is crazy!"

He laughs too. "Which is exactly why we need to do it, to get rid of the melancholy in our lives."

I smile. "Yes, let's do it!"