The little girl didn't sleep very well most nights.
She hadn't since they'd come to this place, the place that used to be nothing more to her than where her mother worked and had since become her whole world.
It had started as their safe haven but now it felt more like a prison most of the time.
The little girl was not quite so little anymore and it became impossible not to understand some of the horrors that kept them there.
The sun was bad now.
People had died.
A sickness had come.
More people had died.
People were probably dying still. And those that weren't...
The little girl had heard a word. Crank.
She didn't fully understand it but her mind conjured up images of monsters, hideous beasts ready to sink their sharp claws into her skin.
Her bedroom had only one small, round window and it didn't show much of the outside world.
It didn't let her see the sun.
It didn't let her see other people.
Just one small patch of sand.
But at night she swore she heard scratching on the thick glass and dreamed of monsters beating on its surface, looking for a way in.
The little girl didn't sleep well most nights.
Just lay in the darkness, waiting for the monsters.