The Survivors

Us

I could not realize what just happened.
"You have a nice room" she said when I woke from my thoughts. We were standing in my room and it was already dark. I could not believe my father asked her to stay here. He was so different, but I liked it. Then I was looking at her and smiled. So did she.
"How did you do it?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" she answered.
"I told you about my cruel father and yet you impressed him, he even allowed you to stay here"  I said.
"Well, who could resist the charm I have for being a good friend" she said with a smirk.
"He would not send a women like me out there in the darkness alone" she continued.
"Would he?" I said with a confused voice because I know he definitely would.
"Now let's stop talking about your father and let's have a little fun here" she said and laughed nicely.
"What do you mean with fun?" I asked.
"How about for sneaking around a little bit?" she said.
I was very confused, "He would kill us"
"Let him try" she said and laughed while she was walking out the door.
I tried to stop her but it was impossible. So I got curious too and walked with her. We went through
all the rooms in this house except for one. His office, no one of us was ever allowed to go in there.
But that did not stop Katherine, no.
She was about to enter that room. It was of course locked up but she tried to open it with one of her hair needles.
"Someone is coming" she said.
I was confused because I did not hear anything, but I also was too paranoid to stay there. So we walked away to my room fast as possible.
Sunny was standing behind us behind us before we could enter my room.
"What are you doing here?" she asked us.
"We-" I first looked at Katherine for help, then back to Sunny "We were just playing hide and seek"
I said. Then Katherine and Sunny, both looked at me with an raised eyebrow.
"Alright, children" was what Sunny said before she walked to her room.
As soon we finally entered my room Katherine asked me;
"Seriously? Hide and seek?"
"What? If I told her she would go to father and I would be dead" I answered.
Katherine smirked a bit.
"Fine, you're right, we should go to sleep now."
Then I was laying down on my bed. Katherine on the mattress, the maids brought from the guests room.
After a little while of silence thinking I said with a smile she could not see;
"It was fun to break the rules"
I heard that Katherine was smirking because she had a different sound than when she was talking normal.
"For me there are no rules and even if, I always break them" was what she said with that voice.
I always liked the danger she had in her voice, even if she looked like an angel and a perfect nice girl.
So I smiled and it did take not long when I fell asleep.
In the next morning when I woke up I looked at her mattress but it was empty. I was scared that something did happen or that she left without saying anything. So I ran down the stairs and searched for her, but nothing. I went outside to see if her horse was still there. But I did not have to walk to the stables for that. I saw her in the backyard picking some flowers. I sighed and smiled because I was glad that she didn't leave yet.
The she saw me and ran into my direction with a smile.
"Here, for you" she said while she was holding the flowers she picked up.
I smiled and took them. I did not know what to say.
"Thank you" I said after a little while staring at her.
Then she looked up and down at me very confused. I raised an eyebrow because I did not know why she was looking like that.
"Are you sleepwalking or why are you still in your sleepwear?"
Then I realized I forgot to change and laughed.
"I thought you left, because you weren't in my room"
She smiled first and then she laughed;
"Missed me already?" she said.
Before I could answer that, father came out of the house.
"Clara? What are you doing?" he asked me, then he looked at me and saw that I was not dressed yet.
"How can you walk out here dressed like that? What if somebody sees you? You are embarrassing me." he continued with his mad-yelling-voice.
So I ran back inside to change and I ready for that he would punish me again.
But he didn't. When I finished getting dressed I walked down to the kitchen and saw father laughing and smiling at Katherine. She must have told him some joke he liked. But it was still so unusual I never saw him laughing like that since mothers death.
In that moment I knew everything would change now, and so it did....

...It's been two months now since she spent that night at my house. We met every day since then.
There were days we only spent in my backyard.... Some on a field full of flowers and we picked them up. Some days we spent riding our horses for hours, have a picnic at the river that was close to my house. We talked so much, but mostly about me. She was so mysterious and did not say much about herself. But she didn't even had to, that was the most interesting part of her. Everyday I was so excited to see her again. Some nights we did not even sleep at all. It all felt like an  perfect eternity. I did not want that to end at all. And the one of the best thing about it was, father did not say a single word against me or my life....

Katherine always liked to smirk at me, I guess she found me very funny. But then there were moments she smiled. Sometimes she even stayed at my house over night. Those were the best ones because someday we went closer. I was at first so confused if this was right or not. But I could never stay away from her, so we just did what we wanted to do. In every way, no matter what would happen when I was with her I was the happiest and I would always stand by her side. I did not care about rules or what other people would think if they would know about our feelings.

After that two months full of happiness, at the best time of my life, we spent that one evening at the river again. It was like every other day. We were laying next to each other on a blanket. It was a beautiful spring day at the end of April. There were flowers all around us. Then we got scared and sat ourselves up, because we heard something laugh .

It was a little group of men on the other side of the little river. They looked to us and where whispering. You could already see that from our side. But when they were crossing the bridge over the river you could slowly hear what they were saying. If I only would've known what comes next...

Katherine was walking over to them and they talked. I thought she was just defending us because no one could ever know or see about us and I smiled because that was so nice of her.

But my smile slipped away within a second because I got scared. I could not believe what I just saw.
I refused to believe it, because I did not even know what to think of it. It took me a while to realize what just happened.
When I was staring for a while at those bodies who were laying dead on the floor I said nothing. She was looking at me with the blood on her mouth. She looked worried and walked over to me. But as soon as she took the first step, I looked at her and realized what I just saw. I took a few steps back and Katherine stopped walking over to me. I looked at her almost about to cry and then, I ran for my life away from her.

I was so scared. I did not come far, when she suddenly was standing right infront of me and I screamed.
"How did you do that" I was asking her with a trembling voice.
"Don't be scared. I won't harm you!" she said with a very nice voice, who was trying to calm me down. But I did not know if I could trust her or a single thing she was saying. So without saying a word back, I ran away further and started to cry. I was thinking if it all was a lie, the best two months in my life...

When I finally arrived at my room, I was glad that she did not come after me again. I was thinking about what just happened and why. And because it was almost night, I went to bed.
While I was laying in my bed under the blanket, I tried to figure it out and put it all together. After a little while I realized, it all made sense, it has to!