Thriving in The Dark [(TDM) ENG]

I

Many months had passed since my school had closed. Months without seeing my friends, without seeing Miss Yeon, my favorite teacher. I hated staying at home, as I would hear the constant bickering between mom and dad, who had recently started speaking in whispers and changing the subject whenever I was nearby.

I had heard on TV about that terrible virus that had caused the death of so many children, including some of my classmates and some children in the neighborhood.
Apparently, the survivors had changed, but how? Every time that part of the news came on, my mother would come running and quickly turn off the TV.

"Go back to your room, Lillian," she always told me, "these things aren't for you." And I, like the stupid girl I was, always believed her, and followed her orders without hesitation. But I stayed close to the wall to hear her conversations with my father.
"She's eleven now, Jay," my mother said one day, "If she doesn't die like the others, what will we do?" I straightened up at that question.
It was the first time I became aware of the problem. Before then I had never even thought that the infamous disease would one day reach me too. Would I die like June and Maria, or survive like Keith? I realized at that moment that months had passed since I had last seen that boy. They told me he had survived, so where had he gone?
"I don't think it will happen. Lillian has always been a pussy. But if it were to happen, you already know what to do." I didn't fully understand my father's response. What did he mean by that last sentence?
The conversation was interrupted by my mother crying, who got up from the couch and ran towards the bedroom, which led me to walk away and go back to my room. I didn't want them to find me there.
That event left me quite shaken, and I spent the rest of the day analyzing them. I wanted to capture as many details as possible to convince myself that it was all just a big misunderstanding, and that nothing bad would ever happen to me.
But I didn't catch anything, in fact they didn't utter a single word and didn't lay their eyes on me for even a second for the next three days.

...

It was a Friday, I'm sure. I saw it in the calendar hanging on the kitchen wall, next to the fridge. I counted exactly three days until the date marked 'Mommy's Birthday'.
That year dad still hadn't bought mom a gift, in fact he seemed to have forgotten about her birthday.
But I was still hopeful: maybe he was organizing a surprise party for her and we would finally start laughing and joking together again, like we used to.
Maybe he was organizing it right at that moment, during break time at work.

Mom came into the kitchen without saying Hello, so I did. She didn't even turn around and replied with a weak "Good morning". Her legs almost gave out as she rested her forehead on the palm of her hand, her elbow on the kitchen counter supporting her weight, and she sighed.
I got up from my chair and came towards her, bracing my arm around her back. That gesture was enough to make her burst into tears and push me away.

I stayed still, uncertain on my feet and with a huge lump in my chest. But I didn't want to let her go alone, so I chased her screaming. "Mommy, please tell me what's wrong! You've been avoiding me for days and you're always crying!" she stopped and turned to me.
I saw her face clearly for the first time that morning. It was a tired, gaunt face, with deep dark circles under her eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
She started walking towards me, so I started begging again "Mom, please, can we go back to before? Can you tell me what's happening? I missed you so much-" she was now in front of me and grabbed me by the wrist, tugging it.
"Enough! Stop pestering me and leave me alone!" her words came out like thorns and cut my skin one by one, and I felt a strange feeling under my skin, like a vibration.
The more she to tugged and screamed, the stronger the vibration became. "Let me go, you're hurting me!" I begged her.
Her face twisted into an expression of anger and frustration, and she pushed me away with all her strength, making me fall loudly to the ground.