What Is Left

In the Night

She didn't want to get close to her. She really didn't. Juniper would be a liability. Would slow her down. It didn't help, though, that juniper curled up on her lap like a warm kitten.
Olivia has seen only a few other children before. The only ones close to her color she had seen dead.
She shivered at the thought of seeing Juniper dead. She's only known her a few hours, but she had talked so much that Olivia could of known her for years.
She seemed to be the opposite of Olivia, bubbly, bright, full of life and hope. Olivia hadn't seen her parents in a week and already the thought of them dead has crossed her mind and stayed there. With Juniper...it's been months and she still thinks they're alive and going to come back for her.
Olivia didn't want to tell Juniper they were never coming back. That they had either died or abandoned her because she was too slow...a liability.
Crap, she thought, now I'm thinking like an adult. I'm too young to act like an adult.
Juniper moves in her sleep, getting a bit too close to the fire so Olivia pulls her farther onto her lap. It wasn't like she liked it or anything, but when Juniper moved her heat moved as well and she was like a warm blanket for Olivia.
She was close to falling asleep when she heard something outside.
She quickly shifted Juniper off her lap and goes to the door. She raises the wood above her head, ready to club whatever comes in.
That's when the monster stepped in.
The dark figure grabs for her, it's long shadowed arms tries to loop around her body.
She screams and the wood falls onto the monsters head, breaking it in half. The figure falls, making a loud groaning sound.
Olivia has encountered these beasts before. They always come in the dark, no fur, no clothes. Their skin dirty and black with the ash and dirt. It's hard to kill them. Her mother needed to put an axe to the beasts head in order to kill it. Her father said to eat it afterwards but her mother said no. Olivia didn't want to eat it anyway, too dirty and a meat eater didn't sound good to eat.
She had also seen them feeding on humans. Tearing into them while they're still alive. Biting into bones to taste the marrow.
This made her afraid, giving her the strength to keep beating the monster until it moved no more.
Juniper stands a few feet away, shocked.
Olivia grabs her backpack and Junipers wrist, "we have to go now. They come in groups." Then she drags Juniper out into the night.