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Another day ended.

Gretel threw herself onto the mattress and pulled the duck beanie off her head and set aside. The barrier she set up in front of the Daniadown was good enough for blocking people to take things away from it. Moreover, it was assigned to be the infirmary by Jeff. Since the people injured needed the beds more than she did, she took the mattress and set up a corner in the storage room at the very back of the store. With her plush animals and pillows.

The pillows beneath her were soft enough to bounce on, she reached out for a pumpkin plushie to cuddle with at the same time she turned around, face looked skyward. It was two month from Halloween and they already decorated the store with sashes and props. Above the rather low ceiling was a line of smiling pumpkin, Gretel rarely smiled at the idea of staff can't wait for October and secretly decorated the storage room without anyone's notice. It had been a month since Delta became a big mess.

She was a student, soon would be graduated from university. Internship won't be an option as she was going to work in the family's company. That was the content of the deal she made with her parents in order to be able to study in an university in Delta and have her own life not intervened. She never think of what she would be since she was young. Life dull like water, she did have some hobbies including games, photography, computer and learning random knowledge. Thinking about taking photo, she raised her hands up as if holding a camera and pressed the button with her forefinger. She missed her Canon camera, the hands hung in mid-air didn't go down until a while later.

Gretel knew the world would end one day, she was prepared mentally but her body didn't. As a human, she would hope to go back to the old days, the time she claimed boring instead of locking in a mall potentially dragged her in jeopardy the next second. Hunger, thirst and insomnia, she felt she was slowly dying. It was real and that made her unsettled. Yet, hours of work had tired her body, her eyelids threatened to drop. The softness and coziness of the plush animals and pillows were like fairies cooing with lullaby, soon she fell asleep. Frown vanished from her face, lips slightly parted in comfort.

(410 words)

She woke up, seeing the ceiling hung with the smiling pumpkin decoration. She was back. It was just a past memory she dreamed. Gretel sat up, put the pumpkin plushie aside and brushed her hair backward. She wondered how the mean girls doing, at that day, they went out for party night she overheard from her roommate's phone conversation. She never regret for her attitude against them, she simply wished she locked the drawer before she went out. So what happened would have not happened.

The girl missed her school life, she missed the quiet night that she put on headphones and fought zombies in a relaxed way. She could lean against a cushion on her bed to read a good novel or browsing the forums and watching Youtube video. She looked up to the clock slowly clicking, it was 3 in the midnight.

Gretel knew she'd better rest more as the day followed would be a day full of work and things might happen. She put a hand over her forehead, it still hurt from lack of sleep but she still had to close her eyes, forced herself to rest.

That was the thing she should do if she wanted to live one more day.

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Total: 1168 words

Cont'd.

Since she was in the mall, she dreamed a lot of her past. Maybe she feel safer and relaxed inside it, knowing she wasn't alone. She seldom dream when she hid in university, every fifteen minutes or so, she would wake up to make sure no infected was near the place she hid.

She dreamed of Hansel that night. The name she wished to get rid of her life......

"Hey sweetie, what're you doing?" The subject the voice aimed at was a young girl with long hair, eyes in grey but oddly warm. It was summer time, the wind that made the white curtain flew also picked up some loose strands. In her bright seafoam dress, she turned around and smiled, "Reading, our story." The girl had a sweet voice, like candies. The owner of the first voice chuckled lightly, "Do they look like us then, Gretel?" She was the young Gretel, she shook her head. "Nuh-uh~" A grin fully bloomed on her face, "We're better." The big hand ruffled her soft hair gently making her laugh, her giggles like the jingles of a silver bell.

The older boy was her brother who their father named Hansel, as a harmless joke for their last name Sweet. He was a charming boy with shiny white teeth and blonde hair that shone under the sun. The curvy eyes and the happiness inside her eyes told one that how much she loved that brother. "I love you Gretel," he always said to her while giving her a hug. She would return by burying herself into his bosom, replying a "I love you too Hansel." Their relationships were closer than any siblings.

She thought she could be his favourite forever and took his words as truths. When he gave the cake with bigger strawberry to her, knowing she loved the sweetness of desserts. When he only gave her piggyback ride but not other girls. She misunderstood. The longer she knew him, the deeper she understood what a person he was. It was the biggest mistake she ever made in her life.

Growing up bit by bit, she slowly realized Hansel and her feeling didn't match. Hansel flirted with girls and she would get upset and jealous, vice versa, he encouraged her while saying he could teach her more about boys. They were not an equal sign to begin with. "I love you Hansel," she said. "I love you too Gretel," he smiled, but the meaning of it had changed for her. "LIAR!" She yelled at him from the top of her lungs, and from that day, she distanced herself from him. Without the boy, the girl no longer smiled.

Gretel indulged herself in reading, in the craving of knowledge that had no endings. Soon she forgot of her feeling to Hansel, the composed girl replaced him with different hobbies. Reading at a close distance granted her eyeglasses. Studying in different schools, they only saw each others in the morning. "Hey sweet candy, are you unhappy with me? Can we talk?" She gave him a lukewarm look and replied, "Sorry, I need to study for exams." She left him the coldest rejection as she went upstairs. He didn't go up and grab her wrist, he just shrugged as he went downstairs. He used to bother her until she forgave him, like normal siblings, they would fight for small things. The girl who was a bit stubborn never take the first move. It happened when she was ready to be a secondary school student.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Time flies-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ah." It was a female moaned in pleasure. She pushed away the guy that was on her, "That's itchy~" She complained in delightful tone, then sat up to take a look of the room. It mainly consisted of soft serene seafoam and pure white, decorated with a bit of lemon yellow to bright the room up. "This - shouldn't be your room huh?" The girl seemed to be in similar age as the boy cooed and ogled. "That's my sister's room," the boy grabbed a cushion and buried into it, "It smells nice, right?" The girl with wavy hair pouted and pressed the boy down, whispered sweetly. "Huh, that's the first time I see you grinning that brightly. She's the girl that you talk about?" She leaned on him like he was her bed. In a short scream of her, he flipped her and exchanged their positions. "You talk too much today."

He pressed his lips against hers as he fondled her curvy body, their lips part and his kissed along the neck, collarbone and went down while some lovely moans escaped her lips. She used her soft arms to press him closer against her and desire more. His body touching hers tightly at the bottom, moved with her every breathe. Her hands slipped under his shirt, sliding along the contour of his back up, warming up the body that was already burning -

Door knot turned and someone pushed in. The owner of the new feet stopped and stared in stupefaction at the pair on her bed. "Gretel....?" Hansel called in hesitation, hopped off the bed he was on. "Don't get closer!" She yelled, huffing with undulating chest. "How can you......why-" She couldn't think, her mind was like a blob of jelly as she peeked another girl that sat up.

"I'm sorry, please let me explain -" He was interrupted by the girl still on the bed, "Hansel?" the lazy alluring voice had a hint of blaming and asking for more, she brushed her messy hair back and gazed at Gretel near the door. The two pairs of eyes met and the last string of her self-restraint broke. "GET OUT! I don't want to hear anything, just get out!" She bawled while covering her ears, Hansel reached out but got flung away. The clueless girl curled her arm around his like snake slithered up a tree, boneless. She tidied her clothes and dragged the guy outwards. "Come to my room, there's nobody to disturb us." He struggled out but shortly she curled onto him again, head leaned against him. "Gimme a minute, Gretel-" He pulled his arms out to grab Gretel's shoulders, making her eyes looking his. "I don't mean to hurt you. I just - just want to see more of your expressions." The girl crossed her arms over her chest. "Congratulations Hansel, you achieve your goal. Now get out of my room." Gretel's voice shook with suppressed sadness and anger as she pushed them out and slammed the door.

She slid down behind the door, the tears that swung inside her eyes dropped finally as she wailed painfully, her heart clutched. How could he make out with another girl in her room? She seldom cried but she did that night, as if bumping all the air out of her shell. The next day her eyes were swollen and red like rabbit and her throat hurt. Until she moved out to the dorm in Delta, they never talk again.

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