The silence was deafening. The town that I spent my childhood in was empty. There wasn't the sound of children playing, or the town choir singing, or dogs barking, not even the sound of cars driving. Where was everyone?
I half-expected the town to jump out from behind a building and yell, Gotcha! But I knew that wasn't going to happen. They wouldn't have known I was coming. I hadn't talked to my parents since the day I left. My mom was crying and my dad seemed angry. I think it's been 15 years since then.
Could they be dead? No! I could not think that way.
And even if I was to think that way, the whole town couldn't be dead.
I sat on a nearby rock to think. I remembered this rock, when I was a child all of my friends and I would take turns standing on the rock and yelling, 'I'm queen on the world!' Back then the rock seemed like the biggest thing out there. Now I know how wrong I was, there are much bigger things in this world. And much meaner things, meaner people. My time in the outside world showed me that. I was being eaten alive out there. I had no money, no job, and no home. That's why I came back. The only thing I owned other than the clothes on my back were a pair of extra sneakers.
I left them behind because I wanted nothing to remind me of what I had been through. It was too awful to bear.


I decided to check my home, or former home I should say. Maybe I'd be able to tell what had happened; and at least get some food. The only thing I'd had over two days was a granola bar.
When I walked in and looked around I noticed how eerie it was to be in a house that I haven't been in for 15 years, and find no one to be in there. It seemed as though it had been abandoned for quite some time. Two weeks seemed about accurate. I ventured into the kitchen to find some food. I did find some, but it was a half eaten plate of food. I touched it; it was cold. I looked at the half cup of milk, it had curdled. This was definitely old food.
Just then I noticed mud on the floor; but it hadn't dried. It was still fresh, as if it had gotten here five minutes ago.
That's odd, I thought.
The mud seemed to be all around the house, so I followed it. At the end of the trail I looked up. Two piercing, ice-blue eyes stared back at me. They looked like they had once been full of joy and happiness, but when I looked deeper into them I noticed lingering sorrow. It was a little girl; she had to be just nine or ten years old.
I paused, not knowing what to do or say. For all I knew she could have been the reason that no one was here.
'W-where is everyone?' I asked after some of the initial shock wore off.
'I don't know' The girl answered softly shaking her head. Tears started slowly dripping down her face 'I can't find anyone.'
Her slow tears turned into a steady sob.
A wave of dizziness hit me. I was alone, no parents, no family, or friends. And just like that I started to cry too. I had no one.