And then, her fifteenth birthday dawned. And, finally, after a year of radio silence, nestled in amongst the birthday cards on the doormat, she found the letter she’d been waiting for.

Dear Laura, it said, and her teeth began to hurt.

Did you miss me?

14.

In the forest, once Laura resigned herself to sleep, it came quickly. There was little point in fighting the dark: it comes for everyone, in the end. Better to accept this, and work harder when the light returned. Laura bundled herself into a small, aching ball at the base of a rhododendron bush, wrapped a tinfoil survival sheet around her shoulders for extra warmth, and closed her eyes.

In no time at all, the alarm on her watch was beeping, and Laura awoke. Dawn was already ahead of her, spreading its pale fingers through the fronds of ferns, nudging awake the birds in the trees all around. A squirrel leapt from one limb to another above her head, chuckling away to itself as it did so. A small shower of pine needles accompanied him, drifting onto her head, where they remained, for she was too tired to brush them away.

She knew almost immediately after waking that there was something wrong with her body: it was wracked with a feverish type of shuddering that she just couldn’t seem to control, like a palsy. She added this new discovery to her pile of inconveniences. How many more obstacles can there be? She said to herself, woozily, cramming an energy bar into her mouth to try and quell the shakes. She followed this up with a handful of paracetamol from her first-aid kit, and washed it all down with water that was still refreshingly cold, somehow. She had to tip her head back a ways to get to it: there wasn’t much left, but she didn’t plan on being out in the forest for much longer. She checked her watch. Four-forty-five in the morning. She needed to be where she needed to be by seven-thirty. She calculated that she had just under three hours to travel another five miles, which should be more than achievable. She thought that, and then she stood up.

Once again, her screams echoed around the forest.

15.

Dear Laura,

Did you miss me? I missed you. You are never far from my thoughts, you and Bobby. There are so many things I want to say to you, but I am afraid to out of fear for what might happen to me. I could get into trouble for writing letters to a fifteen year old girl. Society judges people with feelings like mine.

I’m not keen on the way you wear your hair these days, Laura. And the make-up is not good on you either, if you don’t mind me saying so. You’re a beautiful young girl. Don’t try to look older than you are.

Are we learning to trust each other yet, do you think? I keep your gift close by at all times, even when I sleep. I can smell you on them.