Hideaway Strath she knows when she cries for peace, she means someone else's blood

Seri starts to feel uncertain and defensive, causing Mallaidh’s ears to fall back on her head. Her own defensiveness flares as the other girl moves and settles to sit in the water instead. She licks her lips apprehensively and shuffles her feet until she’s out of the water, hesitating to answer when she doesn’t know what she wants to do. Her brain won’t let go of the attack the day before, or running into her parents when she got home and she can only hope that don’t figure out what happened. They worry enough about her missing brother that she doesn’t feel it worth them worrying unnecessarily over her.
 
“I don’t wanna talk,” she murmurs, mostly to herself. She doesn’t feel the urge to run or play like she normally would, especially meeting another so close in age. Her spirit has long since been fleeting, leaving her empty and confused. The world is a monstrous place, she realizes, and no amount of games will replace the innocence. “We can play hide and seek,” she says, this time with a little more oomph behind it. “You hide.”