Dear Diary

A soldier goes inside the remains of a partially destroyed house. He surveys the area to check if there's any survivors. He notices it's a small house; barely two bedrooms. Each wall is covered with pictures of what appears to be a nine year old and her mother. He moves slowly through the house, observing all the damage. He enters one of the small bedrooms and recognizes it to be the bedroom of a small child. He's about to walk out when he sees a gleam out of the corner of his eye. He gets closer to it and sees it's a heart-shaped locket. He opens it, expecting a picture of the two that live here, but instead, out falls a small key. He picks up his walkie talkie and radios back to his team. "Hey guys, I think I found something. It's a small key… I'mma try to find what it belongs to. Could be supplies or something valuable." He searches the room and finds a pink book inside one of the busted drawers. He takes it out, examines it, it's weirdly in pretty good condition with a few scorches here and there and some fading around the edges. He takes the small key and unlocks the book, sits on the rusted bed, and reads the first page.

"Dear Diary,

I start my first day of fourth grade, can you believe it? I can't wait to see all my old friends! Suzie is getting back from calyfornia, I can't wait to see what souvenirs she brought me and Alice! I hope Jeremy's not in our class again… He was so mean to us. One thing I'm not looking forward to is going to bed super early. I'm gonna miss all the best shows! Anyway, that's all for now."

The soldier chuckles at her excitement as he reminisces on being that young. To be so full of hope, to have such petty problems, but at the same time, he feels guilt getting such enjoyment out of her naïvety.

"Dear Diary,

I love my new teacher, she's super nice! But the girl I sit next to is mean, she's worse than Jeremy! She thinks she's better than everyone else because her daddy is rich. I stood up to her, but then she made fun of me for not having a dad… I wanted to cry, but Mommy says 'bullies get off on that' whatever that means. The teacher says I should just ignore her, so that's what I'm gonna do. I hope it helps… Bye for now!"

He reads through a couple more pages, most of them being super positive; but the subject of the mean girl keeps coming up. Then, he stops at one page. It gives him pause as the cheery tone takes an eerie dip.

"Dear Diary,

Today was the worst day ever. That Sarah girl pushed me off of the swing set, telling me it was her turn when she already went. So I got up and pushed her back. Then we got into a fight. Anyway, we both ended up in the principal's office. We both were supposed to get in trouble, but then her mean daddy called and threatened the school, so I'm the one who took all the blame. I hate her. I know Mommy told me never to use that word, but I hate her. I hate her dumb face!"

The soldier laughed as he read that last sentence. Half out of shock and half out of amusement. He could only barely remember when bullies were his biggest problem. Still, he could not help but feel bad for the girl. It seemed that she learned at a young age that life isn't fair and sometimes the people that are wrong aren't always the ones who get punished. As he sat there enjoying the sassy anecdotes of a little girl he'd never get to meet, he prepared himself to skip ahead to the pages with the most recent dates. Dates that matched up with the disaster, skipping through this girl's short life didn't feel right, but he knew it was something he had to do. He needed to know what happened, what the girl saw, and so he prepared himself to read her last words.

"Dear Diary,

Mommy says we can't go out anymore, especially at night. I don't know what's out there, but Mommy says she doesn't want me to see. But I hear these noises at night, it sounds like crunching. Sometimes it gets so loud I have to cover my head with my pillow. And everyone is always shouting, and there's always lots of fireworks, but Mommy won't let me look out the window. I wish I could see the pretty fireworks, too…"

"Dear Diary,

I'm so boooooooored. I haven't seen my friends in a long time and there's no electricity, so there's really nothing to do. But just before the electricity went out, me and Mommy saw on the news that Sarah's daddy's house burned down. It kind of made me happy… is that bad? Well, bye for now."

The soldier gasped, surprised at her glee for Sarah's misfortune. Though, he did doubt that this little girl knew what truly became of Sarah and her family. He continued reading entries about this small family's struggles. To find food, medicine, securing the shelter, fighting off the creatures-- or monsters, as she referred to them. What he would never be prepared for is the little girl's last entry. And as he read, tears formed in his eyes

"Dear Diary,

It's been months since we've been trapped in this house. Mommy says she's tired and we're running out of supplies like food and medicine and stuff. Those monsters keep surrounding the house and they even started coming out in the daytime, it's really scary. Mommy says she has a plan to keep us safe from them. Mommy said while she was out, she found a super secret spot behind some trees in the woods. She says there's a car there. When the coast is clear, we're going there to take a nap. I don't know how napping will help us, but she says the monsters won't be after us anymore. And we won't have to hide anymore, isn't that great?! I can't wait for this all to be over and then we can go back home and I can see all my friends again! Well, bye for now!"

For a moment, the soldier sits there in silence, collecting his thoughts, when he's startled by his radio. "Sir, you find anything useful?" He looks down at the pink diary in his hand. He clutches it close to his chest and says "No… but I did find something important."