Amanda closed up her
blog and checked her stats. Views were going down, and with it the revenues
those views generated.
It's been almost six
months since she was attacked in Vermont and it's been four years since she was
found. She did have a small surge of visitors on that anniversary, mostly
likely curious to see what she was up to, but a number of visitors had steadily
dropped.
Amanda wasn't
surprised. She had planned on making an app to make up for the revenue, but
every idea she came up with she would find in a search.
So instead, she
browsed meaningless websites, including a popular image site. After a few hours
of doing that, she decided to try a popular anonymous site. She clicked on the
link and then closed the lid of her laptop.
What am I doing? She thought. After a few
minutes, she realized she was trying to fill her mind with noise, any noise.
It's been lonely lately - lonely and quiet.
Amanda had a hard
time finding Todd. He was busy making improvements to the apartment complex,
and he was doing an excellent job at it. Recently, the walls in the hallways
got a fresh coat of paint, and daylight LEDs replaced the old flickering
fluorescents.
Trisha was hardly
around anymore. They did hang out when she wasn't running around the country
with her artwork. They usually talked business, however, and Trisha went out of
her way to not mention Vermont or their trip.
The Burly neighbors
next door didn't seem to fight anymore, at least not when Amanda was around.
The last time Amanda saw them, they appeared to be in a hurry to go somewhere.
She hasn't had any
hallucinations for a while, nor did she have any crazy dreams to occupy her
mind. As a matter of fact, Amanda realized that she couldn't recall most
dreams. The ones she could remember were vague and random and made no sense.
It almost like the
life that she had was not hers. Every time she thought of what happened, it was
as if she imagined it.
She decided to go to
the coffee shop. At least it was noisy.