Ellie wiped the sweat from her brow as she stood in the late afternoon sun, her hands covered in dirt from the day's work. The farm was quiet now, save for the distant chirping of cicadas and the occasional rustle of leaves in the breeze. It had been a month since Dina had left with JJ, and the silence of the farmhouse had settled into a heavy, unspoken weight. Ellie had thrown herself into the daily chores with a fervor, trying to drown out the emptiness that lingered in the corners of her heart.
As she loaded a basket of freshly picked vegetables onto a cart, a sudden rustling from the edge of the property caught her attention. Her hand instinctively moved to the knife at her belt, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the horizon. The farm, once a place of tentative hope, now felt vulnerable and exposed. With a wary glance at the sun dipping lower, casting long shadows across the field, Ellie set the basket aside and moved towards the source of the disturbance.
