Chapter 17
Beth heard mice gnawing at the door, their tiny rodent feet scurrying behind the wall. Sleep came in fits of what seemed like only a few minutes. Exhaustion clung to her like something heavy and wet, but the oblivion of sleep stubbornly refused to come, refusing her any respite.
A small gray shape hurried across the floor and Beth drew up her feet, shrinking into a corner. Earlier, something with a hard body and feathery legs had run up her leg, and she’d had to undo the cocoon into which she had wrapped herself to get the creature off of her.
She pulled the damp, itchy blanket tighter around her. The storage room offered little protection against the cold and damp seeping in through its thin, uninsulated walls. Frigid air blew in almost continually through the c****s and cra
