“You’re so bad at this game. It’s not any fun to play with you. I hate you! I wish you’d never come!”

Raine watched Enna run off, probably to complain to Malcolm.  Her legs collapsed under her.  At first all she could hear was those words Enna had said: “I hate you! I wish you’d never come!”

Those set off the echoes.  It wasn’t the first time she’d heard that.  All the echoes.

“Useless!”

“Crybaby!”

Raine slowly crumpled until she lay flat.  The last echo was the worst: “I wish you’d never been born!”

She cried until Katrien found her.

--

This must have been when I realized I needed to develop all my other characters, because this drabble also has no main characters!  I don't feel I did a good enough job explaining the story here, but I did get an idea of Raine's sensitivity and probable emotional abuse as a young(er) kid.

The idea is that Raine is essentially haunted by the words people spoke to her in the past, which is why she's mute.  The last "echo" she always hears is her screaming mother cursing her very existence.

He couldn’t sleep.  Not with her gone.  He sat on the floor and stared at the space where she was supposed to be, beside him.

He was so tired the third night of this that he dozed, but the click of the latch in the middle of the night woke him.  Raine was missing.

He followed her outside, found her sitting on a rock swinging her legs.  Crying.  He sat next to her and put his arm around her, and then he was crying too.

He didn’t speak, and she wouldn’t anyway.  They just wept for those they had lost.

--

Finally! A Daughter of Snow drabble that has neither of the main characters in it.  This is two minor characters, Malcolm (the leader) and Raine (who is mute by choice).  They're mourning Sierra (Malcolm's four-year-old sister) and Katrien (Raine's mother figure and essentially Malcolm's girlfriend).