the rats rustling under the floor, and sometimes it seemed to her that someone was walking in the hallway. The little girl whispered into the darkness:

— Mommy will come… mommy is here…

But there was no answer.

On the sixth day, the door finally opened. The parents came in laughing, as if nothing had happened. And then they saw something terrible  Continued in the first comment 

Instead of a joyful child’s cry, they heard only silence.

In the corner of the kitchen, sitting on the cold floor, was Liza. In front of her stood an empty bowl she had already licked clean. The girl’s face was pale, her eyes – empty. She didn’t run to them, she didn’t smile.

In a low voice, she kept repeating the same words over and over:

— I’m not hungry… I don’t want to eat anymore…

The parents froze. Their child, who just yesterday had been a cheerful little girl, now looked at them with eyes in which there was nothing childlike left – only a bottomless emptiness.