Clarisse looks at the spot where Ellie's bag should be, and yeah, there it is. It looks pretty much just the way it looked the previous night when they'd gone to bed. She's pretty sure it does. She'd seen it this morning, too, she realizes that now, but it's like her brain had skipped over that in the moment. She had been so focused on convincing herself that nothing was wrong that she thinks her brain must have skipped over a lot.

She nods. Abby's not looking at her, though, so she says, "Yeah."

Yeah, but what if Ellie hadn't planned on being gone long? What if someone hurt her? Took her? People do weird things all the time. People act in ways you don't expect. Maybe Ellie left her bag behind because it's supposed to mean something and Clarisse is too fucking stupid to figure out what. Maybe she left it and it doesn't mean anything at all.

"It doesn't mean anything," she decides out loud. It can't.