monday evening, november 8, 1943

dearest kitty,

if you were to read all my letters in one sitting, you'd be struck by the fact that they were written in a variety of moods. it annoys me to be so dependent on the moods here in the annex, but i'm not the only one: we're all subject to them. if i'm engrossed in a book, i have to rearrange my thoughts before i can mingle with other people, because otherwise they might think i was strange. as you can see, i'm currently in the middle of a depression. i couldn't really tell you what set it off, but i think it stems from my cowardice, which confronts me at every turn. this evening, when bep was still here, the doorbell rang long and loud. i instantly turned white, my stomach churned, and my heart beat wildly -- and all because i was afraid.

at night in bed i see myself alone in a dungeon, without father and mother. or i'm roaming the streets, or the annex is on fire, or they come in the middle of the night to take us away and i crawl under my bed in desperation. i see everything as if it were actually taking place. and to think it might all happen soon!

miep often says she envies us because we have such peace and quiet here. that may be true, but she's obviously not thinking about our fear.

i simply can't imagine the world will ever be normal again for us. i do talk about "after the war," but it's as if i were talking about a castle in the air, something that can ii never come true.

i see the ei ght of us in the annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. the perfectly round spot on which we're standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us, and the ring between us and the approaching danger is being pulled tighter and tighter. we're surrounded by darkness and danger, and in our desperate search for a way out we keep bumping into each other. we look at the fighting down below and the peace and beauty up above. in the meantime, we've been cut off by the dark mass of clouds, so that we can go neither up nor down. it looms before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. i can only cry out and implore, "oh, ring, ring, open wide and let us out!"

yours, anne