The Masked Girl

The Forest

I would like some constructive critisum only please.

Thanks- Alex

I walk out of the door of myself - Josephine Keyastone - to the masked girl. I put the mask on, that my father gave to me when I was five that I've kept into my sixteenth year. After I put the mask on my cloak glides over my regular clothes, grabbing my sword and dagger I walk to the border of the city. I look side-to-side inside the fence to make sure that no one will see me come in the city. I pull up part of the fence that has been damaged, I look left and right again and pull down my hood over my face and mask.

I see a shopkeeper locking up to go to lunch. I run over to the shop and pull out my lock picks. After the short time to unlock the door I walk in the building and go straight to the cash register unlocking it also. Looking around I see that I walked into the only store that I can't use anything: the furniture shop. Stupidly I didn't look around to see that I walked into the richest part of the city and walked into the stink-n furniture shop.I take three-fourths of the money and put it in my money bag on my belt.

"Hay! What the? You aren't supposed to be-you're taking my money!" says the shopkeeper. As soon as he said "you're taking-" I ran to the door pushing him aside. "Guards! Guards she took my money!" the shopkeeper yield out the door.

I keep running through the street into the un-expecting crowd, I take off my cloak and mask to make myself blend into the crowd. This makes the guards even more frantic to find me. I put my discuses on again and run out of the crowd keeping the Guards on my tail.

"By order of the guards stop!" one of the four Guards says.

I run as fast I can and even though they are a few yards away I head for the fence hoping that there's a hole. Looking at the fence I luckily see there's a small hole at the bottom. I think a can barely fit through, I think. Quickly wiggling my way through the hole I get past the fence just in time before the Guards slam into it because they didn't slow down it time.

I jog to my spot that I keep my money. I open up the metal box that I hide in a deep hole under a bush. I look in the box. Empty. I put the money in it and shove it back into the hole that it belongs in. I start walking into the endless forest, after about a mile I sit carefully on a jagged rock.

I stare at the vibrant colors of the fall trees. Nothing fills my mind when someone intrudes on my almost sleep from behind. "Why do you keep stealing? It just gets you in trouble with your family." I whip around even though I know who it is. "You have one of the richest families in the city. I live in a cave and you don't even know how nice your life could be. Why do you even come out here when you could be sitting next to a warm fire in this cold autumn."

"I know Mary but I just-well it just doesn't feel like the right thing to do. Dad gave me all I ever wanted. Well that wasn't much. Dad did give me a roof over my head and food to fill my stomach. I love that life, I wish that I could go back. Before you say anything I know I have a better life if I go to my family but my family isn't what I love." I say to Mary my best friend and the only person that knows the truth about me.

"You put up quite an argument Josephine," she says sadly. "Come on in and see Lillian." She replies. And she starts walking to the entrance of the cave that she lives in.

"Jo!" Someone yells from across the small living room. "I haven't seen you in a year."

"Lillian! I know but I've been busy with some things so I haven't been here for far too long." I say to her.

"Can you go to your room so that Josephine and I can talk?" Mary commands.

"Em-hum," Lillian says and scurries off to her room, slowly closing the weak wooden door.

"What do you want to talk about?" I say.

"Well for starters why haven't you been here for a year?"

"I'm sorry but they've upped the amount of Guards in the city. And they've been making sure that the Guards don't talk to others so I haven't been talking to Lee. Lilian is always disappointed when I don't get a message from him," I simplistically say.

"Okay, I demand that you go talk to your mom and not just for three minutes. I want you to talk to her and your step-father when you get back in the city to after dinner. You got that?"

"But-"

"No, you're doing it, end of story. LILLIAN!"

"Yes Mom?" Lillian says peeking out from her room.

"Josephine is leaving," Mary says and Lillian walks up to both of us.

"Okay, just don't let it be another year before you come back,"

"It won't be," I answer.

I walk out of the cave and walk the mile and half back to the city. As I walk back to the fence I think about how Mary and I met.

It was two weeks after my father died and I was spending time in the city and decided to walk to where Dad always took me when I was not feeling good. On the way there I saw a young man about eighteen hiding in the bushes near where I was walking. I went up to him - I was about ten and not very smart - and asked why he was hiding, he took my hand and guided me to where he lived. There I met Mary, Lee's wife and we all got talking and about a year later Mary found out she was pregnant and so every day I came and helped her prepare for the baby. Lee had to get a job inside the city so he became a Guard, when he got money he gave it to me so I could buy things for Mary and Lillian.

After a couple of years when I was thirteen, my mother married the third person on the city council which is the third richest person in the city. I didn't like living there because it was a life that was to fancy and to luxuries compared to the life I had before. Like, the bed was too soft in my step-father's house before I slept on a old blanket on the floor, the food was to rich, and i had nothing to do all day. I ran off to my old house and started to live there and then realized that I couldn't get money or food so I needed some ways of getting those. I decided that I would use things that my father taught me to brake in to shops. I used that and ever since then Mary disagreed with me and she didn't want me to see Lillian. Even though she said that, I kept going and seeing her. Latter I stopped going and just survived.