Is This Safe?

Chapter 23

{Flashback}

"I thought I'd never see light again."

Joan chuckled underneath her breath as she allowed me to walk past her in front, climbing over a small brick wall after I had.
"Well, you're most certainly lucky. That dungeon was meant for torture and agony. Consider yourself fortunate to not have been apart of it."

"Oh, I am thankful. I'm also thankful for you saving me back there before--you know?"
My mind fought for the right words as I stumbled over them. I wasn't sure how Joan would react to someone thanking her. She seemed like the type to not be flattered with.

"Don't worry about it. You've earned it."
She simply told me without meeting me in the eye.
"You and your friends have been through a lot already for such a young age, but I've had my share of that in my past years. There was no one there to protect or watch over me so, the least I could do was offer you something I never had."

"But--"

"No, buts."
Joan snapped at me hastily, but patted my shoulder for assurance that she didn't mean to snap. That was her personality and quite frankly, I had gotten used to it. It's a shame I wasn't completely sure if or when I'd see her again after all she's done for me.

I give Joan a small smile as my eyes scan the clearing. The rain had finally stopped, but by the looks of the sun, another day had passed since we have been at the house so I must have been inside the secret room all night. I just wonder what happened with my friends. Or Mary, that is.

"Joan?"

I looked behind me at the large house that was surrounded by tall shrubs and fences before meeting Joan in the eye again, watching her finally meet my gaze.
"Who's Mary? Who is she really, besides a little girl that gives my friends and me grief?"

"She's just a girl that died a very young age. Nine or ten, to be in fact, I'm not sure which, but all you need to know is that she's not to be messed with. She may be young, but she's very deceiving, menacing, and evil which I'm sure, you already know that."
She answered rather vaguely, avoiding my eyes again.

"But--why? Why is she out to get us?"

Joan sighed, again more than likely annoyed by my curious questions.
"If anyone or anything comes across her that seems threatening, she'll do anything in her power to get rid of it, including you. She grew up around these wooded parts and even lived in this house. But one summer day, she drowned in the river. It was rumored she was murdered by her cousins since they didn't save her, but it was proved to be just merely an accident. When she was little and not quite in her stage of her 'insanity', she roamed the fields in the mountain. Of course, someone was always with her, but she'd sneak out alone at night sometimes and be found asleep with her doll the next morning. After she had died, her body floated down the river on a small rapid so her body finally rested at the base of the mountain. Her heart was always in the mountains since technically it was the only thing that made her seem as if she was a normal, loving girl and not--"

"I understand."

Joan's eyes drifted towards the ground before fluttering back to mine as if she was almost afraid to say anymore. Was she still hiding something?

A sudden gust of wind blew my hair into my face as I held it my hand with a struggle. The wind was picking up even though the rain had stopped and the sun had peeked behind the clouds. I really hope it didn't storm again.